Dale & Sheryl - On Tour

The midnight sun in Tromso

2008-05-20T17:33:00.002+01:00

Day 13
From Kiruna we pressed on further north and crossed the border between Sweden and Norway. The two or three carriage train that travelled between Kiruna and Narvik in Norway was packed with young school kids and we spent the journey talking to a friendly parent. There was some pretty amazing scenery along the way.

At Narvik we changed onto bus and made the three or four hour journey to the world's most northern University town - Tromso!

Tromso is a small town situated in the middle of some of Norway's most beautiful fjords, divided by a bridge and surrounded spectacularly by ice-capped mountains.

On our first evening we wandered through the harbour and crossed the bridge for some amazing evening photos. We explored the other side of town and returned shortly after midnight with the daylight still present. Being above the arctic circle at this time of year means 24 hour daylight and although we couldn't see the sun, at this stage, we had daylight right through the night. Bizarre but extremely cool!

Day 14

One of our aims in coming this far north was to make it to Nordkapp, Europe's most northern point. However we soon realised that to get there on the small roads winding around the mountains and fjords would take about ten hours...one way! The only consolation to us was that apparently there's not actually much to do at Nordkapp other than to of course say you'd made it there.

We settled for exploring Tromso and it's surrounding islands and we wouldn't be disappointed. On our first full day we bought a joint bus and boat ticket that would take us as part north-east as Skervoy. The 'coach' was actually part of the local public transport network so it was a bit annoying that initially Sheryl and I sat at opposite ends of the busy bus!

The bus crossed the water on a number of occasions via ferry and after arriving at Skervoy we jumped on the world famous Hurtigruten fjord exploring vessel and sailed down stream back to Tromso! As with most of the photos we took in this part of the world the views speak for themselves.

Day 15
Undoubtedly one of the most fun days of our whole two year trip was today. We hired a car early in the morning and set off to explore the region. It was the same type as what we'd hired in Iceland, but these wheels were big, black and boxy!

We made our way to the beautiful Summer Islands and had a picnic out the back of the car. The place seemed more like something you'd find in Fiji not northern Norway and despite calm winds and clear blue skies it was still bloody chilly too. Too cold for me to test out the water for sure!

On our travels we passed the world's largest troll. It was in the middle of nowhere and certainly quite random but they seemed pretty chuffed to have their name in the Guiness Book of World Records!

Sheryl was determined to make a proper snowman, we'd bought carrots and everything. Late in the afternoon we found a decent spot and pulled over. We didn't realise that what appear to be perfect powdery snow was actually crunchy ice - not ideal for snowman building, but no harm in having a jump and slide around!

In the evening we'd made our way back to Tromso and on our final night here ventured up the cable car at the foot of the mountain to catch a glimpse of the sun above the horizon at midnight. You could sense why the people in this part of the world feel uplifted at this time of year. Just don't mention the six months of pitch black!

And so shortly after midnight the sun, after having made it's lowest point, starting to rise again.

On the Hurtigruten...(it's a lot warmer inside believe you me)

Let's jump in the snow! (and try not to disappear)

Carrying on up to Kiruna

2008-05-19T10:00:00.003+01:00

Day 12
We arrived in the small town of Kiruna, in the far north of Sweden, by mid morning and to our surprise a snow blizzard was passing through the town leaving everything a few feet under the powdery white stuff.

We made our way to the Yellow Guesthouse but despite warning the owner we were due to arrive earlier than initially planned the place was locked up and nobody expected to be on reception until the afternoon. We had lunch at a local burger joint and killed time in the Tourism Office before making our way back to the guesthouse.

One thing I can suggest, if any of you ever make it to this part of the world, don't stay at this place! Warning - the owner is an arsehole and quite possibly one of the rudest people we've come across in our travels! Talk about absolutely no interest in us staying there at all.

The biggest problem we had in Kiruna was that, contrary to 11 months out of the year, there was actually nothing to do! The world famous Ice Hotel is located nearby and there are dozens of winter and summer activities in and around Kiruna. But, very much unfortunately for us, the month of May is neither winter or summer and all of the tourist companies shut down for a month. D'oh!

Even a visit to the Ice Hotel was not going to be worth it as the melted remains of the structure were covered in snow from the blizzard, and the museum mentioned on their website is in fact not open. It was pretty disheartening but these things happen when you're travelling around.

After realising this we cut down our planned two night stay to just one night and spent our one evening in Lappland watching TV (it was pretty cold outside as you'd expect) and enjoying a bottle of wine.

Hey, at least the snow was cool.

Swede as in Stockholm

2008-05-17T17:13:00.002+01:00

Day 10
From Tallinn we made our way back to Stockholm via the overnight ferry. Being a Friday night it was a lot busier this time but we kept a low profile and tried to get a decent night’s sleep this time.

Our hostel in Stockholm was located in Gamla Stan (Old Town) and just around the corner from the Kungliga Slottet (new Royal Palace). We spent our only full day in the Swedish capital exploring the many streets and side streets of Gamla Stan before making the trek around to the park Djurgården.

We made our way back toward the Central Station area and to the world famous Absolut Ice Bar. There are five Absolut Ice Bars in the world and Stockholm is not only the original but also the only one open all year round. We made our reservation and returned an hour or so later to get kitted up in sweet blue Eskimo-style coats with gloves!

The entry price included a drink, served in a glass made of ice, which was some kind of concoction involving Absolut Peach and Blue Curacao. Everything in the bar, including the bar, was made of ice. There were various ice sculptures in the room and even an ice-couch covered with reindeer skin.

In the evening we chilled out, albeit not at five degrees under, back at the hostel common room.

Day 11
Our overnight train to Kiruna in the northern part of Sweden wasn’t until tea-time so it left us the morning and early part of the afternoon to fit in a few more activities.

We returned to Djurgården and to Skansen, an open air museum that is Sweden’s most popular attraction. At Skansen you can see examples of old Swedish folk buildings and houses, and people dressed in traditional costumes go about their daily life as it would have been then. As well as aspects of Sami culture, Sami people being the indigenous people of Sweden, there is even a zoo that houses a number of species of Scandinavian animals including reindeer, elks, wolves and bears.

Our night train left Stockholm at 5pm and was due to arrive in Kiruna at 10am the following morning. We had reserved two beds in the slightly crammed six-berth carriage. We’ve learnt from previous experience on long-haul train journeys that getting a decent night’s sleep in a seat just doesn’t work out.

That said if you end up getting someone in your carriage with a horrendous snoring problem then you may as well have not bothered paying the extra! We didn’t endure that problem but instead an old Swedish lady with a farting problem in her sleep. Our Lonely Planet guide book warns travelers of the increased danger of gassing on overnight trains – we didn’t realise this is what they meant!

From Tallinn to Helsinki, and back again

2008-05-14T22:01:00.005+01:00

Day 8
We spent two nights in the medieval style Old Town of Tallinn, Estonia’s capital, and after a week on the road it was a return to financial normality after the expense of Iceland. While we didn’t exactly go crazy it was certainly a chance for us to enjoy eating out a couple of times and perhaps even slip into a pub one evening.

Our hostel was one block away from the main square of the Old Town and after walking up from the ports and dropping our bags off we spent the rest of the day exploring the town through its maze of cobbled streets.

We walked along a section of the old defense wall and clambered up three small old towers that have been kept in tact. There were plenty more stairs to climb later when we enjoyed the best views in town from the 13th century Oleviste Kirik (St Olaf’s Church – originally one of the tallest buildings in the world). The stairs were steep, narrow and seemingly never ending. The views from the 124 metre high church were well worth it though.

In the evening we treated ourselves to a meal out at a medieval themed restaurant called Peppersack. I can’t remember what we had but it sure beat everything we’d eaten to date on the trip!

Day 9
Exploring the Old Town of Tallinn is definitely do-able in one full day so we had already decided to make a day trip to Helsinki across the Gulf of Finland.

The journey only takes a couple of hours by boat and after arriving in the Finnish capital we jumped on another boat (a ferry, this trip only took 15 minutes) to take us out to Suomenlinna, one of Helsinki’s main tourist attractions.

Suomenlinna is a World Heritage listed fortress located on a small cluster of islands just out from the main harbour of Helsinki. The fortress was built in 1748 to protect the country (part of Sweden back then) against the Russians.

After returning to the mainland we gave ourselves a couple of hours to do a brief walk around some of Helsinki’s main attractions such as the impressive white Tuomiokirkko cathedral. We also had the chance to put our heads into a couple of those enlarged photo boards with the faces cut out. Always got time for those.

We got back to Tallinn in the evening and headed to a place just around the corner from our hostel called The Pub With No Name. After dinner we tried the popular Estonian spirit called Vana Tallinn which, to our disappointment, basically just tasted like Southern Comfort. It was better mixed with ginger ale but still a little too sweet.

It seemed to be some kind of student night in the pub and they were running a Fear Factor style competition. Everything was being said in Estonian (as you’d expect) so we weren’t too sure of the finer details but, as they say, actions speak louder than words. They definitely did in this case as, one by one, the guys and girls striped down to their undies and sprint out of the pub and down the street. Thirty seconds later they’d return to the bar with a beer in their hand and knock it back in one go on the stage. Bizarre!

Even funnier than watching half naked young Estonian people run down the street was the reactions of passers by.

(We scored a free helium balloon and disposed of it in the appropriate manner!)

All aboard to Tallinn

2008-05-13T09:52:00.000+01:00

Day 7
We started early on Tuesday morning to get from Copenhagen all the way across to Stockholm in Sweden to make our tea-time ferry crossing from Stockholm to Tallinn in Estonia, our next port of call for two nights.

Our train from Copenhagen to Malmo, a relatively short journey across the bridge joining Denmark and Sweden, ran 20 minutes late. Not a great start! But we made our connecting train to Stockholm ok.

It was late afternoon by the time we arrived in Sweden’s capital and the central train station was difficult to navigate amid the thousands of tea-time commuters. We eventually got ourselves on the underground, and connecting bus, in the right direction of the ports and checked onto the M/S Victoria I with some 30 minutes to spare.

The overnight ferry left Stockholm at 6pm and was due to arrive in Estonia the following morning at 10am. Our ensuite cabin was on the top passenger deck and after dropping our bags off we went to explore the rest of the vessel.

The 2,500 capacity ship boasted a two storey cabaret bar and casino, a pub, a nightclub, two restaurants, a fast food restaurant and a duty free shop that caused mass excitement amongst Estonian travelers. I’m talking men with hand-trolleys stacked head high with slabs of beer and women racing around with shopping trolleys packed with 3 litre cask wines (aka. ‘Bag in a Box’).

It would’ve been rude not to try some of the tastings on offer in the Duty Free shop - a couple of very average wines (some kind of C-Grade Chilean stuff giving the region a bad name) and Barcardi Melon.

We spent the rest of the daylight hours on the sundeck at the rear of the ship enjoying a bottle of Peter Lehmann Shiraz. As the sun and temperature dropped outside I think people thought we were pretty hard sat out there drinking. In reality we’d found the only wind sheltered spot on the deck!

In the evening we watched the live entertainment being served up in the cabaret bar. The show was a musical of “We Will Rock You” by Queen performed by a young group that was so out of sync with their dancing it was hard to believe!

Before and after the show a live band played to a dance floor of predominantly older folk and young kids shamelessly throwing themselves around the stage. This was definitely more entertaining than the show! It seemed pretty quiet about on the ship. The bartender confirmed later the ship was less than quarter full.

Our night ended up in the nightclub at around 1am and the fact that there were only a dozen or so people didn’t stop us from letting loose! It was a pretty fun night but slightly regrettable the next morning with a bad hangover and heavy packs to lump into the old town of Tallinn to find our hostel.

One day in Denmark

2008-05-11T16:45:00.002+01:00

Day 5 & 6
From Iceland we made our way back to mainland Europe and Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. We landed at Copenhagen Airport and after negotiating the ticket machines were on our way to the Central Station 15 minutes away.

Our hostel was located a 5-10 minute walk from the Central Station which meant a brief walk through the city’s red light district. It wasn’t the most pleasant part of town and I just couldn’t help but think if you looked up the word ‘vulnerable’ in the dictionary you might find a picture of two foreign backpackers like us weighted down with heavy bags, reading a map of the streets!

The hostel was a pretty budget, run-down sort of place. They had only recently opened up (they close during the winter months) and our 12-bed dorm smelt so musty our clothes wreaked after our two night stay! There were no keys or swipe passes to the doors so security was dodgy to say the least and the cleaners thought it a good idea to start cleaning toilets and showers at 10am every morning. Let’s just say the best thing about this place was the staff on the front desk who were friendly and helpful, and cranked some decent tunes in the common area.

(Our hostel...and the town hall square)

One real positive was the cost of things had fallen dramatically after our stay in pricey Iceland. This was demonstrated perfectly by the fact that ice cold bottles of Carlsberg and Tuborg (two of the best known Danish brews) were on offer at the corner store for the equivalent of a mere euro (NZ$2 or so) so a couple of those went down a treat on our first night as were bantered with fellow travelers. Sheryl opted for vin de rouge.

After a decent night’s kip (only one other bed in the dorm being used always helps!) we set off on our only full day in the Danish capital, co-incidentally a public holiday, with the sun beating down on us. I hadn’t anticipated such warm weather…oh for a pair of shorts and some jandals!

We’d picked up a brochure for a series of ‘DIY Walking Tours’ and decided to do the Central City one first and others later if we had time. The tour started at Tivoli, the sort of random amusement park planted across the road from the busy central train station, and from there past the town hall square and down some of the quieter side streets.

Stop-offs along the way included a brief trip up the Rundetårn (Round Tower) for good 360˚ views of the city followed by a stroll through Kongens Have (King’s Garden) – a pleasant park which was busy with families and sun bathers.

(The view from the Rundetårn and Kongens Have)

(More from the beautiful Kongens Have...and orange terraced housing for the Danish Navy)

Eventually the tour lead us down to the waterfront and to the world famous ‘Little Mermaid’ sculpture. We laughed as an excited tourist keen to take a photo slipped on the rocks, nearly bailing into another couple, while carefully treading the rocks ourselves to avoid a dose of karma.

(The Little Mermaid...and the square in front of the Royal Palace)

From there we passed through Nyhavn which is probably the most pictured part of Copenhagen. The canal is surrounded by brightly coloured buildings and locals and tourists alike wine and dine in the outdoor areas of the numerous bars and restaurants. Still too pricey for the budget traveler mind so one quick photo and on we went.

(Women used to lure sailors on the rowdy Nyhavn, now tourists eat expensive meals and sip on wine)

Later we ventured into the Christianshavn district of town which is just east of the Inderhavnen River. This part of town reminded me a lot of Amsterdam with it’s canals, boats and well maintained narrow buildings on either side. It’s also the home of Christiania. Now this is quite a unique little spot. It was originally a military zone back in the 70s but when they moved out a bunch of young hippies moved in and claimed it as their own land.

The Danish Government rolled with it and ran it as a sort of social experiment. While at first I’m sure the group functioned as a hippy society would it is pretty clear now that it has deteriorated to a lawless playground of all sorts of dodgy doings. Signs are everywhere that photos are not allowed to be taken in Christiania. While they might claim it’s a stake against mainstream society (and annoying tourists) it’s mainly so nobody can document what goes on in there! From what I understand the police are busting in on the area more and more these days.

(The Christianshavn district....home of the Christiania playground)

To be fair the second half of our walk through the area was much more pleasant although their ‘free’ lifestyle basically meant there was a whole bunch of junk around the place.

We stopped for a kebab on the way back to the hostel in the evening. It had been a real scorcher of a day and we’d done a crazy amount of walking. My feet were stinging. Another couple of cold Carlsbergs would soothe the pain for sure.

A trip to Iceland (not the supermarket)

2008-05-07T19:37:00.015+01:00

Day 1
Our Scandinavian journey began at the ungodly hour of 5.30am and some 12 hours later after leaving Bournemouth we had arrived in Reykjavik, the first destination of our three week trip in Scandinavia.

Reykjavik is the capital of Iceland and the northern most capital in Europe. Our guesthouse was located on the fringe of the main town centre, only a short 10-15 minute walk away. Our accommodation was basic but clean and the Chinese owner was friendly. It was, however, freakishly quiet on our first night. Peak season doesn't start here until June.

Our Iceland Air flight from Heathrow in London took us to Keflavik Airport which is a 45 minute journey by bus into Reykjavik itself. Our first evening was spent walking around, getting our bearings, and finding a place to eat. We settled for a cheap burger & fries meal in a small student looking diner/bar. Iceland is extremely pricey - more so than these budget backpackers have faced in the time over here - so this was to be our only meal out in the capital! I was tempted to have a beer but at £6 a pint (NZ$15) it can wait!

Day 2
We knew Iceland was going to be the most expensive place to visit on this trip but you just can't come here and not enjoy everything this fascinating and beautiful country has to offer. It is an extremely volcanic island and the results of it's explosive (literally!) past have resulted in a country of many landscapes you´re unlikely to see elsewhere in the world.

Our second day started with a whale watching trip. You don´t have to venture too far from the harbour in Reykjavik to see a variety of whales and the likely rate of seeing them is something like 95%. Sure enough before we had really got going a minke whale was spotted 80m or so away from where we were. And so screamed the tour host (with what sounded much like a German accent) "Minkee whale! Very close now! 80 metres...11 o clock!" Minke whales can, at times, be as curious of the tourists as they are of them. But, on this occasion, the big fella continued to head away from us. Amazingly the Icelandic still hunt whale so I'm not surprised they keep their distance!

We later spotted porpoises and a number of puffins but we weren´t fortunate enough to see a whale come right up to the boat.

In the evening we enjoyed a bottle of wine back at the guesthouse with a couple from Washington DC, exchanging stories and all that stuff. It was great that, even in this early part of their summer, we had day light up until 10.30pm but even going past midnight it never really got that dark outside.

Day 3

Our third day was by far one of the best days we´ve had on our travels so far. There are a number of tour operators that charge, in some cases, excessive amounts for various trips but we thought it would be a hell of a lot more fun to do the trip ourselves. We hired a little Hyundai Getz and hit the road bright and early to make the most of the day! It was a bit freaky at first seeing as I hadn´t driven in close to two years, not to mention my first time behind the wheel in a left hand drive on the other side of the road!

Lucky for me Reykjavik is only a small city so once I negotiated the inner city traffic and got on the motorway it was a breeze. So away we went admiring the views and heading off up into the mountains. Great! Except 30 minutes into the journey we realised we were heading the wrong way - oops!

We´d set our sights on a rather ambitious journey to the south-east coast of Iceland to a place called Jökulsárlón. It was to be a whopping 800km round trip that ended close to 11pm but well worth the time and money!

Along the way we made stop offs at the waterfall at Seljalandfoss before a failed attempt to negotiate the gravel (and eventually rocky) roads heading into the Porsmork National Park. Them there roads are designed for super-jeeps and the like not my little four door hatch-back - it´s underneath felt the brunt of some of those particularly big stones! We backtracked to the main highway and continued on our journey.

We later came across an even bigger waterfall at Skógarfoss and parked up by the beach at stopped for lunch amid stormy weather in the small town of Vik. We munched our salami & cheese sarnies from the safety of the car but at times you thought the wind that was whipping down off the mountains might just Getz us on it's way to the sea! (poor, I know)

The journey took us past snow capped mountains, deserts of black volcanic sand, rocks covered in green moss and numerous pictureqsue small farming communities. The best was yet to come though when we reached Jökulsárlón.

Jökulsárlón is the lake at the foot of Europe´s largest glacier and it is changing every year as pieces break off and drift out to sea. When we got there the one small tourist hut was closed but there were a couple of other cars parked up. The icebergs there were just unreal. You could actually see and hear the ice cracking and breaking off into smaller segments.

On our way back to the car I got a bit of a shock when I saw something pop it´s head out of the water. It disappeared but when I looked further out I could see several heads of curious little seals! We figured that at this late time in the day they were probably out catching dinner with the tide bringing fish up the river. Seals aren´t known for venturing out of the water but as we purched up on the rocks in awe they were definately interested in who we were - at times staring at us before diving under!

The drive home was long and we were both shattered by the time we got home from an excellent day out.

Day 4

It had been a busy first few days in Iceland...but there was still more to check off the 'must do' list! We had missed out on the Friday night runter (a sort of weekly open pub crawl in Reykjavik) but the drinks prices put us off and there was too much to see and do without a hangover to deal with the next day. Boozing could come later in the trip!

It was Saturday morning and we were one of the first to arrive at the world famous Blue Lagoon pools for a hot dip in the geothermally heated pools. A brief dip in the 48 degree milky blue-green water was a great way to start the day. Everybody looked quite funny with that grey mud stuff plastered all over their faces (Sheryl included) but apparently it´s good for you. I'll go without, thanks.

Hiring a car and driving the previous day had saved us a hell of a lot of money had we joined a couch tour, but for a trip to the Gullfoss waterfalls and the Geysirs it worked out better to jump on a bus with the tourists.

The tour began at the breaktaking Pingvellir National Park, a World Heritage Site, where we were able to walk in cracks of the tectonic plates that have been caused by continental drift. From there we went to the impressive Gullfoss waterfall (the second biggest in Iceland) and eventually to the Geysirs...where some of the tourists seemed more than happy to stand right next to bubbling hot springs likely to spray scolding hot water into their faces!

The annoying older American couple behind us on the bus would have been more than welcome to step a bit closer!

We'd managed to cram a hell of a lot in during our four nights in Iceland. It really is quite an amazing country, if it weren´t so damn expensive. Next up - Copenhagen in Denmark!

Convicts on the loose

2008-05-03T18:30:00.002+01:00

REUTERS – Home Office officials are still on the look-out for two suspected overstayers after they were reported to have partied it up big time in Bournemouth with 26 fellow convicts on Saturday night.

The Kiwi criminals, Dale and Sheryl, were joined by former work mates and were reported to have been first spotted in the Aussie convict hide-out bar Walkabout early in the evening. Fire fighters were called to the scene to deal with the smokin’ hot dance-off between One Shot Shorty and Mike Hoyle.

The convict crew made their way uptown to Litten Tree for more drinks and dancing shenanigans – including a frighteningly accurate mass rendition of the video clip from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”.

Two local police officers are being questioned after having been caught socialising with the convicts, apparently unaware of the danger they posed to the public with their blinding bright orange boiler suits and sick dance moves they were prepared to unleash on the town.

Last London weekend (and all that jazz)

2008-04-25T17:34:00.001+01:00

With time fast running out before our three week trip in Scandinavia, and ultimately returning to New Zealand, we made one last trip to the capital to see Phil and Cheryl. We timed it well as my step-dad and his wife were both in London and we managed to catch up over brunch in a pub at Paddington station, before they set off for Teif’s hometown in Wales.

It was a beautiful warm and sunny day in London and for the rest of the afternoon we laid about in the park at Leicester Square. By tea-time we’d met up with Phil and Cheryl and with it being our last weekend with them they kindly offered to treat us to a London show. Certainly not a bad way to spend a Saturday night! None of us were particularly fussed about what we saw but in the end settled for the jazz musical Chicago.

After a few pre-drinks we made our way to Cambridge Theatre, just a few blocks away from Leicester Square. We had great seats, second row from the front, and thoroughly enjoyed the two and a bit hour long show.

The weather took a slight turn for the worse on Sunday but Phil had recommended to try visiting Greenwich which is within short walking distance of their house in Isle of Dogs near Canary Wharf. We walked under The Thames River and into the town of Greenwich and found a nice Thai restaurant for lunch.

We then headed on from there into the park and up the hill to the Greenwich Observatory and the world famous time-line.The rain had come to the party by this stage so we made our way back home, via Canary Wharf and a couple of pubs, before cracking a bottle of bubbly (I’m not sure if that was in celebration of us leaving but I wasn’t going to complain!) and some take-away Indian. That was followed by biscotti and a bottle of Tokaj desert wine from Hungary Sheryl and I had been waiting to share. Standard Sunday evening really!

It was back to work the next morning and that meant a direct coach from London to Poole at the crack of dawn to get us to the office in time.

Big ups to Phil and Cheryl for all the weekends they’ve hosted us – we’ll definitely miss our weekends in London with you guys.

Time for a Bath

2008-04-12T11:55:00.002+01:00

With the Winter coming to an end and finer Spring weather on it's way we (that being me, Sheryl, Jennie, Mark, John & Ange) decided to pay a visit to the historic Roman settlement city (it's more like a large town) of Bath, just a couple of hours drive away from us here in Bournemouth.

We started off with a scenic open top bus tour that took us around everything on offer in this World Heritage site. Tight building restrictions are in place for the residents of Bath but it makes for good viewing - most of the buildings are in their near original state and made from the same type of sandstone. There definately seems to be an element of eletism amongst Bath-ites but it's still a great place to visit if you're in the UK and not too far away.

After a cruise up the High Street and quick liquid refreshment the girls hit the shops and the boys hit the pubs! Unfortunately there was no rugby match on that day at the famous Bath rugby ground, but luckily for us there was some on telly and we just caught the tail end of the Anglo-Welsh Final in one particular establishment.

Wimborne pub crawl

2008-04-05T11:12:00.001+01:00

Phil and Cheryl paid us a weekend visit from London during April. We were hoping for some decent UK spring weather seeing as the last time they came down was in the middle of winter.

On Saturday we took them on a walk over Hengistbury Head and on through Mudeford Quay, eventually into Christchurch for a pint of Piddle!

That night we took them into the small town of Wimborne, 15 minutes or so drive away from Kinson, for a tour around some of the pubs on offer.

It started at the Coach & Horses on the brink of the town, before visits to the Cricketers Arms, The Green Man and more. We probably would have made our way around more had we not forget about the 11.30pm drink up time!

Another birthday in Bournemouth

2008-03-29T20:00:00.002Z

Two lads from the office, Matt and Liam, celebrated their birthday with night out on the town in Bournemouth.

The night started at a large pub/club called Litten Tree and slowly but surely the usual shinanigans moved downtown via Bar Vin.

Roaming in Riga

2008-02-25T17:00:00.001Z

Our next weekend away took us to Riga, the capital of Latvia, and our first look at the Baltic states. Our flight from London Stansted took just over two hours and with Latvia two hours ahead it meant by the time we landed and found our feet in the city it was early evening on Saturday night.

After a bite to eat we set off in search of a decent bar or two through the cobbled streets of the Old Town, a World Heritage Site.

Our accommodation was a private apartment, although part of a youth hostel around the corner, on the verge of the Old Town area. From our room we had a view of the canal that runs behind the city and could see a couple of the church towers that stand out.

We spent our first full day in Riga doing what they recommend best - rambling! The Old Town is a beautiful little place with numerous church towers and plenty of 'art noveau' architecture on offer, some of which has been restored to it's former glory after bombing in the war (how many times have I said that during this Blog?).

The morning started with a coffee in Double Coffee (a Starbucks style chain of cafe/bars in Latvia) before breakfast at the Sixties themed John Lemon Cafe, recommended by Lonely Planet.

Our walk also took us to the Freedom Monument on the outskirts of the town, guarded by armed military during the day. It's customary to lay flowers by the steps but in years gone by this was punished by extradition to Siberia.

In the evening we were back in the Old Town, after a pre-drink at the hostel bar, for a meal and drinks at Pizza Malibu before heading back to the apartment. Our only gripe of the visit to Riga was the cost. Being Eastern Europe you expect places to be on the cheaper side but the cost of most things was similar to back in the UK. While mainly grey and a bit cold we mostly avoided the rain and didn't hit the freezing temperatures they can experience during the winter months.

On Monday, our final full day, we took a bus journey south of the city to an ethnographic open-air museum. Covering 80 hectares the museum shows the dwellings and way of life for Latvians during the 16th-19th centuries. With the place so quiet that day it was sort of surreal to be walking around such a large forest by ourselves.

By 4.30pm that evening we were back in the Old Town and at the Cuba Cafe for some Happy Hour specials. The special being buy one, get one free. We each ordered different drinks, we each got a free one. Not the expected result...but check out the boozers with their four drinks!

We visited a couple of other places that evening, including a gem of a cocktail bar called Lounge Eight down a side alley, before a stop off at a brilliant little tea house by the canal just across the road from where we were staying. The two storey building was largely made of glass and on the top level you could spread out and lounge about on some oversized cushions, sipping your tea of choice (they had a ridiculously large menu of teas) watching the people go by.

The following morning we flew back to London and after a two and a half hour flight and two coach journeys we were back in Bournemouth that evening.

Waitangi Day, London

2008-02-09T10:00:00.000Z

Every year February 6 marks Waitangi Day in New Zealand. The basic history lesson is that this day in 1840 was when the Maori tribes in Aotearoa signed a treaty with the British to mark an official link between the two countrys (full history lesson here).

In New Zealand this means ceremonies at the break of dawn and a day off work for all. In London it’s an entire day on the booze train – literally! The Circle Line of the London underground is taken over by patriotic parading Kiwis doning costumes, hats, face paint and flags.

The idea behind the event, which apparently has been running for over 25 years, is a pub crawl starts at 10am at the Paddington station and throughout the day there is a stop off at each of the 26 other stations. Although technically a pub crawl most would just stand on the streets immediately around the tube station and down a drink (or two).

Meanwhile back on the trains it was against the rules to hold on whilst riding (‘tube surfing’) otherwise you would be sent packing at the next stop to choruses of ‘Off! Off! Off!’

Now you’re obviously going to be quite a machine if you manage a drink at each and every stop point but the fact is there are so many people involved it’s almost impossible to make it all the way around before the mass gathering outside Westminster Abbey at 4pm. Here, thousands of New Zealanders (and the odd bloody Aussie no doubt) join in a rendition of the anthem and view a mass Haka.

Supposedly a few thousand attend each year but TVNZ reported that some 12,000 clogged up central London this time around.

It was a brilliant day out and absolutely recommended if you happen to be in the UK at this time in years to come.

Long weekend in Dublin

2008-01-29T15:30:00.000Z

If you're doing an OE in the UK it's almost a given that a visit to Dublin is on the cards at some stage. The budget airline Ryanair was having a sale and the offer was too good to turn down - return flights from Bournemouth for £20 each including fees and taxes.

We fly early on a Friday and enjoyed three days and nights plus Monday morning before coming home. Our hostel was a short five minute walk from the 'Knitting Needle' monument near the River Liffey (or as some locals call it 'The Stiffy by the Liffy'!). From there it's only another five to ten minute walk to the heart and soul of Dublin - The Temble Bar area.

Now there is actually a pub called The Temple Bar, which we visited twice, and it gets quite busy in the evenings but this is Dublin, the home of Guinness, and half the attraction of the city is it's drinking holes.

On the Saturday we did a tour of Croke Park - the home of Irish sport and in particular Hurling and Gaelic Football. These days you'll find international football matches and Six Nations rugby fixtures being played in front of the 82,500 capacity crowd but traditionally it's always been a stadium for Irish sports only.

The evening was spent back in Temple Bar trying out the different places lined along the old cobbled streets. We were fortunate enough that a Traditional Irish Music festival was on and at various times throughout the weekend you could get a taste of some Irish folk in any of the pubs dotted about the place.

On Sunday we did a day trip out of Dublin to Glendaloch and Wicklow with a small bus touring company. We ended up grabbing the last two seats in front of what was effectively a Ford transit van with seats! We didn't mind though and it did mean we were able to tackle some routes the bigger coaches can't handle.

We stopped off for a cup of coffee on the mountain range that overlooks Dublin before heading on to the small village of Laragh for some lunch and a pint. En route was a sample of rural Ireland - lakes, rivers, valleys, marshland and mountains. We were really lucky to have three days of brilliant spring-like weather and it made for a great day out. We finished the day in Glendaloch where you can walk around the remains of a monastery and further along to two lakes.

On Sunday evening we headed to one particular bar right by the river to check out some traditional Irish dancing. It was a pretty popular place and it did mean having to sit around drinking for a couple of hours to get a half decent spot (what a chore!) but it was an impressive show and worth it in the end.

Our flight home was mid afternoon on Monday so that left our final morning for one more thing...the Guinness factory! A trip to Dublin wouldn't be complete without a walk around the six storey building before finally pouring your own 'perfect pint' and enjoying it over some mint views of the city.

The 119th Steel City Derby

2008-01-19T17:00:00.000Z

Saturday 19th January was a date many football fans in Sheffield have been looking forward to since the fixture list for the season was published last summer. This was the day of the Steel City Derby. Sheffield Wednesday, the greatest team the world has ever seen, taking on the The Pigs aka The Blades aka Sheffield United for the 119th time in history.

The football rivalry within Sheffield is as fierce as you’ll find it anywhere else in the country. In this city you really are either blue and white, or red and white and nothing in between.

This really is the biggest game of the season as far as these clubs are concerned. Truly a one off cup final type atmosphere at Hillsborough, Sheffield Wednesday’s ground, and in front of the live television cameras too.

The biggest crowd of the season, a little over 30,000, was there to see it and despite touch ticket restrictions, in place to prevent away supporters snapping up home seats, I managed to secure three tickets for myself, Sheryl and my Dad.

This was my first derby match in almost 14 years since leaving for New Zealand so I was quite excited, but also a little nervous with our poor form of late and the fact that United, who were relegated from the Premier League last season, clearly possess a stronger squad.

But it doesn’t matter how much your squad is worth or how well (or badly in our case) you’ve been doing. Hillsborough was absolutely electric that afternoon. I’ve been to plenty of football games in my time, including a Cup final at Wembley, that was up there with the best of them.

Even better for me was that we won 2-0! A goal in either half from messrs Sodje and Tudgay sealed a truly beautiful win. But it didn’t come without some heart stopping moments, mainly due to our desperately fragile defence! Oh how sweet it was to see the miserable faces of the 6,000 strong away support, not to mention 25,000 people chanting “You’re getting sacked in the morning!” to the opposition manager.

This is what football is all about. Hi-Ho Sheffield Wednesday – Blue and White ‘til I die!

Glasgow, Stirling and The Highlands

2008-01-02T15:00:00.000Z

On the Wednesday afternoon, and after our four great nights in Edinburgh, we caught the train over to Glasgow for a four night stay with my cousin Nikki and her husband Craig.

We caught a cab back to their flat which is a 30-40 minute walk from George Square in the heart of the city. We had a nice quiet nice night in on our first evening there with a take-away and DVD. Just what we needed after a busy few nights in the capital!

That night we’d noticed a severe weather warning on the BBC with some parts of Scotland expecting a lot of snow in a short space of time. It has been a burning desire of Sheryl’s to be somewhere whilst it’s snowing without doing what we can do back home and go to the mountains! Stirling, an hour north of Glasgow on the train, was one of the those places covered in white cloud on the forecast. So that was it – it was off to Stirling the next day!

The snow fell lightly on the journey there and at the bus station whilst waiting for a ride to take us to the historic Wallace Monument, which is just outside of the town centre. This is the monument in dedication of one of the Scotland’s great heros – Sir William Wallace (aka Mel Gibson in Braveheart!).

While in the monument itself a blizzard hit! It was quite unreal. The snow was coming in horizontally and at high speed! We got some excellent photos up there even though the view was non-existent through the clouds and just moments after descending the tower they closed it off as it was deemed ‘unsafe’ – try telling Nikki and Sheryl that who had a great time posing for photos whilst trying their best not to be blown off the top of the tower!

The blizzard passed over and, as you can see with some before and after photos, it left a picture postcard winter scene for our walk back down the hill.

After some lunch back in town we visited the Stirling Castle which was pretty interesting but, with a couple more blizzards passing through, the focus was again on the thick snow settling on the ground!

It was late afternoon by the time we’d finished wandering around the castle grounds and we stopped by the Portcullis pub on the way back down for a tummy warmer before catching the train back to Glasgow.

On Friday we bought a ticket for the hop on/hop off tourist bus service around the attractions of Glasgow. That included various spots along the River Clyde, the beautiful old University Buildings and the lively West End part of town, clustered with cool lookings pubs, clubs and places to eat.

After doing a loop of the circuit we had lunch at a real labyrinth of a Gaelic themed pub called Waxy O’Connors, just off George Square. Later in the afternoon we jumped back on the bus and headed back to the West End to a couple of pubs, one of which I think was called Jinty McGuinty’s.

In the evening we dined out at a little Italian place Nikki and Craig knew of, followed by cocktails at a club called Social and a nightcap on the way home at the oldest pub in Scotland – a rowdy little place called The Scotia.

(The People's Palace, close to Nikki & Craig's flat...and George Square)

It was now day three and our final full day in Scotland. I can’t imagine when we’d be likely to be back north of the border so we thought it a good idea to take advantage of the chance to see more of what Scotland has to offer, and in particular the famous Highlands region.

We were lucky enough to be able to grab the last four seats on a guided bus tour (we use the phrase ‘bus’ loosely – it was a wee little thing!) which set us back a little over £30. It turned out to be great value for money.

We left early at about 8.30am from George Square before heading north past the first of many Lochs in Loch Lomond. I have to also point out at this stage that the tour guide, who was also driving, was a bit of a legend. He was Highlands born and bred and very proud of his country. He also loved making a noise that resembled someone about to hock something the size of a small rock every time he pronounced the ‘c-h’ in ‘Loch’! Craig thinks he might’ve been putting it on for the tourists, but I’m not so sure!

We passed through some wonderful scenery, reminiscent of what you might find in the South Island back home, and by lunch time we were in Fort William, the town that sits at the foot of Ben Nevis, Britain’s biggest mountain at 1343 metres high. Unfortunately the low cloud cover meant the big fella was covered in mist and didn’t make much of a photo at all.

The knowledgeable guide warned us to get a bite to eat and get back on the road before the other five or six huge coach loads that pulled up shortly after us! Lucky for us most of them were elderly and, key to the matter, slow.

Our bus hit the road again while the grey contingent sipped their pots of tea and nibbled on their scones. From there we pressed further north through Fort Augustus and to the world famous Loch Ness (or should I say Locccchhhhhh Ness!).

The guide was really pleased that the weather was grey, windy and cold for our short boat trip on the Ness. Anything less, he informed us, would not be natural for a visit to Loch Ness! You see, bad weather is what the Scots have come to expect and love! And low and behold we had a real life sighting of Nessy. After years of exploring, scientific expeditions and still no hard proof it seemed so simple that we should find her none other than in the car park. Who’d have thought.

But it was easy to see how so many people would think they have seen something under those waters. You see, as our guide told us, the Loch is some six or seven miles deep and 25 miles long but there are very powerful undercurrents that bring up the elements from the bottom of the water to the surface. The end result is a body of water so dark you wouldn’t see much of your hand if you dare to dip it in the water.

The mystery of the Loch Ness continues! As did our bus journey which then took us to Inverness, our furthest point north. By this stage it was mid afternoon and the day light was disappearing quick. Our journey back home went via the small town of Pitlochery and past Glenkinchie, Scotland’s highest distillery.

It was a great day out and highly recommended for any of you who pay Glasgow or Edinburgh a visit. The next day we caught a flight direct from Glasgow back to Bournemouth with a slightly rough landing, although nowhere near as dodgy as the one at Heathrow last week, and found ourselves back in time for roast dinner. How convenient!

Hogmanay, Edinburgh

2007-12-31T11:59:00.000Z

Edinburgh is the beautiful capital city of Scotland and the home of ‘Hogmanay’ – the best place to be anywhere in the world for celebrating New Years. That’s just where we were for all four nights of the big event.

We were joined by Sheryl’s brother Phil and his wife Cheryl and together we made our way from Kings Cross Station in London early on the Saturday morning to Edinburgh by mid-afternoon. Engineering works in the north of England temporarily forced us onto a coach but the delay was pretty minimal.

Edinburgh impresses the moment you step foot out of the Waverley train station and onto Princes Street. The famous old castle on the hill at the top of the Royal Mile overlooks the gardens, a river centuries ago, and the old buildings are as impressive as you’ll find anywhere in Europe.

Central Edinburgh had been transformed into party central with fair ground rides on both sides of the gardens and buildings, lamp posts and trees were decorated with bright lights.

Our accommodation was booked and paid for a number of months ago and even at that early stage it was impossible to find anything in the immediate central area. We had eventually settled with The Holiday Inn just past Murrayfield which, for those of you that know the city, really isn’t that far away. Only ten minutes or so by bus which ran frequently from Princes Street.

The hotel was nice and even nicer was the fact that we pulled a cheeky one on them and squeezed four of us into a room with two single beds! That meant more money for more important matters, like eating and drinking.

(From Kings Cross to Edinburgh!)

Day One – The Torchlight Procession

After dropping our bags off at the hotel we pretty much headed straight back to town for a bite to eat before joining up with the masses for the opening night festivities. It was called the ‘Torchlight Procession’ and we really hadn’t read up much on exactly what it was but were pleasantly surprised to see literally tens of thousands of people with burning steaks parading down from The Royal Mile, across the gardens, up Princes Street and onto Calton Hill.

They were lead by a group of Scots dressed as Vikings who wheeled a Viking ship to the top of the hill to set it alight. It was great fun and I can most definately recommend attending a mass public burning if you ever get the chance!

After heading back down the hill we were entertained by a five minute firework display – Hogmanay was underway!

(Fireworks kick off the 2008 Hogmanay on Princes St)

(Burning Viking Ships on Calton Hill)

(More from Calton Hill, including real life Scottish Vikings!)

Day Two – The Night Afore

On our first full day in Edinburgh we decided it best to do the touristy thing and visit the Edinburgh castle. We spent a good couple of hours wandering in and out of the various parts of the castle like the old prison cells, the military museum and of course took time to admire the brilliant panoramic views of the city.

Afterwards we met up with Matt, Kim, Ray and some of their UK mates at a nearby bar.

Then it was off to the second night’s events – The Night Afore.

Some 20,000 people took to the streets in amidst a festival of music, street artists and some good old fashioned random monsters in animatronic suits! It was by far one of the most spectacular events we’ve been to – especially the massive inflated monsters cruising above the masses and controlled by several people down below.

It was off for a quick night cap with Matt, Kim, Ray & co. before slipping back to the hotel. After all, we didn’t want to peak on New Years Eve Eve.

(The spectacular views from up on the hill at Edinburgh Castle)

(A carnival of various music, performance and really weird monsters!)

(Line dancing and enormous inflatable monsters attacking people from the skies!)

Day Three – The Street Party

The only disappointment of the big day was the fact that Mary Kings Close, a series of underground roads from an era gone; built on top of what is now known as The Royal Mile, as the tour was booked out for two days. Luckily for Sheryl and I this meant we would be able to go on our last day before leaving for Glasgow.

With no glass allowed in the cordoned off area we decided it a good idea to buy some wine from a local wine shop and transfer it into plastic vessels. Two bottles of Dashwood Pinot Noir and two bottles of Montana Reserve Chardonnay were now in empty 1.5 litre bottles of water. As good as magnums really.

The rain began to lightly drizzle but the four of us still had a couple of bottles of Veuve to knock off to kick off the night. With shelter hard to find we were left with no choice but McDonalds. It’s highly unlikely that’ll ever happen again!

We slapped on our jimmy hats (the Scottish tartan hat with flowing ginger hair) and hit Princes Street. It was still early, around 8pm or so, but we picked a good spot half way down the street and started to have a drink. We got chatting to a couple of local guys who were using their four dozen cans of Tennents Lager as a handy little seat.

Phil and I had high hopes of making the following day’s newspaper. A photographer had asked for us to pose in our jimmy hats both kissing a female copper on the cheek. Of course we obliged but sadly the photo never made the rags the next day. I’ll say no more!

As the night wore on the street began to fill up and by 11pm it was so busy you could barely move. By now some 100,000 people were on the streets and ready for the big count down. As the countdown began I set the video camera running and it seemed completely unbelievable that literally as the clock struck midnight the memory card reached it’s limit!

The fireworks went off from up on the castle but the low cloud cover meant you couldn’t really see much. N’ay bother, as the Scots would say.

Shortly after 1am the streets began to empty out and by 3am most people, including us, were on their way home with the buses running late in the night.

(Our, ahem, magnums of wine...and the impressive castle on the big night)

(The jimmy hat crew trying their hardest to fit in with the locals!)

Day Four – The Day After

It was well into New Years Day and just about lunchtime by the time we rolled out of bed (well, three of us made it out…Cheryl!) and Phil, Sheryl and I wandered down the road to a pub across from Murrayfield for a much needed bite to eat and a soft drink (or Guinness if you’re Phil).

As you can imagine activity was fairly minimal after a big night but we did manage a tour of the Scottish Whisky Heritage Museum. The tour involved a brief education on the history of whisky and how it is made, as well as one or two samples. Sheryl and I aren’t huge whisky drinkers, especially not on New Years Day, so ours went to Phil who, with his fondness to a fine malt, tucked away nine little bad boys! Good effort.

We met up with Matt, Kim and Ray one final time (at a bar called ‘The Tron’!) shortly after and to our amazement Cheryl managed to make it out of the hotel after all!

The following morning we parted our ways. Phil and Cheryl left early to catch a flight back to London to get to work in time while Sheryl and I made our visit to Mary Kings Close, unfortunatel there were no photos allowed down below but we grabbed one from outside, before grabbing our stuff from the hotel and heading for the short 45 minute train journey to Glasgow to meet up with Nikki and Craig (photos from Glasgow, Stirling and The Highlands are coming soon!).

(What else would you expect but a great night in 'The Tron'?)

(The gang shortly before our goodbyes, and the streets below the streets - Mary Kings Close)

Our second Christmas in Kinson

2007-12-25T19:00:00.000Z

Christmas Eve this year was spent much like last year with John, Angie, Mark and Jenny coming round for drinks and nibbles (anyone who has met my Nan will know a visit without food is unheard of).

After pressie opening time the following morning it was over to John & Angie’s for a top draw Christmas roast! As you’d expect the rest of the day was spent lounging about sipping on a glass of wine or bottle of beer. A vintage Christmas Day!

The Jeff Stelling Drinking Game

2007-12-22T15:00:00.000Z

Just a quick word on the last weekend before Christmas and a mention for a birthday party for a guy from work (Robbie) and a certain ‘Jeff Stelling Drinking Game’ involving some 15 or so others. It all kicked off in time with the traditional 3pm Saturday kick off time for the nation’s football matches and the Sky Sports Soccer Saturday show with legendary host Jeff Stelling and the necessary vidiprinter for the afternoon’s drinking antics.

The quick low down on basic rules are as follows:

Shot of beer to be consumed when…

A goal is scored in any of the top three divisions
A red card is dished out in any division

Non-stop consumption of beer when…

Presenter Chris Kamara talks. This is particularly dangerous (I should also point out at this time that not only does Kamara yap a lot but he has an awful perm and is a former Sheffield United player)

Shot of Jagermeister or similar spirit to be consumed when…

Your team scores

These are just the main rules but I think you get the idea – it can get quite messy, quite quickly!

Anyway, we left the Walkabout Bar after the full time whistles were blown and headed back to Robbie’s flat in the centre of Bournemouth before picking up some kai and a few more drinks. We left just shy of 10pm but some of the lads carried on worse for wear into the night, for what they can remember of it anyway. We weren’t to leave though without a customary rendition of the Aotearoa anthem and haka lead by Robbie and his Kiwi mate Ollie.

Barclays Christmas Bash

2007-12-15T19:30:00.000Z

Going back a few weeks was the Barclays Christmas Party held in The Ballroom of The Pavilion theatre down by the waterfront in Bournemouth. It was a sit down dinner for some 800 people followed by drinking and dancing. There was a band, a DJ, casino tables and a ‘fun room’ full of all sorts of weird stuff like a horizontal bungee, inflatable sumo suits and those funny oversized boxing gloves.

Entry was only a fiver, including champagne reception, so you can’t complain too much about the average meal but the events afterwards were classic.

All of the elements of a good work Christmas bash were there:

- Co-workers not being able to handle their drink and doing silly and embarassing things (eg. putting Sheryl’s lip gloss on and posing).
- Lots of dancing, lots of crazy new dance moves.
- A massive congo line at the end. An absolutely must, surely.
- Inappropriate smacking of the female boss’ bum including by Sheryl, and later inappropriate mooning of the female boss by three co-workers in the car park.

All in all we had a really good night out. But every silver lining has a cloud and for us that was a hang over the next morning. Why on earth we volunteered to go into work the next morning I’ll never know, but it was only for a few hours and the time went pretty fast.

I should also point out at this time that I did wake up to the biggest UPW (Unidentified Party Wound) I’ve ever had. It took me a while to figure out how on earth half of my right wrist was black and purple from bruising. It later came to me that I had attempted to high five Bobby from work and missed and hit each other. Bobby is an amateur volleyball player so I can only imagine the impact on my wrists was like that of a ball he was smashing over the net. Still, it healed up fine about a week later and no damage done!

Shezza's Birthday Weekend

2007-12-10T20:29:00.000Z

With it being Sheryl’s birthday on the weekend just gone we thought it would be a good time to invite her brother and sister-in-law down to Bournemouth for the first time. Aside from the fact that we had some of the worst weather we’ve seen this winter, we had a pretty good time!

We were actually pretty lucky with the weather. It was forecast for torrential rain and gale force winds here in the south west but we hardly got wet all weekend, although there wasn’t much escaping those cold winds. When it did rain, we were in a pub somewhere or another. Funny that.

On Saturday afternoon we took our guests down through the gardens in Bournemouth and along the pier. The beach was completely deserted, as you’d expect, but the surfers were out in force. We went for a drink and a bite further down the line to the Harvester pub at Durley Chine, followed by a cheeky quick one at The Cow in Parkstone.

That evening eight of us dined at La Strada Italian restaurant in town. The food, wine and atmosphere was excellent. Sheryl had a massive balloon that sang happy birthday when bashed, and we all sang our own rendition when the cake was brought out. A pretty successful birthday dinner I’d say.

Following that was a couple of drinks in the nearby bars ’60 Million Postcards’ and ‘Bar So’ (Phil later described their cocktail making skills as so-so).

On Sunday we walked around Poole harbour and old town, stopping for a “rain break” in The Antelope pub. There was to be two more pub-stops that weekend. Firstly was in The Hogshead in Westbourne on the way home, and later that evening at our local The Bear cross for a family meal out.

Christmas is only ten days away now. Freaky. We have our work Christmas do at The Pavilion this coming Friday which should be quite a bash - 800 or so party goers with a champagne reception, buffet and casino rooms!

October & November in a nutshell

2007-11-22T07:09:00.000Z

It’s been a while since we’ve put an update on the Blog but it’s not for lack of things to say, just a lack of spare time with a dash of laziness thrown in for good measure.

Our last post seems bloody ages ago now. Since our week long trip in Europe with Tim & Dunc we’ve been up to London on a handful of occasions and also had a weekend in North Yorkshire for my Granddad’s birthday, as well as having Phil & Cheryl down for a weekend more recently.

The Rugby World Cup Weekend

We were due to meet up with Tim and Dunc some seven days after saying our goodbyes in Florence but due to a massive, massive Friday night we had the company of just Tim and not Duncan for the remainder of the weekend! That Saturday afternoon was spent knocking back a couple of bottles of wine (and port) in the cave like surroundings of Gordon’s Wine Bar, accompanied by Phil and Cheryl.

We ended up watching the game in an antipodean themed pub with the large majority of punters being South African. It’s old news so there’s not much else you can say about the final other than what’s already been said – a boring game of two teams trying their hardest not to lose, but the better side won in the end.

The pub had a great atmosphere (aside from a couple of whining Saffers who seemed to think they had rights to watch the screen from their seats despite the place being packed to the rafters) and we couldn’t stop laughing when Phil came back from the bar with half a dozen stubbies shoved down his pants to save queuing up again!

The Engagement Weekend

The next weekend we were back up in the capital, this time for the engagement do of Mike and Rachel. They’d hired the upstairs of a swanky little bar in the Richmond part of London and we were joined by Matt & Kim along with Ray. Good times as you can see from the photos below (we even dedicated one to you Jan!) and all the best again for the future guys.

Granddad’s Birthday Weekend

My mum had flown over from New Zealand to be here for my Granddad’s birthday (the one in North Yorkshire, not here in Bournemouth) and as it turned out half a dozen other members of the family from my Mum’s side were going to be there as well. That included meeting my Uncle Stewart for the first time and his daughter, my cousin, Rachel, from Wales.

I think everyone should have a long grey haired, hippy, pot smoking Uncle and in Stewart I have one! He was a lovely chap and it was great to finally meet. Of course having not seen Mumsy for some 18 months it was nice to catch up on what’s been happening back home – that’s when I could get a word in!

The Football Weekend

Last weekend we were in London (again) this time to watch The Owls take on QPR at Loftus Road. It was the first time I’d been able to make a game so far this season and Sheryl and I took Phil, Cheryl and Mike in the rowdy away section while Hoops fan Matty took his troops to the home stands. It was probably the best 0-0 draw I’ve ever seen to be honest and as always the atmosphere in the away section of the Wednesday games in unbeatable – worth the admission fee alone!

The post-match discussion over a couple of drinks was followed with a Thai meal on the Thames after having checked out the ice-skating rink outside the Tower of London.

That Sunday evening, after returning from London, I went to check out my cousin Mark who was playing a gig at a pub in Bournemouth. I was quite impressed at his skills for a kid who’s not yet 17. That was great but not the resulting hangover on Monday morning.

The first weekend in December was spent up in Sheffield. It was a bit of a mad dash of a weekend after going direct on the train from work on Friday night and coming home Sunday morning. We did manage to squeeze in another football match (a terrible performance in losing 2-1 at home to Colchester) and a meal out on the Saturday with my Dad and Carol.

Road Trippin' in Europe!

2007-10-14T19:29:00.000+01:00

Six nights, four travelers and one silver Peugeot. That’s been the story of our week after joining Tim and Dunc’s European Road Trip for the leg of their journey that took them along the beautiful southern coastline of Spain and France and into Italy. We flew into Barcelona last Sunday evening and just four nights later we were in Florence, Italy. That’s quite some ground covered in not much time at all. Here’s what happened in between…

Sunday

Sheryl and I fly from Bournemouth to Girona Airport, some 100km’s out of Barcelona, before catching the hour and a bit long coach journey into the city.
We drop our bags at a pre-booked youth hostel close to Plaza Catalunya and head downtown to catch the end of Dunc’s set at a gig called The Sunday Joint (at the Las Guindas bar)
The four of us grab a bite and a beer (or sangria for Sheryl) and call it a night.

Monday

We get our first taste of cruisin’ in the Peugeot (Rugby World Cup edition! No kidding – the head rests are shaped as rugby balls) as we head out of the Catalonian capital and up the coast towards France.
We stop for kebabs in a suspiciously looking touristy town by the sea somewhere in the La Costa Brava area. Dunc buys new Catalonian themed jandals (aka ‘flip flops’ to some).
By the late afternoon we make it Cadaques – a small coastal town tucked away off the main highway, recommended to Dunc by some of his Spanish friends. It’s a gem of a little town. A pack of dogs disturbingly try and mate on the beach as we knock back some drinks before hitting the road again.
It’s the evening now and the realisation sunk in hours ago we were nowhere near getting to Marseille or even Montpellier. So Perpignan will have to do for the night. We look for a one star hotel, preferably with neon lights that flash and make a buzzing noise. We find one on a main street running through the town.
It’s real one star quality. The TV is a tiny wee portable, the shower has no shower curtain and the double bed Sheryl and I slept in had a cigarette burn in the duvet. Bienvenue a Road Trippin’ Budget Style!
Time’s pressing on and everywhere seems to be closed. We find a little restaurant to eat in but struggle to decipher the menu with everything written as names of dishes not what the food literally was. Forgetting to bring the phrasebook is a foolish move!

Tuesday

Showers in the morning with no shower curtain is interesting. By the time I hop in the bathroom floor water is leaking into the bedroom!
We leave Perpignan and head for destination unknown – Marseille or Nice. We’ll see how time goes.
Before leaving town we swing by a supermarket and stock up on baguettes, cheese, cold meats, fruit, wine and ingredients for a home made Sangria! Dunc buys a three-pack of princess dresses (supposedly for his niece in Italy)
We stick to the smaller roads off the main state highway/motorway, as the buggers charge tolls in between cities.
We stop for lunch in a car park by a river and open up the back of the car boot and lunch is served via the portable kitchen! There’s heaps of doggie doo’s everywhere though (so French) and the flies become annoying so we pack up and drive down the road.
This time we pull over just before a bridge down by a river and crack open the wine! In the distance we can see a French hooker on the side of the road is picked up by a bloke in a little white car. They head off down a country lane for quarter of an hour.
We're driving through wine country (the Languedoc region) so it'd be rude not to swing by a local winery and pick up a bottle.
I doze off to sleep in the back and when I wake up the three of them are trying to figure out where we are on the map. We realise we’ve actually headed 50km’s in the wrong direction to a town called Ales, instead of Arles!
By the time we start to lose sunlight we are in Marseille and enjoying a drink in a bar over looking the harbour. We make a last minute decision to bolt it further up the coast and get to Nice for the night.
We arrive in Nice around 9.30pm and the promenade/waterfront area looks amazing by night. Sheryl and I spent seven nights here last year so we navigate (via the scenic route…ok, so we didn’t know exactly how to get there!) our way to a brilliant hostel that we stayed at last year.
After some cheap grub (massive €5 pizzas) and a couple of drinks (€1 beer and wine) we hit the hay. But not before warning our dorm mates of Dunc’s snoring. It turns out some other chap was actually louder than him! Sheryl struggles to force an anonymous cat off her bed during the night. It later wakes Tim up too.

Wednesday

We show Tim and Dunc around Nice – starting with the flower market and the old town, before heading up to castle hill for the spectacular views of the waterfront and harbour on the other side.
We stop in Villefranche, an old Italian fishing village (based in France…figure that one out?), ten minutes along the coastline. We park our arses on the beach for twenty minutes or so before hitting the road again.
After driving through Monaco we say ‘Au Revoir’ to France, and ‘Buongiorno’ to Italy.
Genoa is the destination but by the time we get there it’s pretty late. We stop at a couple of budget hotels (even some ritzy two star ones) but there’s no accommodation anywhere. It turns out there’s a big boat show on in town and everywhere is booked up.
We swing by the Genoa camp site but they’re fresh out of cabins, and we don’t have tents. Not that you’d want to pitch there anyway – they were based on top of an incredibly big hill and it was pretty windy. And that's before any of the boys have had one of those spicy Italian pepperoni pizzas!
We carry on driving along the coast and eventually strike gold in a little town called Santa Margherita. We find a one star place run by the cutest little old Italian lady. It’s about 10.30pm and when she opens the window to see who’s there she’s in her nightee! While old and patched up in places, the hotel is clean and tidy and she gives us a discount too!

Thursday

We’re up bright and early to bee line to Pisa. We drive through a series of little Italian towns and villages along the Ligurian coast. The views as we head up into the mountains are spectacular.
We arrive in Pisa by about lunchtime. The tower is still leaning and everybody is pulling the same pose for the photos! There’s actually not a lot else to see here so we have a coffee and make our way east to Florence.
It’s mid afternoon by the time we reach Firenze (Florence) and navigating our way through the one-way streets to the central train station (where Lonely Plant tells me there is plenty of cheaper accommodation) becomes near impossible! We eventually park up and find the thing by foot.
We find the streets recommended in the travel guide and manage to find a place with a double room and a single. The lady at reception says she can put another single in which will make it cheaper for us. It’s even ensuite – perfect! Of course we weren’t to know that the ‘ensuite’ facilities was a free standing shower in the room with a glass door. Showers could be quite a show in the morning!
Parking in the city is pretty much non-existent so we end up having to pay €15 and have the car taken away to a garage out of the city centre area, to be returned the next morning.
In the mean time it seems a good time to whip together our home made Sangria. We flip open the car boot on the side of the road and Dunc get’s underway throwing the brew together. One empty 5L container, one bottle of Havana Club rum, one bottle of Martini Vermouth, one bottle of (cheap) wine and lots of fruit. Bingo – we have sangria! A police car drives by but to our amazement he doesn’t stop to question the several bottles of open liquor out the back of a car.
In the evening we drink some sangria and eat at a local Italian ‘trattoria’ (small restaurant) called “Momma Toscana’s”. We wander through the busy streets at night and find a place to sit outside and enjoy a glass of wine.
We return to our mosquito filled room but eradicate the pesky little things with rolled up newspaper, shoes and bidet cloths! Funnily enough there were already foot print marks on the ceiling from a previous tenant.

Friday

Tim and Dunc depart for Viterbo (north of Rome) where Dunc’s sister lives. We stay in Florence as our flight home is on Saturday morning from Pisa.
Sheryl and I spend the day exploring the sights and browsing through the markets. After wandering around trying to find somewhere to eat we discover one of the better looking and more affordable options is literally next door to our hotel! The food is good and so is the puds – panna cotta for me, Italian dessert wine and biscotti for Sheryl.

Saturday

We’re up bright and early for our 6.30am train to Pisa and check in with plenty of time to spare for our 9.55am flight back to Bournemouth.
Ryanair don’t allocate seats so it’s first in first served. It always seems to cause people to act like idiots and when they begin to board priority travelers everybody makes for the boarding desk. It’s madness to see some people even begin skipping the line entirely and going under the barrier! It seems like the saying ‘pay peanuts, get monkeys’ saying applies to budget air travel!
We arrive back to a grey but not too cold Bournemouth.
England beats France to reach the final. The World Cup has officially been turned on it’s head.

Good time to leave this land

2007-10-07T10:17:00.000+01:00

We fly out to Barcelona today to hit Europe for a week. And the timing couldn't be better after last night's disastrous All Blacks result! So exactly when does an entire pub population of Englishmen begin cheering the Frogs? When they've made the semi-final earlier in the afternoon that's when.

I really couldn't believe we lost that game, not surprisingly a couple of important decisions against New Zealand made by the referee have been missed in the UK's reporting of the game I noted this morning, but I suppose that's the cruel beast that is sport! I know how much this silly game really does mean to people back home so I can only imagine the mourning process that's underway. Think of us and next Monday at work! Oh lordy.

To the Englishman who sported a French shirt and persisted in having a go throughout the match and rubbing it in our faces come full time - I apologise not for throwing your silly little black beret across the pub! I highly doubt you'll be wearing that foreign outfit next Saturday.

Adios for now.

Are you 'avin a laugh?

2007-10-02T07:17:00.000+01:00

After having bought the tickets to the show months ago we this week headed to Hammersmith in London to see Ricky Gervais, aka David Brent from The Office and Andy Millman from Extras. His new show ‘Fame’ is now the biggest selling stand up show in British history. His current tour sold out months ago but due to popular demand he added extra dates to the itinerary – lucky for us.

You may remember our post months back telling you that we’d happened to stumble across tickets for a Wednesday evening show being advertised at £3.00 a ticket – what a bargain! We bought three. Sure enough a week before the gig the ticket company came back to us claiming the face value is £30.00 and they want the extra dosh back. I wrote a letter back to them telling them several reasons why they shouldn’t want their money back, and I never heard back!

Seeing as we had the spare ticket we decided to take my cousin Mark up from Bournemouth. He’s only 17 but they didn’t check for I.D on the door so we were sweet. The show was excellent although if you were easily offended this probably wouldn’t be for you. He ripped it out of anybody and everybody. A great night out though and I was impressed with the fact he was on stage for 90 minutes straight, plus 30 minutes from a warm up act.

This Sunday we fly out from Bournemouth to Barcelona to meet up with Tim & Dunc. Those guys are over this side after watching the AB’s demolish a sorry Scotland side up in Edinburgh before hiring some wheels in Paris and hitting the road. Right now they’re probably quaffing back a Spanish red in a vineyard in somewhere in La Mancha! Good on ya guys.

As for what we’re doing when we join them, well the plans are casual but by Saturday we should be somewhere near the west coast of Italy. Along the way we’ll pass through Marseille and the Cote D’Azur before making our way to Dunc’s sister’s place somewhere just outside of Rome.

It’s actually been a busy week for us booking trips away. We’ve just guaranteed our place up in Edinburgh for New Years Eve in a hotel 5 miles out from the city centre, and just across from Murrayfield rugby ground. We’ll be up there for all four days and nights of the official Edinburgh Hogmanay festival before possibly shooting across to Glasgow to pay a visit to Nikki & Craig.

I know I mentioned it to the UK crew earlier this year but if you guys are reading this and fancy joining us for an Edinburgh NYE the offer is still there.

We also booked our flights home this week. Not for another eight or so months yet mind but Air New Zealand was having a sale with deals that looked too good to turn down. We managed to pick up a one way flight home via LA for £450 including taxes. That’s the best part of £200 cheaper than I’ve seen anywhere else.

It’ll be a sad day on Wednesday 11th June next year when we end our OE, arriving in the wee hours two days later in Auckland, but these things don’t last forever.

There’s still plenty more we want to do before we leave yet – we hope there’s still plenty more good times and great memories to come.

Day trips to the sea side

2007-09-06T20:13:00.000+01:00

It seems the British summer this year is much like the bus Sheryl and I have been catching to work - it's late. But better late than never and so we decided to take advantage of the nice warm weather in late August and early September and also our location close to the coastline with a couple of day trips to sea side destinations.

On the last Saturday in August we were up bright and early to catch the open top bus from Bournemouth town centre to Lymington, a small harbour town about an hour and a half away. It was great being able to enjoy the journey out in the open and quite amusing watching everybody fix their hair every time the bus came to a halt, only for the wind to whip it back out of place seconds later!

Lymington was a really nice little place to visit, although a little too busy for my liking. Cobble stoned streets, a typical English market on offer down the High Street and lots of pubs. One in particular caught our eye - The Ship Inn. We sat down and had lunch and a bottle of good old New Zealand wine (Spy Valley Riesling '06).

It was actually in the newspaper this week that the Tongan rugby team has been in Lymington training before the World Cup. They scoffed down slightly more than we did in a sitting - 30 chickens, 60lbs lamb, 60lbs beef, 30lbs pasta and 40 litres of orange juice. Oh, and they ran out of chips and had to pop down the Chip shop for more!

It was a Bank Holiday weekend that weekend and on the Sunday John and Ange took us out to Durdle Door - a very scenic part of the Dorset coastline. We packed some kai and ate it on the cliff top before taking on some very steep hills after. We forgot to take our camera that day but I'll try and get some of their photos as it was quite a view from up there.

Last Sunday me, Sheryl, John, Ange, Mark, Jenny, Nan and Gramp took the 40 minute train journey out to Weymouth. I guess you could say Weymouth is pretty much a typical British sea side town, but unlike some it has managed to keep an element of class about itself. It actually reminded me a little of our visit to Whitby, on the north-east coastline, last summer.

The beach is still packed with the kiddies rides, the Punch & Judy shows and the donkey rides, and the promenade is still scattered with fish and chip shops and amusement arcades. But it's still a really pleasant place to visit and recommended for any of you based in London - the South-West trains run from Waterloo all the way to Weymouth at the end of the line.

We've been at Barclays for nearly three weeks now and it's been going really well for us. We completed the training, passed the tests and got put on the computers where we've been slowly but surely picking it up.

The World Cup starts tomorrow and no doubt over the coming six weeks or so I'm going to get a bit of a ribbing for backing both England and the ABs. I'll put my neck on the line right here and now and pick an All Blacks v France final, with the AB's to win. But still, it's gotta be good being on this side of the world watching the games at a sociable hour!

(The open top bus and the busy Lymington back streets)

(The Ship Inn and some tasty white mice for the ride home!)

(A nice place to stop for a drink in Weymouth with the crew)

The job hunt is over

2007-08-19T21:40:00.000+01:00

As the title suggests - Sheryl and I have found work. And we start tomorrow! We were both told we had the job well over a week ago but they had to do international credit checks.

We'll both be working in the same role at Barclays Bank in Poole, a busy harbour town just around the corner from Bournemouth (click here to see a map of the area). The position is called 'Network Controller' and we'll be working with a team of about 150 people investigating overseas money transfers that have been picked up by keywords. We will be using a variety of sources to check whether or not there's a chance it could be fraudulent.

The interviewee labelled the team as 'Crimefighters' - my sweet old Nan has been telling the family that "It's to do with the terrorists, or something".

The job sounds pretty interesting, the pay is good and we'll be working together. Poole's also a pretty nice little spot with a nice harbour front and plenty of nice little pubs and places to eat, so all in all we're pretty stoked.

The only uncertainty is the length of the contract. It will all depend on how much work comes in but from the sounds of things I can't see that being the issue.

Other than that things have been pretty quiet in this neck of the woods (low funds will do that to you) but the Rugby World Cup is just around the corner which should be bloody excellent! We've discovered a wicked little pub not far from Poole called 'The Cow' which is not only an excellent watering hole but they show rugby and not football there. That's pretty rare for pubs in the UK!

Also looking forward to catching up with my old boss and good mate Tim and compadre Dunc Tha Funk in September. Lucky bastards are getting flown over from NZ by Heineken for the ABs v Scotland match in Edinburgh. More good time ahead!

For Floods sake Britain, where's our summer?

2007-07-28T10:45:00.000+01:00

So as you’re all probably well aware, especially those of you currently living in the UK, summer is a total disaster. Quite literally!

June was a real wet one for Britain while we were away but just as it seemed we might’ve brought some half decent weather back with us, July has been completely mad too. Some areas of the country, including parts of my home town Sheffield, have been under some serious levels of water.

We haven’t been directly affected but last week as we briefly passed through London we saw some quite unbelievable flash flooding. That included seeing two cars and a bus caught up in water levels almost touching their doors. Later that day, elsewhere I believe, there were people climbing out of their sunroofs to escape going completely under!

With this being officially the wettest June and July in the UK ever, I’m expecting some serious catch up heat wave action over the coming two months.

Upon our return from backpacking the sun was still making an appearance on the south coast where we are so we took advantage by going on some country walks with John & Angie. That included going to Hambledon Hill, an old Roman settlement and a bloody big hill. These countryside strolls do make you thirsty though, so of course there were customary visits to the country pubs.

We had already decided that before we’d started looking for work again we’d pay the rellies up north a visit (that is my Dad in Sheffield, and my other Grandparents in the village of Brompton-on-Swale in North Yorkshire).

We arrived in Sheffield last Friday night (an hour and a half late I might add!) after traveling all day on the coach from Bournemouth. We had a quiet one on the Friday and on the Saturday went out for a drink and a meal at a pub called…The Norton!

My Dad had decided that on the Sunday he’d save us a train journey and take us up to North Yorkshire and we thought it might be nice to swing by York for some lunch on the way through. I don’t even need to tell you that of course it rained, but York’s a lovely little town and well worth seeing if you get the chance.

We then had five nights with my Grandparents in the village. On Monday we went to the Beamish Museum - an open air museum with entire towns, villages and farms rebuilt to their original state to represent life in 1913. The workers all dress in the original style clothing and go about their tasks as people would’ve in that era. Quite different and very interesting! The photos below of the ‘Angel of the North’ are of Britain’s largest monument – an angel made of steel with a wingspan of 54m and a height of 20m (plus 20m underground).

On Wednesday we went to the Catterick Races. Attending the meets at the nearby racecourse, within walking distance, has become something of a hobby for my Grandparents up north and we had a pretty cool day. Sheryl and I gave a bit back to the bookies but not much more than a tenner and my Grand-dad had worked his charm on the lady on the front gate to get us in for free which was a saving and a half! Oh yeah, and there were no silly hats.

By late Friday night we were in London where we stayed with Phil and Cheryl. On the Saturday we popped to Camden Markets and had lunch with Simone, an Aussie girl we’d met last year on our trip through Europe (Fi - hopefully we can catch up with you next time then. In the meantime don’t work too hard!).

On Saturday evening we went to the famous Hampstead area of London for a pub walk. It’s a walk and not a crawl as during our two and a half hour trip through the old streets we only had two drink stops, but nevertheless it was nice to see another part of the capital.

We got back to Bournemouth this afternoon but as for tomorrow, well, it’s job hunting time!

(Left: The Norton pub in Sheffield...Right: The streets of York)

(Left: Sheryl outside an old teddy bear shop...Right: The York Minster)

(The Angel of the North monument...it's bloody big ya know!)

(The Beamish open air musem in County Durham)

(Gotta love those old school ads)

(Life as it was back in 1913...a trip down memory lane for my Grandparents!)

(Life down mill...I couldn't help but think of the Four Yorkshireman sketch from Monty Python when I was down there, for anyone who's seen it!)

And then there were two, again

2007-07-09T12:57:00.000+01:00

On our final day with Anna, in Bratislava, the girls headed off for a spot of shopping while I hit an Irish bar called the Dubliner for a couple of pints of Staropramen, as you do.

In the evening we had a nice meal over a glass of celebratory bubbles and headed off to an inviting looking cocktail bar called Greenwich, located down a small side street. The bartenders in this place were some of the best I’ve ever seen. Before you knew it you had a cocktail menu in front of you at the bar while their drink making skills, and showmanship, were top class. Bravo guys!

The funny thing was we had to eventually call it a night because we had all run out of Slovakian korunas, their currency, and being our final night didn’t want to make any further withdrawals in a currency we’re unlikely to ever need again. But that was fine, we’d had another good night out.

The next morning Anna made for the airport while we were jumping on the next train to the Czech city of Brno. There, we transferred to bus and traveled through the countryside to the tiny town of Cesky Krumlov, via Ceski Budejovice (where they brew the real Budweiser beer!).

We were instantly impressed with Cesky Krumlov - like a mini Prague but without the hordes of tourists. It’s only a small place with a population of around 12,000 and you can easily walk from one side of the town down over the bridge and across to the other side in 10 or 15 minutes.

We had booked a double room in a little hostel called Krumlov Hostel and, again, we were not let down. For a mere €11.50 each we had a private room with an extra single bed, a couch and views of the river! Loving the VFM (Value For Money).

On our first evening there we tried the recommendation of the American lady who owned the hostel and went to a bar/restaurant called Antre that had views over looking the river. Their blackboard boasted it as ‘The best view ever’. Big call, but the food was excellent and the service surprisingly good as the Czech’s are renowned for being an unintentionally rude lot.

In the evening we had a stroll through the cobbled streets of the town, down across the bridge and up into the old town and around the clock tower area. Just like Bern, in Switzerland, this place has a pit with some bears living in it, supposedly ‘guarding the town’. At least these ones had a bit more life about them.

We were only there for two nights and one full day so we decided to do what everyone else seems to do when the weather is decent and hire a raft and drift down the Vltava River for the afternoon. I’m glad we decided to go with the inflatable raft option as while the canoes and kayaks definitely went faster, they were also prone to do a full tilt when going through some of the rapids!

We paddled downstream and out of the town and through the forest for about four hours (with refreshment stops at café/bars along the way!) before arriving at a collection point where they pick you and your vessel up and drive you back into town. We reckon we probably did the best part of about 15km’s.

That evening we went for a meal at Krčma v Šatlavské. It’s recommended by Lonely Planet and their description fits the bill pretty well – ”Pork and beef barbecue at the fireplace and wine served in rustic earthenware beakers are trademarks of this atmospheric, candle-lit cellar.”

We finished the evening with a drink at the nearby Horor Bar – a bar decorated in spooky Halloween themed props.

Cesky Krumlov definitely goes down as one of our favourites so far on the whole trip. It’s small and void of large mobs of annoying tourists (but backpacker friendly) and you get great value for money where ever you go in town. If any of you are heading to the Czech Republic, or nearby, we highly recommend a visit here. It’s only three hours south of Prague and you will not be disappointed! Transport in and around the Czech Republic is cheap as chips too, it only cost us a little over €5 each to get from Krumlov to Prague.

Which brings us to our final stop on this five week European tour – Prague. We have to say neither of us was quite taken back as we expected by the Czech capital, although the weather was pretty average for our three nights there with patchy rain constantly ruining plans. But it seemed so similar to cities we had already visited – Budapest and Bratislava in particular. I guess perhaps it didn’t match the hype that we’d read and heard about, for us anyway.

After the delight of Krumlov we had well and truly returned to tourist land upon arrival in Prague. Sometimes you just can’t escape them.

Our hostel was the worst of the whole trip. The location was the worst thing about it. They claimed to be central but that was a pretty loose term of the word as it was a solid 20-25 minute walk into town, and the hostel itself was across a motorway and in a seedy looking run down part of the city. You win some, you lose some. But don’t stay at Hostel Elf is all we can say!

Amongst seeing the sights of Prague (Staromestke and Wenceslas squares, the Charles bridge and Prague castle) one of the highlights of our stay there was a day trip to Plzen – the home of Pilsner Urquell. First brewed here in 1842, it was the world’s first lager!

The brewery tour was a tad boring, no where near as fun as the Heineken Experience in Amsterdam, but tasting the unfiltered Urquell in the cellars below the brewery was pretty cool (literally…it was a nippy 10 degrees down there).

That was last Thursday and the following day we flew directly back into Bournemouth from Prague. And so concludes another venture into Europe.

Any backpacker trip wouldn’t be the same if you didn’t travel with cool people (Anna and Karen) and meet some great randoms along the way (you know who you are!). We hope to see some of you guys again in the future!

For us, it’s back to reality now and finding some more temp work to save up for another journey.

Watch out Scandinavia and Iceland…we’re eyeing you up!

Final times in Bratislava

Cesky Krumlov

Prague

(Our Norwegian friends for one night...Karl and Jonas)

Update on the stripey pants!

2007-06-30T19:02:00.001+01:00

I do remember your name stripey pants...it's Janos! Thanks again for a great night out.

Beautiful Buda and Bratislava

2007-06-30T11:36:00.000+01:00

Our three nights in Budapest were a blast. We weren't quite sure what to expect as none of us have ventured into Eastern Europe before, but after our stay there and two days now in Bratislava I think it's important to keep an open mind and not make judgement too quickly. As you approach the Slovak capital by train you might be forgiven for thinking you made a mistake!

Our hostel was in the centre of Pest (Budapest...Hungary) and we wasted no time in taking advantage of the fact that everything is noticably cheaper than most Western European countries. Infact, we probably spent most of our money on nice meals in flash restaurants and cocktails in cosmopolitan club/bar/lounge spots in Pest.

Cocktails was definately the order of the day for the first two nights, but our first meal in Hungary was in a local pub recommended by the hostel staff. The prices there definately got us excited for the remainder of our stay. The service was a bit hit and miss at some places along the strip of clubs and bars but our favourite was to be Barokko...and the staff there were good fun! (see the photo below of Karen receiving her 'Orgazmus' cocktail!)

On our first full day we took advantage of one of the walking tours on offer and we were shown around all the historic points of the city by a very knowledgable tour guide. That included visits to the city park, Heroes Square, the Jewish quarter, the Chain Bridge that crosses the Danube to Buda and Castle Hill.

On our final day we decided to take a short (and cheap) train journey out of town to the recommended Szentendre, a small and picturesque town beside the Danube further upstream. It was a quaint little arts and crafts place and once again we took advantage of the excellent fare on offer with a lunch meal over two bottles of Hungarian wine. C'est le vie de la backpacker!

That was on the Thursday and with it being our final night in Budapest, and the fifth and final night with Karen from New Zealand, we signed up to a pub crawl. We were slightly shocked that that night there was only going to be us four, the tour guide and Doug from California! It would've been easy to bail out and do our own thing, but we decided to make the most of the situation and go for it. We're glad we did!

The night started with a Hungarian wine tasting in a nearby cellar. That was hosted by a local whose named I can't remember but for the purposes of this post will be called stripey pants (you'd never guess but he's the one with stripey trousers in the photos below).

After that we headed to possibly the most bizarre bar I've ever been to. It was an abandoned apartment building that has been demolished from the inside, but from the front of the street it looks like all the other flats. The bouncer's job was to walk up and down the street keeping punters quiet as they entered and left the street!

So that was cool. But the two shots that we had at this place were not. Unicum (or 'Black Death' as the guide called it) was the first. A Hungarian liqueur that tastes worse than Jager and leaves a vile lingering smell that not even a few swigs of beer can remove! The next was a pear schnapps that was about 45%.

Next up was Margaret Island - an island of cool summery outdoor clubs and bars that sits in the middle of the Danube between Pest and Buda. The music at this one particular place we were taken too was top notch. Great music (funky beats, acid jazz and more) and good times had by all.

A big mention too for stripey pants (I trust you'll read this eventually) who followed us on the crawl after hosting the wine tasting, even though he had an exam the next day! You were great value and we really appreciate you showing us some real Budapest nightlife (and guiding us home too!).

The next morning Karen left us for Barcelona with the touring party back down to three. We arrived in Bratislava on Friday afternoon and in the evening had a walk about the old town. There was some kind of festival on which we had no idea about but when we first heard cannons firing across the Danube we thought the place had broken into war!

Bratislava's old town looks really beautiful so we're just about to go explore it. It's our last night with Anna tonight before it's early starts tomorrow for all of us. Anna flies back to London and we're off to Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic.

Ta Ta for now!

More photos from Vienna

Budapest

(From a walking tour in Budapest...and an example of the communist style buildings)

(The Chain Bridge across the Danube)

(A view from Castle Hill over the Danube)

(Cocktails in Pest...and Karen blushes as her 'Orgazmus' drink is delivered by the waiter)

(Our favourite cocktail bar in Pest - Barokko!)

(Our day trip to Szentendre, 40 mins from Budapest centre)

(Our Pub Crawl night starts in a local wine cellar)

(The crawl moves to Margaret Island in the centre of the Danube)

(Mr Stripey Pants works the dance floor)

(The tour guide after one too many)

(Our hostel room in Pest)

Bratislava (so far)

Time for a peek through the Iron Curtain

2007-06-26T09:32:00.000+01:00

We leave for Eastern Europe today after two nights in Salzburg and three in the capital Vienna. It rained both days in Salzburg which sucked, but we made the best of a bad situation.

On our first full day there we went on a Sound Of Music Tour hosted by a very camp and slightly annoying tour guide. I actually watched the film for the first time that morning and then hopped straight on a bus to go see where it was all filmed.

That evening we crossed the river a bee lined to a highly recommended Augustiner beer hall, but after getting soaked en route we ended up leaving in search of another drinking hole. The staff were less than helpful and they only sold one type of beer with no prices in sight.

There was a pretty sweet festival in the streets with drink and food tents skattered along the streets of the Old Town. Shame about the rain!

The weather´s been heaps better in Vienna and this weekend gone there was a massive open air music festival on an island that sits in the middle of the Danube River. Apparently it´s the biggest of it´s kind in Europe and visited by 2 million people over the weekend! All local German and Austrian acts but we checked it out on Saturday night and it was great fun. It took us a couple of hours to walk from one end to the other.

By that time we had recovered from one hell of a hangover! On Friday night we were sat in the bar at the Wombats hostel and by the time we realised where everyone was heading off to we decided it´d be too late to go along. So instead we stayed in the bar until 2am, closing time, and the bartender gave us free beers and shots of some horrible Jager-like spirit. It got pretty chaotic and ended up with Sheryl dancing on the bar! The bar staff loved it and gave us free drink vouchers for the next night!

Yesterday started with a big disappointment when we found out the staff member at reception had screwed up our booking for an all day bike tour through Austrian countryside and visits to wineries. We were left behind, it was pretty annoying! But nevertheless we headed out to a little town about an hour out of Vienna called Krems and did our own bike trip down the Danube, before jumping in the river to cool off.

We´re off to Budapest shortly for our first peek into Eastern Europe - exciting times!

Salzburg

Vienna

In Innsbruck

2007-06-20T16:43:00.000+01:00

Our journey to Innsbruck took a little longer than we thought mainly due to the slow, winding rail tracks through the Swiss Alps. Nonetheless we got there in one piece and found our hostel with no worries. It´s actually more like a Bed & Breakfast for backpackers but it´s a wicked little place called Nepomuks situated above a cafe all owned by an Austrian family. Breakfast this morning was awesome - freshly baked pastries, coffee & bread.

Last November Sheryl and I passed through Innsbruck on our way from Rome to Munich. At that time of year the mountains that cast a shadow over the little town were covered in snow, but this time it´s totally different. Our first night was pretty low key. A quick walk around the town and along the river to a huge outdoor beer garden place for one on the sly, before pizzas to share at Mama Mia´s pizzeria in the centre of the old town just round the corner from our hostel.

Today we bought an Innsbruck card (24 euros) that gives you 24 hour access to all the local transport and all the town´s top attractions. First up we caught the cable car to the peak of a mountain 2200m above sea level. It was insanely high! After that we went out to the Swarovski crystal art gallery which was a little bizarre but we got some sweet random photos in the room walled with crystals!

We´re off to Salzburg tomorrow and the girls are already getting skatty about The Sound Of Music, but enough jibber jabber and more photos...

Freiburg

(The Black Forest...or what we could see of it!)

(Friday night out in a Freiburg nightclub!)

Bern

(The view from our hostel and Pete from Manchester)

(Frank from Holland is feeling the moment)

(Lifeless bears are a cheap tourist attraction in Bern)

Interlaken

Innsbruck

Sun burnt in Bern

2007-06-18T21:51:00.000+01:00

On our last full day in Freiburg we caught the tram and bus out to the foot of the Black Forest and caught an insane 20 minute cable car journey to the summit. The only bummer was that the rain had moved in and after a coffee and a slice of genuine Black Forest gateaux we only managed ten minutes of walking before deciding getting soaked to the bone with colds wasn´t a wise move. So, down on the cable car we went, through mist and fog so thick we couldn´t see ten metres ahead, and back to the hostel.

In the evening we had planned to check out an outdoor music fest but clearly the weather was going to determine otherwise. Instead, we had some grub and a few drinks before heading into town to a club. The theme of the night at this particular place was ´Black vs House´. In Germany they call Hip Hop ´Black Music´. We had a great night out and me and Mike made it back to the hostel around 4am. We think.

On Saturday we left Freiburg and made our way to the Swiss capital of Bern. It´s a nice little place and although there isn´t an awful lot to see it makes a great base for day trips elsewhere. The River Aare that runs through the city is one of the fastest flowing rivers I think I´ve ever seen. So fast infact that on a hot day, like Sunday, the locals jump in the river miles upstream and float down to off-ramp points. Seriously I don´t know how else to describe them - the signs actually say ´Last Exit 100m´and things like that!

Today we had a full day in Interlaken. This place is a real stunner and well worth a visit for any of you reading this that might travel through Switzerland at some point. We took a funicular train almost 5000ft to the top of a mountain and, being the el cheapos we are, didn´t want to pay for a return journey. So, with the girls kitted in jandals/flip flops we walked down the mountain. It took us two hours, with breaks inbetween, which was good time according to their signs!

The weather continues to be up and down at the moment but it was real hot today so hopefully that´ll stay with us when we travel to Innsbruck in Austria tomorrow morning. Sadly we´ll be without our American buddy Mike who left us today. He´s heading back home to the States before hitting the surf in Costa Rica. Thanks for the good times mate - we all enjoyed your company. See you on the Gold Coast!

Hopefully we can put some photos online at our next hostel. Hope you´re all well where ever you´re reading this.

The Black Forest, it´s a piece of cake

2007-06-15T09:01:00.001+01:00

After seven trains and most of our Wednesday we finally made it to the little German town of Freiburg, situated in the south of the Black Forest region. It´s an awesome little University town and our hostel is at the bottom of a vineyard valley with the pine tree forests just beyond that.

Germany continues to be one of our favourite countries to visit for the main reason that everyone is so friendly, and things are relatively cheap (beer especially - how about 70euro cents / NZ$1.40 for a pint sized German brew from the supermarket!)

Yesterday was an absolute scorcher of a day. We think it must have reached 30 degrees. We wandered down the river that runs through Freiburg until we reached the border of the town, realising we must´ve misunderstood the directions to a basin in the river, before finding a really cool water park with massive lounge out lawn areas. Cooling off in the pool was bliss.

Last night we tried the Freiburg nightlife but were a little disappointed, but we´re hoping tonight might be a little better. Infact we´ve read up on some posters about town for some ´Biere & Beats´ gig on tonight. It sounds like an outdoor music fest but we´ll need a local to fill us in on that today.

The only slight bummer over the past few days has been that three of us have been travelling with colds, which just doesn´t seem right in the middle of summer. Here´s some snaps from Brugges (Belgium), Luxembourg and so far in Freiburg.

Brugges

Luxembourg City

Freiburg

(This last one needs explaining - in Freiburg they have these small streams running from the river through the streets...so after a few beers the the boat race challenge was on. In the paper contest Mike won hands down, but I squared it at 1-1 in the Burger King cup contest thanks to a straw and a napkin for a sail. Eat your heart out Dean Barker)

Passing through Luxembourg

2007-06-11T16:34:00.000+01:00

After three nights in Brussels, and a day trip out to Brugge, we`re now in little old Luxembourg. This is Europe`s third smallest country and one that can rarely actually fit it`s own name on an atlas, but from what we`ve seen this afternoon it`s a gorgeous little place. You notice the difference in the friendliness of the locals too. Shame we only have time for two nights here.

Our time in Brussels was mainly spent on sampling the local beers. Even the girls got in there and sampled the fruit flavoured ones (apple, peach, cherry, raspberry and more) whilst Mike, a guy from the US who has decided to join us in the meantime, and I got stuck in there with the stronger stuff like Brugges Tripel (8.7%!). Mike is travelling around Europe with no particular plan and decided he`d like to check out this little nation with us.

Brugges was a really pretty old town with heaps of impressive old buildings and churches. Despite the fact the place was heaving with tourists we managed to get some good local advise and sample some genuine Belgian beer and waffles at a decent rate, as opposed to paying twice or three times as much a little over a block away.

Our hostel in Luxembourg city has recently been renovated so everything looks brand new, and we ended up with a four bed dorm to ourself which is sweet. We`ve got one full day here tomorrow before setting off for Freiburg in the Black Forest region of Germany.

Unfortunately the photos aren`t uploading right now but we`ll try and get some on here when we can.

Amsterdam & Brussels photos

2007-06-09T14:52:00.000+01:00

We arrived safe and sound in Brussels and although the weather is a bit poo we're still having a great time. The girls have sampled decent levels of chocolate, although there's always room for more, and I'm making it my mission to sample as many Belgian beers as I can.

We're off to Brugges for a day trip tomorrow and have booked our train to Luxembourg for Monday. In the mean time here are some photos from the trip so far...

Amsterdam

(The red light district literally on the back doorstep to our hostel garden bar)

Brussels

Gezellig in Amsterdam

2007-06-07T13:58:00.000+01:00

Goedendag from Amsterdam! Our 50 minute flight was actually shorter than the amount of time it took us to get from Phil's apartment to Gatwick Airport, but we made it with enough time to spare even though Gatwick was heaving with holidaymakers.

Our hostel is only a five minute walk from the train station and right in the heart of the Red Light District, so the location is great. The hostel itself is adequate but not spectacular. The dorms are a little small and it feels as though the place is more like a bar with hostel facilities rather than the other way round.

After navigating our way to the hostel on Tuesday afternoon we met a very tired looking Anna, who has just finished an exhausting 22 day camping contiki trip! We had a little wander around the city before having a bite to eat in the bar, a couple of drinks and made our way to a coffee shop where we had a lovely piece of cake. It was a bit dry and could've done with a large helping of double cream.

After making a slow start to Wednesday we managed to visit the Anne Frank house and then peddled about the canals of the city for an hour which was a blast. Fittingly we ended up close to the old Heineken Brewery where for 11 euros you get a little bit of history, a little bit of interactive fun, three fresh brews and a free Heineken gift to take away. Not a bad way to spend your afternoon!

We've just finishing a three hour guided walk of the city which was good fun too, and it's always nice to learn a little bit of the history of the place you're in. The best part was that it was free! (we resisted to tip, despite the constant reminders of the tour guide)

No complaints on the weather front either. It's stinking hot today and I dare say within a couple of hours I'll be in need of another refreshing beer. Things are definately quite gezellig right now for us. I'm told that gezellig is a local term for anything that 'allows good times to happen, or has a good vibe about it'.

Unfortunately there is no facility to upload snaps at this internet cafe, but hopefully we'll have more luck in Brussels which is where we head to tomorrow morning.

First leg from London

2007-06-04T11:11:00.000+01:00

Well after both finishing work on Friday, and both receiving small gifts and cards (not bad for three months work!), we went out on Saturday night with some of the family down our local and first thing Sunday morning we were on the Megabus up to London.

We fly out to Amsterdam on Tuesday to meet up with Anna and resume our European touring parade. In the meantime we've got two days in the capital to catch up with some of the London crew. Namely Phil, Cheryl, Mike, Rach, Matty, Kimmy and Ray(pist) on the Sunday evening. We all had a bite in a pub in Leicester Square before heading on down to the Australian piss-up shack The Walkabout.

Warning - do not go to the Yates pub in Leicester Square. They are a total rip off! Amongst getting numerous things wrong and not displaying their drinks prices - they charge £7.40 for a G&T double! If you really want to know how scary that is back home that's just short of NZ$20. Don't worry, I got my money back!

Sadly we forgot our camera so there's no photos from yesterday, but if you check out Matty & Kim's blog I'm sure they'll stick theirs online at some stage. We're off to meet up with Sheryl's brother for lunch shortly and I think tonight we'll have a nice easy night in. I'm sure we said we were going to take it easy last night too. The photos might suggest otherwise.

Negotiating our way through the morning traffic on the Tube tomorrow with our heavy packs ain't gonna be much fun, but making our next Blog post from The Netherlands certainly will be!

Another weekend in London

2007-05-22T18:27:00.000+01:00

Over the weekend we up in London again to see the capital massive up that way. Being only a couple of hours away from the big smoke is pretty sweet, especially when we paid £2 each to get up there on the train on Friday night! (thanks Megatrain)

After arriving at Waterloo we whisked off to The Ship, a fairly typical little London pub just around the corner from Phil's work. After a quiet pint we waited outside for the #15 bus that supposedly comes every ten minutes 24/7. After twenty minutes two came at once - the myth is true! We thought it was amusing but some old cockney chap who got on further down the road had a right old rant at the driver, who didn't seem interested at all.

Saturday was Cup final day. That's the FA Cup for the non-sporty type readers. Before that we met up with Matt and Kim in Trafalgar Square to have a quick pint and some lunch before shooting up Tottenham Court Road to the pub that Ray works, lives and drinks in. So the telly was faded and there was paint on the screen - lucky for us the football wasn't really worth watching. Mike and his girlfriend Rach joined us later, always a treat to catch up with them.

Matt and Kim headed off for a 'flight' on the London Eye. It wasn't until just before they left that Matt let us know on the sly he planned to propose. Of course, she said yes. Congrats again guys! It seemed only yesterday I was with Matty up in Shadows (the Auckland Uni pub) drinking large jugs of Tui as he and Kim's glazed eyes caught each other.

While they went off to celebrate the rest of us went for some grub and later they joined us in a busy corner pub in Covent Gardens. I particularly enjoyed Mike's turn-the-glass-a-full-rotation-without-spilling-it trick. Worked well with the beer, not so with the red wine. How is that stain on your jeans Rach?

Thanks for the good times London crew. Hopefully see you soon when we come up before our flight to Amsterdam in a couple of weeks.

A fortnight to go

2007-05-17T21:38:00.000+01:00

Well we've got just two weeks of work left before we set off with those heavy backpacks again. And this time we're travelling in the peak of European summertime. I can just envisage those sweaty backs already! I remember one poor young American lad in Lisbon hauled himself up a steep hill to get to our hostel and was absolutely drenched by the time he got to reception. This boy was really sweaty. He'd have put a certain South African friend of mine to shame.

We had Anna with us again last weekend after she had spent a few nights flying it solo in Barcelona. It was a much more low key weekend which suited us fine as we had plenty of planning to do (like deciding exactly where we want to go!) and the weather has turned a bit 'naff after a great April.

We did however head out to the Coach & Horses pub in Wimborne with John, Angie and my cousin Mark. It's a great little typically English pub. Warm, cosy and dangerously low ceilings for a tall guy like myself. That's not to say I didn't have a headache the next day of course.

Anyway we've decided that this is what our itinerary is going to be in June...

5-7 - Amsterdam (Holland)

8-10 - Brussels (Belgium)

11-12 - Luxembourg

13-15 - Freiburg (...in Germany, not Browns Bay!)

16-18 - Bern or Interlaken (Switzerland)

19-25 - Innsbruck, Salzburg & Vienna (Austria)

26-28 - Budapest (Hungary)

29-30 - Bratislava (Slovakia)

From there Anna leaves us to fly back home but somewhere in between there (I think Austria-Hungary) Sheryl's friend Karen joins the crew for a few nights! Depending on funds Sheryl and I may then move on to Prague (Czech.Republic) and anywhere else we fancy. Can't wait!

We off up to London tomorrow for two nights, but here are some photos from last weekend...

Dale & Sheryl On Tour...with Anna!

2007-05-04T18:54:00.000+01:00

Last weekend we had the pleasure of playing host to Anna, over in the UK from NZ on a mini-OE. Sheryl and I took the Friday off to make it a long weekend and met her at the train station Friday lunchtime. The weekend was a bit of a warm-up to our summer backpacking trip, which is now only four weeks away. That meant we had plenty of drinking, sun, drinking in the sun, checking out the sights and walking crazy distances!

On Friday afternoon we sat out on the waterfront of Poole harbour sipping on a couple of bevvys. We decided to abandon this particular pub though as the food didn't look all that good. Also, pretty randomly, there was a massive get together of Bournemouth punks. Then, some random old man dressed like a pirate rang a big bell, yelled something along the lines of 'All Aboard!' and the punks clambered onto a boat and set sail!

So anyway, the Yates pub we went to on the High Street was heaps nicer and some friendly old Irishman offered to buy the girls a drink and came over to chat with us. I think every pub could do with a friendly old Irishman, perve or not.

The night ended up in Globe bar across the road having a boogie and watching another random man try to balance my beer on his head and see how low down he could dance! We lost track of time and ended up having to run through the town centre to make it in time for the last bus.

(Eating and drinking in Poole)

(They're chips...but not as the English know it!)

(The mad dash for the last bus)

On Saturday we took Anna into Bournmouth town centre and up to the Harbour Lights pub that over looks the beach and pier area. We were lucky enough to score a table outside and killed a couple of hours soaking up the sun over a drink and some lunch.

In the afternoon we went further along the coast to Christchurch (I think I've mentioned before, it's twinned with Christchurch in New Zealand) which is a bit more peaceful and quaintly English. The squirrels here are quite tame, and we managed to get some potentially award winning photos of the little furry creatures.

Our Saturday night warmed up with some 42 Below Manuka Honey & V's before hitting the town! The first place we went to was a bit 'naff, mainly because of the music, but the drinks were cheap. After that we tried to get into the Aussie bar Walkabout by pretending we were from Seeedny, but to no avail. And screw queuing up for 45 minutes. Even the next place we went to were not letting any more people in. But Sheryl managed to sweet talk the bouncer around.

That's probably one of the most annoying things about going to town in Bournemouth is the massive queues outside most of the clubs and bars, and the sheer lack of taxis at the end of the night! The night ended up in DNA (hip hop bar) which suited Sheryl and Anna - they're old skool wiggas.

(Over looking the beach and the pier)

(Christchurch serenity, and nature shots worthy of Natural Geographic publications)

After a nice long Sunday morning lie in and a cooked breakfast outside in the sun we made our way out to Southborne further along the coast from Bournemouth. From here we embarked on a three hour walk (we didn't actually set out on making it such a mission) over to Hengistbury Head, across the ferry to Mudeford and from there back into Christchurch.

By the time we'd caught the bus back to Bournemouth it was past 8 o clock and we were hungry. We went into Walkabout for some grub and discovered the place was packing out! We stuck around until 11 or so, but made the sensible decision to call it a night before thing's got out of hand (they were open until 3am that night).

We were back to work on the Monday while Anna flew off to Barcelona, but she's back this coming weekend, before we head off to London for two nights at the end of May. Watch this space!

(Southborne and Hengistbury Head)

(Mudeford and the Walkabout Bar)

Easter Weekend

2007-04-11T20:43:00.000+01:00

Our Easter weekend was spent up north in Sheffield. We caught the coach up on Friday and caught a connecting journey from London north. It meant another full day's travel, but c'est la vie for the budget travellers that we are! Somewhat ironically most of the traffic was heading the other way. One of the weekend papers reported that some 60,000 people headed to Bournemouth for the long weekend - we went the other way.

We had a great weekend and the early summer weather is definately welcome. On Saturday night we went out for a meal in Sheffield city, followed by a coffee in the town hall square afterwards. On Sunday we went to Chatsworth Hall in Derbyshire, a 15-20 minute drive from Dad's place, home of the Duke of Devonshire.

We didn't go inside the house but spent a good couple of hours wandering around the extravagant garden areas. The place is huge! There were hundreds of others there that day, but it wasn't too crowded which was good.

So back to work this week but much more exciting is the fact we've now booked the start of our next European journey. We (that being Sheryl, Anna and I) fly out from London to Amsterdam on June 5. The flights through easyJet are cheap as chips - only £27 each! (NZ$73)

We've booked for three nights, at St.Christophers at Winston, initially which will hopefully be enough to fit it all in.

Some photos from Chatsworth...

Weekend in the big smoke

2007-04-01T20:39:00.000+01:00

We were up in London for the weekend just gone to check out Phil & Cheryl's new pad and catch up with some familiar faces. We caught the last coach up to London on Friday night and got into the capital for around 10.30pm. Phil & Cheryl's brand spanking new apartment is in the Limehouse part of central london, about five or six miles from London Victoria.

Nice place and the area isn't too bad either - although the area around the tube station is kind of dodgy! We took it pretty easy that night, just knocking back a couple of drinks and watching some telly.

On Saturday the four of us had tickets to watch my team take on Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, about 30 minutes on the train from Victoria. As always the travelling mob of Owls fans (about 6000-7000 of them) were in fine voice and a winner five minutes from time made my day! The only grumble was the 20 minutes I wasted at half-time queuing for a beer, only to not get one when they shut the bar when I made the front of the line!

Afterwards we headed to Covent Gardens to catch up with Mike and Rachel. Covent Gardens is a really nice part of London and after a couple of drinks at some swanky wine bar we grabbed some dinner in a cosy little Italian place. The night was completed with, yes, more drinks in Mike's pick of choice 'old man style pub'.

It was great catching up with them but if any of you other London Kiwis are reading this - fear not, we didn't intentionally ignore you! We intend to return for another weekend sometime soon.

Absolutely stoked with our online purchase last night - somehow we have scored tickets to see Ricky Gervais live at The Apollo in London in September for £3 each! They're supposed to be
£30 pounds so I can only presume there was a mistake on the website's behalf. Yes!

(View from the away supporters section of Selhurst Park)

(Mike and I...Sheryl, Mike and Cheryl)

(Craazy photos!)

(More craazy photos...and Mike pulls out an unexpected Blue Steel. When are you gonna hit us with Magnum?)

Hello Summer! (well, not quite)

2007-03-28T18:04:00.000+01:00

We're officially into British summer time over here now, which is great news. That means it's staying light longer and winter is officially behind us. It really hasn't been that bad down here in Bournemouth, although I've felt the chill getting up so early for work. Hey - we even had the snow that Sheryl had been longing to see! Sadly she was stuck inside at work but more to the point the snow was so light you barely noticed.

My job with the NHS has been going along ok. The work hasn't become much more exciting since I last posted but on the bright side they've extended my contract until after Easter, and the manager is now seeking more money from the budget to keep me on going until a few more jobs are done.

After a few disappointments (and mistakes from one of the recruitment agencies) Sheryl has now found herself a well paying job with the Bank of New York. The stress levels come with it, but it's only for a couple of months until we go travelling in June. Before this she'd done a week long contract mainly doing monotonous data entry work and two days in a call centre at an insurance company before being laid off as they'd hired too many new faces!

It was probably a blessing in disguise though as it wasn't the job (or the pay) Sheryl was lead to believe.

Other than work we've been keeping a low profile and trying to save money for the summer. We're off to London this weekend, and fitting in a football match on the Saturday arvo, and up to Sheffield to see Dad over the long Easter weekend.

We're only a few weeks away from seeing Sheryl's friend Anna too - she's coming down from London for a couple of weekends over April and May.

Happy days!

Nine months, it was a good run

2007-02-26T21:50:00.000Z

Just thought I'd give you a quick update on the work scenario. Sheryl and I were both offered the a one month role working for the Core Addictions Unit of the NHS (National Health Service) in the Boscombe area of Bournemouth.

I've decided to take them up on that which has meant early starts and use of the public transport system to get me there. Sheryl's hopeful she'll get offered a customer service role with an insurance firm tomorrow, which would be great 'cos the pay with them is pretty good.

I'm into my fourth day and I can tell it's going to be a long four weeks. The work isn't overly stressful but they do want me sort through what looks like years of neglet of any sort of filing work.

There'll be use of a shredding device at some stage, which is really going to be a highlight. But before I shred those deceased patient's files, I'd better make sure they really have kicked the bucket by putting my training to use. I was given a good twenty minutes practice on the NHS's very own prehistoric computer system - PEAK. This baby's DOS based but without the use of functionality keys, arrows, tab keys etc. And they wonder why the health service has gone to poo in this country!

The pay's decent for the work I'm doing and better than what our employment consultant said we'd get temping in Bournemouth.

I can't say Boscombe is a great area - waiting for the bus every day after work you can take your pick of drunks, loiterers and generally dodgy looking folk in the bus station. I'd go as far to say it's the most 'Chavy' area of Dorset I've seen! For those of you who don't know what a Chav is - think British tracksuit wearing white trash.

Still, it's good to be earning some sweet sweet stirling at last to put towards near future expeditions. Watch this space!

Bournemouth Birthday Bash!

2007-02-12T19:53:00.000Z

Had my 25th birthday bash last weekend in Bournemouth. Headed into the Moon in the Square pub in the town centre first for some cheaper drinks, and then onto the usual alotment of pubs and clubs. Ended up the night in a vodka bar drinking none other than 42 Below Manuka Honey - yum!

Had a family do the next day although I was a) a bit hung over and b) pretty tired after two early morning phone calls from New Zealand.

Girls Night Out

2007-02-12T19:48:00.000Z

Well, I am not as much of a blog-wizz as Dale, but I thought it was time for me to add a little something. A few weeks ago I went out for a bit of a girls night with Dale's cousin Jennie and her friend Sabrina. We had a few drinks before heading out to the Brass House, Censo and Elements (quickly becoming some of our regular spots for Bournemouth night-life). A good chance to wear my new outfit from the girls back in NZ!

(Sabrina, Jennie & I at the Brass House)

(The DJ with Sabrina & I, and Jennie with a sweet looking random)

(Ahh the plastic shot glasses, classy!)

(Score, free chupa chups from the DJ again.... and didn't we enjoy them!)

Winter update

2007-02-07T13:48:00.000Z

Well I say a winter update but really we're not so far off spring, at least not if global warming carries on as it has been doing. The winter weather has been reasonable on the south coast these past few weeks. We've substituted the rain for a drop in temperatures. A reasonable trade.

Since our few days in London we've been on the hunt for work. We both signed up with Hays, a recruitment agency, but having now waited nearly a fortnight we're very close to trying with someone else. We're after some run of the mill office/admin temping work for about three months, as Sheryl's friend Anna is in the UK through the summer so we'll take some time to travel and hang out with her.

Possible countries on our next expedition include Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany (again), Czech.Republic and maybe Austria and Hungary. But it will all depend on how much we can earn between now and the summer time.

Last week I went to Southampton, about half an hour away by car, with a guy from my 5-a-side football team to watch Sheffield Wednesday in action. We didn't play very well and lost 2-1 but the atmosphere amongst the away fans was great.

We've tried not to let the cold weather keep us stuck inside all day, and the reserve right across the road is a good reason for us to stretch our legs most days. There's some nice walks through the wood and a couple of streams and plenty of wildlife - squirrels mainly (their scattyness is quite entertaining) but I'm sure I saw a rat yesterday! Well maybe people should stop dumping rubbish over there...

It's my birthday this weekend and with my cousin and her hubby coming down from Glasgow for a few days it'd be rude not to see what Bournemouth has on offer. Bring it on!

Anyway, some photos...

(From the St Marys Stadium in Southampton...to the Kinson reserve across the road)

(More nature shots...and check out the flying squirrel!)

(More nature serenity)

(The venue, or should I say The cage, for my Thursday night 5-a-side)

Weekend in the capital

2007-01-17T12:43:00.000Z

On Sunday morning we caught the coach to London for two nights staying with Sheryl’s brother Phil and his wife Cheryl, who arrived in the UK last week. We crashed in their hotel room on the pull out sofa bed and managed to fit quite a bit in in our three full days in the capital.

On Sunday afternoon we each purchased a Big Bus Tour ticket for £20 which entitled us to a hop-on hop-off style double decker bus, a free boat trip on the Thames and three different walking tours. We did one of those walks on Sunday night – the London Ghost Walk! A bit of fun, especially as it’s crossed with a pub crawl, and who doesn’t like a spooky story down a dodgy London alley way!

At the end of the tour we shouted the tour guide a pint and spent the rest of our night having a few drinks over a pub grub meal.

The next afternoon we used our bus ticket to tour on the open top bus through central London’s most famous areas – Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Tower of London, Fleet Street and more. It got bloody cold in the fresh winter air so we hopped off and ducked into a pub in the Victoria area.

After thawing out we bee lined to find Gordon’s Wine Bar – the UK’s oldest drinking establishment (it’s held a liquor license since 1396!) – and along the way met Sheryl’s friend Jess. We ended up walking past it by a few blocks and settled for The Wellington pub on The Strand for some food and another drink.

We did get to the wine bar in the end and enjoyed a bottle of French Pinot for the table. This place was amazing! After going down a set of stairs the surroundings felt just like they would’ve when the place first opened. Low roofs, dark and smoky and very mysterious.

Our coach back home was late afternoon on the Tuesday but before then we squeezed in another walking tour. This time it was for the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. Being with a guide we got the insider knowledge that the most interesting stuff starts at St James’ Palace where you can then march with the guards, and the brass band, down Pall Mall to the Palace. And march we did, albeit feeling amongst a slightly paparazzi style tourist mob who were running and barging in sheer desperation to get their prized photo.

After another pint and a bite in a central London pub, this time The Albert, we headed down to the Westminster Pier for our boat trip. It only took 20 minutes or so and wasn’t the most exciting journey we’ll ever go on, but they had the heating cranked so that was good. By this stage the wet, miserable weather had come over us so it was a bit of relief. Hey we’d had a solid run of two non-rainy days before that, surely some kind of winter record.

Our coach home got us back to Bournemouth on time which was nice, as last time coming back we were an hour and a half late!

We’re now hoping to arrange an interview with a recruitment agency and get ourselves sorted with some short-term temp work. We’ll see what comes our way.

(Sheryl, Phil and another Cheryl in Trafalgar Square...and thank god I've done my duty, a night shot of Nelson's Column)

(Thank god we've found a pub, it's cold outside!)

(Tower of London from the bus, and the Thames by sunset)

(Big Ben late in the day...and the cave like surroundings of Gordons Wine Bar)

("No Beer, No Spirits...We're a wine bar!", and traffic down Pall Mall was bloody awful Tuesday mornin')

(Sheryl chooses the wrong coloured beanie for the day and looks horribly out of place next to her Majesty's marching regiment...aaand us infront of the Eye)

Nineteen hours in London

2007-01-02T22:51:00.000Z

Sheryl and I made last minute New Years plans to head to London on New Years Eve by coach and get involved with the public celebrations in the central London area. Earlier on New Years Eve morning I'd had calls from New Zealand with New Year there imminent. Thanks for the calls Mum and Dave, nice also to briefly chat with some of the gang back home.

We left a dark and stormy looking Bournemouth just before 3pm on Sunday and arrived in London two and a half hours later to a surprisingly dry capital.

We found our way from Victoria Coach Station down to the Victoria Embankment, opposite the London Eye and just around the corner from Big Ben and Parliament Square, where the main viewing area for the midnight fireworks was to be held.

(Big Ben in Parliament Square, and the London Eye)

Because we were several hours early we wandered around for a bit and then grabbed a bite to eat at Garfunkels Restaurant (more like a classy Denny's style diner) in Trafalgar Square. We had a 20 minute wait to be seated but it was worth it - we killed an hour and a half in there while it looked like it started to rain outside.

(Us along the Victoria Embankment)

We went back to the Embankment area and took our place amongst the growing crowd, killing the time away with a bottle of Oyster Bay Pinot Noir and a Rosemount Shiraz! Enjoyed from the classy plastic Santa cups as can be seen in the photos!

We had planned to meet up with our Canadian friend Sarah but due to a missed train and some delayed mobile network coverage it didn't happen until after twelve. Nevertheless, 2007 was brought in firstly with 'Right here, Right now' by Fatboy Slim (everyone enjoyed a little groove!) before Big Ben chimed and the fireworks off London Eye began.

The 10 minute display was probably one of the most impressive fireworks displays we've ever seen. Great stuff, but when it was all over it really was all over. Hundreds of thousands of people bee lined for the tubes, trains and buses to go home. All the bars, pubs, cafes and diners shut their doors and that was it!

We were forced to somewhat painfully kill time until our coach in the morning - next time we will be prepared that Londoners just don't know how to celebrate New Years!

(The cheap plastic cups avec Vin Rouge, and a screenshot of the fireworks)

Festive Fun

2006-12-27T13:43:00.000Z

Christmas down in Bournemouth has been a heap of fun this year. Christmas Eve was spent with John, Angie, Jenny & Mark having a few drinks and nibbles, and some Who Wants To Be A Millionaire interactive DVD fun!

Pressies for me this year including new jumpers, shirts and the customary undies & packs of socks. The 512mb Flash Drive will come in handy too. For Sheryl the highlights were a new cream coloured wooly beanie, white Morgan de Toi slippers and a cheap and cheerful 512mb MP3 player.

After the present opening we headed to my Uncle John and Auntie Angie's place, via Nan's sister Deed's place for a cheeky brandy (cup of tea for us), before a fantastic Christmas dinner! The rest of the day was spent sipping on wine or beer and watching telly. Great day all round I reckon.

Boxing Day was spent at Karen & Trevor's place where we caught up with the rest of the family.

Our New Years Eve plans haven't gone according to plan, but we made a last minute decision to make the most of the situation and we'll be busing to London on Sunday afternoon and getting involved in the public festivities. About quarter of a million expected to be in central London and, yes, public drinking is allowed! So a couple of bottles of wine and some plastic cups and a little spot by the Thames will do us fine.

After the New Year sounds in thanks to Big Ben there's fireworks off the London Eye, so it should be good fun. We're catching the first bus back to Bournemouth at 10am so it's an all nighter for us before getting home for Nan's open day New Year spread!

(Christmas Eve in Kinson)

(The pre-Christmas dinner brandy at Auntie Deed's)

(Christmas dinner at John & Angies)