TravelStream™ news feed for member benleah on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/benleah en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 06 Sep 2009 16:55:23 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/benleah/1/1251575277/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/benleah/1/1251575277/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/benleah/1/1251575277/tpod.html Sun, 06 Sep 2009 16:55:23 -0400 Ben and Leah: Postcards from Strange Places

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Fort Augustus, Scotland, United Kingdom

Our 7th day saw us finally make it into Scotland. I absolutely loved Scotland last time I was here and I was hoping that I would still feel the same this time around. We headed into Glasgow (my least favourite place last time) and after spending a few hours wandering around the town and down to see the Peoples Palace I am pleased to say that I think I was a bit harsh in my opinion of Glasgow the first time around. We had a lovely time there and we saw some beautiful buildings and gardens.Once we left Glasgow we drove up through Glen Coe, The Trossachs and Loch Lomond to get to our Hostel (thanks Michael for donating your accommodation vouchers to us!)in Fort Augustus at the base of Loch Ness. The scenery through Glen Coe is absolutely breathtaking and just as amazing as I remember from last time. The green rolling hills and striking mountains are immensely impressive. Our first full day in Scotland we went and took a look at Loch Ness unfortunately there was no sign of Nessie L we also wandered around and bought some souvenirs before heading through Inverness to Cawdor Castle. This castle was one of the less interesting castles. It was hidden in a mass of trees and was surrounded by beautiful gardens. The exterior was quite plain but pretty and inside you were restricted to walking on set narrow paths as the castle is still occupied for 6 months of the year so you are unable to wander around the castle freely. It also has a mix of décor and furniture that makes it feel more like a stately home and less castle like.Our next stop was Fort George. It is one of the best preserved forts in Europe…mainly because it has never seen any attacks! The Fort was very reminiscent of the Fort in Quebec City, Canada. It is still a working Defence site so some areas are restricted to Army personnel only. Having said that it had some nice views and the replicated living quarters for soldiers during the ages was really interesting. In the very early days one in 100 soldiers were allowed to have their wives live with them and in return for work they were given half rations however their privacy consisted of a canvas curtain to hang across the bed in the room that they shared with 3 other soldiers….hmmm don't think I would have been happy with that arrangement for anyone concerned! Our final stop of the day was to the Culloden Battlefield this one we were a bit sneaky with as when you arrive at the site there is a parking fee as well as an entrance fee into the museum which culminates in a wander through the actual battlefield. However by parking at the front of the long drive and just walking through to the field we helped our budget and it is still informative as they have plaques across the field with information about how the battle took place and the results of archaeological digs in the area. It was a horrible blood thirsty battle where the British slaughtered many Scots (it is estimated to be in the vicinity of 1500-2000) and with this ended the Jacobite rebellion.Our final day in the highlands saw us head back down to the Loch Ness for some photos and the hope we might catch a glimpse of the illusive Nessie. We drove down past Ben Nevis (the highest point in Scotland) and on to the Edradour Scotch Distillery for a tour and some free samples of this local produce. We then meandered on to Doune castle where they filmed Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Another day another castle and yet this one was another on the great castle list and was well presented and had brilliant little nooks, crannies and hidden passageways. It was another castle that lived up to your expectations of a British ruined medieval castle. We arrived in the outskirts of Edinburgh and found the caravan park where we would spend the next couple of nights. Our Scottish fling nearly finished.Ben reports: At last we arrived in the great city of Edinburgh. And what a truly great city it is! In so many ways Edinburgh was how I expected London would be; ancient, dark, historic and flushed with aged detail. Not that London isn't a great city as well; unfortunately the glass façade of commerce has come to interrupt the London skyline, breaking up the old-world authenticity all modern-world citizens dream of. Edinburgh is a truly amazing city, with buildings, which feel like they’d best belong as the backdrop to some Tim Burton masterpiece. The sandstone yellow of the old buildings has been marked artistically by soot and exhaust and industry; yet they’re not blackened to tar – it’s more of a well-lived in city effect, quite beautiful. In short, Edinburgh is a city that looks like it has a story to tell.We started our first morning with a walk through the main park and there, towering above us on a sheer, rocky hill is the impressive Edinburgh Castle. It’s not the most impressive castle in the UK, more it’s the setting and the historical infamy of the castle that’s impressive.We made our way up the incline, into town, through a dark, yet romantic old cobbled side alley. We entered into the main stretch in town known as the 'Royal Mile’. I think the Royal Mile is reputed for it’s density of pubs, but in our experience a more correct assessment would be that the Royal Mile has a solid density of souvenir shops. Really, we love to see the ‘authentic’ parts of cities. So, we ventured in to a number of souvenir shops, ahem, and after having a wee look we ventured up to the Castle. We were lucky to arrive at Edinburgh Castle just as a free tour was starting, with a very spirited Scottish gentleman who spent no less than five minutes rattling off the amazing achievements of various Scots (… we invented television, golf, discovered penicillin…) and so on, only to finish his speech by pointing out that Scots shouldn’t be regarded merely as skirt wearing, drinking louts. It was a very nice speech, really. He also pointed out the many amazing historical events that occurred in Edinburgh Castle, too many to mention (erm, or properly remember). We popped in to the restaurant at the Castle for lunch for our first try of Haggis. Unfortunately, the Castle being a main tourist spot, the restaurant happened to be very expensive so we only ordered an entrée size portion of haggis. Even more unfortunately, this happened to be a posh restaurant so the portion was un-Scottishly puny and rather posh. So, to sum up: it tasted fine but I don’t think it was a ‘real’ haggis experience.Afterwards, we wandered back down onto the Royal Mile and headed to the ‘Mary Kings Close’ Tour. And what an amazing tour it is; it might be best called ‘The Edinburgh Underground Tour’. The tour took us into an old street, long since buried under the construction of the new town hall. Since Edinburgh is on a slope, many of the old streets were heavily sloped, and in modern times have been built on top of. But one street in particular, Mary Kings Close, which has been sealed up since the beginning of the 1900’s, has been preserved. We had to venture below ground to see it, but it was like opening up a perfectly preserved time capsule. The ‘Close’ was a harbinger of dank, horrific and thus entertaining history. Many of the living quarters we entered on the Close were quite terrible: old concrete bunkers, windowless and subterranean, dominated by rats and darkness and cold. It was terrible to think that people had to endure these conditions. There was a rather grim and terrific display about the plague, which ravaged the poor of Edinburgh three times back in the day (the 1500’s I think?) and a great speech by the tour guide about the horrible ways they dealt with plague – having boils in your skin burnt away with hot coals, and the like. There were so many other interesting pieces of ‘horrible history’ to be found in the underground streets; notably the story of how people used to throw their waste out the window, onto the street, to run down the hill into a giant sludge puddle at the bottom (which is now beautiful Edinburgh Park). And we also stood at the doorway of the circa 1900’s house, in which the walls were lacquered with arsenic (not sure why we couldn’t go in…)After the tour it really started to rain, quite heavily. We ducked for cover in a pub, but, as the rain seemed to persist, decided to head back to our campsite. The following day it was time to leave beautiful Edinburgh – one of our favourite cities on the tour so far. It was a shame, because one full day hardly seemed enough. We had one quick interlude on our way out of town, though. There’s a large private school near the centre of Edinburgh named Fettes College – it’s extremely posh looking, with huge iron gates and a driveway longer than the main street of Murray Bridge. This particular private school was significant because its exterior is used in the ‘Harry Potter’ film series as Hogwart’s School. So, Leah being a big fan, we had to stop and take some photo’s. Pretty cool, really. We had a long day of driving ahead of us. First, we wanted to get one last bit of Scottish history, so we ventured to a place called Jedburgh Abbey. This crumbling old Abbey in the south of Scotland is over 1000 years old and an impressive piece of history to behold. The main hall and vestibule is still somewhat in tact, if a little roofless, but this all adds to the effect. After Jedburgh, we had some lunch and continued on. We entered back across the border into English territory, singing ‘God Save the Queen’! in relief at having survived the potentially murderous clans from the north. We drove lengthwise across the top of England to a town called Newcastle. While I’m sure there are many fine galleries, cathedrals and museums in Newcastle, we were only there for a quick visit and one sight: The Angel of the North. For those not in the know, the Angel of the North is a huge metal statue on top of a hill – quite a sight to see as you drive into the city. This impressive statue, set in a field on the edge of town, is made up to look like a naked man in goggles with immense wings attached to his outstretched arms. The statue is all one colour, a sort of rust orange metallic, and its wingspan-width is longer than the statue is tall. Very impressive to see. We then had to head back across to the other side of the country to our campsite in Carlisle. This was a quite short journey of just over one hour, which is quite an interesting fact for a few simple reasons, namely: the part of England we crossed is the shortest section of the country width-wise – hence why (we assume) the Roman’s built a huge wall covering this distance from east to west back in 400 A.D. to keep the Scot’s out (again this we assume). There are still remnants of this immense wall remaining, called ‘Hadrian’s Wall’ after the Roman leader who initiated the wall’s construction. We drove until we were about half way along where the remnants of the wall ran, and we drove up to where we thought we might be able to see some of the remains. Sadly, as things can tend to go regarding tourism in Europe, even a wall that runs nearly the entire width of England isn’t free to see. The wall is in the middle of nowhere, in fields, and the only place we could find to park that would give us access to the wall had a flat parking fee of something like 4 or 5 pounds for the day. Now, no one is going to want to spend an entire day looking at a wall (okay, maybe the Great Wall of China, but that’s an exceptional exception), so why they couldn’t have had smaller hourly car park charges, or, maybe, perhaps even, NO CAR PARK CHARGES!!?? It’s not like the charges are being used for restoration purposes; the wall is completely exposed, not being maintained or monitored. Leah and I could’ve loaded a section of it in our car and driven away if we’d wanted to… anyway, I whinge a bit, sorry… So we saw the wall and it was very old and quite impressive. Obviously a lot smaller than the seven or so metres that used to stand, it was quite crumply and small. But the idea of it is nice.So we finally made it back to our campsite in time to pitch our tent and get a good night sleep. The following day we were off to do something we’d been anticipating for quite a while. We visited a national park in England called the ‘Lakes District’, which often spoken of by our English friends as a beautiful place to go, a ‘must visit’ in England. While they call the Lakes District a national park, it’s interesting to note, size wise, we probably could’ve driven the length and or width of it in less than and hour and a half.
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Windermere, England, United Kingdom

So, we set off to do something we'd been anticipating for quite a while. We visited a national park in England called the 'Lakes District’, which often spoken of by our English friends as a beautiful place to go, a ‘must visit’ in England. While they call the Lakes District a national park, it’s interesting to note, size wise, we probably could’ve driven the length and or width of it in less than and hour and a half. We set off to see the Lakes District, driving down through low mountains and lush greenery. One of the great joys of driving in England is the tiny one lane roads that wind through the tall overhanging arch of trees, past the ancient fields and in between the interweaving shrubs and hedges. The Lakes District afforded us plenty of opportunities to do that and see more of the greenery that is rare to an Australian’s eyes. We started on the outskirts of the District, visiting a circle of standing stones in an isolated field. The stones were, it is theorised, placed on the spot in the field over 3000 years ago by large fore-headed men with stone axes as a sort of pagan calendar. While the stone circle was similar in design to Stonehenge, it wasn’t quite as impressive: the stones were simply in a circle, quite a bit smaller than those at Stonehenge and were taken from the local fields (those at Stonehenge were taken from costal Wales, hundreds of miles away). But it was interesting to see something that was handled by men over 3000 years ago.Next, we drove into the middle of the Lakes District, to a town called Keswick. This is when the roaming beauty of the so-called ‘national park’ took a turn for the worst. Dare I say the words ‘tourist hell’? You know those images you often see in American cartoons where the family decides to have a weekend away; they drive into the ‘countryside’, to the quiet serene lake, only to discover a million people speeding around in cars, boats and caravans, the noise worse than the city and the smog choking the natural surroundings? Well… unfortunately… I can safely say that the roads in this little town were busier than many in central London at times, and at one point it took us nearly five minutes to turn onto one road due to the thicket of traffic speeding by. There was a lovely lake there, some quaint shops and relaxing-looking cafes, and, the thing that Leah had really wanted to see, which was the Beatrix Potter museum. Unfortunately, the one thing we couldn’t find was a car park. Suffice to say, we found a thousand or more car parking spaces, trouble was there were always cars parked in them. So we had no choice, after cruising around for ages, but to leave. Leah was kind of miffed about it all, but we weren’t going to quit yet. We wanted to visit Beatrix Potter’s house, about half an hour away from Keswick, so we drove around, for what seemed like longer than half an hour looking for things like signs and such to find our way to the house. After not finding anything we stopped in a town and asked. Long story short, we found it eventually, quite a bit later than we’d liked. The house was a fair way away from anything, which was good because we were actually able to find a car park and get to the house.It was very cool to see the Beatrix Potter house; she lived there in her later life and purchased the property with hear earnings as a children’s novelist. It was a really idyllic English house with creeping vines and a nice garden and much of the original furniture from the period. You could see the influence the house and garden had on Potter’s work as well. After visiting the house Leah was a little more appeased. It was starting to get late, so we took a drive around some of the aforementioned little one lane roads, weaving through the aforementioned lush greenery. It was all very nice, although not particularly anything we hadn’t seen in other places in the UK. As we headed back to our tent, we surmised that the Lakes District had not lived up to all its pomp and ceremony. But we’d only spent a single day there, so perhaps had not been given a considerable enough look at all the area had to offer. I think we clearly felt frustrated by all the traffic of people, the clogging of cars and tourism; by going to a national park we’d really hoped to be escaping the hustle and bustle.
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Manchester, England, United Kingdom

We headed into Chester the next morning to have a look at this walled city that had been recommended to us by various people. It was a lovely town with plenty of old buildings and quaint shops to look at. We strolled past the excavation of an old Roman Arena and then headed on to Liverpool for the afternoon. Liverpool was a little under whelming. We were caught in an hour long traffic jam on the way in and were left with little time to wander around the city. We couldn't do any of the Beatles stuff as you need to book about a week in advance which we didn’t know until we got there. That night we headed up into the Peake district and spent the night in a caravan park in the area.The next morning we headed into Manchester. We visited the Urbis Centre, the Manchester wheel (a big Ferris wheel) and walked through the Centre. Unfortunately the Modern Art museum was closed that day but we also headed out to see Old Trafford (Manchester United’s home ground) on the way out of town we travelled alongside the Lakes District to make it to a lovely camping spot in Carlisle for the night.
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Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom

Leah says: We set off on the 24th June heading first through traffic filled London to send home our 2 tea chests of accumulated gear back to Adelaide. Once that was sorted we hit the road to head off with the aim of getting to Wales although with no specific destination in mind. Along the way we stopped in at Bristol as Ben had found out about a Banksy art exhibition at the local museum. We discovered Banksy while in England who has become famed as an anonymous graffiti artist whose work is very inventive and often a humorous look at issues in society. The Exhibition was amazing and we spent a good hour and a half wandering around looking at his collaboration with the museum where he had taken over and wreaked havoc on a whole floor of museum artefacts and paintings. (Note: no real artefacts or paintings were ruined in this exhibition. Copies were made for it.) After that we hopped back in the car and headed on to Wales.We found our first camping spot in a little village somewhere near the Brecon Beacons and only down the road from "Alice Springs". We settled in for the night with our newly purchased 20 pound tent from Argos. It was advertised as a 2 person tent....their 2 people must have been of the very petite size and not require luggage space…thank goodness we had the car to store our bags! Overall we had a great night and even had the luxury of a microwave that would work for 7 min in return for 50p. We felt privileged that we could eat warm pasta that evening and had we known this was the only caravan park that had any cooking facilities for the whole 3 weeks we may have used it more and forked out the extra 50p for hot pasta!The next morning we got up nice and early to check out Caerphilly castle, Cardiff, Swansea and some of the coast along the way. It was a great day and Caerphilly castle was really lovely. They are in the process of restoring sections of the castle but much of it is still in a ruinous state which allows you to use your imagination really well. We wandered around Cardiff city centre had a look at the exterior of the Cardiff Castle and the sports stadium as well as trying Welsh cakes at the local market. The Welsh cakes became a staple for the rest of our time in Wales. They are really delicious little flat pancake type cakes full of sultanas and coated in sugar. We headed to Swansea next and were a little disappointed that there wasn't much to do other than walk through the city centre and take a stroll along the beach. It was a good opportunity to purchase some local foods from the markets including Leven bread (a seaweed gloop…not bread at allL), Pork faggots (large meatball type food made with offal), and bread rolls, salad and more Welsh cakes! Our dinner that night was an interesting mix of adventurousness and eventually defeat and resorting to mainly Welsh cakes and port instead of the other local foods.Next morning we woke to more Welsh cakes and apples for breakfast. Today was going to be a big driving day with our aim to drive the Brecon Beacons and make it up to Snowdonia in the north of Wales. Driving the Beacons was truly amazing the scenery was lush and greener than green. The beautiful rolling hills and mountain peaks along with small streams and tiny one lane roads were wonderfully picturesque.We had a look at Carreg Cennen castle which was precariously perched on a mountain. We drove across the Black mountains which were absolutely beautiful and then continued up through the middle of Wales to the Snowdonia National Park. We stopped in a little village called Dolgellau for a wander and quick drink at one of the local pubs. At the pub Ben had the misfortune of trying one of the local 'real’ ales, the warm English beer. I definitely think he didn’t enjoy this beer though, adding to our list of Welsh cuisine we didn’t like. Upon leaving the pub it became apparent that the rain had definitely settled in for a while and we decided to check into a hostel in the nearby town of Bala as we didn’t want to set the tent up in the rain. The hostel was fine although the lady who ran it was slightly rule obsessed and had the amazing ability of making you feel like you were about 12 and incapable. She even had a step by step guide of how to make the bed laminated on the wall of each room. She left us in our private room (there was a few sports teams in town and they had filled in the 20 bed dorms!) with the strict instructions not to touch any of the other 3 beds in our rather cramped 5 bed room. The following morning we got up bright and early and headed out to take a drive through beautiful Snowdonia National Park. We passed through Porthmadog ( a lovely little town with an old steam railway) and drove along the coast a little before heading up to the Isle of Anglesey and to the Guiness Book of world record holding town for the longest place name called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. We stopped and did the tourist thing of a passport stamp and had a bit of a wander around looking for our usual souvenirs of a magnet for Ben and a shot glass for me.From here we headed on further to what would end up being our favourite place called Conwy and to visit Conwy Castle. This was a typical town of cobbled streets quaint buildings and old city walls encompassing the main town centre. Conwy castle is what you would expect of any medieval castle. Being the only UNESCO world heritage listed castle in Wales it was built in the early 1200’s and its blackened stone construction looms over the walled town with its high turrets and towers. Its restoration has been done well to allow visitors to see the crumbling walls and yet functional enough to let you climb to the top of the impossibly tall turrets to scope out the view across the town and water that surrounds it. It truly was an amazing place to visit and I think we took about 200 photos to prove it ;)From Conwy we continued on our travels across the north coast of Wales with the shocking realisation that our hopes for a lovely coastal drive were not to be realised as the whole area feels like an endless sea of caravan sized metal boxes that are in fact holiday homes broken up only by tacky entertainment parks. We had trouble finding a place to camp this night (we had hoped a quiet beach spot may have been found but obviously not in North Wales) and after driving around for at least 2 hours and arriving at one place that had closed its reception 30 mins before we arrived at 7pm and another that hadn’t been open for at least 6 months according to length of the waist high grass and the pile of rubble that had been placed in the driveway entrance. We finally found a place that was another 30 min drive away that would accept us for the night and it was at this time that it started to rain a little. By the time we found the park it was absolutely chucking it down and we had to put our poor little tent up in less than ideal weather. I think Ben was ready to forget the whole camping idea by this stage but we persevered and everything was only a little damp by the time we got it all organised. Luckily we slept well and the rain cleared for the rest of the evening.
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Toronto, Ontario, Canada

As previously mentioned... we will upload photo's from Toronto when we get access to our discs... chill... it will happen soonish...Ben says: Canada's largest and most famous city is Toronto. A few hours west of the Frenchier Montreal, and only an hour north of the USA, Toronto provided us a relaxing respite from our rigorous travels. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; We moved through Toronto on no less than three occasions, between heading to Niagara twice and visiting Leah’s old summer camp at Orillia up north. We spent the bulk of our time, about four or five days straight in Toronto, after returning from Niagara the first time. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In size, Toronto seems smaller than Sydney but still quite big, maybe around the size of Melbourne. We had few preconceptions about what Toronto would be like, except the idea that it was Canada’s main city, on the English-speaking side of things anyway. And so, we were pleasantly surprised.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; We stayed in a very large hostel, the Canadiana, which was excellent, the ideal hostel with lots of people around, lots of things to do and a free BBQ for dinner one night. There was a group of young Aussie’s there, talking loudly in some strange, flat nasally accent, sounding a bit like a tone deaf American accent, but we didn’t end up fraternising with them. Really, the Aussie accent sounds so odd when you don’t hear it for a long time. It’s surprising, almost like a take-off of the accent, and there was something about the way I heard one of them say, 'Aw, yea, and then hi gawt cayned’ that left me with a feeling of cultural cringe. But I miss the laid back drawl of the accent, I really do!&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Anyway, we spent our first full day in Toronto, wandering around the city. It’s a pretty large city centre, ordinary and well-organised but I guess we’ve seen a few now. They had an excellent mall and a lot of really interesting niche shops. I spent some time buying up at my new favourite clothes brand, the Canadian owned ‘Roots’ brand. (Funny, I’ve never had a favourite clothing brand before. I guess travelling the world opens up your perceptions… your perceptions of fashion!) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The following day, after having gotten a sense of the city, we ventured to Toronto’s immense space needle, the ‘CN Tower’, which is the worlds tallest freestanding tower. It is 553 metres tall (or 1815 feet for you imperialists [or 553 meters for you Canadian’s]), which is over half a kilometre tall, which is really quite a lot if you sit and think about it. Fortunately, we didn’t have to sit and think about it, we got to see it first hand and were very overawed. In the end, though, we didn’t go to the top of the tower as it would have cost us $21.00 each, and our funds were fast depleting and it seemed like something we’d done before (see our blogs on tower climbing in Tokyo, New York and Sydney). &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; About five minutes away from the CN Tower, and the huge baseball stadium that is home to Toronto’s baseball team, is the Steam Whistle Brewery. This brewery is very new and only makes one beer: The Steam Whistle Pilsner. We walked in to this round barrel shaped building and the girl at the bar poured us a drink straight away. Good start, really. Either, they know how to entertain in Toronto, or she could tell we were Australian. We paid for a tour (only $7.00 each, with a free beer at the end and a free souvenir glass. Good value) and we were hence taken on an extremely interesting brewery tour. That’s right, that’s what I said: it was an <i style="">interesting brewery tour. It is possible.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The girl running the tour took us through the bottling plant, the brewery offices and through the whole story of how the company came about. It was an interesting story, about three men who were working boring, blue-collar jobs, but then quit their jobs to pursue a dream – the dream of owning a brewery made in their own grand image. The reason the tour was so interesting probably came down to the fact that Steam Whistle was still quite small. It wasn’t a huge operation like Fosters or Heineken, so we didn’t get the ‘façade’ tour; we got to see the whole company, every honest inch. We even got to see desk of the company presidents (the owners), all the machinery that makes the beer, bottles it, labels it etc. The details of the business made it interesting, and the transparency made it authentic. Being that there were only four of us on the tour made it more relaxed and personal as well. Anyone who criticises brewery tours probably has just been on the wrong ones (or doesn’t like beer, which is fine too.) So we left with our souvenir glasses and headed back into Toronto town for a wander. Admittedly, our drive and energy to see everything we possibly could on this trip was waning a little. Although to be fair, Toronto is a place that seems like it would be great to live more than tour.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The next day we got back on the tourist wagon and headed to Toronto’s historic ‘Casa Loma’, an old historic mansion house that sits atop the city on a hill. Casa Loma interprets as ‘House on a Hill’, and is the dream home of one of Toronto’s great pioneers, Sir Henry Pellatt. Pellatt’s story itself is quite fascinating. While he was young he was an athlete, a successful runner, who won an important mile race in the 1870’s. After retiring from running he joined his father in a brokerage firm, and successfully made a series of investments that lead to his gaining a great fortune. He invested in rail travel to the poorly settled central states of Canada, he was one of the first people in the world to invest in electricity and he bought electric light to Toronto, with the first public street lamps. He was also a member of the Queen’s Own Rifles, a military group, for which he was knighted in 1905. He built the house as part of a dream, a very expensive dream, in fact. The initial proposed cost was about $200,000, which eventually ballooned out to over $3 million – proposed - the house was never finished, fully, although what is there is impressive. We hopped on the subway and after getting about half way to Casa Loma, we realised that we’d forgotten both our cameras. That’s not like us. We decided we couldn’t be bothered going all the way back, so we bought a disposable camera from a drug store (they really call them drug stores over there! I suppose that’s what they sell, so…) sadly, despite using up all 24 shots from the camera at Casa Loma, we came out with a bunch of awful shots and realised why digital technology is so awesome. We eventually found the place, a beautiful castle-style mansion on large grounds above Toronto. When I say ‘above’, I mean on top of a hill, not hovering in the sky above Toronto - In case you were confused. This impressive house looks like all those mansions you see in British murder mysteries, with a ballroom, a cool library, even a beautiful white and black tiled conservatory. I was almost expecting Professor Plum to be stalking the hallways with the lead piping. We walked around the place, and soon discovered that there was even a long underground tunnel from the house that lead to the horse stable and garage. This particular tunnel even ran under a main road and was quite cold and icy, considering its lack of insulation. We saw a movie in the ‘movie room’ that told the Henry Pellatt story, and his passionate development of Casa Loma. Pellatt’s story unfortunately drew to a sad conclusion. Pellatt paid for and developed the hydro electric plant at Niagara, giving Toronto a cheap renewable source of energy. The Canadian government decided that this power should be privatised, for the benefit of the people, and took the plant from Pellatt and thus all his investment earnings. Pellatt had much of his money in a bank that went bust and so he was left with nearly nothing aside from his house. He managed to cling on to the house for quite a while, but eventually the government threatened to bankrupt him for what he owed on the house and take away his knighthood. Since Pellatt loved being ‘Sir’ Henry Pellatt so much, he gave up the house to keep his knighthood, and went to live in some crappy two story house that he didn’t even own. I guess he was a very proud man, proud of his name and his image, and I guess he had reason to be. Casa Loma is now run by the Kiwanis Club and is open to the public to visit. At least this has given Torontoites a chance to learn about and appreciate one of their most important historical figures. After our visit to Casa Loma our time in Toronto was almost over. I’ve since heard that it gets so cold in winter in Toronto that they have an underground shopping mall so the people of Toronto don’t have to go outside. I’m kind of disappointed I didn’t see any sight of this, or even hear about it, but we enjoyed the feel of Toronto. It seemed like a lively city with a lot of character, a place where you could live and never get bored. It was sad we had to leave.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/benleah/1/1249201928/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/benleah/1/1249201928/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/benleah/1/1249201928/tpod.html Sun, 02 Aug 2009 04:46:45 -0400 Ben and Leah: Postcards from Strange Places

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Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada

Ben Reporting:The moderate-sized town of Niagara is located about an hour south of Toronto. It's an ordinary little town, quaint and quiet - aside from its main tourist attraction at the town’s edge; the Niagara Falls. The Falls sit on the border between Canada and the USA, so much so that when you look across the divide you can see the tourists on the American side looking at the same thing you are. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; There are actually two falls at Niagara, both within a visible distance from each other. One, the most famous, is a majestic horseshoe-shaped waterfall located on a bend in the river. The other is located down the river slightly, and is a straight 'curtain’ falls created by a river that comes from the American side. So the better view of the falls is, fortunately for us, from the Canadian side where you can view the waterfall on the American side from straight on, and the horseshoe falls from right up close. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; We arrived at our hostel, which ranks perhaps as our best so far, along with the hostel we stayed in at Anchorage, Alaska (and not including when we occasionally ‘splashed out’ at pricier hotels). Our host was extremely friendly and was very eager to tout all of the benefits of the town of Niagara and the surrounding regions and gave us some great ideas about what else we do while there. And, because we were a couple he upgraded us to a double room at the same price as a dorm room – go Lyons House Hostel!&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; So we ventured out because it was a Sunday night and they let off fireworks over the falls every Sunday night. We were lucky to have arrived there on the right day. There was also an electric storm going on when we arrived, with grey skies turning to a romantically blue slate dusk and pitchfork lightning giving the town a really intense feel. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The main street of Niagara, leading down to the falls, has been set up as a place to entertain the tourists, so it looks a bit like a miniature Las Vegas with plenty of neon, cool-looking buildings and things to entertain the kiddies. There were, no kidding, four wax museums, a ‘Ripley’s Believe it or Not’, a Guinness Book of Records museum, two mini golf courses, an arcade and a Ferris Wheel, to name a few of the attractions. You know, just in case staring at a water fall can’t keep you entertained for a whole week. Smart Canadians. &nbsp;So we enjoyed watching the fireworks over the falls, even though it was almost too dark to see the falls really well, and had a burger at our new favourite fast food jaunt Wendy’s. The next day we ventured out again to see the Falls in broad daylight. It was a perfect day, beautiful and hot, not a cloud in the sky. Niagara’s Falls are a remarkable spectacle; especially the horseshoe fall’s a powerful force to see. When you stand up close, at the very point where the water flows over, you get a really good view of how terrifically fast the water rushes by. It’s an amazing view, and you can stand literally right next to the overflow point and lean over the not-too-high concrete barrier and stare down at the thousands of litres of water that race by every hour, and it’s scary to think about how much water flows by and down and away so quickly and yet never runs out. Watching the sheer quantity of water flooding over, it impressed upon us the seemingly endless size of the world around. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; We spent a fair amount of time ‘Falls gazing’ and then went to see a new Niagara Falls ‘interactive experience’, which had only just started running. The experience was a sort of theme park ride where you stand in a room with 360 degree screen showing you footage of Niagara Falls. Water, fake snow and cold air get blown at you to increase the experience. We were both under-whelmed by the experience, but we did buy a cool set of hockey puck-shaped playing cards. We both agreed they needed to intensify things a fair bit. We were interviewed for an article in the local rag about the new experience, which you can view online here (our flattering comments are near the bottom of the article).&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The following day, we decided to spend some time on entertainment street, and bought a pass which let us visit a number of different places (i.e. the Ferris wheel, mini golf, arcade etc). This kept us occupied for a whole day to the point were we realised we hadn’t take the boat ride into the Falls on the famous ‘Maid of the Mist’ tour. We decided then that we liked the place so much that we would come back again after our trip up to Orillia. (See our blog on Orilla… right… seen it? Okay, skip forward a couple of days and we’re back in Niagara.)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; So we arrived back and stayed again at the same hostel which, did I mention, was great and only a five minute walk from Niagara Falls. We had a hire car this time so we could explore the area a bit more.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It started raining heavily, meaning that in the three or so days we’d been a Niagara we’d seen almost every weather condition aside from snow. We headed down to a small town called ‘Niagara-on-the-Lake’, and stopped at a number of Canadian wineries on the way (yes, they have wineries in Canada! See our previous blog on British Columbia – our good fortune that we happened to visit the two main wine regions of Canada in our five week stay.) The designated driver did a very good job and didn’t go over board with their sampling of wine (thanks Leah), and we even bought a couple of bottles. We both particularly enjoyed the syrupy sweet taste of Canada’s trademark ‘Ice Wine’ where the grape is picked from the vine while still frozen from snow.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Then, we stopped off at the hydro electric plant, which was not that interesting to look at, and then down the road a little further stopped at a naturally occurring whirlpool. I know a ‘whirlpool’ sounds really exciting, but really it’s just a sharp bend in the river where the water slows, pools and spins in small groups of circles, intermittently. From the heightened distance from which we viewed this naturally occurring phenomenon, it looked like the effect you make when you sit down quickly in a bathtub. It was a bit of a let down, not like the cartoon whirlpools that come to mind when you head the word whirlpool – you know, the one’s that used to suck Bugs Bunny down into the ocean in a twirl of dramatic spinning. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; We headed on to the small town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, a pretty town that reminded me of Hahndorf, due to it’s abundance of cute knick-knack stores that sell interesting aprons and pastries. It was an idyllic little town, with well-ordered houses, perfect gardens and nice, neat streets. We wandered for a while and even bought a new bag to carry the ever growing collection of souvenirs we’d accumulated, but the rain returned with persistence so we headed back to Niagara. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In the end, it rained for the rest of the day and we never did get to go on the Maid of the Mist, into the bowels of Niagara Falls. After two trips to Niagara! But we didn’t mind, we had fun and saw a lot of the area so we didn’t feel too stricken. Leah had been on the Maid of the Mist on a previous visit to the Falls anyhow. So we left Niagara the next day, having enjoyed a fun and relaxing aside to our journey. Sure, it wasn’t a hugely cultural experience, unless you consider the Hard Rock Café to be a harbinger of culture, but it was fun and relaxing and we were at the tiring end of our trip anyway. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Our trip was almost over and we had only to drive back to Toronto, pick up my UK working Visa from the hostel where we’d had it mailed, before boarding a plane to London. It would be our sixth country, our fourth continent and my first look at our new home for the next twelve months. Bring it!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/benleah/1/1248730177/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/benleah/1/1248730177/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/benleah/1/1248730177/tpod.html Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:34:52 -0400 Ben and Leah: Postcards from Strange Places

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Montreal, Quebec, Canada

*Apologies for the lack of photographs, but we have had to burn many to disc and delete from our computer to save space. Photo's will be added in the near future.*Ben Reporting: We arrive in Montreal the week of the Grand Prix. That being considered the city seems surprisingly subdued. We've almost come to the end of the French leg of our Canadian journey, although Montreal doesn’t feel any less French than the supposedly more French Quebec. Everyone around the city speaks French all the time and it’s really quite surprising to hear such a language spoken in a place like North America. We spend about four days in Montreal. By this point in the journey our budget is shrinking and we are tiring a little, so from Montreal to Toronto I admit we’re a little less inspired to pack the days full of activity.The hostel we stay at is fantastic, specifically because we get our own private room and our own shower and toilet! Holy cow that doesn’t happen very often. They even have free breakfast, although it’s just toast every day and by the last day the bread is the same as that which was available the first and hence has gone stale. We wander around the city centre for a while, getting a feel for the place. It’s a nice city; modern and clean, but not cold and antiseptic. It’s particularly green with a lot of trees and parks, though the main centre doesn’t stick in one’s mind too much. We wander to the city outskirts where we find Montreal’s main public park.Mont Royal is a huge 101 hectare park, the peak of which is the cities highest point. And so, starting at the bottom of the park, we 'hike’ up to the top. I can say hike, because by the time we’re half way up Leah needs a lung transplant and I’m as sweaty as Pat Rafter half-way through the first set. It’s quite humid, in our defence. And, more the point, the park is steep. It’s so steep, in fact, that for much of the climb there’s stairs, since clambering up a 90 degree incline for most people would cease to make it seem like a park and more like a rock climbing expedition. It makes you wonder doesn’t it? Why put a major city park on such an incline? You can’t bring your kids to Mont Royal for a kick of the football; you’d spend most of the afternoon rolling down the hill to retrieve the ball. And it’s not like we aren’t unfit – we’ve each just lugged two heavy backpacks most of the way across North America. Anyway, when we finally reach the summit, the views are amazing; even if the appreciation is induced largely by a jogger’s adrenalin high. The following day we catch a train to Montreal’s outskirts to visit a place called ‘The Biodome’. For those of you who aren’t well-versed in the films of Pauly Shore, a Biodome is a large building (dome shaped, obviously) that is designed to house a number of different synthetic ecosystems. For example, one space is of tropical conditions, and another forest-like.Each area of the biodome has its own ‘created’ environment, with trees, birds and animals typical of that ecosystem. The first area is a tropical space, which has walkway leading through a thick rainforest of trees. There are some very brightly coloured birds; some monkey’s running around in the trees, and some cool plaques describing animals that we can’t actually see because they’re hiding in the undergrowth. We move through to a rainforest and then a marine climate, where we see a lively pool-full of otters. Personally, I love watching otters; they’re like primary school children all drunk on red cordial, excited and running around with a great nervous energy. Somewhere along the line we saw some crocodiles as well (I can’t remember which ecosystem they were in; I guess I didn’t learn much there, did I?)We finally end up in an arctic ecosystem, although this is actually just two mini areas with penguins behind glass cages. The penguins are quite impressive, though; docile and yet intriguing in their size and variety. These aren’t the fairy penguins we’re used to seeing; they’re very large, with interesting features and piercing eyes. So overall the biodome is like nothing I’d seen before. And yet like everything. It was the biodome concept, the swift changes of ecosystems that made it interesting and memorable. Oh, and Leah would probably like me to mention there were some interesting coloured frogs, since she is quite fond of frogs. After our day at the biodome, we ventured to the Montreal Planetarium, yet another dome-building ‘extravaganza’, where moving images of the night sky are projected onto a domed ceiling. I must say if you ever get the opportunity to visit a real and proper Planetarium; do it! Don’t hesitate and think about it. I admit it doesn’t sound that exciting on paper, looking at a projection of the stars on a ceiling. You might ask: Ben, why wouldn’t I just go outside my own house at night and stare up at the sky, thus avoiding the $12 entry fee? Well, I will ignore the clear contemptuousness in your tone and reply: Because, the Planetarium is like looking at the night sky, but turned up to eleven.Honestly, if there were a (decent) Planetarium in Adelaide I would visit often. The show we saw took us through the depths of space, showing us a close-up version of our own solar system in bright and sweeping detail. The projection on the domed-room also gave the show a more dimensional quality, such that we didn’t feel like we were looking at a flat projection on a screen. Plus, the lack of light pollution you’d usually experience looking at the night sky, along with the movement of the images and the commentary… well, you wouldn’t get all that from standing in your backyard. The rest of our time in Montreal was reasonably quiet. The last thing of note that we did was to visit an awesome poutine café near our restaurant. For those who don’t know, poutine is an almost exclusively Canadian dish which involves the pouring of gravy and cheese curd over chips. It doesn’t sound like much - in fact it sounds like something you’d buy from an alley after a solid night’s drinking. But this particular café we visited took the traditional poutine to the next level. There was a lengthy menu which offered poutine in a number of different varieties: Mexian, pizza, bolognaise, chicken, German sausage… to name a few. Let me tell you, if cheap, greasy fast-food is going to ever be in the ballpark of ‘gourmet’, then this is it. We gorged on our poutine meals and left satisfied by the high quality of the low-quality style food.And hence our Montreal adventure was over. On, then, to Toronto.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/benleah/1/1248729967/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/benleah/1/1248729967/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/benleah/1/1248729967/tpod.html Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:29:26 -0400 Ben and Leah: Postcards from Strange Places

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Quebec City, Quebec, Canada

*Please note: due to lack of space on our computer we've had to burn to disc and delete photo's from our hard drive. More photo's will be added later.*Leah says: Quebec City was just as gorgeous as I remember. It is a very quaint very French city with beautiful buildings and sections of cobbled streets.We spent a full day in Quebec wandering around. We looked at stalls selling artwork and craft. We wandered down to the excavation of the original palace rooms. This was an exhibition that had been set up to commemorate the 400 year anniversary of the founding of the city. We took a tour of the old fort which is still used by Army personnel today. We walked around the walls of the old city, racing up the stairs to the top of the wall. Quebec City is the only walled city with fortified walls left in North America above Mexico.Finally we retired to our lovely little guest house room which was very central and in keeping with the quaint surroundings. The following morning we headed off to the train station and continued our journey on to Montreal.
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Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

*Please note: apologies due to lack of photo's but we have had to burn to disc and wipe from our computer due to space issues. We will add more in the near future!*Leah Says: So after leaving the bright lights of Time Square behind us, we headed off to the airport. It was the one time we were offered $200 dollars each to take a later flight as they had overbooked this one. However also for the first time on this trip we had someone picking us up from the airport. Jo was a friend of mine from camp when I was in Canada in 2005 and she had kindly offered up her hospitality for our arrival in Halifax. It was great to see her at the airport and she took us back to her house where we settled in with her cat and dog for extra company.We had a wonderful time checking out Halifax. It had so many of those wonderful Canadian qualities and yet seemed really relaxed even by Canada’s standards. During our time we managed to squeeze in sightseeing time as well as relaxation and sorting out Ben’s Visa. Ben’s UK visa had been an ongoing problem however we had left it until this point to reapply and hopefully get the working holiday visa granted without having to change our travel plans again. With Jo’s help Ben made it to his Visa appointment to have his biometric data taken again. It was then time to wait with our fingers crossed that we would be able to get the approved visa and Ben’s passport back before our flight to London in three weeks!We spent some time wandering around the Halifax city centre and checked out the local Alexander Keith’s Brewery. It was one of the most interesting brewery tours I have been on. The whole tour was led by actors in period costume in character of when the brewery opened. That and the generous free taste testings made it a highlight!We also spent an evening watching a final of an Ice hockey game with pizza and beer at the local Boston Pizza. A night out at the movies to see Indiana Jones 4: Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls. Another day trip was spent at Peggy’s Cove a beautiful little sea side village with a picturesque lighthouse and an old-world feel about it. A good portion of our time in Halifax seemed to be spent relaxing and sorting out the rest of our time in Canada. We had to organise a rail pass and also some way of getting from Halifax to Quebec where our rail pass would actually become valid! That is no small feat when you consider that it is a 14 hour bus ride that got in at 3am *groan* and car hire was well over $1000 for a 24 hour hire at the time of year we were there! We caught a lucky break though and managed to wrangle returning a car back to Quebec for only $200 the only thing was we were on a waiting list to see if the car would be returned in time for us to get to Quebec. Luckily at the last minute we received confirmation that the car would be brought in the night before we had to leave so we would be able to drive and save an incredibly uncomfortable bus ride.It was with a tinge of sadness that we left our comfy set-up with Jo in the early afternoon but also anticipation of our next adventure. We managed, with Jo’s directions, to safely drive across the states of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and finally into the very large state of Quebec where all the road signs and the main language switch to French. There’s nothing like needing to drive around to make you learn basic French very quickly! We gladly made it to our booked guesthouse within the old walled section of Quebec around 10:00pm and slept soundly until our early wake up the next morning.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/benleah/1/1209264720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/benleah/1/1209264720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/benleah/1/1209264720/tpod.html Fri, 01 May 2009 12:45:40 -0400 Ben and Leah: Postcards from Strange Places

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Malibu, California, United States

Ben Reporting: We return on the bus from Las Vegas to Los Angeles after a six-hour trip, at about 4 pm. We have no place to stay, which isn't too unusual, and no plan except to get to San Francisco. At the Los Angeles Union Train Station, where we get dropped off, we try to access the Internet to get a look at flights to San Francisco, or maybe look at even getting a hire car. Strangely, Los Angeles' main train station doesn't seem to have any Internet access, despite the fact that we're dead in the middle of L.A. only minutes from the Beverly Centre, the cities big shopping centre. So, we find a couple of rent-a-car centres, get some quotes, and get a ridiculously good quote on a car for three days from Budget rent-a-car, which we can drop off at San Francisco airport. At around 5:30 pm on a weekday evening, then, we find ourselves in a nice blue Dodge, flying along amongst a thousand other cars on the L.A. freeway, which is an experience in itself. I've heard many scary experiences of people driving on big city highways in the U.S., of many cars flying in unnamed directions and of missing sudden exits and getting horribly lost - but we found our way pretty easily. Once we got on the right freeway, going in the right direction, we joined the masses of cars flying home for the night on the eight-lane, two-way motor monstrosity. The American highway is actually a very good invention, getting you from one place to another without having to worry about overtaking slow-coach drivers or dragging your heels through slack-jawed 30 mph limited country towns. At about 6:30 pm we find ourselves in Malibu, which is the first main town out of LA on the coast, and so we decide to stop for the night. The lonely planet guide tells us that Malibu is the home of such celebrities as Tom Hanks and "Babs" Streisand, but we aren't there for celebrity spotting, we're just glad that we find a decent motel that isn't overpriced and has an unused outdoor spa. Malibu is a nice beach spot, similar to the beach town of Torquay in Victoria, or maybe Victor Harbour in SA (but nicer due to the high value of real estate). Courtney Love wrote a song about this place, and it's hard to imagine her and Kurt Cobain frolicking on these beaches with their sad, drugged-out eyes and bleach-blonde hair, but I guess that was a long time ago, when they were just people and not weird super-real celebrity legends as they are now. After our night in Malibu, we head out of town and try to get a few photos, but the beaches are mostly inaccessible, it seems, privatised giving access only to the people who own beach front property. The one road we went down that advertised beach access just ran parallel with the beach for about two miles, like some sad rich-mans tease. Give me Semaphore any day. We take off down the Californian coast and veer off from highway 101 to highway 1, which takes longer but follows the coast. It's a sunny day, perfect for a coastal drive, and we soon discover that the Californian coast has plenty to offer. After driving a while between ocean and hills, we reach a town called Cambria, which is the last town along the coast for 115 kilometres before we meet the well-known area of coastal California known as Big Sur. The journey from Cambria to Big Sur is quite breathtaking. The whole distance sees tough, winding roads, with cliffs leading down to the Pacific Ocean on the left, and tall, rolling hills on the right. It's a difficult road to drive on, but rewarding with some brilliant views of hilly fields and timeless rocks. The stretch is comparable to the Great Ocean road in Victoria, especially that 30 - 40 km section leading up to the town of Lorne (in Vic). Pride makes me happy to report that the Great Ocean road is slightly more spectacular, the beaches more golden and the rocky sections more beautiful than this still impressive section of the Californian coast. What the Victorian stretch lacks is the rolling hills and the greenness, for some portion, at least, until you reach the amazing rainforests. Then the contest is more or less over. We do make one incredible discovery though. As we drive, there is a sign that reads "Elephant Seal Bay". Leah asks me with puppy dog eyes, "Can we stop at that bay". I find myself thinking, come on, its just a name, there probably isn't any Elephant Seals... So we stop and, of course, littered across the beach are close to one hundred Elephant Seals. We head out of the car to see the amazing sight, I haven't had the fortune to see wild Seals since Kangaroo Island over 12 years ago, and this is quite beautiful to see. As we lean over the barrier something moves in the bushes in front of us... a quick, nimble... little... squirrel! I think, perhaps, the first squirrel I've ever seen in person. Wow, this is much better than Tom Hanks or Courtney Love! After being awed by the adorable squirrel as it nibbles at the bush just in front of us (I suspect it was trying to milk some food out of us using the 'cute factor') we turn our attention to the seals. These majestic creatures slouch on the sand, sunning themselves and flipping sand on their malting rotundness when they get too hot. It's an incredible sight, watching so many seals lazing around doing nothing - and I'm not being sarcastic. See the pics attached. After some seal gazing, then, it was back onto the long and winding road. Finally, after what seems like an eternity of windy roads and impressive views, we reach Big Sur, a section of national park, which the Red Hot Chilli Peppers sang about in their song 'Road Trippin'. The area is famous for it's Ocean views, which are amazing, and for its forests of towering Sequoia trees. And, I'm sure, for the few humble abodes that offer accommodation in a pleasant natural setting; there are no five-star hotels here. We try to get access to the Big Sur national park but there's a charge and it's about 4:30 pm so we'd only have ½ an hour. As we leave the park, we realise that the trees all around us at the park entrance and down the main road of Big Sur are the mighty Sequoia's that we've heard about, and that, in actual fact they aren't all that impressive. They're not what you'd necessarily term 'mighty' but they are biggish, I guess. So the Sequoia's were around us all the time! I guess you could say we didn't see the forest for the trees! ... Umm... anyway...We venture on beyond Big Sur and leave the incredible flat, vast horizon that is the Pacific Ocean behind us. The Californian coast is yet another amazing piece of nature to be experienced first hand, despite our sometime sense of under-whelming. We arrive in a town called Seaside near Monterrey, and find a motel that is cheap, and has free WIFI Internet, and we are happy to make camp for the evening. We eat at Wendy's, which is an American hamburger place that makes the best cheap take-away burgers we've both experienced. The funny thing about Wendy's is that they have a 'famous' half-pounder hamburger, which must be copyright and thus explains why McDonald's has the quarter pounder and the double quarter pounder but not the more logical half pounder. Ahem, anyway, too much philosophising on take-away food - don't worry mum, we're eating well, fruit every day etc etc... We spend an extra full day in Seaside, just because we need a break from all of this constant moving around from one place to the next. We take some time to wash our clothes at the local Laundromat, which is always a relief, and we take some time to blog. Somehow the day goes by in a flash and nothing seems to get done - it's a bit like a Sunday really, although the days blend into each other now that we're on the road. We have dinner at the Black Bear Diner, which is a really nice place that has fantastic soup and sells toy black bears. The following day we're off again, to San Francisco. Check back for the next instalment for that one. I can say that the trip along the Californian Coast was another beautiful journey through landscape I'm glad that I'm alive and able to see. It makes me long to travel the Great Ocean Road again, though and I recommend that journey to anyone who hasn't yet taken it. Anyway, see ya'll in San Francisco, the home of the best Clam Chowder in the U.S.A.
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