Europe Trip - Paris Day 2

Europe Trip Posts

Journey Begins

Vienna Day 1

Vienna Day 2

Vienna Day 3

Paris Day 1
Paris Day 2 (This Post)

(As I have allergies today I thought I'll try and knock a few of these Paris posts out :) )

So we came up with a few rules/games which makes traveling a lot more fun and helps you not being an ass in a foreign country.

Flash back to Japan; In Japan we used to keep score with Bunka points, (Bunka mean culture), so every time we did something very Japanese we gained Bunka points. Eating pickled mountain vegetables in a Buddhists monetary? Heaps of bunka points. J-Walking or doing things which goes against the grain of the local culture - bunka points lost!

In Paris we didn't have as long as in Japan so we shortened the competitions down to a 1 vs 1 outing. So we needed to hit up the boulangerie and the grocer, Kasey would take one and I would take the other. The person who got away using the least amount of english and used french instead wins! Simple. Its easy to pair things like this up, motivates everyone to try and be more sensitive and accepted. It works like a champ trust me.

So the break down of the rules/games for Paris.

• Win against each other by using French and not English in dealings with people
• Never eat at the same place twice; this keeps you from going to the same western hole over and over. You McDonald's people should be ashamed. 
• Always try something new on the menu, the more extreme the better! Go for it. 

Our place

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We woke up on our first full day of Paris,France fun. What to do first? Go out and get some breakfast of course. So down our little street we went to the first boulangerie, where we stocked up on bread, croissants; then a quick cut across the road to the tinny grocery store for wine, coffee, tomatoes, etc. I won this round the outings, using more French then Kasey :D Go me! Its okay this victory is short lived.

View Larger Map

Simple but tasty! And yes, wine with every meal :P (If you look hard you can see the glass.


And a little lay down to let everything settle

Once we were fed and rested it was time to head out and into the wide world of Paris. Our first stop was to look at the huge line of people waiting to get into Notre Dam which we saw everyday as we left the islands.

Passing the crowds we headed to the city's IVe arrondissement (The whole city is broken up into arrondissements) 

See the little islands in the river in the middle? We are on the bottom right one heading to the IV Arrondissement.


There we checked out the Hôtel de Ville, and took some fun pics :)


Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

(Statue representing Art)

(Statue representing Science)

After a fun few shots we headed in a random direction and came upon the most hiddious building I have ever seen Centre national d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou

Terrible! But I know a lot of people find it fascinating. Ohh and the question I asked was "Is it finished", I received a punch in the shoulder saying "Be nice" which means it is finished! Imagine that.....

 So we hurried away before getting some sort of urge to go inside and down a random street (No this is not an alleyway) where we found a Japanese Calligraphy shop! (Japan and France are very close and trade a lot of culture/food). The shop had everything I could have wanted to do some shodo but I was worried none of it would survive the trip back. They had some really nice paper in there.... I'll have to go back and pick some up ;-)

Leaving the paper shop Kasey being a magnet for disaster found some Paris graphite which is a special kind of paint they fling at things. In a most Hermione voice she started to tell me about this paint and the culture behind it as she steps in it and then promptly touches her shoes and smears it all over the shoes and her hands. Being oil based (As she was telling me) its very hard to get it off! 

Then of course it starts to poor :) Rushing back the way we came we headed to a large department store which sold paint thinner in the art section; As all new up coming artists come to Paris there is loads of expensive and nasty painting supplies. I wouldn't paint some of my miniatures with the stuff they were selling at top prices! Anyhow, we bought a bottle of thinner and headed back to the apartment. Kasey kept the shoes past this trip as a memento; DURP!

For lunch we decided to duck into the cheese and cured meat shop along our street. Enter the shop was an assault on the senses, since the cheeses and meats are allowed to age and mature in the open air even in the shop. The jolly fellow who ran the shop was a lot of fun, as far as we could tell he didn't speak any English or refused to but he was a kind fellow and helped us through naming each of the cheeses and meats until we left with a booty of salami, two goat cheeses (Fresh), and some wine. Rushing back like kids with a new toy we set up the table for lunch

If you can not tell, the foodie stuff alone is worth it for us on this trip. 

With full bellies we resolved to resting and planning our future trips and what we wanted to do. 

That evening we went and had pizza with a sangiovese which was OK by every day standards but wasn't the pinnacle of foodie enjoyment.  

We had an early night because we needed to be up and out of the apartment at 5am the next morning to make the first mas at Notre Dam, as it was Easter. Thats some freak'n culture points there.

Europe Trip - Paris Day 1

Europe Trip Posts
Journey Begins
Vienna Day 1
Vienna Day 2
Vienna Day 3
Paris Day 1 (This Post)
Paris Day 2

We woke up a bit late on the morning we were to head to Paris so it was all hands to the main decks! We packed, crammed and stuffed. We hauled our stuff to the station, pulled out some more cash to pay for the apartment once we got to Paris and waited for our train to the airport.

 Arriving at the airport we went to the British Airways line and waited... Like most dealings with these clowns there was no one there.

Little history here before we get into the fun. We were leaving Vienna and flying to London. We were then getting on another TICKET flight from London to Pairs. What this means is they don't check your bags through since it is two completely different tickets. However, I wanted to see if I could charm and wile my way into getting the bags routed through (All their systems are integrated together).

An hour and half before the flight they saunter up and open. They start jabbering about using this automated terminals but I have a special request! So I iggnored them and went up and said "Hello I would like..." And they cut me off saying I have to use the terminals. I tried to explain yes... I know but... TERMINALS! YOU MUST USE!.

Fine.... I'll do the damn  terminals. Jabbing at them in anger and in random fashion the lady comes from behind the counter over to the terminal and punches all the stuff in for me...................................................................................................................... My blood is boiling. Its simmering away as she DOES HER JOB. Now I ask... what is the difference between her just doing that behind the counter and coming over to work the terminal?

So I snatch our boarding passes and get back in line. You didn't think I was going to give up on this bag transfer thing did you?

I get another lady since the first is off doing all the Self-Help terminals for other people :D

I give her my pass and start explaining I wanted our bags transferred to another flight and I tried to keep the ire out of my voice. She looked a bit dubious but started clicking away madly. I felt like I was in Meet the Folkers movie. She asked for paperwork and passports and continued to madly click away. Then out of the blue she hands over 4 boarding passes, takes our bags and puts the labels on to transfer them to Paris! Wow this lady was good! I looked at the boarding passes and she even issues our boarding passes from the other flight! Woot! I felt very grateful at this point.

Giving the Self-Help terminals one last dirty look we left for the plane.

Ohh you think it all ends here with us arriving in Paris without incident, think again my friend.

Arriving in the most hated of terminals and home of British Airways, Heathrow London. We didn't have to get our check-in luggage because that was kindly routed through for us but we still had to go through the ridiculous security again. We got into a massive line and waited... We got to the security area and some how this middle eastern fellow got between Kasey and I. She went through with her carry on and popped out the other side, the fellow before me went through and then my backpack and I went through.

Security stopped the fellow in front of me so I had to stop since I couldn't go around.

"Sir is this your bag" he asked the middle eastern fellow and he was holding up my backpack.

I said clearly "No that's my bag"

The fellow in front of me said "No" and the secuirty officer became louder and more aggressive saying "Sir is this your bag?!?!?" I more loudly said "No that is mine!"  while the fellow in front kept saying no. The security officer started yelling at this fellow and I finally yelled back "ITS MINE!! My Bag, Not His MINE!"

 Looking a little shocked he put my bag down and told me to wait over at the end. The middle eastern fellow left...

Ohh did I mention because of the efficacy and speed we now had 10 minutes before our flight left?

So I am waiting.. And waiting... no one is doing anything! I try to catch someones eye but nothing is working. Finally I said, in what I hopped was a kind but clear voice, "Excuse me, can someone check my bag I only have (Looks at clock) 8 minutes till my flight. Please". There was also a sign saying "If your going to to gate BLAH then make sure you have 10 minutes. Kasey saw the sign and ran off to find what gate. Returning of course to say it was the gate indicated on the sign.

A lady brings my bag over with a disgusted look on her face and says "We have to have a security officer go through it." I tried to calm down and said "Would it help if I took everything out?" She didn't say anything but took my bag and went to go talk to someone. Why was everyone carrying my bag around if it was to contain some spurious item?!

She comes back and said "Fine empty the bag into this box. We'll run it through again". 5 minutes till the plane leaves........

I start dumping shit out, NDS, snacks, MP3 Player, book and some more random crap. "There there, can you run that through please." 4 minutes to go.

They run the box of crap through and identified what was causing all the problems. A metal bookmark my mom gave me. This book mark has traveled through USA customs on at least six occasions, USA CUSTOMS, shoot you in the face customs, strip search and anal probe customs and these people pull me up on a book mark.

At this point they gave me a mini lecture about dangerous items.

GIMME THAT! Shit...

Kasey and I didn't bother to put the dangrous items back into my backpack but loaded up our arms in one last look to her in a your a moron look and ran. RAN LIKE THE WIND. We ran like Harry Potter from Voldemort. We ran and ran and ran and just barely made it onto the plane.

We left the saddest place on earth and was in the air to France!

Arriving in France our bags where there before we got off the plane ready for us and off we went! We grabbed train tickets (Cabs are for wusses) and headed into the heart of Paris.

It was about 9pm and we dragged our bags down some fantastic streets and past Notre Dame which due to the light rain the gargoyles were dripping water out of their mouths. What a sight!

Meeting up with the lady who we are renting the apartment from we headed to our place

(This photo was days later but it is the same street)

This was the front door to the building :D This was also taken days later

Arriving finally we were confronted with old 18th century stairs! So one at a time I hauled our massive bags up three flights of old spring stairs

Here is a video of us going down the stairs and out into the court yard Click on Image to watch video

From VisMoot Paris

After we got all our gear the American lady (ohh I forgot to mention that, she was super American, I am not sure she realized I was a fellow countryman!) began to explain how the light switches work and at the end asked if we knew how microwaves worked. Too much for me... I whipped out the cash handed it over and shut down all further conversation. There is only so much abuse I can take in a day :)

So the end of the evening we went back down the road to a cozy little pub and had dinner. Carbonara was amazing!! and had a nice bottle of wine

Our Paris adventure starts in ernest the next day!

Europe Trip - Vienna Day 3

Europe Trip Posts
Journey Begins
Vienna Day 1
Vienna Day 2
Vienna Day 3 (This post) 
Paris Day 1 
Paris Day 2

Since the competition was over for the Griffith team Kasey and I had a day to ourselves so we headed off into the city. Kasey wanted to show me hot chocolate that they do really well apparently so we went into a back street coffee house where we were ignored like a piece of furniture :) That is until we stopped someone and they had us sit down at a huge communal table. Think ye olde knight's feasting table and we waited patiently. Others came in and they were seated, menu's provided and orders taken and we still waited... Tried to catch their eye but as we spoke no german, and were basically the worst tourist possible we decided to cut our losses and try something more mainstream.

Please note: I don't hold it against the people in the coffee shop ignoring us. We didn't speaking german and where obviously clueless, we didn't even attempt to speak german and it was busy as hell in there. Moral of the story? If you want to fit in, speak like the locals and don't act like an out of town looser. Evidence of us doing it right when we get to Paris posts :D

On our way back to the city centre we saw a fountain and got someone to take a photo of us.

And we get to see my new jacket here! Oh and Kasey looking lovely as aways.

Back at the city centre we had coffee and an apple fritter which was nice and did some sight seeing

We visted the massive cathedrial which shows off  some impressive sights inside!

Now that is a massive organ! and check out the year on the ceiling.



Just to round off our sight seeing :D A shop you know rocks.


After our wander around we went to Japanese and had some very tasty food with more unfiltered wheat beer and it was off to a late lunch/dinner banquet. Food was so so.

But the girls got more awards and it was really exciting to see that. Here are some action shots at the end

Fast forwarding a bit, we went to Italian that evening but I was soooo stuffed I couldn't eat, so I just had some really nice wine and called it an evening. The wind was pretty feirce before dinner and leaving dinner it was roaring!

It was decided to head to the club where all the other teams where headed so off we went! Lucky for us the rain started in just to make things really misserable :-D  It was frick'n cold!!!! It took us a good 15 minutes of slogging through to reach the club once there it was warm and comfortable.

Again my failure to learn ANY german shows through here. I tried to order a beer but in the end gave up and just said "That one" and recived a beer. Random could be said....

The club was packed with people and it looked like their last chance to try and hook up with other lawyerie types (Thats a real word also, Lawyerie. Try it out with your friends and then make fun of them for not knowing its a real word). I am drinking my beer thinking, this is the worst thing EVER! Even worse then domestic beer. I started to feel a bit ill and had a look at the bottle. That's a weird thing to put on a bottle, it looks like a pot leaf.... You have got to be kidding me... Look at the back of the bottle with more crazy pictures... Holy crap.

Yup, hemp beer.

So it was home bound for me! I was struggling to keep the contents of the 4 meals down on our slog back through the rain and wind. What a day!!! I was nausous long into the night.

Here ends our Veinna trip. The following day we head for Paris!

Stay tuned for the thrilling adventure of traveling from Veinna to Paris :D

Europe Trip - Vienna Day 2

Europe Trip Posts
Journey Begins
Vienna Day 1
Vienna Day 2 (This post)
Vienna Day 3 
Paris Day 1 
Paris Day 2

Hold onto your ass because it is a rip roaring post of Vienna day 2!

Day 2
This day I headed out by myself as Kasey went to the morning moots (She was not competing but supporting her follow team mates).

I charmed the front desk girl into giving me a map of the city, like I needed it with my GPS Mobile!, and an umbrella since it was pissing down rain. Let me back track a little and describe what I am wearing.... Sneakers from USA, jeans from Australia, tee-shirt from Thailand, sweatshirt from Sierra Nevada and my newly acquired umbrella. Out into the howling wind, rain and cold like you wouldn't believe. Ozzies were running for cover claiming the end of the world was nigh! But I struggled on.

Walking through the harsh wind I made it to the subway and decided to head into the central city area. The girl at the front said there was good shit there so I was keen to check it out.

Leaving the subway and enter to the city center the wind, rain and freezing cold hit me like a dump truck, or maybe a snow truck. I started my quest for a jacket. It occurred to me that the city center full of tourists and other punters wouldn't be the best spot to buy a coat but dammit I was freezing! And then I saw it, a little shop with coats in the window! they had suits, and dresses as well but it was the coats I was focusing on. Entering the shop I saw something that reminded me of Japan, a little box that looks like a wine case (many little square holes) to put your umbrella so you don't track water all over the shop ya bloody tourist! Anyhow, I was filled with natsukashi seeing that and I put my ... err... not mine but acquired umbrella in the rack and headed in with a Eric style smile on my face. Hey knock the smile all you want but check out how it served me!

The lady working here promptly said a greeting in German and then I remembered. I don't speak German. This is going to be interesting. Hitching the smile up a notch I said in my most polite way, "I am sorry I don't speak German." There is no need to say you speak English, its not like they are martian! They have seen the Daily Show I am sure. She smiled and I continued boldly "I am looking for a coat". Luckily she smiled and pointed up some stairs. Only half way up the stairs I started to think, maybe she didn't understand and just sent me up the stairs for a joke... It is what I would have done if some dirty foreigner came into my shop blathering on in Icelandic.... Still.. I was damn cold and I needed to see this through.

Arriving at what I can only imagine to be the summit of the world after so many steps I see this looks more like one of those fitting rooms from a movie where the old guy with the tape measure fits you for the perfect Italian suit. Fortunately for me, there was no Italian suits since it was a coat I was wanting and another older lady came to assist me. She spoke a little more english and I communicated my desire for a coat standing there in? Sneakers, jeans, and a sierra nevada sweatshirt. and she accommodatingly showed me the coats they had on hand. The first lot were not what I was looking for, all very nerdy as far as I could tell. I wanted something dashing! Until I saw the coat, she brought it out and said it would need to be "finished" as it would need to be fitted, I inquired as to how much and she said 1,200 Euro. I was sober enough not to choke, spit, laugh, or anything else that would give me away as being way too cheap and tight assed for a 1,200 Euro coat. Conversion for all you folks out there. 1,200 Euro = 1,700 AUD;  1,200 Euro = 1,550 USD (Your currency sux these days) 

I tried my best to excuse myself with grace and get the hell out of dodge.

Back out on the freezing streets I proceeded felling a bit foolish but the bone chilling wind kept me moving on. the next shop I entered also had suits in the window but what the hell do I know? I am more the half way (Figure that one out) around the world so who am I to assume?Anyhow, I rampage in a head to the mens section. Downstairs and in a nice warm area. At least I think this is the mens area?... I mean what are all these frilly shirts doing on display? Ohhh those ARE mens attire. Guys here are a bunch of girls :D

Moving on.

I scoured the shop and found a 100 Euro coat! SCORE! I was cold no longer.

I found that shit all really funny and that's why I spent so much time relaying the tale. I am going to fast track the rest of the day.

I wandered around for a few hours having fun not speaking the language and trying to be friendly (Its a chore!). I had lunch at a sausage stand with a beer. Domestic beer in Vienna SUX! Just like USA I guess :) Domestic .. ick. But the sausage was awesome :D And any kind of beer at noon is good with a sausage.

Returning to the hotel I changed into my suit and went to the moot in the afternoon. Unfortunately, and unfairly Griffith got knocked out in this round. So drinks where on!


Went to a Vienna restaurant where I had pork and cheese. It was disgusting. The Champagne was really nice though! A consolation prize, for the hard done by, and me your local hanger on :D

Later we went to club, paid an exorbitant amount for drinks and Kasey and I left the young-ins there to dance and have shenanigans. I was tired of people assuming I was some high flying lawyer because of my pimp-tastic 3 piece suit. Thats right bitches THREE PIECE SUIT, get some class. DAMN. I am being funny now, so make sure to giggle at least :D I am not a lawyer, I am a 2nd century Chinese warlord and don't you forget it!

Europe Trip - Vienna Day 1

Europe Trip Posts
Journey Begins
Vienna Day 1 (This post)
Vienna Day 2
Vienna Day 3
Paris Day 1
Paris Day 2

Day 1
I have now arrived at Vienna airport. The security.. uhh what security, this is awesome out the gate I roll. I was suggested I pay for a taxi to get to the hotel because it would be easiest. Screw that! I hate taxis, and I am willing to throw myself out there and go on the train. You know, non-wuss style.

I followed the signs to the train station (under the airport) and found a ticket terminal. There was English translations from German but they were a bit rough. I bought a ticket that seemed correct and went down to wait for the train.

Shit its cold!! Underground, Vienna, March. BUURRRR!! So I dug out a sweatshirt (Sierra Nevada of course). Ahh much better :) The train showed up (on time) and while it looked old is was quite clean. We are trundling along and I pull out my mobile phone (Cell phone here after to be called a mobile phone) and load up the Vienna map I downloaded from Google, kick on the GPS and point it out the window. 10 stops later I arrive at the place I think I should be. Grabbing my crap, I head out of the station, and stop to get my bearings. I know my hotel is close to here but this area the road goes in a large circle so I needed to find north.

Ahh my phone shows north as a compass as well, and oh look! The GPS has kicked in and its showing me on the Google maps. I find my hotel on the map and start walking, following my progress with the phone. I know, I kick ass  :P Entering the hotel I meet Kasey! WOOT! I check in and we head up to the room to dump off my crap. She bought me sushi and chocolate :) This was a 1000x better then any food I had while traveling here.

Unluckily for me there is not rest for the non-wussy. She tells me that there is a Moot (Practice court competition) on in 2 hours and I don't have to go but I can if I want. What the hell right! So I take a long shower to get the traveling grit off and feel a bit more human. Change into my suite and go meet up with everyone. Meeting up with the other girls on the team, and the two coaches I met Chris who is one of the coaches husband. He informs me that he would like to go have a look around and find a beer if possible. The moot doesn't look like it will start for another 30 minutes so we head off! Walking around close to the building where the team is we found an outdoor pub, where we ordered two unfiltered wheat beers in massive glasses for 4 euro each. Nice stuff!

Felling a bit better we head back to the competition and watch the moot which lasted about 3 hours? Maybe 2 1/2 hours.

After the moot everyone wanted a late dinner (its 10pm now) and I am starting to see ghosts, faeries, and dragons after being awake for 2 days, but I agree because who isn't a party pooper? Me :-D The restaurant was very nice and before I knew what was happening champagne was being poured into everyone's glasses. I am not a white wine drinker, but I do like the bubbles occasionally, so I woke myself up for this one! Direct notes from my phone journal " tasted like bras bubbles to start with but the roundNess and apple sort me flavor at t.e end  was awesome"

After dinner we went back to the hotel, WOOT!, and I slept for 8 hours only to reset my clock. 

Day One was over! Day two was just about to start

Europe Trip - Journey Begins

Europe Trip Posts
Journey Begins (This post)
Vienna Day 1
Vienna Day 2
Vienna Day 3
Paris Day 1
Paris Day 2

Little background, Kasey left for Hong Kong for the Vis Moot (If you don't know what this is google). I was sitting at home for 2 1/2 weeks where I spent the majority of my evenings painting miniature figures and watching Dr. Who. Yes yes I am that much of a geek get over it.

So in addition to my geekfest I hooked my Android mobile up with maps of Vienna and Paris to allow my phone and the GPS in it to show us where we are, how cool is that. I also printed out wiki travel pages about the places we wanted to go see so we would know a bit more about the places that we went to see. This worked out really well, because even travel books normal just give you a short paragraph about the place where a travel wiki page could be 4 pages crammed with factoids for the trivia nerd inside. Go on grow the nerd.

The Leaving
I cleaned up the place printed out information sheets about the three cats for our good friend who looked after the monsters and locked up. Of course it started to rain while dragging my suitcases down the road to the train station but my spirit could not be cooled, I was off on another adventure!

Arriving at the airport I went to stand in line and fill out my paperwork. I was in high spirits. Arriving at the check in lady I chucked my very light bags on the scales and  handed over my passport with a Eric Style Smile (That smile where light glints off your teeth). She gives me a withering look and starts flipping through my passport.

"Where is your visa"

Sorry? Where is my wha? Ohh ohh its all electronic I explain. She proceeds to give me shit for the next few minutes about not having a visa in my passport. I repeat that the Australian Government doesn't issue paper visas any longer it is all EEEEE LLLL EEECCCCC TTTTRRROOOOOONNNNIIIICCCCC. She runs it through the computer (Finally!) and looks at me like I am the idiot and said "Your visa is up to date". No shit Sherlock..... She then continues to issue my boarding passes. I have 3 flights and she hands over two boarding passed and a sticker that has a bard code and some flight crap referring to my bag. Remember the 3 flights, 2 boarding passes and my bag, it comes up later and there will be a test.

So spirit dowsed a bit.

Going through the security I got pulled off to the side to be scanned for bombs and other contraband. At this point I am worried because without my paper passport I am basically a illegal alien! One tick-tack found in my pocket, no paper visa and I am on the first sheep freight boat to India.

Luckily no contraband was found! I sail through to the air lounge

I look through my boarding passes and find that a Quantas flight has been changed to a British Airways flight... Well okay, I don't know anything about them .

After such a great start of getting grief I sit down at the airport pub for a few schooners (beers). Two schooners of beer later and messing around with my phone I find out that none of the WiFi in the airport is free. Why would it be? :) So I had a third schooner to not think about technology or any of that other crap. I am feeling much more optimistic and head off for my gate about 15 minutes to go in boarding.

Coming up to the gate, I ask one of the attendants about my missing boarding pass. I explain I have a Brisbane -> Singapore and my Singapore -> London boarding pass but not my London -> Vienna. The lady, of course, laughs and says "You know British Airways is having strikes right now? hahaha".... I kill you!... She tells me I'll have to "try" to get my boarding pass in Singapore OR London. Greeeeeat.

The flight was 8 hours (No problem!) I sat in a row of four seats and there was two little kids down the row and mom on the end. I gotta tell you, the kids were way better then adults! Adults are big whinny babys, kids have an excuse - they are 4! :) Anyhow, British Airways... Attendants were great, but I got nauseous after the food so I refused further food offered.

Arriving in Singapore, it was back on the beer.

4 hours later we are back on another BA flight for 13 hours. ohh god. 8 hours? No problem! 13 is just rough.. After the 8 hours your thinking "Yeah I rock! now get me off this damn thing" but that 9th hour is sinks in... I am here for another 4 hours. Ohh man. However, by a twist of luck, the seat next to me was free, the cost of this free seat next to me was my entertainment system didn't work. What a ying and yang situation! I could complain and be moved to another seat NEXT to someone where the entertainment screen worked OR I could stay for 13 HOURS with just me and my free seat next to me (I couldn't move to the free seat next to me because then I would be next to someone - spacial reasoning people). I went for the free seat :) They came around with Beef of Chicken and I refused. Just booze please. I splet for about 6 hours and then it was English Breakfast time. No thanks, just morning booze please. Finally arrive in heathrow London.

5:45am Now, I don't have a boarding pass for the last leg of my journey. So I track down a British Airways counter and there is a dude sitting behind the counter and I go up and say hello and explain my situation. He rudely tells me that I need Quantas desk not British Airways. Well shit, all he boarding passes say BA, WTF? So I look at the next desk and there is a sign "Qantas Desk opens at 6am". So I hang out in line. I am the only one there by the way... A quantas person shows up behind me and asks what I want, I explain. He says I'll need to wait for the desk to open up. Okay... So I wait... He goes behind the desk and calls me forward. I was just giggling like a little girl inside thinking of Meet the Fockers. So I stroll up dump all my paperwork over the desk and say "I need a boarding pass to Vienna" the guy explains that BA is on strikes "Yes well your Quantas, whatcha got for me?", consulting the highly technical system (A printed bit of paper) he tells me that the flight is two hours delayed and has been shifted to flight QA DickityDoo. I have one of those Dr Who recollections of something in the past... I pull out one of the papers on the desk and look at the sticker that has the bar code of my bag and those weird fight numbers. Ohh that just is perfect! The sticker says all of the flights, including all the changes and delays! So the lady at the very beginning that gave me shit over my non-corporeal visa knew all these flights because she booked my bag through.  

Thats okay. Issue me my damn boarding pass and lets get to some rest. To sum up the rest of my time in heathrow "So far everyone has been rude. so far England sucks" which comes strait from my journal notes. :-D

Its not all negative though! A short 2.5/3 hour flight and we touch down in Vienna! the bags came out in record time and I was off to customs... Err.. I said CUSTOMS... Umm. Ohh hi, I almost missed the guy standing behind a podium with a rubber stamp. BANG I am in the country. There was a big EXIT sign with about 8 security gaurds all talking, smoking, and maybe drinking? Such a great country so far. I was advised to take a taxi from the airport to my hotel. Screw that crap! That's for wusses :) I went down into the train station under the airport and using my fine skills of german was able to find the English button :P Purchasing a ticket to the city I walked to the platform and changed into some warmer clothes. The train took about 5 minutes to arrive and BANG I was off. Arriving at my station I dodged a few pan handlers and whipping out my mobile I turned on the GPS, loaded the Vienna map and traced my route to the hotel. Who's the best, that's right :-)

Kasey met me in the hotel lounge and it was a great welcome :) Up in the room she had a surpise for me. Oohh ha ha. Sushi and Chocolate! Sushi, not very Germanic but still very nice after all that shit food on the plane and fasting!

Stay tuned for the Tales of Vienna! Much more positive and sunny experience then the evil of traveling via British Airways.

Traveling rock

In my old leather jacket (you know the ratty one I have had since I was 15) I felt something strange today in the liner. Maneuvering it to the hole in the liner I found it was a smooth round blue rock about the size of my thumb (I'll have to send it off to Eric for analysis :) )

And I started to think; Where did I get a rock in my jacket? This jacket has been with me everywhere I have gone. Could have come when I was sleeping in the park over night in Japan and used it as a pillow? Or camping when I didn't have a proper sleeping bag and used it to lay on between me and rocks? Or maybe coming off the BMX and hitting the pavement at some point.

Still - wonder where this rock came from and how long it has been with me? I think I'll put it back in the liner - just in case.

Japan Trip Route

Here is an updated view of our Japan Trip :) I have added in some lines to show the route we hope to take

View Larger Map

Japan, Gems, oh my

Well it has been a long time since I have posted but it has been a long two months. The house saga continues to drag on but on the upside we have saved a lot more money for the initial deposit as well as saved enough for a trip to Japan! So this week we will be booking our tickets to Japan for 28 days! Score

We will fly into Fukuoka (Bottom Left).

View Larger Map
We will then travel up through the countryside and visit most of the major cities along the way but also we really want to see the countryside so stopping at mountain villages etc on our way to Nagoya (Right Middle). There we will stay for a week and half or so visiting friends, going to markets we used to go to and generally experiencing natsukashi (Feeling of nostalgia). Once we are done in Nagoya we will travel perhaps to Kanazawa to visit a friend and her family and continue onto Toyko. We will do all the Tokyo stuff and then fly back to Brisbane :)

We are going to do an idea I had as well which should make for an interesting website when we return. As we travel, when we get up in the morning we will write a quick journal entry about what we are going to do. Then we will take photos during the day and then at night we will write about what actually happened. So in the end we will have something talking about what we expect to do/happen, the photos and then what actually happened.

On a side note, Kasey and I are going to try our hand at Fossicking, which is the australian word for hunting for gems and gold ;-) Not really doing it for profit or to get rich quick but to go out camping and have something to do during the day and it might pay off a little here and there. One of my workmates here turned me onto it by showing me the stones he has collected over the years - WOW!

Well that is all for now! Be back soon.

Camping and Anniversary Trip. With the anger of the sea

Well we are back from our weekend and two days of holidays (4 days total for you slow folk out there).

So the first event we had was going camping with Kasey's family to one of her dad's friends places. They have a property which is right next to this very nice river and a camp was setup. We went up on a friday and left sunday morning.

Things were good, good company, booze, and food. Fun for all! Kasey bought for us this little two man tent which is about the size of my computer. ;-) She also got for us an inflatable bed which as luck would have it is exactly the same size as the floor of the two man tent! So our whole tent was cushioned. How many of you out there have a tent like that eh? Besides that it was very 'cozy' and was fine for the two of us but I wouldn't want to take it on a long trek because it also did the following; leaked, didn't keep out any bugs besides monster/mutated sized bugs, a dog was able to force its way past the zippers into the tent with its nose, and finally had small holes to allow ground cridders in. Still! It was very comfortable and we slept quite well.

Then on sunday morning we headed off for our anniversary trip. Kasey lined up a nice place in Byron Bay. Its a very nice little town, very big with the tourists especially people backpacking from overseas.

Sunday: Showed up and were a bit tired from all the camping stuff so we cleaned up and headed into town for a little poking around and beer. We ended up visiting a few pubs and having small snacks along the way. We have been to Byron before but I always forget how MANY hippies are in the town :) Good natured people of course but vague as hell! Wandering in front of my car while driving and you all know how I drive, one hand on the wheel and the other out the window ready to give someone the finger. Anyhow, the first evening was good and relaxing.

The second day (Monday) we headed out to the beach only to find a storm rolled in behind us as we were walking! DOH! Before it kicked in we saw probably about twenty beached jelly fish and these were not small let me tell you! The biggest one was about the size of my chest and shoulders and about twice as deep. It was a shame we didn't have any cameras with us. So after the big jelly fish exhibition we headed back into the safety of the B&B while the storm blew out. Later that day we went for a big swim in the ocean (yes even through there were beached jelly fish) and man was it cold!! We then went back to our little spot (it was just us and one other person on the whole area ;-) ) and built sand castles. Mine in the end was destroyed by a lumbering giant (me). Later we had Thai food (Damn that stuff is great!) and then it was off to the Light House and the gulling pathway that leads fro it down to the most Easterly point in Australia. Pretty cool :) Lastly we went to dinner late that night where we had very swanky food and wine. Sometimes you have to live it up!

Tuesday (today) we checked out of the B&B and went to a dive shop where we got suited up for a snorkeling trip. It was a bit of a ride out to the island that we would be swimming at and the water was cold but it was good to start with. We saw two ocean turtles ( whoa dude) and it was very cool to swim along with them. However, the wind kept picking up and the sea was not happy.... We were close to these two rocks where there was a channel of water between them. We were told there was tons of fish and interesting things around there so of course I went to look! The ocean grabbed me in a large current and dragged me between the two rocks into a nice swirling pool between them. To start with I was fighting the current but I felt my hand smash against a rock and decided to go limp and wait for my chance to escape. Twice the current came in swirling around knocking me into the rocks cutting my back, right hip and damaging my finger tips which were outstretched to try and prevent head damage. On the second surge I got my chance. The water rushed out and I kicked and clawed like a mad man. I shot out of there like a bullet and back out into the larger and calmer area. Weeeeeeeeeee :-D

After a bit of water regurgitation and checking the vital bits of the body, head and family jewels, I decided everything was groovy and man what a stupid/interesting story I would have. After that the water became more and more fierce, string up all kinds of crap in the water so it was very hard to see anything. We did see two small sharks though called Wobbegong Sharks. Fairly harmless since they are so small and are not really concerted with humans. We watched one eating something inside a hole :) very cool! After awhile we gave up and came back to the boat because the ocean was too choppy to see or swim. On the way back we did sight a glimps of a family of whales moving along the coast line. very cool!

We came back today exhausted but much fun was had.

I will post pictures later this week once we get the batteries charged for it again.