Monday, December 29, 2008

Real Madrid!!

Welcome to Spain, Kiwi Three!!

Well, we arrived late in the day, and somehow managed the three metro trains to get to Magdalena, the street from which we would find our hostel... After a brief moment of disorientation, we found our way to this quaint little hostel, which really was more like a hotel. We had our own room, with four beds, and it was really nice to have our own space.

By this stage it was about 11pm, and we were HUNNNNNGRYYYYYY!!! We had yet to orientate ourselves with Spanish time, and so we went in search of food. Thankfully, we had wandered past a little cafe at the bottom of the road, and decided to go there. This place smelt good, and even though they didnt speak one word of English, we managed to order "potatas bravas" (baked potatoes with a spicy tomato sauce) Kylea had a Spanish Tortilla (looked goooood!) and Anna and I ordered this amazing tapas-style plate, with 5 typical Spanish dishes- Croquettas, Ruska salata, some type of chicken nibbles, etc etc...


It was in our little Spanish restaurant that we met some very cool Americans- Kaare (pronounced Corey) and Steve. They are engineers from Orlando, Florida, and it was actually because of their divine intervention that we even ate anything from the restaurant, because Kaare came over and helped us order. We invited them to sit at our table and we spent the next hour and a half chatting and laughing and learning how much life in America is like living in a bubble...!! We wandered round Madrid with them for a little after dinner, but it was cold so we parted ways. But it was lovely to meet them, and perhaps one day we will meet again :)

After a really good sleep in (till 2pm!) we organised ourselves and went for a wander around Madrid. It wasnt particularly beautiful, or clean (there is so much graffiti!) but we enjoyed ourselves. However, as we meandered through this cute park with a big lake in the middle (with paddle boats that we wanted to go on, but it was shut) it started raining! We sought shelter in this really beautiful little church which was entirely decorated by mosaic tile! I was very impressed. We also found this fantastic little chocolate shop and got a hot chocolate, which was like the ones at Chocolate Boutique in Parnell: Entirely melted chocolate!! So amazing, but it was so rich, I couldnt finish it!! (Yes, believe it or not, Zoe threw out chocolate...!)



This city, I swear, comes alive at night time! We had the best time as soon as it got dark (and we got our chocolate hit) it was SO beautiful! Kylea and I suddenly became complete loonies with our camera's and snap-snap-snapped away for so long, I swear Anna got bored standing round :P It was really the lights, it brought all the buildings to life, gave them these fantastic personalities that were so different to the 'ordinary' buildings which looked just like the ones in Paris and Rome...

This said also, the greatest thing we did in Madrid was the €12 Pub Crawl!! (€12, or €10? I dont remember, it was cheap either way!) It got us into three bars and a nightclub at the end of it all, with a drink at each bar! It was fantastic, and so pumping, with GREAT music, and all the people we met-- more Americans (brothers), some guys from Singapore, three brothers from France who-- DANCED LIKE ROBERT!!! Hahahah :P There were also two cute Brazilians (that country is amazing, i have to go there...) The best guys though were this gay couple from America, they were so friendly and lovely and danced with us and it was a right riot!! The other thing we noticed (after we got home!) was the fact that there was a complete imbalance in the men to women ratio, so that was nice :P ha ha ha




Oh well!! At the end of it all, we got home at (a very responsible time of) 4am, even though we had to back-track because we had no idea where we were, and couldnt find Magdalena... Oh well :P The sleep in was great, and we had a 'late' check out of 11am so packed all our stuff, showered, and made our way back to the airport, a little hungover but nothing a coffee and greasy food couldnt fix!! (this is our breakfast-- never rely on airport food for a good and healthy recovery...)


PS look at the people sleeping behind Anna- HAHAHA the guys sleeping with his hand in his pants!!

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Gay Paris!

This is the story of Anna's birthday, full of trains, planes and alcohol from bottles.

We rose that morning, packed our bags and checked out of St Sebastians... As it was Anna's 20th birthday, and we were in France, home of the most amazing patisseries in the world, we walked to the end of the street to see what we could find... BINGO!!!




We each got quiche and a sweet, took it back to the lovely hostel and chilled on these crazy round couches, which was so nice, especially after two intenso days of sightseeing!!

We left St Sebastians with ample time to get the bus to Beauvais, as we had to metro through Paris on two different lines, then find & walk to the bus. It took about 90 minutes, not that we saw much of the trip; I woke up as we pulled into the airport...


Anna and I had to check in our cases, which weighed a lot but we figured we could sweet talk to check-in clerk, considering it was Anna's birthday and all.... Noooooo way! We had this lady with so much make up on she could literally BE the Clinique counter... It might not have mattered how nice she was anyway, because somehow our bags had gained 4kg worth of weight... each.... So, at 19 kilos i dont think sweet talking would have worked. We opened our cases at the front of the line- out came my electronics, hair straightener, toiletries, books, magazines, ANYTHING that could weigh it down... I was one moment away from putting on extra layers, when we realised the reason for our heavy bags....

The bottles of wine we hadn't drunk!!

So, out they came. With a bottle each, we had two options. To throw, or to drink... We went with the latter, obvioulsy! Clinique Clerk liked our style, and let us get away with 16kg (Ryanair would have charged us €15 for that, under normal circumstances!)

Thus, Anna and I approached the bar, asking (ever so cooly) "Now, this might be the weirdest request you hear today, but... [place two bottles of wine on the counter] Could you please open these?" How could he say no...! He obliged (however I dont think this was the first request of this nature!) and Anna and I sat in the waiting seats across from the check in lines, drinking our FANTASTIC €2 French wine, as Kylea donned an extra pair of pants, to make her bag look smaller/fit in the overhead locker :P



We managed to get through half the bottle each, before going through the security check, which we figured wouldnt let us through with our half-empty bottles... Sigh!

Friday, December 26, 2008

Thunderbirds are GO!

So im really really excited, because Ive just booked all my flights to and from and during my time in London!! TRAVEL PLANS FOR FEB ARE NOW FINALISED, BOOKED AND SORTED!!

I arrive at London Stansted on Feb 5th. I will hopefully be staying with Charley May and her Wife Debs- they live in Central London and want to take me out for cocktails and do the cool chic London thing :P From there, I hope to get up to Manchester for a few days to see Charleys mom and potentially the coolest craziest lady to ever come out of Manchester- Annie... Cant wait! They have lots of hounds, so that will be cool! :)

On Feb 10th i travel to Eindhoven, catch up with Kylea and from there we train to-- AMSTERDAM!!!! THAT WILL BE SO GREAT!!!!

On the 13th I fly to Stockholm to see Freddie- and hopefully Jordi will meet me there too :) Will be back in London on the 16th, and fly back to Salzburg on the 18th.... YAAAAAY!

I know it sounds like lots of flying and moving about, but in order to see the places I am dying to go, these things must happen! Hehe.

IM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ohhhhh Paris!

JE T'AIME PARIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


This has been by far the highlight destination I have visited thus far in life. I love the buildings, the coffee, the rivers and canals, the people!! Its so different to what I have already seen, and while it has similarites, theyre shown in a new and interesting way! And that French stereotype of wankers smoking and heaps of dog poo is so wrong!!

However, let me start from the beginning... We got into France with a bounce- literally! It was the worst landing I have ever experienced, the whole plane gasped then panicked, it was so funny after the initial fear of crashing passed :P The Beauvais airport is like Salzburg- two carosels. Robert was there to pick us up, and we enjoyed the night in his beautiful family home-- right next door to an Australian bar!! Hehe...

We got to Paris at about 9:45 on the 24th. We left our luggage at this funky hostel we'd booked, got some breakfast from the bakery just across the canal, and wandered off to find the Louvre- YAY! However, it took us forever, dammit.

It was so worth it though!!! This has been my dream place to visit for such a long time- i was so excited! OHHH It was fantastic!! The Pyramids are so wonderful, and I didn't even realise the fountains were there, which just added to the wonder! Inside though, oh!!! I went straight to the Renaissance (Italian Art) floor in the Denon Wing. I GOT TO WALK THE GRAND GALERIE!! I saw Da Vinci's (yes, I saw the Mona Lisa- laaaame!) works by Raphael, Michelangelo, Picasso (amazing), Caravaggio, Delacroix, Paul Klee, Anselm Keifer....!! I saw the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory, the Slaves by Michelangelo, OHHH MY GOD! I was such a loser, standing at all the art just staring, I was so happy!





We went on a "pub crawl" (so to speak, we just followed them and then left cos it was lame) and ended up in front of the Notre Dam as the bells rang for Christmas!!!


^ The most exciting part of the pub crawl-- "Latin Corner: Sexy Bar for Crazy Night" and this was the waiter...!


On Christmas Day we had the best morning, hanging out having breakfast and organising what we wanted to see! The biking round the city idea failed epically because our credit cards couldn't be read by the stupid machines :( Kein problem, we ended up metroing to Montmarte, but only saw the Moulin Rouge, even though I wanted to go to the Church and hang out up on the hill like the alcoholic French artists you hear of...


We wandered down to the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Élysées, which was fantastic! We walked to the Eifle Tower (past some very expensive shops like Jean Paul Gaultier, Kenzo, Gucci and Louis Vuitton; and some very expensive cars!) and it was FANTASTIC!! We walked up to the second level, which was great and not even hard, and there was such a huge line to elevate anyway! We left Tashy a message (Tash, if you read this, dont worry, you'll see it soon- there are even two editions! haha) and took tons of photos!


Tonight we had Christmas dinner in the restaurant downstairs, it was a three course meal and it was ok, the wine was the best :P

Anyway!! The real reason i'm blogging is to tell you all about this dude we met here- Anton. He's from Sydney, thought he was lovely and all alone, so we sort of hung out with him and we went out on the 24th together, had a good time, spent all Christmas day together, even though he didn't have to do either. We were joking and having a good time and beating each other with witty one liners... Told us all about his three ex girlfriends who cheated on him, boohoo!!

BUT THEN!!! Tonight, at dinner, which we invited him to, he went all quiet and then SUPER hyperactive, and was all chummy with Anna, while ignoring me and Kylea. We thought they were flirting, so both Ky and I left Anna to it... THEN!! We come back down to celebrate Anna's 20th Birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY POPPET!) and she tells us that the whole time we were gone, he had bitched about us, saying shit like I'm fake and unfriendly (????!) and Kylea's better friends with me and that isn't fair on Anna, and that Anna is lovely and nice (which she is) but hes being all manipulative and trying to divide us!!!!

WHAT A FAGGOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Of course, Anna instantly told us, and now Kylea and I are so freeeeekin pissed at him, and also cos Anna continues to hang out with him, even though he completely disrespected our hospitality and friendliness and was rude to us... What a twat. Makes me so mad. Thank god i'll never see him again. Hes a Ferrari supporter, anyway.

Anyway, das ist alles. xx

PS-- Smart Canadian girl behind me just dropped the line "Im on Facebook, but im not like a Facebooker".... Obviously.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Roma II

VATICAN VISIT!!!

Yes, i know I have already been there, but hey, what do we say?? "When in Rome..." Ha ha ha

I actually had the best time this time, I got to take so many great photos, and we could even take some in the Sistine Chapel!! It was fantastic!


The best part was that we met this insanely hyper American guy called Tim who we befriended in our hostel room. He walked in, and instantly was friendly, funny and lovely!! He even started singing hahaha :P We hung out and talked for ages, and we all got along really well. He came to the Vatican with us too, but unfortunately we were in a rush because we had to go to the airport, and he wanted to take his time...

Anyway, thats really it- Tims cool, the Vatican had no line and I had an amazing visit this time round :) However I'm kind of over Roma now, its so dirty (all our skin has gone a-wol man!!) and the drivers are INSAAAAAANE and we havent eaten fresh fruit or veges in so long, we're all pizza'd out, and we just wanna get outta here....


Also, the bathroom still stinks.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

When in Rome...

... Do as the Romans do, and-- Oh! How we've been doing it well!!

We've been here for three days already,and have been doing what all good Romans should do-- drink lots of wine, have lots of fun, see lots of old buildings (including the Colusseum, Forum, Spanish Steps, Fontana di Trevi, Piazza Navona, Basilica San Pietro, Pantheon, etc etc lots of other old buildings and fountains!)






Today we even met the POPE!!!!!!!!! Ok, so slight exaggeration, we went to St Peters Square as he had a public appearance at midday! So we got to see our mate Bene XVI :P We also got to eat delicious sandwiches, so delicious we believe they were blessed by God :P

We are staying in M&J Hostel, right near the Termini (Hauptbahnhof) which is awesome, about 10 minutes from the middle of town, yusssssss! We met these Brazilian boys who were staying in our room (three, coincidentally!) Their names are Marcio, Daniel and Giovanni (not so Brazilian...?) AND! They're going to be in Paris for Christmas too! (coincidentally!!) So we're hopefully going to catch up with them there! Crazeeeeeee!


And thus, in two days we're going to Paris, seeing Robert and the beautiful Louvre and Eifle Tower and to eat snails and frogs and wear berés and stuff like that, haha!

By the way, we left Salzburg in the SNOOOOWWWWWWWWWW! It was beautiful but so cold!! We slept overnight on the 12 hour train ride, and had this great conversation in Italian/German with the old fat couple in our compartment :P Kylea and I are doing ok with the "Deutsch lernen" actually!! And we spent most of the first day in Roma speaking German, haha.... so cool!! And Rome hasn't even been cold, except a little at night... So fingers crossed cos i'm going to try and swim when we go to Cinque Terre on the 2nd of Jan!! Hahaha....

OHH!! TWO SMALL WORLD MOMENTS!! The girl at reception here- Rose- is a Kiwi!! She lived in New Plymouth, and Anna's Mom taught her Math in 4th Form! The second, not so cool one is the fact that Davina, a girl from Canada who was here with us for two nights, goes to Alicante University, like Natalia Garcia (our friend from Erasmus...) The third ive already mentioned (how the Brazilian Boys are gonna be in Paris the same time as us!)


Anyway, back to life as a busy Roman, just thought i'd update you on the joys of life in this fine city!

PS The toilet here STINKS thanks to this freaky Indian guy who we think lives in this cupboard (no, seriously!) and the restaurant/bar below us has the coolest old guy with three teeth who makes amazing Panini!! Yussssssssss

PPS Coffee here is fantastic and Anna and I are so super happy, words cant describe.


PPPS Words from Bene-- God Bless, and Kylea, she is cool?

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Motion Graphics...

So!!

We've almost finished all our classes; have a lot of work to get done when we get back, but we had never started Motion Graphics!!

BUT!

Now we have the timetable, and its like- a WHOLE weeks worth of intenso classes- like, 9-7 and 8-6!!!!!!! :( So I will be out of action from the 26 of Jan till the 30th :(

LAAAAAAAAAME

I dont even need the credits!

Bah!

Monday, December 15, 2008

HAMBURG!!!!!!


Had an amazing weekend with Clemens in Hamburg :)

Havent updated this but will when I get the chance. Most of it now will be of photos, but roughly it was drunken the first night, walked through the prostitute street and got yelled at, wandered the beautiful cold streets of Hamburg by day, cooked with Clemens and met his roomy Benedikt, slept in a bed that I 1) didnt hit the wall when i rolled over, and 2) had space to spare!!!! Read lots of time magazines, spoke to Clemens lovely girlfriend Vanessa via skype, had yummy Mexican, Turkish and French food, and miss Clemens already!!!!!!!!!!!

Hamburg by day...






Hamburg bei nacht




Ingestion :P




Weihnachtmarkts!














:)