Ashley Zoch

One Coin in a Fountain

2008-10-16T04:46:00.004+11:00

We're in Rome for the next few days (more about that next time I see a computer) so I'm making good on a promise to drop a coin in the Trevi Fountain.

Here's the video evidence that I did it so there can be no suggestion that the coin was sneakily whipped into the first fountain we found...

Just click the picture above to play.

A Load of Bologna

2008-10-15T01:53:00.005+11:00

A nice Pakistani pizza delivery kid on a scooter escorted us to our hotel in Bologna as we had arrived quite late. Delightfully we also had two separate beds. We've been dealing with a double bed with one doona, a double bed with two doonas, two singles right next to each other and finally we had a full four inches of space between beds.

Darren wanders the Bologna streets.

We headed to a local pizzeria to try the exotic foods of Italy that I've heard so much about. Actually the pizza was quite nice and no doubt pizza will get a frequent mention in the coming days. The old mama in the kitchen took a shine to Darren but sadly he missed the kiss on the cheeks.

Two tough guys at the statue of Neptune in Bologna.

Our next day was spent wandering through Bologna. There aren't any grand world famous monuments but it's a great little town. We started in a little outdoor book market (all these great bookshops and nothing we can read) and just ambled about finding the leaning towers, a single canal and another pizzeria for dinner. This time the waitress took quite the shining to me.

Looking for lunch in Bologna.

Our next day started with an hour on the train to Florence for a day trip. Despite our best efforts, we didn't actually have tickets so we camped out in the stairwell like a couple of hobos hoping the conductor wouldn't make it to us. He didn't. We arrived in Florence and took in the huge Duomo church and square. It was pretty darn busy and the queues to enter were enormous. We wandered around to the museum to catch a glipmse at Michaelangelo's David statue but unfortunaely this was also closed (never visit Europe on a Monday).

Leaning towers in Bologna.

Undetered we jumped on a double decker tourist bus for a loop of the city. It gave us a nice quick overview of everything and we used it to drop us off at the Piazza Michaelangelo for some great views of the city (and a replicate of the David statue so we didn't completely miss out). We also stopped for some lunch but the twelve dollar cokes caused us to go thirsty.

He's Dutch. Of course he loves a canal.

A final stroll down through the hills and we were back on the train to Bologna and into the university district for a few drinks and (and this part may shock you) some pizza. Which was also good (and twice the size of the plate).

Duomo church in Florence.

This morning we caught a train to Rome and we're now sitting in a laundromat finishing our laundry and using the internet (what a great combo).

And inside.

Phew. I'm officially up to date.

Michaelangelo's other David.

Overlooking Florence.

Almost a Dawn Treader

2008-10-15T00:56:00.008+11:00

We hopped on the train and headed through Munich and Zurich to our destination in Bern, Switzerland. I can't remember whether I mentioned it, but our trip was a little askew by this point. We had originally planned to visit Berlin, however on attemping to book a hotel by phone we were laughed at heartily and told that it was the anniversary of the day the Berlin wall came down and that there would be nothing available anywhere. We decided instead to go to Prague (which was great) and then we pretty much had a coin toss to decide between Switzerland and Austria. The Swiss won and we arrived late at night. Our hotel was old and quaint with a 100 year old wrought iron lift (very cool) and a girl at reception who appeared to be on Lithium (turned out to be amusing at least).

They just call them Army Knives.

Our first day was spent wandering around town. We spotted some street chess, ate some bratwurst for breakfast and enjoying being in a modern city. Bern is incredibly clean and tidy. They also make heavy use of the Helvetic font in their signage, which I like a lot. We planned to do a simple load of laundry but discovered the only laudromat in town was a 20 minute walk, so it turned into a bit of an afternoon job. We were greeted at the laundromat by a young fellow with a camera who explained that he was doing a school assignment and asked if he could take a few snaps while we washed. We were happy to oblige.

Ogre eating children statue.

A few photos, a couple of cigarettes out the front while we washed our 'smalls' and we were best of friends. We wiled away the afternoon drinking coffee and getting the run down on all matter of topics from where to find a decent band to why the Swiss hadn't joined the EU. It was a really great change from our routine of walking from sight to sight and the churchmuseumchurch blur. Despite a few hours of chat we forgot to exchange names but hopefully he will send through a copy of his work (a photo essay on 'washing day').

Dropping in on Mr Einstein at home.

Our second day more than makes up for a lazy afternoon. We started off at Albert Einstein's house (small but worth a look), we wandered the length of the town to the bear pits (which celebrate either the wrestling, capture, hunting or shooting of a bear by the town's founder - our version of the tale is expanding with each discussion))and then took a great walk up through the hills to the Paul Klee museum. We got some hopefully great shots looking down on the town.

Outside the Paul Klee Museum.

I am not really familiar with Paul Klee's paintings, but Darren is a bit fan. The museum is housed in a great steel and glass wave shape (something, but not much, like the Sydney Opera House). I did enjoy wandering through looking at the works. Sadly there was quite a lot of technical explanation (including some cool looking spectrum analysis) but it was all in German. There were a handful of very cool Kandinsky paitings there too. I think they shared a studio.

Einstein Museum.

We hopped a bus back to the Einstein museum. It was cool and I was really looking forward to it, but it was maze-like and our feet weren't really up to it. I lost steam half way through and wandered the rest in a bit of a daze. We headed back to the hotel to rest up before the evening's proceedings.

Overlooking Bern.

Darren and I are both fans of instrumental music and particularly the post-rock genre. We had been keeping our eyes out at each port and were disappointed to see 'A Silver Mt Zion' playing either a week before or a week after we arrived in each city. We noticed a poster for the band Caspian who I vaguely remembered were either post-rock, Coldplay like generic pop or a band I hadn't actually heard of at all. We looked them up on Darren's iPod Touch (a miracle of modern technology) and discovered that they were right up our alley and playing at a place called Bad Bonn which might have been pretty close. After a little research we discovered that Bad Bonn was in fact an old house, at the end of a 1km stretch of cornfields, in a small town called Duringen, about 30 minutes train ride from Bern. Of course we were going...

Darren arrives at Gimmelwald.

We hopped on the train and headed out, carefully noting down the return timetable and working out our contingency plan of getting the last train, last bus (which might or might not have been running), getting a taxi (which was estimated at up to 200 Euros) and being stuck sleeping in the cornfields (amongst the cow bells). We wandered down the kilometre of corn fields behind a few kids who were clearly going to the same place and arrived at a little old pub in the middle of nowhere (in Switzerland of all places).

Amongst the Mountains.

We knocked over a couple of decent sized beers and thoroughly enjoyed local act Beautiful Leopard and a good chunk of Caspian's set amongst 50 or so other punters (including a French kid who had driven 70km and asked us what language they spoke here). Caspian were a bit over the top (post rock without any of the dynamics) so we weren't too fussed to leave a little early and catch the last train back. A half drunk wander back through the Swiss cornfields at midnight after seeing a band is one for the books.

A pair of Yodellers.

The next morning we jumped an early train and made our way up to Gimmelwald in the Swiss Alps. We had originally planned to visit Jungfraujoch (the highest train station in Europe atop a snowy peak) but our schedule didn't allow the whole day trip to get there. We took a mountain train, bus and finally cable car up with stunning views of the snow covered mountains to the little hamlet of Gimmelwald. The scenery was vey reminiscent of Swiss postcards and the mountains were stunning. We spent a few hours taking photos and having lunch and then caught the next train through Milan to Bologna, Italy.

In Prague

2008-10-15T00:17:00.004+11:00

On our first full day in Prague, we wandered down the river and across the wonderful old Charles Bridge which housed a nice little Jazz group busking and a serious amount of photographers and painters selling their wares.

Darren & I on the Charles Bridge.

Our first stop was the church of St. Nicholas which was incredibly Baroque. I think it's probably the most amazing church I've seen to date. We climbed the bell tower to take in a view of the city and were greeted by a sheepish young fellow in a cape at the top who appeared to be spending his day at the top chatting with an old man. The interior is a cacophany of gold statues, ornate carvings and marble.

We then headed to the castle which seemed like an endless array of different buildings all linked up. We wandered through the large gardens and took in the amazing church in the middle. We noticed an older gentleman in a very cool hat (Swiss? German? certainly amusing) who we managed to sneak a photo with. It is presented here for the reader's pleasure.

St Nicholas Church.

From there we decided it was time for something more recent and headed to the Franz Kafka museum which was a nice little display of documents and trippy audio / video installations. It presented his life and work in a nice digestable fashion. Outside we stumbled onto a statue I had read about previously. Two men who look like they are computer-generated pissing on a map of the Czech Republic. You can SMS words to a special number and they will swivel their hips to spell out the letters in a stream.

Looking over Prague from St Nicholas Church.

On our second morning we indulged in a breakfast at the hotel (underground in a converted wine cellar) and then visited the old town square and the new town square. The new one only being new in comparison with the old one. I can't remember when it was established, but it was a good while ago. We checked out the Astronomical Clock and the statue of King Wenceslas.

Peeing Statue.

On the way home we visited an astoundingly large bookshop and I picked up a copy of Kafka's Metamorphisis (as is the fashion in these parts). I knocked over a fair chunk of it before dinner and was a little tripped out when we wandered out into the little cobbled streets and passed a bent-over old crone begging for some coins (and celebrating quite vocally when Darren indulged her) and a middle-aged women dress in a leotard looking like something from Xanadu.

Darren being followed by a man in a silly hat.

We finished the night in a little hipster dive selling books and booze amongst the intellectual young Czechs playing cards and (probably not) discussing politics. Sadly I knocked my beer over Darren to quickly kill the romance of the situation.

The Astronomical Clock in the Old Town Square.

And by romance I speak of the city, not of my travelling companion (who has refused on two occasions thus far to purchase me a rose over dinner. Thankfully). I finished the Kafka and a bunch of essays analysing it, and was satisfied.

Kafka Museum.

Prague seems like a great city from our short time here. They are certainly making the most of the tourist dollars, although I'm sure that things settle down quite a bit outside the main sights. The food is hardy and not very exotic (they do love their meat in this part of Europe) but good for us guys knocking through kilometre after kilometre each day.

New Town Square.

Now I'm just tying to fill up some space between photos...Speaking of photos, apologies if these are blurry or dark. I can't see them very well on this old monitor.

Curvy building.

Through Dresden to Prague

2008-10-14T23:55:00.004+11:00

We stopped off in Dresden on our way to Prague for a few hours worth of sight-seeing. We were a little unnerved by the cold harsh concrete as we walked from the station (which later transformed into a nice little shopping strip when the shops opened) but the town centre was home to a giant church and numerous old buildings, many blackened and variously rebuilt after the second world war. I picked up a stunning post-card showing the state of the town after the bombings.

Burnt buildings in Dresden.

We spent a nice afternoon taking some snaps and then headed back to catch the train to Prague. The train system is really amazing - bags easily stored in lockers as we need them, always on time, simple ticketing. It's a very nice way to get from A to B.

In the main square at Dresden.

We arrived at our little apartment in Prague in the evening and headed directly cross the small cobbled street to the Jazz Cafe. No jazz (in fact they played Ozzie Osbourne and Michael Jackson at times), but it was smokey and cozy and the beer flowed freely.

Jazz Cafe, Prague.

Leipzig

2008-10-14T23:19:00.005+11:00

After a long train ride down to Leipzig, Germany we checked into a rather East German business hotel near the station and headed out for some dinner.

Town Square.

The next morning we strolled through the centre of Leipzig which is very clean and neat and seems like a nice place to live. In the town centre a mini Octoberfest was in progress with a local orchestra, plenty of bratwurst and beer on offer.

Outside the Thomaskirch.

We visited the Thomaskirch church where J.S. Bach is buried and had a quick look through the museum (although sadly they were renovating so there wasn't much on display). Leipzig seems to have the largest goth ratio of any city I've seen. We considered having a drink at the Absinthery but feared that we weren't wearing nearly enough black.

Darren with Bach.

We decided to have dinner at a Chinese restaurant instead and Darren was delighted to be accosted by a young travelling stone-mason and carpenter dressed in medieval garb and looking for money to practice their traditional crafts. Everyone always wants the money...

Banging the Drum

2008-10-05T00:52:00.005+10:00

I forgot mention some fun we had in Paris. We stopped back at Cafe La Relax for a drink and a chat with our new friend, the owner. When we arrived we discovered that a bunch of his friends had taken over the bar and were in the midst of singing a few songs with a mandolin and drum. We pulled up a chair and joined them for a few drinks and some music.

The owner filled us in that they were all Algerian expatriates from his home village and they visited once a week or so to catch up. He gave us a good overview of the history of Algeria´s relationship with France and his particular soft spot for the soccer player Zidane. Darren was cheeky enough to pull out his camera and take a short video which hopefully will appear below.

Spillage

2008-10-04T22:23:00.005+10:00

This morning we visited the Van Gogh museum. I´m not particularly interested in Van Gogh´s paintings, but it was nice to see a few very well known pieces and I enjoyed the few Gauguin paintings that were also there. There was also a temporary exhibit of Malevich paintings that I enjoyed very much - mostly for his bizarre world view.

Bikes and Canals.

In the afternoon we visited the Dutch Resistance museum. Darren´s grandfather spent time in hiding during the second world war so it was of particular interest to Darren. There were some neat multimedia exhibits, including a small cinema showing various propaganda from the time and some ingenious little radios built to listen to allied radio in secret.

Darren entering the Red Light District.

We headed up to Dam Square and for a walk through the red light district which was exactly as described - prostitutes in windows. I had expected more ´variety´ however they mostly just looked like Eastern European girls dragged over. I think we might have missed a fair chunk of it, but there´s only so many windows you can sheepishly glance in.

Dam Square.

We topped off the night at Melkweg to see American guitar rockers Built to Spill. Melkweg is a great little venue and the band were most enjoyable. They even followed my rock dream of playing on time on weeknights and finishing at a reasonable hour. Man I am getting old.

Who will watch the Night Watch?

2008-10-04T22:13:00.006+10:00

Gee I´m slow at adapting to all these different European keyboard layouts! This one doesn´t help with half its keys rubbed off...

Behind the Reijksmuseum.

We spent the morning wandering through the Reijksmuseum which houses a very decent collection of 16th to 18th century dutch masters. The crowd drawer is Rembrandt´s Night Watch which is nice and big, not hidden behind glass and viewable from only a couple of feet away (in contrast with Da Vinci´s vaguely visible girlfriend in the Louvre). My art history teacher in high school always gushed about the importance of seeing great paintings in person and it really is true. I just wish I could remember all the stuff we went through in those classes.

Stormy Amsterdam.

We headed up to visit Anne Frank´s house in the afternoon. There´s not really much to say about it. It was presented very well and the various multimedia exhibits and diary quotes give a good understanding of the events of the time.

The Bulldog Coffeeshop.

Most of our Amsterdam visit has been plagued with various levels of rain. Fortunately we´re both hardy fellows so a coat and umbrella has seen us through all but the worst of it. We visited the night life Leidespleine district for a pizza and a look at the famous Paradiso and Melkweg venues in search of some live music.

Breaking the smoking laws in Amsterdam

2008-10-04T22:00:00.007+10:00

After settling into our nice little hotel in Amsterdam we wandered out for a look through the city and a few beers. I was struck by the seedy little cottage market that serves the grass smoking tourists. The coffeeshops themselves are quiet and a nice little quirk, but the paraphenalia shops with their dope tshirts, seeds and various marijuana leaf knick-knacks are all over the place and quite in your face. I guess they serve the English kids on naughty weekends away.

Outside the Heineken Brewery behind our hotel.

We headed a little further south away and popped down into a nice little bar on the advice of a waitress out the front having a smoke. We had a nice yarn with the owner who fancied himself as quite the world citizen - spending half his year running the bar and the other half sailing around Europe. He finished up by bringing us in on a little illegal activity which poor Darren mistook to indicate he was offering us a joint. In fact we were just sneaking a cigarette in the bar which was, of course, non smoking. The whole exercise of having a wet coaster to throw over the ashtray in case the police walked past was theatrical and I think at least partially for our benefit.

Darren on the streets of Amsterdam.

We stopped past an empty ´techno bar´ on the way home for one more. The bartender advised us that some of the world´s top DJs played there, but given the size and the crowd of us plus two burly German motorbike riders, I think he might have been talking things up a little. They did have an amusing ´age coin´ that he had to give me to buy a packet of cigarettes though.

We finished the night with a grand tradition of greaszy burgers and chips (in mayonaise as the custom dictates).

Antwerpen

2008-09-30T23:19:00.003+10:00

We arrived in Antwerp via the fast train from Paris. The train was fantastic - quick and comfortable. It's much better than catching a plane. We stayed at a little hotel right next to the Cathedral of our Lady.

Cathedral of our Lady.

Antwerp is a quiet little town. We spent the morning looking through the catherdral and the nearby square and then wandered around the shops and sampled a good variety of Belgian beers (and waffles). Of particular note was a small beer cafe behind our hotel with an eerie collection of 400 relgious statutes that appeared to have been collected from churches. Apparently it was the owners collection and the building itself was built in the 1600s.

Statue of Brabo & the Giant's Hand.

We finished up in Antwerp this morning to catch a train to Amsterdam where we have just arrived.

Pendulums

2008-09-30T22:59:00.003+10:00

We spent out final morning in Paris wandering through the Bastille area in search of a market. We encountered a group protesting cluster-bombs outside the station, complete with a band and pyramid of shoes (?). We found the market and had a quick walk through the produce stands and trash & treasure flea market (more trash than treasure).

Standing outside the Pantheon.

We headed back past the hotel De Ville towards the Pantheon. On the way we found a nice little jazz trio busking complete with street piano and Louie Armstrong style vocals through an cone amplifier.

At Foucault's Pendulum inside the Pantheon.

The Pantheon houses tombs for many famous French including Marie Curie and philospher Voltaire. It also houses the first large scale pendulum constructed by Foucault to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth.

A band at Bastille.

We finished up the day with a nice Japanese meal while we took care of some washing at a laundomat near the hotel.

Jazz Buskers in front of the hotel De Ville.

And Two Stealthed Rouge

2008-09-27T02:50:00.002+10:00

Sadly that title is a World of Warcraft pun.

Thursday morning we trained up to Montemartre. The train system here is really quite fantastic. I don't think we've waited more than 3 minutes for a train and the interconnecting lines are very handy. We passed through the usual shysters (with some con involving tying some string around your wrist) and spent some time at Basilique du Sacré-Cœur. We spent the moring wandering around the quaint (but pretty overrun with tourist shops) Montemartre district, finishing up at the Moulin Rouge. It might be pretty fancy inside (we didn't go in, despite some confusion over the state of clothing on the women).

Sacre Coeur.

We had a bit of a lazy day planned so we wandered around town outside the Gar de Nord rail station (where we booked our ticket to Belgium) and the old Chaletet section of town (where we had a nice pizza by the river and wandered through a book market).

Moulin Rouge.

Phew! That's a couple of hours worth of internet cafe blogging but I'm up to date. Sorry for the spelling and factual inaccuracies. Its a French keyboard and a very slow old computer.

Two more for the full Turtle Tour

2008-09-27T02:20:00.003+10:00

Thursday morning (after bringing my medical expenses up to 150 euros to date) we headed off to visit the Louvre. Stories from previous travellers had indicated that I would be pretty much placed on a human conveyor belt following crowds throughout (once I had passed the 4 hour queue to get in). It turns out that this could not be further from the truth (mostly, and possibly due to the season).

Outside the Louvre.

We arrived quite promptly after opening time and were delighted to head straight in, past the famous glass pyramid and straight into the French sculptures. We made our way through a good portion of the collection at a nice pace. We saw the Mona Lisa (from 15 feet away, behind thick glass, with 1,000 rude photographers) which was underwelming, the Venus de Milo (which was wonderfully close) and thousands of amazing paintings, sculptures and everything else.

An enormous Italian.

I think we achieved the best we could with the time we had. It's been many years since I have studied art history, so much of it was just looking at nice pieces rather than understanding their importance. I would love to spend time in various sections after digesting much more about them, but sadly I doubt I will get to visit as often as I could if I were living nearby. In the end I decided the experience wasn't so much about seeing the art, but seeing the Louvre itself and the sheer size of its collection. It's an exquisite place to house such a fine collection and I'm glad people are still willing to spend the resources to have such a place.

Darren & I in the Louvre - photo (c) A nice Indian Gentleman.

We finished the evening with dinner at a little chinese place (which wasn't bad at all) and a few drinks in the Latin Quater (as per the doctor's orders - although Darren seemed to be following his orders more closely than I for some reason). I enjoy the little quirk that they face all the outside chairs towards the roads in the bars and cafes here (instead of around the table). It makes from good people-watching.

A little Mona Lisa.

We closed with a night visit to the Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Elysees (which doesn't look as crazy up close).

Venus de Milo.

Michaelangelo and Leonardo down - Donatello and Raphael to go (I'm sure we'll find some in Italy).

Arc de Triomph.

Could a little wine hurt?

2008-09-27T01:40:00.004+10:00

I woke up Wednesday morning to find the leg hadn't improved any (this has a happy ending by the way - to remove any sense of suspense). I decided it was a good idea to go to the doctor rather than risk it becoming a problem. The hotel directed me to a very old and formal looking doctor's office across the road. Unfortunately I couldn't be seen until 5:30pm so we decided to head out for some sight-seeing.

Statue of a guy whose name I should have written down.

We started the morning at the Jardin des Plantes (garden of plants?) - the botanical gardens of Paris. It wasn't very exciting however the nearby buildings and statues were all wonderful. We made a fairly short pass through the gardens and ended up at part of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle. We hadn't planned on visiting however a quick look through the door at the sheer number of skeletons changed out minds.

Museum of Natural History.

It turned out that we had stumbled on the Gallery of Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy which houses an incredible collection of skeletons of almost anything you can imagine. Even cooler were the old glass and wooden cabinets and hand written plaques for each. We wandered through the rather eirie floors (including a collection of 'monstres' - siamese twins of various animals) and revelled in the mad scientist nature of it all.

Garden of Plants.

We spent the afternoon at the Eiffel Tower, which is a remarkably beautiful piece of iron-work engineering, and across the road at the Trocadero fountain. Coincidentally they were showing off the new EA Sports video-games, but even I passed them by in the interest of not being a total nerd.

Gorilla Bones.

Back at Gobelins I arrived for my doctors appointment and was amused to see the process differed from home. The doctors all appeared cheery, greating each patient in the waiting room and seeing them out with a handshake and an 'au-revoir'. The 'keep you waiting' bit appears to be the same though. I got in to see the doctor and went through the usual language charades before he advised me that he spoke a little English. I explained the situation and suggested a course of antibiotics as per my normal doctor. He agreed, wrote me out a perscription and with a handshake I was on my way. A cold and souless thought crossed my mind as we were parting company - "can I drink alcohol while I'm on these anti-biotics?"

Of course you can drink, this is France!

He smiled and bid me au revoir.

Elated with my victory (and pumped full of anti-biotics) we headed out to the Cafe le Relax for a few drinks and a yarn with the very likeable bartender (with a delighful 'ello 'hello like demenour) and a saucy middle aged barfly who might have been his wife, sister or just a regular.

Eiffel Tower.

And to celebrate my new found sense of wellbeing - a cyclops cat from the 'Monstres Simples' section...

Unable to Comment.

Ghosts & Gobelins

2008-09-27T01:01:00.003+10:00

We arrived in Paris early Tuesday morning and caught a train from Charles de Gaulle airport to our hotel Residence les Gobelins just south of the Latin Quarter. After dropping off our bags and settling in I confirmed my suspicion that an old war injury in my leg was playing up. A little fevered, swollen and sore I decided to keep an eye on it and hope that things would head south and leave me bed-ridden for a few days.

Residence les Gobelins.

In order to keep us awake until a reasonable hour we headed to rue Mouffetard as suggested by our hotel owner. Mouffetard is a nice little market street with cafes, bars and plenty of places to grab a baguette or pastry. We propped ourselves outside a cafe with a cigarette and cafe au latte in grand Parisienne style. We smoked and drank and people-watched until the novelty wore thin and then headed out to the Notre Dame cathedral for an easy afternoon stroll.

Shakespeare & Co Bookshop.

Darren had earmarked Shakespear & Co bookshop for a visit after reading about its history amongst Paris based writers. We popped in for a look through (one of the few English language bookshops we've found) and witnessed the nice girl behind the counter handle an 'intellectual' looking for 'something to change his life'. We followed up with a nice walk around Notre Dame itself and then back through the touristy alley-ways off the 'left bank' of the Seine river to our hotel.

Darren picking up some reading material.

I decided to have an early night and rest the leg while Darren braved a traditional french resturant meal. Gobelins appears to be a great selection for location. The hotel is perfectly suited to our needs and pretty much everything is a short walk or a quick ride on the incredibly efficient Metro train system.

Outside Notre Dame Cathedral.

The Old Buck, He Loves the Honey

2005-11-21T18:31:00.000+11:00

We spent a nice boozey & blokey weekend in Cowes to celebrate Jamie being a buck, or the buck or his last night of freedom or something. I'm never really sure what the purpose of the Buck's Night is. Regardless it was a bunch of fun and I suspect I'm not the only one still feeling a little 'tired' today.

We played some Texas Hold'Em on Friday night. I'd dismissed poker as a dull way to dupe your buddies out of a few bucks while consuming beer, but after an evening at a private table at the casino and this session (after knowing how to play properly) I've warmed to it quite a bit. There's quite a bit to it and it's really quite a well balanced game.

Eagle Ray.

We braved the morning light and took a charter out (onto Western Port Bay?) on Saturday morning. Unfortunately I didn't catch a thing, but I also didn't throw anything back (or up) into the sea either. Noel managed a Hemmingwayesque performance in a battle against the 'Eagle Ray' shown above and we took it home with plans to throw it on the barbecue later that evening. I think fear (and maybe a little seediness) prevented us from fulfilling that dream. I can easily see how a battle like that could give someone the fishing bug. The ship's captain commented that it was a 'once a year' catch. I'm not sure if I can call a charter boat guy 'ships captain' but he seemed sea-worthy.

The boys played 9 holes in the afternoon while I enjoyed a cheeky 30 minutes in the cot and an age-lessening shower. We finished the night with a spectacular barbecue (sans any of the day's catch) and another round of Hold 'Em.

I believe all eye brows were present and accounted for upon our return to Melbourne.

3 Rules of the Fishwife

2005-10-17T14:36:00.000+10:00

We arranged a car to pick us up at 5:30am on Sunday morning to make the 200km journey to Agra. The morning drive was pretty uneventful. We saw a few camels hauling enormous loads of grain and a bear. I'm not too worried by crazy driving these days. I just assume everyone else in the country is used to it.

Sunrise over New Delhi.

We arrived in Agra and made contact with a guide to take us through emperor Shah Jahan's monument to his late wife - The Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal is breath-takingly beautiful. The gardens are pristine and the Taj Mahal itself looks like it was built yesterday. The architecture is astounding - optical illusions everywhere, inlaid gems that glow in the moonlight and perfect symmetry wherever you look.

Approaching the Taj Mahal.

Our guide was a really nice guy. He showed us lots of really neat aspects about the design and history and showed me where to get some great photos. When we finished walking through I had a hard time leaving. I wanted to make sure I'd soaked it all in and had captured some memories with the camera.

Ash at the Taj Mahal.

We spent the afternoon at the Red Fort of Agra - built by the Moghal emperor Ackbar and eventually prison to his grandson Shah Jahan. Although the fort isn't as visually spectacular as the Taj Mahal, it's walls hold many remarkable stories of the area and it's rulers. We hooked up with another really great guide who showed us through with a nice mix of history and a few jokes ('Great kings were greeted here by showers of flower petals as they entered. Be careful not to be greeted by the pigeons that live here now').

Our guide told us lots of really great stories. My two favourites were :

Shah Jahan's wife gave him three rules before she died - look after my children (of which they had 14), never marry again, and build a monument in remembrance of me. The monument was, of course, the Taj Mahal but her request wasn't through greed. She knew that her husband would be grief stricken and would take his own life, so she gave him a task that she knew would occupy him for the years to come.

The Taj Mahal.

Shah Jahan filled one of his courtyards with water and then populated it with fish. Shah and his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal would sit and fish from balconies at either end of the courtyard and compete for the most catches. The story says that Shah Jahan never won because he spent his whole time gazing at his wife.

They're a bit soppy but seeing as the Taj Mahal is 'the greatest monument ever built for love' I think they're appropriate. Shah Jahan spent his final days imprisoned in Red Fort and watching over the Taj Mahal from his balcony.

Entering the Red Fort of Agra.

The Red Fort has many clever architectural devices as well. The main one is the cooling system that involved hollow walls containing either people with big fans or running water pumped by elephants sitting on big leather bags (I can't confirm that last bit).

Matt & Ash seated on the Moghal throne.

We jumped back in the car headed back to Delhi. Along the way I saw the remnants of more accidents than I've seen in my entire life. We passed through an oil slick spilled from barrels on an overturned truck and a pool of leaking petrol from an overturned car. Fortunately our driver was a little less insane that most of the others.

Shah Jahan's view of the Taj Mahal, emprisoned in Red Fort.

We finished off the night with some Southern Indian at Banana Leaf. Matty had some sort of Indian omelette and I had the heavily talked-up 'Dosi' pancake. Both were quite nice and we ordered way too much yet again.

Absurdists

2005-10-17T14:22:00.000+10:00

I'm in a little Internet cafe and I must be following a well worn path. A drop down box popped up when I typed that title showing previous users' blog titles - the ever faithful 'Oh Calcutta' and 'The Tout (Hear Him Roar!). It's nice to know I'm not alone.

We spent Saturday exploring central New Delhi. It took us a few circles to get our bearings, but we ended up with a pretty good look through the Connought Place (which is a big circle anyway). We wandered through a few markets but didn't purchase any of the billion textile products (what would Matty do with a Sari anyway?).

Book-shopping in Delhi.

By this time we've become old hands at dealing with the street touts so we decided to have a bit of fun and pretend we couldn't speak any English. This snowballed into our own Eastern European dialect mixed in with an occasional Three Stooges 'woop woop'. We dubbed it Absurdian and it served us very well - in riding us of pesky con artists and giving us a laugh at the same time.

One young fellow, who we named 'Shorty' spent almost an hour by our side trying to steer us to some market while failing to understand a word we said. He certainly wasn't a quitter.

You Had Me At Hello

2005-10-15T16:44:00.000+10:00

We both woke up a little worse for wear on Thursday. Matty was still nursing a flu/allergy/cold/malaria/dengue and I was dehydrated and sleepy (not sure why - might be the Indian Summer). We wandered outside around 9am to discover that nothing was really open and the touts were out in full swing. For a couple of hours we wandered the streets and were accosted by every scam in the Lonely Planet guide - cheap rides to markets (with a commision), directions to 'government' travel agents (with a commision) and creeps following us around for blocks. We decided this was too much and headed back to the hotel.

I almost expected to spend the day at the hotel, but I had a quick flash of brilliance and suggest a visit to the museum. Quiet, cool, peaceful.

Serenity Now!

We wandered around the exhibits of carvings and bowls and identified what we could with our limited understanding of Hinduism and Buddhism. My brain started to kick back in and I realised that although I don't place the same level of importance on the arts as some folks, it's almost the only thing that remains four thousand years later. There were some cool swords and stuff too.

The (dark) Museum.

The Museum is quiet heavily guarded and requires a metal detector check and a frisking as you walk in. The same occurs on the way out, presumably to ensure you don't have Shiva 'Destroyer of Worlds' hidden under your shirt. These checkpoints are staffed by guards in military uniforms with machine guns.

Matty proceeded through the metal detector as I opened my camera bag for inspection. As he stepped out of the detector the guard motion for him to come over for a friskin and checked him over with one of those magic wands. Satisfied that Matty wasn't smuggling any artifacts he gave him a hug and said "You come back".

At the time this amused me somewhat, but the more I thought about it, the funnier it became. I re-imagined the scene with Matty coming up with a quick quip along the lines of "You had me at hello" or "You're the reason Cavement painted on walls". The whole thing was inappropriate and bizarre. I loved it.

We caught a confused taxi back to the hotel. Apparently there are three hotels with the same name in Delhi, but he just picked one and headed there. It wasn't the right one and after consulting the trusty compass I finally got him turned around (in between his pleas for us to visit markets).

Matty & The Giant Latte.

Delhi was a whole new town when we got back. Everything was open and the streets were teaming with normal people who didn't want to follow us around. We stopped in a chemist and picked up a cocktail of drugs for Matty's flu and then picked up a few books from a vendor on the street. The streets are liberally scattered with book vendors selling all variety of novels for a few bucks each.

We had an afternoon meal at Ruby Tuesdays. Long ago we stopped the standard practice of three meals a day and now we just eat when we're hungry. Often it's one meal a day in the mid afternoon. Ruby Tuesdays is a franchise restaurant something like the Hard Rock Cafe. They played Deep Purple all afternoon. I don't mind Deep Purple but Child in Time isn't really afternoon cafe music.

Pegasus Pub, Delhi.

We did a few more laps of the shops and finished the day with a few quiet beers at the bar next door.

82 Hours on the Tarmac

2005-10-15T16:10:00.000+10:00

We arrived at Goa airport in plenty of time to discover that a Sahara flight that skidded on the tarmac in Mumbai was still there (3 days later). We got on the plane and ate breakfast while the captain tried to keep the angry mob from revolting. Then we got off the plane and sat back at the terminal for a while. Then we got back on the plane and sat for another while and finally we said a fond farewell to the state of Goa.

Finally in the Air!.

Our travel book makes numerous references to the difficulties a traveller may encounter in Delhi - dodgey taxis, hotel booking scams, hotels with no vacancies, etc. We made an effort to book something and arrange an airport pickup in Goa, but it wasn't to be. I was a little hesitant as we collected our luggage but we jumped in a pre-paid taxi and headed to the first hotel on our list - Hotel Jakaso Inn. We got a couple of rooms and headed next door to the Pegasus Pub (a traditional English Pub in the heart of Delhi).

We polished off a few drinks and Matty retired due to a mild flu. I struck up a conversation with some folks from Spain and joined them for a few (too many) drinks. They didn't have much English and I only had some cowboy movie Spanish so we made lots of hand gestures and kept the chatter pretty simple.

Loo & Aloo

2005-10-15T16:00:00.000+10:00

Monday night ended with a nice electrical storm over the beach. We watched for a while under the thatched roof of 'our' bar and then fortunately had a drip free night at our bungalow.

Stalls Palolem Beach, Goa.

I snuck in for a quick dip in the sea on Tuesday morning and then we spent a few hours wandering the stalls. I struggled to remember where anything was despite the fact that there were only 2 streets. We sharpened up our (pretty hopeless) bargaining skills and picked up a couple of CDs and T-shirts.

Palolem Cows being Sacred.

We took a mid afternoon taxi back to the town of Vasco da Gama and stayed at a decent little hotel called La Paza Gardens. I think they were a little taken back by my questions about rooms with toilets and so forth, but we'd been staying in some pretty basic accommodation, so I didn't know what to expect. It turned out to be a pretty flash hotel by local standards with a couple of restaurants, bar, gym and pool table.

Catholic Church, Palolem Beach, Goa.

We were pretty darn happy to have a warm shower and a few channels of TV to watch.

Our village of Bungalows at Palolem Beach.

We sat down for a nice slow lunch of Chicken Tikka Masala, Kebabs and some nice Nahn. We had the Nahn with potatoes and spices as well, but I can't remember it's name. Aloo Paratha maybe. The food was nice and the staff were concerned that we thirsty Aussies were ordering Pepsi after Pepsi but didn't finish the (too large) servings.

We finished the day with a few beers in the empty hotel bar.

Mondays Rule

2005-10-15T15:55:00.000+10:00

There's not much I can say about Monday at Palolem Beach because we did nothing.

Relaxing outside our Bungalow.

We took some washing to be done.

A local Fisherman.

We did a quick blog update and checked the news.

Inside our Bungalow.

We ate a pretty nice Margherita pizza for lunch.

Sunset at a Beach Bar.

We drank some beers at a bar on the beach.

The King and Jack

2005-10-11T14:22:00.000+10:00

Monday Morning. Woke Up. Checked Out. Room was way overpriced.

The domestic airport is pretty new and looks great but it has been savaged by 'war on terror' security measures. Much of the original fitout has been temporarily modified in order to satisfy additional checks so it doesn't flow and it's hard to work out where you should be next. We arrived nice and early planning to relax at the gate but the security checks only let passengers in 30 minutes before boarding so we ended up on the floor in the main terminal. The plane was late and I struck up a conversation with a nice bloke from Benalla, based in Chiang Mai, Thailand and working in India on an oil project. His plane was even later than ours.

We arrived at Goa airport and arranged a taxi ride to Palolem beach. The taxi rank used a pre-paid flat rate system so there was no question about the 800 Rupee fee. Although it's only $25 I would have wondered if we were being ripped off otherwise. It turns out the trip is almost 2 hours and over 60km. The zipped off in a little minivan and enjoyed a couple of hours of jungle-y countryside.

Palolem Beach, Goa.

Palolem beach is considered the most scenic in Goa and it really is beautiful. It's about 1km of clean white sand and blue water. The beach is backed by hundreds of stilted beach huts mostly made from bamboo. We walked through a few of the 'villages' and rented the first available room - $5 each, three beds, fan on the roof, mozzie nets and no bathroom. Our village is centred by an old Portugese Catholic church.

Sunset at Palolem Beach, Goa.

We spent the evening at a little outdoor bar next door with tables and very comfortable wicker chairs on the sand. The sunset was terrific. Kids were playing cricket on the beach in front of us, we were enjoying a slow Kingfisher beer and the DJ was playing Jack Johnson. Travelers wandered the beach during the evening juggling and showing off various circus tricks with staffs and balls on ropes.

It was pretty close to perfect.

Jack, the Kingfisher and I

2005-10-11T14:03:00.000+10:00

Matt Knight Reports...

Left Mumbai yesterday headed for Goa. The plan was delayed for about an hour but the flight is only 45 mins so it was sweet. The plan was jam packed with no seats left. After arriving in Goa and getting to the beach I can understand why.

We took a 2 hour car ride to get the Palolem beach then walked around looking for some place to stay. We managed to get some wooden huts on the beach they cost us $5 a night. They are very basic huts, but there is a bed to sleep on and a restaurant next door. Ash and I dumped our packs, and took a seat next door in the restaurant watching the ocean and a game of beach cricket.

I sat in my chairs, kicked back and had a kingfisher beer. After about two hours the game of cricket got called due to bad light. We sat in the restaurant for another couple of hours, sipping on beers and listening to Jack Johnson.

I think I am going to enjoy Goa.