TravelStream™ news feed for member killucan2 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/killucan2 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 21 Sep 2007 11:06:35 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1179256140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1179256140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1179256140/tpod.html Fri, 21 Sep 2007 11:06:35 -0400 Killucan2 on the road

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Bremen, Germany

This morning we left Hamburg nice and early and made our way to the nicest city we have been to in Germany yet ( my opinion only) ......... Bremen which is just over 130km south west of Hamburg !! I am a little ashamed not to have very much information on the city but as we are only here for about 18hrs on route to The Netherlands I didnt get much time to research it !! We arrived around lunchtime and just checked into a hostel and then I rode around the city for three or four hours just taking some pictures and enjoying a small bit of sunshine at last !! The city itself is very small but is packed with little green parks with lakes and water falls and has some of the oldest and most beautiful buildings in Germany. today I really appreciated how great it is to have a bike in a city as you can fly around and see all the sights without worrying about traffic etc !! Oh one thing I did find out about Bremen is that it is the home of the brand of beer Becks !! So thats all about Bremen now I must run and sample at least one bottle of Becks as it would be rude to come all the way here not to !!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1179168240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1179168240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1179168240/tpod.html Tue, 15 May 2007 15:07:33 -0400 Killucan2 on the road

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Hamburg, Germany

After all of our troubles so far we made hamburg finally on Sunday afternoon at 1pm and immediately sought out an Irish bar we had found online called "The Irish Rover" because it advertised live coverage of the Irish gaelic football championship and our team were playing at 3pm !! After 30 minutes riding around one of the cleanest and most scenic cities that I have ever seen in Europe we found our bar but unfortunately it was not even open !! We composed ourselves and phoned a hostel, then after securing a room we dropped off our bags and hoped the bar would open before we got back. Arriving back at 2:45pm to our horror it was still shut , so it was off again until we found "Finnegans Irish bar" ........... yeah I know theres always an Irish bar somewhere when you need one !! The girl behind the bar told us gaelic games take precedent here and so we got to watch our game to the disgust of about 40 german and english Man Utd and West Ham supporters who wanted to watch the climax to the premiership at the same time !! So we supped on guinness and bulmers cider and ate bacon and sausage sandwiches while the rest of the bar fumed at us and asked us to switch off the "rugby" but we would not budge, so maybe we got our just deserts when Westmeath lost the football !! After the game we went back to the Irish Rover and found it open and met the owner......... an irish guy named Aidan and were informed of the session - an Irish music session that would be taking place from "10 till late" !! So already being well on the road to drunkeness we decided to grab a shower and come back out again and rode very wobbly back to the hostel where we met our roomies .......... 2 sleeping Swiss girls who we rudely disturbed and gamely attempted to talk them or should I say "slur" them into joining us in the bar !!! After promising to follow us there ( we now know it was a cunning ploy to get rid of us) we made our way back and had a great laugh drinking beer and "Kilbeggan whiskey" until 3am until we couldnt drink anymore ............ but we were celebrating being exactly 6 months on the road !!Next morning we were a little embarrased talking to the girls and made a quick getaway to see the many great sights of Hamburg, and had an early night and didnt do anything to worsen the image we had given of Irish lads to the lovely people of Switzerland !!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1179153720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1179153720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1179153720/tpod.html Mon, 14 May 2007 11:34:00 -0400 Killucan2 on the road

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Hamburg, Germany

We managed to make our way to the Brandenburg gate on Wed morning bright and early and start our "historic" ride across northern europe !! When I say bright what I mean is one of the few moments of dry weather we got this week, but we started out and thought maybe 60-70km would be a good first day as we are not really bike riders !! We had asked our more experienced friend Tim's advice and he told us that the only thing to make sure of is a good pair of padded bike shorts, so we had these and felt ready to take on the world !!The first 20km were in the city limits and I thought we would never be out in the countryside but eventually we seen some green and then the fun started !!We knew hills were never really going to be too much of a problem and thats how it turned out but we did not realise how windy it was going to be and the first clue was all of the wind farms we started to encounter as we made our way north west !! As you can expect the wind has been a headwind all the way which when you have 30kg of gear on your bike ( never decide what you need to bring while blind drunk at 6am) takes a lot of the fun out of the ride !! Looking at the map we thought the first campsite we would reach was 70km from Berlin and optimistically we aimed for it, but as it turned out at 70km we saw the roadsigns for Weineberg still said 30km to go and having no other option we went for it. ariving at the campsiteour speedometer read 102km which for a first day we were thrilled with even if it took us all day to achieve !!We made camp and cooked up some "lovely" dinner ......... rice with onions and lots of peppers and at 10pm were already soundly sleeping and prepared for another 100km tomorrow !!At 5am we were awoken by torrential rain which never stopped all day long so we were confined to our campsite for the day with nothing to do except read a book and cook more food and plan for the next day hoping for better weather !! Day 3 was slightly better and we made our way to the next stop which was a campsite at a town called Lanzen and it took us only 4 hours to ride 89km which we were really impressed with. We set up the tents again just as the rain started and found a little bar/restaurant on site and settled in for the evening !!I may have forgotten to mention how much pain we felt in our legs and butts already after only 2 full days riding, but Tims advice about the shorts was the best advice ever !!Day 4 .......... more rain but knowing we had to keep moving or we would never make hamburg we braved the rain and rode about 60km in terrible conditions and found a town called Hitzacker and stayed here on saturday night knowing we had 100km left for Sunday.With a better weather forecast we aimed to make hamburg for lunchtime and hopefully manage to find an Irish bar to watch our beloved local gaelic football team.......... Westmeath start their leinster championship campaign !! Sunday was almost a total success , we made hamburg in time , found the irish bar watched the game but our team lost badly. So after many ups and downs we made our first leg of the trip and completed our 350km ride to Hamburg !!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1178456280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1178456280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1178456280/tpod.html Mon, 14 May 2007 10:30:57 -0400 Killucan2 on the road

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Berlin, Germany

After being away from home and our friends for 6 long months it was exciting to think we would be meeting with so many of the lads from home in Berlin and get to catch up and share one or two quiet beers together in a city with an amazing history and with some real culture !!We arrived at 5:30am weary from our travels from Turkey and made our way into the city and found the apartments that were booked for us, and found out we could not check in until lunchtime. The guys flight was due at 9:30am so we had a few hours to kill and we used this time to go see the Jewish war memorial and the Brandenburg gate and Reichstag which were all situated right beside our apartment. We thought this was great as some of the guys (Damo and Peter) were only in the city for the historic sights anyway. It was nice to see these places so early in the morning as there wasnt the huge throng of tourists there yet and after an hour walking around, like true travellers we found a park bench and grabbed an hours sleep !!! When the lads flight arrived we decided to prepare for their arrival by finding a nice quiet bar to maybe have a coffee and catch up on the last 6 months together. We found such a place and then the boys arrived and reality hit home !! These guys tricked us into thinking they were in Berlin for the culture, but in reality it was for 3 days and nights of non stop beer and partying that went by so fast it is almost a blur .............. or maybe the blur is because of all the beer !!! Anyway we all got together and had one hell of a party and I think Brian (the stag) enjoyed his bachelor weekend . Its funny how Irish people spend so much money to go away for a weekend and spend all their time in Irish pubs when they get there !!All in all it was great to see the guys and there were so many funny moments and stories that I just could not put them in writing, but after 3 days suddenly the guys had left for home and the reality was, we were still travelling !!First thing we had to do ( apart from recover from the excesses of the weekend) was find new accomodation and after that we needed to buy bicycles and tents etc for the long journey home !!Monday morning we were treated to some spectacular rain storms .............. hardly a good sign for our bike trip and Tues was even worse so it was Weds when we finally managed to leave the city and start our journey north west for Hamburg !!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1177878000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1177878000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1177878000/tpod.html Mon, 07 May 2007 17:22:31 -0400 Killucan2 on the road

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Istanbul, Turkey

Well after almost 6 months away we arrived back in Europe and the wonderful city of Istanbul. For the few of you who dont already know, Istanbul is actually in 2 continents with Europe and Asia separated by a piece of water called the Great horn . On the Asian side is the old city of Constantinople which was one of the most important cities in the world during the Roman and Byzantine periods, being the gateway to Asia.This side is full of wonderful mosques and öld buildings with some great market areas too.The other side - the European side is a wonderful mix of side streets full of little coffee shops, restaurants and bars and also large pedestrianised shopping streets that could be anyplace in Europe.Luckily for us we have a really good friend in Istanbul ............. John who you will recognise from the Syrian entries , and he took us into his lovely apartment and became our host, tour guide and drinking buddy for 3 days and nights.In this time he took us up to the highest point of Istanbul on a tower whos name escapes me (sorry John) to look over both sides of the city. Then we took a ferry up the great horn and crossed to Constantinople and visited some really cool mosques before sampling some great kofta that John almost managed to order correctly for us in Turkish. John and I took in a Cuban jazz show that first night while Jimmy caught up on some "beauty sleep" and drank way too much beer.On day 2 even though we had planned to see the Ayasofia mosque and maybe the great palace too, we just strolled about before taking John to the "James Joyce" Irish bar to teach him the joys of darts and Irish "stew" before watching Liverpool v Chelsea in the Champions leauge semi final and then celebrated Liverpools great victory into the early hours.Again we drank way too much beer !!Our last morning I had planned to travel down to the Ataturk stadium on a pilgrimage as this was where Liverpool won the champions league 2 years ago , but we had some awful rain that day and so like the Ayasofia it will have to wait until my next trip to Istanbul which wont be too far in the future.After a day spent on the internet we went to a small little cafe and met another friend from Syria, this time a local guy from Istanbul called Bilgesu, but unfortunately we didnt meet the other Bilgesu.......... a girl we met with the first Bigesu (I know I am getting confused myself but they are 2 cool guys both with the same name) this time but we will next time hopefully !! We spent the evening learning a lot about Turkish politics and all about the May day "trouble" from Bilgesu before parting and going for some dinner and then to a Blues club to watch a band from Johns home stste of Arkansas in the states called The Larry Macay band. The music was great and we had a "few" more beers before leaving the club at midnight and collecting our bags back in Johns and catching our bus to the airport !!It was sad leaving John and Istanbul behind as we had some of the best "Craic" of this trip there and I will definately be back there in the near future !!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1177839480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1177839480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1177839480/tpod.html Wed, 02 May 2007 06:46:09 -0400 Killucan2 on the road

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

We flew with air Arabia to Sharjah which is a city that neighbours Dubai in the Emirates and had a 24hr stopover. Knowing that the oppurtunity to see Dubai does not come too often we decided to get a place to stay in Dubai (we arrived at 11pm) and spend the next day sight seeing etc. We were to be dissapointed as the cheapest hotels we could find started at 40euros per bed and coming from Ýndia we were not willing to spend that, so using our heads and thinking outside the box we came up with a great idea and killed 2 birds with one stone !! We went to the car hire desk and found a car for 25euros and decided to use it as both a hotel and transport for our brief stay in Dubai !! Genius !!!We drove our "hotel toyota" to a beach that neighbours the massive 7 star hotel and settled in for the night !! The sun woke us early on sunday morning and after a quick swim it was into town for breakfast and to plan our day.After a great 3 cheese omelette we found the amazing indoor ski slope that is one of Dubais famous attractions and although Ý have never skiied before Ý let Jimmy talk me into doing 2 hours without instruction and away we went !! Jimmy is quite experienced and after a quick "crash course" on the practice area Ý took the plunge and went to the high slope and went for it !! Needless to say Ý spent a lot of time "eating" snow but after 2 hours was able to do the full run (jumps and all) without falling over and looking stupid !! Ý finished off thinking that this is something Ý really have to do again soon !!The rest of the day was spent driving around looking at some of the sights and taking pictures and having a quick look in some shops ................ finding that the myth of cheap bargains in Dubai is definately not true !!! We were a little dissapointed with the city itself because it is basically just another big high rise city just like so many others although it is remarkably clean and has some incredible buildings.And so at 6pm we made our way back to the airport to give back our "hotel" and catch our onward flight to Istanbul !!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1177664820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1177664820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1177664820/tpod.html Wed, 02 May 2007 05:38:35 -0400 Killucan2 on the road

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Mumbai, India

Altough this trip was originally supposed to be a 6 month İndian adventure, because of our detours we only had 2 and a half months and after Ellora we had to travel back to Mumbai to prepare for the trip home. This took us via Pune, where we just spent one night chilling before starting out on the last day of biking back to Mumbai.İt turned out to be one of the most enjoyable days in the saddle even though it was the only time we were stopped and harrassed by the notorious traffic police that we had heard so much about. After paying a ridiculous 100rs fine or backhander for allegedly breaking a signal (at the only traffic light we encountered in 7 weeks riding) we found ourselves being the only 2 wheel vehicles on the expressway, and had a nice peaceful ride along the 6 lane carraigeway until we realised the reason no other bikes were on the road was that it carries a 5000rs fine for 2 wheelers on this expressway !!! Luckily we made the end with only one half hearted attempt by a policeman to stop our progress !!Arriving back in Mumbai at 4pm was not ideal but turned out to be a fun experience and İ know İ will rarely have reason to moan and complain about Dublin traffic again !!!On Friday İ had to part with my bike, but felt ok giving it to our really great friend Prem back at his shop, knowing that if i ever decide to come back to İndia or want a bike shipped home, Prem is only a call away and is the man who can make it happen !!!We passed the last day in Mumbai throwýng away some of the travel worn clothes that had served us well over the last 6 months and shopping for bargains to replace them. Then we went for a great meal with Prem and had some of the best prawns you could imagine (tip...it turns out you only need to half cook them to really bring out the flavour) and said goodbye to our İndian friends and with a tear in our eyes it was on to the next leg of this amazing adventure !!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1177332240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1177332240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1177332240/tpod.html Wed, 25 Apr 2007 11:46:57 -0400 Killucan2 on the road

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Aurangabad, India

After seeing Ajanta we had been told that the caves in Ellora were not quite as special, mainly because they are newer and contain Jaina as well as Brahmanical caves and not just Buddhist like at Ajanta. But when we arrived there on Monday we were very pleasantly surprised as not only were they spectacular but you could take pictures here too. There are 34 caves here and 1-12 are Buddhist, 13-29 are Brahmanical and 29-34 are Jaina.The Buddhist caves date from 450-650AD while the Brahmanical date from 650-800AD and the Jaina from 800-900AD.Cave number 16 is the most important and spectacular of all the caves as it is actually a temple carved from the rock and is the only one you need to pay into, but is definately worth it.Also beside the caves is the fortress of Aurangazab who was the Maharaja of India a thousand years ago who decided to move the capital from Delhi and bring all its people 2000km south to his town of Aurangabad. After almost half the peole died on the march down the rest decided it was crazy and turned back. The centre of his city dream still stands at the top of a huge hill and can be climbed for some amazing views.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1177072200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1177072200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1177072200/tpod.html Wed, 25 Apr 2007 07:53:35 -0400 Killucan2 on the road

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Mandu, India

See Chittorgahr entry for description.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1176898440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1176898440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/killucan2/india06/1176898440/tpod.html Wed, 25 Apr 2007 07:17:47 -0400 Killucan2 on the road

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Chittorgarh, India

With only two weeks travel time left in India we decided to try to find our train back to Mumbai. We felt this was a better and quicker option than riding back and would buy us more time to go farther north , hopefully to Amritsar or even Chandigarh. A train from Amritsar would cover the 2,500km trip in 48hrs but riding would take at least a week without trouble !! We tried every possible train but they are all booked out for the month of April so the decision to turn back, but do a loop rather than retrace our steps was made.We set off travelling sth east on a route that would take us to Mumbai via the caves of Ajanta and Ellora and took in some other cool places such as Chittorgarh and Mandu too.First stop was Chittorgarh and its fantastic fortress built on a 28km fish shaped site in the 8th century. We spent one day here exploring the fortress and left the next day to the town of Dhar with the only real point of note here being the rain..........yes rain that fell totally out of character for India in April. We took a soaking being totally unprepared for it !!From Dhar we made our way to the town of Mandu, a small town that sits on a 20km sq plateau on top of a mountain and was the site of an ancient city built in the 10th century. A funny thing happened us here as we unwittingly ruined an english tourist called Jeremy's "mission". When we arrived at our guest house we met Jeremy and immediately saw from his look of horror/dissapointment that he was less than happy to see us. After chatting to him we found out he is attempting to find a place listed in the Lonely Planet that has no other tourists other than himself , and on his 3rd day we arrived and ruined it for him !!! He turned out to be a nice guy and we had dinner with him that night and left early the next day.
]]>