TravelStream™ news feed for member makusdigus on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/makusdigus en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 07 Oct 2007 16:33:47 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/makusdigus/the_world/1191708060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/makusdigus/the_world/1191708060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/makusdigus/the_world/1191708060/tpod.html Sun, 07 Oct 2007 16:33:47 -0400 Eva & Barry's Journey

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New York City, New York, United States

GOVERNMENT HEALTH WARNING: THE FOLLOWING MAY CONTAIN MATERIAL THAT SOME MAY FIND OFFENSIVE. READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED
And now the end is near...this will be our last blog entry unfortunately (for us anyway, for you our devoted speed readers, perhaps not so much.) What a place to end the trip though, America is just one eye opening, jaw dropping experience after another. We have been in the states for nearly 4 weeks, and countries don't get more diverse than this one, culturally, socially, topographically, geographically, musically, fun-a-cally....we have seen the whole kit and kaboodle and we haven't even scratched the surface!

Miami Beach is probably not the most appropriate place for travellers like us whose idea of dressing up is putting on a clean pair of socks. One can get away with being sartorially challenged in the depths of the Amazon jungle as Barry's stripy pants will prove, or indeed the dodgy millinery of which we are both guilty. But in the 40 degree heat of Miami beach, surrounded by blonde, bronzed beauties on rollerblades, and some gorgeous women too, we were distinctly out of place. Miami is a great holiday destination, beautiful beaches, lovely art deco buildings and a major Latin connection; more than 60% of the population speak Spanish as their first language, and every sign and notice is in both languages, so our 'fluency' came in handy here too. Bienvenedos a Miami! We spent our few days there just hanging around and generally being very lazy, it was too hot to do anything else, and too expensive! Miami Beach was incredibly expensive, with all bars and restaurants adding 15-18% service charge on to the bill, and then expecting a further 15% tip thereafter. We flew from Miami to LA where we spent another few days soaking in the beautiful weather and pretending we were Dylan and Kelly from BH90210.
The epicentre of LA, Hollywood Boulevard is really run down considering its notoriety. Full of pawn shops, liqueur stores and cheque (check) cashing shops, you can bet that when I get my star on the walk of fame I will be insisting it be outside Graumans Chinese theatre and not Trader Joes Liquor store.
We went out to Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive and watched the sun come up over Santa Monica boulevard; all of which made us green with envy at how unbelievably rich some of the people who live here are. The trip to Universal studios was absolutely brilliant, we really go our moneys worth and spent the whole day there going on all the rides, most of which scared the beejaysus out of Barry..

Before we describe our road trip, it is worth giving a special mention to Las Vegas, Nevada, where we spent 3 nights. Viva Las Vegas! We arrived just as OJ Simpson had been arrested for his hotel room debacle, which was a good metaphor for this town, where anything, and we mean anything goes. In Vegas, it is possible to indulge all ones vices at any time of night or day, and then pick up a prozzie when you do decide to go to bed. Infact, its not even necessary to scour the streets for such wonderful ladies, you can just call a number and they will rock up to your hotel room in no time.

It is perfectly acceptable to drink a margarita whilst walking to Burger King for breakfast, as it is acceptable to sit at a slot machine for 12 hours at a time, while you are plied with free drink with no concept of the time, as there are no clocks, and no idea how to leave the casino, as the exits are very obscure. It is fascinating, and we would be lying if we said we weren't shocked by the appalling array of mullets on display, or the incredible girth of more than 60% of the guests. The style of Oceans 11 etc is restricted to a few hotels, which are beautiful, but man, overall, its soo tacky! And incase you were wondering, we didn't win any money, because we couldn't figure out how to work the slot machines- I just liked to press the buttons when they lit up which is obviously not a good strategy.

We picked up the car in Vegas and headed out on the road to get our kicks on route 66. And route 40, and route 44 and... Very little of the original route 66 from LA to Chicago remains as it has been replaced by more modern highways. Nevertheless, driving in America is a joy; the roads are great, the facilities excellent and our 5.7 litre Chrysler 300 made it all the easier. A road trip across America conveys the sense of freedom that defined 1960s America, and our soundtrack reflected this, from Lynard Skynard to the Doors and later The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac. It doesn't get much better than driving on the open road in beautiful weather surrounded by fantastic scenery to Fleetwood Macs 'Go your own way'.
We drove to Flagstaff,. Arizona where we spent a few nights in this lovely college town. Our hotel was the Monte Vista which was featured in Casablanca. In keeping with the Casablanca theme (?), we stayed in the Robert Englund suite (Freddy Krueger in Nightmare on Elm Street). The walls were adorned with pictures of this pleasant character, all signed by the actor wishing guests 'Suite Dreams, HA HA HA!. It may have been the pictures, or the cross country freight train that came screaming through the town about every 20 minutes, but we had 2 awful nights sleep in Flagstaff. Nice place though. We headed to the Grand Canyon from here too, which was great, and certainly very grand. We continued east, and standin; on the corner in Winslow Arizona, such a fine sight to see. From Arizona, hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque! Not much to say about Albuquerque, but it is worth mentioning the Indian reservations that are scattered around this part of the country, where the natives were relocated only to subsequently be neglected and ignored leading to similar social problems as Australia such as poor education, alcoholism and just general hard times. Shocking stuff. Next stop was Texas and we were dreaming dreams of Amarillo, and we weren't disappointed. We had great fun here, staying in a hotel called 'The Big Texan' (everything is bigger in Texas), which had the Texan flag as a shower curtain and a glass of beer was literally a bucket. The big Texan is famous for it 72oz (4lb) steak, which if eaten in one hour, on a podium with a timer is free. The guy who tried, failed unfortunately. He was a lithe chap. And cowboys exist! This is Wrangler country- we thought that was an advertising myth! Tobacco chewin' steak eatin' beer swillin' Texans in Cowboy hats, check shirts and wranglers, wranglers, wranglers. Brilliant!

It is these characters that made the trip so interesting, and the truck stops along the route usually rendered us speechless on the way back to the car. Getting petrol and buying some sweets for the journey has never been so interesting. En route we encountered a (young) man taking his false teeth out and dunkin' them in his dunkin' donuts coke; a gentleman in distinctly low rise jeans with the barefaced cheek to reach down into the ice cream freezer to git him sum Ben n jerry's (he was also carrying a bag of petrol) and generally lots more mullets, missing front teeth and generous waistbands. Trying to get a newspaper west of St Louis, Missouri was nigh on impossible, the only reading material sold here are scratch cards. But it was all fabulous and this is real Americana, the heartland of a very strange country. Land of the free, home of the brave. Where Sally Field's emmy acceptance speech is censored by Fox because she uses the word 'goddamn'. Where Christian groups take out full page ads in national newspapers declaring 'enough is enough!' after comedian Kathy Griffin's emmy acceptance speech where she says 'suck it Jesus, this award is my God now!' There is an a la carte conservatism here, and the benchmark of what is acceptable is vastly different from region to region.

In Amarillo, we thought we were 24 hours from Tulsa, but in actual fact it was only 6. Oklahoma! contains the longest stretch of route 66, about 100 miles from Oklahoma city to Tulsa, which was a lovely drive through towns which are trading heartily on their route 66 association. We stayed in a casino resort, owned and operated by the native Americans of the region who have benefited from some government system that allows them to run casinos without paying much tax. The state law permits only beer to be sold on Sundays, and speaking of state laws: Arizona state law prohibits the return of thermal underwear; post purchase, and New York state law prohibits the trying on of shoes without socks. ...

From Tulsa, we headed into Springfield, Missouri and then on to St Louis for 2 days, which was very nice.
The gateway to the west is symbolised by a giant gateway arch at the entrance to the city. An arch is an arch, just like a rock is a rock, but it really is impressively big and shiny. We also went to the Budweiser brewery here, which is completely free (including 2 drinks) and is a pretty slick affair, even if it did remind us of being back in work, not just because of the 2 afternoon drinks....(only joking employer types.) Our final stop before dropping the car back in Chicago was Normal, Illinois, which was well, normal! It probably matched our ideal of the traditional American family most accurately, and it was a lovely town of white picket fences and lots of parks and playgrounds., and massive houses with huge gardens on sale for about $250,000. Normal was decorated with hundreds of posters supporting the US troops fighting the war on terror. Each one dedicated to a different battalion, and sponsored by Budweiser bien sur, they read: 'WERE PROUD OF YOU '. Slightly Freudian perhaps?
It was with regret that we handed the Chrysler beast back in Chicago, but we had a fab weekend where we met up with Mark and Puja who live in Washington DC.
How nice it was to see friendly faces! Chicago is a lovely city, and dare I say it...better for shopping than NYC??!! It takes a lot for me to say that, because New York is truly the greatest city in the world, we are here now and it is just magnificent. We had planned to meet our native New Yorker friend Mary McCarthy whilst here, but a day early while out on the town we happened to bump into her in an irish bar on 26th street, lovely suprise.
We have been lucky to stay in the Upper West side and the Lower East side, both out of the main tourist drag so we really feel like we are livin' the dream, and spending it too...!


So, this is the end. Thanks so much to all of you for your comments on the blog over the last 5 months, we really loved hearing from you. It is impossible to articulate how fabulous this whole trip has been, but hopefully we have conveyed some of the joy that we experienced. If any of you are considering doing something similar in the future, then just do it. Just get out and do it.

With lots of love,
M.C Donnell and B-Dawwg.

PS: a tacky NY souvenir for the person who is able to name all the songs mentioned in this entry!

Barry's Cliff Notes:

Well YaLLL, It's coming to an end. So I will be brief.. Promise!

Miami for people watching it is great, but wayyyy to hot.
LA... Great town will definitely return to see more of it, did not have enough time to see everything.
Las Vegas.. NOT SO MUCH!!!
All the towns along Route 66 which is REAL America was great to see and a road trip in America is highly recommended.
Chicago/NY are just the best towns.

So, back to reality and finding a job/college etc.. Can't Wait!!!!!!! P.S. If anyone out there know of anyone looking to an experienced Product Manager!! Let them know I am Available!!

To Conclude

Asia... Ancient Culture. Great learning.
Australia...Great standard of living.
New Zealand...Breathtaking Scenery.
South America....Priceless
For Everything else there's the USA!!!!!!!!!!!!





Regards

Barry
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/makusdigus/the_world/1189391820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/makusdigus/the_world/1189391820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/makusdigus/the_world/1189391820/tpod.html Mon, 10 Sep 2007 22:08:43 -0400 Eva & Barry's Journey

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Quito, Ecuador

Well, you will all be glad to hear that we survived the earthquake and our South American adventure continues. The earthquake hit Peru on 16th august which was our last night in BA. We didn't know the extent of the damage, or what one does in such circumstances so we decided to continue on as normal. We arrived in the capital Lima, which is about 200km from the worst affected area. One could be forgiven for thinking that Lima had seen a little earthquake action however, the drive from the airport aint the most scenic of routes. We noticed that here, and in lots of South America, buildings seem to be unfinished with exposed brickwork and steel structures sticking out the top. Apparently, taxes do not have to be paid on a building until it is complete and thus the reason for the 'Baghdad chic' look about the place. Miraflores however, where we spent our time whilst in Lima is a lovely part of town and the suburb of San Isidro close by even nicer- magnificent houses built by wealthy WW2 escapees. We took in a city tour of Lima, the best part of which was the fact that the guide referred to me as M.C. Donnell the whole time. In Da Houuse!!!





On then to Cuzco, the gateway to one of the new 7 wonders of the world, Machu Picchu. While at the airport in Lima, we experienced an aftershock, which was an experience, although in reality nothing more than the structures of the building wobbling for about 10 seconds. Obviously the Peruvian tourist board have their hands full with Machu Picchu, but should anything ever happen to it; it has occurred to me that they could market Cuzco as a detox type destination, sort of like a health farm. The altitude (3500metres above sea level) makes it impossible to drink, smoke or do any sort of debaucherous activity should one be so inclined, and to let even the smallest drop of the water supply pass the lips... well lets just say, one can lose a few pounds pretty quickly. All of these factors led to a pretty dull first few days for us in Cuzco, where I took to the bed, mostly in a delirious dehydrated state and Barry braved the altitude to get me Peruvian lemsip, mashed potato and whatever else might cure what ailed me. Altitude sickness is an experience in itself, and apparently, even the fittest people can suffer from it. Walking up stairs was like running a marathon, and there is a general woolly-headedness feeling that just doesn't go away as well as blue lips and tingly fingers! We had planned to do a trek in this part of the world. The traditional Inca Trail trek, a 4 day affair that ends at Machu Picchu is booked out months in advance at this time of year, but we had planned to do an alternative; however, the maximum height of 4100m would have been way too much for us to bear in our fragile states so we had to give it a miss. To those of you who have done the Inca trail or similar, we salute you.



The city of Cuzco is really beautiful, and notwithstanding the altitude, an easy place for a tourist to spend a few days. This is the most tourist-y place we have been, it's all about the tourist dollar here, from scores of internet cafes, pizzerias, souvenir shops and tour companies. Its impossible to walk anywhere without being stopped by hawkers selling all sorts of handmade Peruvian crafts- straight from a sweatshop in Lima no doubt. And the kids! These babies are born hustlin'! Children as young as 5 selling postcards and sweets and singing on the street for money. While there is a real sense of poverty here, there is also a strong sense of pride in the culture, and we were surprised by impromptu parades of groups of locals on many occasions, from groups of men in their best suits chanting up the street, to kids in colourful indigenous costume banging drums and blowing horns. What summed Cuzco up for me was the sight of a toothless, shoeless old man feeding breadcrumbs to pigeons in one of the city's many plazas. He probably had nothing, but feeding those birds sure brought a very gummy smile to his face.

On then to the jewel in the crown here, Machu Picchu. We got the tourist train there, a 3.5 hour journey to Aguas Calientes, the town at the foot of MP and then the bus the rest of the way. Doing it this way means that you arrive at MP along with hundreds of other tourists at around 10am but despite this, the first view of the ancient city is amazing.

The Incas, according to Darwin our tour guide (who had been working there for 26 years and had written loads of books on it) were very clever people; the design of the city was so well thought out, and was even irrigated for water. The craftsmanship was excellent too, and has survived all the earthquakes that have caused so much damage in the country. What is amazing is that the city was never discovered by the Spanish, and was only found by an explorer being guided by a local boy in 1911. Not even 100 years ago! After lunch, it seemed that most of the crowds disappeared and we spent the afternoon there soaking in the atmosphere in relative solitude. We spent the night in Aguas Calientes, which is a bit of a mish mash of a place, and our hotel was well dodge, from the duvet with no cover to the waiter/bellboy/gopher who stood over us while we ate breakfast the following morning. We set off early and trekked for about an hour up to the Sun gate, which is where the trekkers would get their first glimpse of MP coming to the end of their trek. We could only imagine the feeling that one would experience walking through the gate to that view, tired and emotional after walking their little bums off for 3 days. The view is breathtaking, and surely makes it all worthwhile. The trek is no mean feat by all accounts, but it appears that it attracts all types of people, the majority of whom probably aren't normally into trekking. There were lots and lots of very senior folk at MP, mainly North American tour groups, all braving the steps and altitude in brand new trekking boots and MP hats bought from the persistent folk back in Cuzco.


The train back to Cuzco was a little strange...after the staff had finished serving food and drinks, they proceeded to entertain us with a fashion show, sporting clothing made from Alpaca wool and available to buy there and then (?) Unfortunately, the alpaca wool jumpers were not best complimented by the standard issue rail employee Farah slacks.
We headed back to Lima for a couple of days and then on to Quito, Ecuador, where the altitude was more bearable, a mere 2850m above sea level. The old town of Quito is full of churches, convents, monasteries and lovely plazas in which to sit and watch the world go by. It is full of police which does make one feel safe walking around, although some of the police are probably dodgier than the criminals. Ironically enough, among such centuries old history, one of the first things we did was go to the Andy Warhol exhibition which was being held in the cultural centre. Entry was $1. Incidentally, The currency of Ecuador is the US Dollar, which in one view just makes official how most of the other south American countries we have visited operate anyway; but in another makes it the 51st state, or 52nd after Ireland, har har.

We stayed in the old town in this beautiful old colonial building overlooking a central courtyard. Whilst there we met Rekha and Will, a London-SanFranciscan couple who told us about a trip they were taking to the jungle that weekend. We had not decided whether we were going to the Galapagos Islands, or the jungle, the budget wasn't going to allow both, and on further investigation, it wasn't going to allow the Galapagos at all so our decision was pretty easy. It is only right that it is very expensive to travel to the Galapagos Islands, and appreciate them properly, and it's something we will do when we are older and richer, along with the Inca trail...! We booked our jungle trip on Rekha and Wills recommendation and that Friday headed off to Sani Lodge, on Rio Napo in the Amazon Jungle. It has been hard for us to pick the best of the trip so far, and I think that we will know what the best bits were when the memories keep returning to us months down the line, but if you have a pain in your heart leaving somewhere, as I did leaving Sani Lodge, then its got to be up there as a highlight of our trip, nay, our lives so far.



We flew from Quito to Coca, a swelteringly hot, dirty, dingy oil town full of facilities to cater for the oil workers who regularly fly in and out of its airport. This is oil country, and Rossport, eat your heart out! You can bet your bottom new energy shares that when Texaco and the boys came in here in the 1960s there were no protests hindering their progress, rather hundreds of indigenous communities unaware of how it would impact them and a poor, but greedy government who allowed the oil companies to operate however they wished. As a result, the jungle has been irrevocably damaged by the quest for oil, whole communities have been wiped out, and it has caused mass deforestation and polluted rivers. There is an ongoing case taken by 30,000 Ecuadorians against Texaco claiming that Texaco dumped 18million gallons of waste water into the Amazon in the 1970s and 80s causing all sorts of damage. It wasn't illegal for them to do so, but they had developed much more environmentally friendly methods of disposal which were being used in America, and obviously weren't pressurised by the Ecuadorian government to adopt them there.
It is against this backdrop that made the trip to the jungle all the more interesting. When you buy into capitalism, getting screwed by the big boys is bad enough, but when you are an indigenous community living off the land, it just makes it all the more worse. Anyway... from Coca we travelled by boat to the lodge, first by speedboat up the Rio Napo and then a dugout canoe for the last hour.

The sights and sounds around us as we paddled up to the lodge were out of this world amazing- this is the jungle baby! Lush, green, and full of all sorts of life, including a storm of butterflies that greeted us as we stepped off the canoe. Once your mouth is kept clamped shut, its fine..

Sani Lodge is owned and operated by the indigenous Kichwa community, a community of about 300 based along the river and their way of life is really fascinating. The jungle is their supermarket, chemist, playground and so much more. We spent 3 magnificent days and nights getting up to all sorts of jungle fun. Our guides, Javier and Mauro were brilliant, and almost tiger- like in their ability to sense animal sounds from way off. Mauro was HARDCORE! He walked ahead of us in the jungle carrying a machete, whether to clear our path of plants or to chop the head of a threatening jaguar we weren't sure, but we hoped it was the former. He spent most of the time using it to swat mosquitoes away from him. Most of our time was spent hiking, we saw monkeys, deer, snakes, tarantulas, monkey spiders and loads and loads of cool birds. We went caiman watching at night, and piranha fishing during the day. Barry was the fishin' king, catching 2 Piranhas and a big ole Paco fish which was cooked up for dinner that night.

We had great fun with the rest of the group, Will and Rekha and David who was also from England and it all added to the experience. We ate really good food, although invariably there was some sort of fly type thing floating in the soup or resting under the banana bread. They don't sleep in these Kichwa folk and breakfast was served at 6am, so night-time was pretty low key, and we were under our mozzie nets by 10pm lulled to sleep (although it took a while) by the sound of the Rio Napo philharmonic orchestra, with a special guest appearance from the night monkeys. It was an absolutely brilliant few days, and the experience of paddling slowly up the river in such serene tranquillity will stay with us for a long time. Despite the heat and humidity (finally! and we're still complaining!), the cold showers (when there was water), the insects and their bites, we were really sad leaving, Will compared it to the end of summer camp, and that's exactly how it felt. Boo hoo!


Luckily we had a lovely few days in a place called Baños to cheer us up (not to be confused with 'banos' which is Spanish for bathroom). Baños is a really nice town about 4 hours drive south of Quito with thermal springs (sans sulphur smell a la Rotorua NZ), lovely waterfalls and a volcano that last erupted in August 2006. There are night tours available to view the volcano, advertised outside the travel agents as 'Volcano in activity'. However, perhaps it meant to read 'Volcano inactivity' as our trip was less than eventful from a volcanic perspective. The event came in the shape of the drive up to the viewing station; a stomach churning, white knuckle ride, as most of our vehicular jaunts in South America have been. The only rules of the road here appear to be:
1. Drive the Oldest, Crappest Vehicle (OCV) possible; ideally one that is made up of a number of even older, crapper, preferably crashed vehicles.
2. Make sure there are no seatbelts for passengers.
3. Drive as fast as your OCV will allow (surprisingly fast), overtaking other road users only when there are oncoming cars.
4. Only drive your suspension-less OCV on bumpy, unsealed, windy roads.
5. Stop randomly at the side of the road, for no apparent reason.
6. Stop for petrol only when your bus is full of passengers
Anyway, we had a great time chillin' in Baños; the food was lovely, the weather balmy and the people friendly. An accessible, welcoming little place.

Finally, we must mention our trip to Mitad del Mundo, the middle of the world, the equatorial line about 22km outside of Quito. This is where we got to jump between the northern and southern hemispheres and went to a great little museum, the Museo Solar Inti Nan where we did all sorts of fun experiments with water (it goes straight down on the equator!) balancing eggs on nails (can only be done on the line apppppparently) and energy. Great fun, and according to GPS the site of the actual line. There is a big equatorial monument which is actually 240m off the real line according to GPS. D'oh!
So this concludes the voting of the South America jury. What a great place, although definitely a challenge, particularly without speaking Spanish. However, we are experts in ordering beer, getting our laundry back the same day and finding the toilet. And that's all you need really, isn't it?

Peace Out
M.C. Donnell and B Diggy
PS Jungle is Maaasiiive! Booyakashah!


Barry's Cliff notes:

Altitude aside, sickness aside, Peru is the most interesting country I have been in, I would love to explore and understand the local cultures more, as the photos suggest they are still living in a world not like our own. With that we got to see Machu Picchu, and an ambition fulfilled, amazing place! And really makes you consider 'how the hell, did they do that????!!! Loved it, got bitten by lama flees and am still recovering though!!!

Ecuador. As above we went to the Amazon Jungle!! Brilliant and something we are truly privileged to have experienced. Nuff said! See above from Eva

On to North America and a new challenge and a country well worth seeing and hopefully route 66 will show us a slice of it. Hope your all well.

Cheers

Barry
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Buenos Aires, Argentina

From 'mate' to 'amigo', from Fush and Chups to Steak and Papas Fritas, from cold weather to errr more cold weather, we have arrived in South America! First stop was chilly Chile where we had a 2 day pit stop to try and get over the 16 hour time difference from Auckland. No such luck. Chile was nice though, we stayed in the Central Business District and with its high rise Microsoft and KPMG offices, it could have been any city anywhere.

We were pretty zonked though so didn't really get to explore too much. We flew from Santiago to Buenos Aires (hereinafter referred to as BA, as we have a perpetual struggle with the spelling.)Our first experience of BA was a leaflet given to us in the airport advising us only to use the official taxi booth in the airport and not to hail a taxi outside arrivals. Eek! On arrival at our hotel, we strolled around for a while; the pedestrian shopping zone was close by and just packed with people shopping, hawking, dancing etc. The jet lag was still taking its toll so we went for a snooze for 'an hour' at about 4pm. We woke up at 11pm, starving, and decided to see where we could get a bit of tucker. BA is not the place for early diners; in fact 11pm was peak time for restaurants. Trying to get dinner here anytime before 9pm is impossible, and to eat at 9pm is a lonely experience with just you and the waiters in the restaurant. We had decided to spend the majority of our 2 weeks in Argentina travelling around this absolutely vast country which gave us only a few days to experience the sights and sounds of BA. We did a walking tour which was great; BA is a city of such contrasts; the disparity between rich and poor is amazing. There are streets that would rival Kensington and 5th avenue, with magnificent architecture built by wealthy Spanish settlers, and antique and designer shops. And then after dark the garbage recyclers appear, rummaging through the rubbish left out for the bin men to find anything of value and claim money back on plastics. There is a strong Irish influence in BA, and we heard about the Kavanagh family who made their money buying cattle ranches in the countryside. Corina Kavanagh, one of the daughters was due to marry the son of another very wealthy family, the Anhorenas. But the Anhorenas were 'old money' and old mother Anhorena did not approve. She had built the most magnificent church which she was able to view from her palace on the other side of the Plaza San Martain. She did everything she could to break the relationship up and eventually succeeded. As revenge, Corina built the 'Kavanagh Building' one of the first skyscrapers in Buenos Aires which is still revered for its perfectly symmetrical style. The skyscraper just happened to block Mrs Anhorenas view of her church from her palace. Hell hath no fury and all that.....




One of the highlights of our stay in BA was a trip to the Boca stadium to see Boca Juniors play Rosario Central in their first home game of the season.

The atmosphere was electric, these fans sure have passion! We went with a tour group as apparently tourists are prime targets among the 'working class football fans'. The truth is we felt very safe. I don't know how we would have felt on the terraces, where hundreds of fans watched the game from halfway up the barbed wire fence, but we were in the seating area and it was brilliant to see the sea of yellow and blue and the constant singing and chanting all the way through the game. The match itself was pretty dull, 0-0, and the less said about me thinking the captains name was Megatone (the team's sponsor), the better. Maradona, the team' most famous former player has his own box in the stadium, but wasn't there unfortunately. It is pretty obvious that Maradona is No 1 here, followed by the team itself, and God coming in a lowly 3rd. Considering that Argentina is 90% Catholic, that's saying something.
We also went to a tango show, a rite of passage for any tourist to BA. Tacky and OTT, its still worth it, and funny to think that Tango originated as a dance for men outside the bordellos of BA while waiting for the laydeez inside.


We headed over to Uruguay for 2 days, to a little port called Colonia. Little being the operative word. The boat takes and hour from BA and we had walked around the town in less time than that. Nonetheless, it was a pretty place to visit, and a world away from the noise and bustle of BA. However, my dinner of spaghetti Bolognese which was honestly made from dog food made us question the culinary fabulousness of the place.

These guys are supposed to be the beef kings! Its hard to complain when everything is so cheap though, dinner for 2 including beer cost us no more than 15-20 euro, cigarettes cost about 80cent. Unvelievable.
So enough about that, and on to our big Argentinean adventure. This country is so massive, we have really only scratched the surface, but had an amazing time doing it! First stop was Iguaçu, home of the magnificent Iguaçu falls, about 2 hours (plane journey) north of BA. The waterfalls are out of this world for their sheer size and aggression, and the Garganta Del Diablo (the devils throat)

is the most impressive. The best part of the trip was the boat tour that we took under the falls, we got completelyn and utterly soaked! The force of the spray was such that it was impossible to catch your breath or even turn your face towards the water, but everyone on the boat, from 8 to 80 was howling with sheer joy and excitement by the end of it, notwithstanding the wet jocks.

We drove across the border to Brazil which allows one to get a more panoramic view of the falls which was great, but most of the day was spent filling out immigration forms at the border. But it's worth seeing, and it's always worth geting another stamp on the passport!
On then to the End of the World- el Fin Del Mundo.

Or Ushuaia,Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost city in the world. This is the closest place (relatively speaking!) to Antarctica, and the temperatures reflect this. When, oh when will we get some heat?! Ushuaia was a nice city to spend a few days in, but they really trade on the end of the world thing- 'end of the world' golf club, 'end of the world' train (which we took and was pretty lame), 'end of the world' restaurant etc. And its not like you just fall off the end of the pier into the abyss or anything, its just like any other coastal town, although Route 40 which Che Guevara drove in his Motorcycle diaries does end here, so it is the end of the road in that sense. The tours we did here were a bit daft; some 4x4 driving in lots of snow, a trip to a lake which was frozen; but the trip to the Tierra del Fuego National Park was beautiful; surrounded by the snow capped Andes, rest assured there is peace at the end of the world...


We celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary in El Calafate, home of some of the world's largest glaciers. More glaciers! Yes, we are 'ice perverts' (thanks Shane O'B!) The Perito Merino glacier is one of the only stable glaciers in the world,

the rest are all retreating, and at a pretty fast rate judging by the size of the icebergs surrounding them. Some were the size of 2-3 football pitches, and of course, that's only the tip of the iceberg, har har (we have used that more than once this trip...) 85% of the icebergs are underwater, they are huge! And mostly blue, the bluer the 'berg the more compressed the ice. We spent our time in El Calafate on various boats looking at the glaciers, which sounds horrendously boring but was good fun.

One of the perils of boat tours however is the flock of tourists in such a confined space. Tourists suck, pretty much, and I know we are two, but jeepers- we have seen tourists take photos of their dinner arriving to their table in a restaurant; of their luggage coming off the conveyer belt in airports; of the reception desk in the hotel...and don't get us started on the camcorder folk. Anyway, if tourists take photos of such mundane events, you can imagine what happens when they get within a few feet of a bleedin' glacier. People had no hesitation in shoving you out of the way to make sure that the 856th shot of the glacier was the best one. I blame digital photography, and also, they are so vain!!! We have seen so many people ask strangers to take their photo, look at the finished product immediately, and then ask for it to be retaken. Ahh, whatever happened to leaving the film at the chemist and returning a week later with your little slip to receive your 28 exposures; at least 5 of which had a finger over the viewfinder and the customary one of your shoes as you figured out how to work the flash...?


We headed back to BA on 14th August on a dodgy, and much delayed flight, followed by a short but scary taxi ride by a Michael Schumacher-esque type taxi driver who brought us to our hotel at 4am. BA is in general a safe city, but there is a lot of tourist crime here, as there is in most of South America. Some of the scams are ingenious, a kid will spit on you and a group of locals will fuss around you to clean you up, all the while cleaning you out. The taxi situation can be dodgy, and it's not uncommon to have somebody jump in beside you in the cab who 'just happens' to be going to your hotel...and the rest. Outside the big cities, Argentina is a very safe country and we felt completely at ease there. What a great country though, and it is amazing to think it is a 3rd world (or emerging!) country. We met an Argentinean-Czech couple in Ushuaia (our Czech mates) and we could have listened to them for hours as they talked about one corrupt government after the next. Fascinating stuff, but this is a blog and not a thesis so another time perhaps.
Finally, it is worth mentioning the Mate ritual. Mate (pronounced Maa-tey) is a grass like hot drink that is EVERYWHERE in Argentina and Uruguay. People are addicted to the stuff and carry the herbs and a thermos of hot water around with them wherever they go. The ritual is lovely, if a little unhygienic... Mate is drunk from a hollow cup type thing through a metal straw, and is shared around among friends. Apparently, it is a great honour to be offered to join in the ritual and we never refused the offer although it is definitely an acquired taste.
So we are in Peru now, the day after a pretty large earthquake about 150 miles outside Lima.Hopefully this is as close as we get to any natural disasters. Adios Amigos!

Barry´s Cliff Notes::
Am suffering amazing altitide dizzyness at the moment, so my prose may be shorter than normal!!! if that´s possible. (We are in cusco in peru- Very high up) Also got a taste of an earthquake today in the airport, scary!!

Note to anyone wanting to go to south America.. Visit Argentina. Very Very cool place and I take back what I said about NZ being the most beautiful place - Patagonia southern Argentina is. It is just amazing and worth spending a few weeks touring. Really nice.

Iguaçu falls - Amazing sight and we got to go to Brasil for a day to see it from their side. Which is a much better view.

Fin Del Mundo - End of the world - Terra Del Fuego - I think this is one of the great places to go, if not for exictement or things to do, it is just good to be there!
- Me there!

Glaciers Glaciers - Ice Ice Baby!!!!! The sight of Icebergs, glaciers, rivers, mountains etc in National glacier park in El Calafate are AMAZING. But I am now officially sick of Ice and the cold and am looking forward to some heat.

Anyway I am off to fall over from lack of oxygen. Hopefully you like the photos.

Buenos Noches. Barry x
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/makusdigus/the_world/1185701400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/makusdigus/the_world/1185701400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/makusdigus/the_world/1185701400/tpod.html Tue, 31 Jul 2007 11:19:03 -0400 Eva & Barry's Journey

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Auckland, North Island, New Zealand

Picture the scene: the Jamison suite on the 23rd floor of the Amora Jamison hotel on a cool Sydney Sunday morning. Barry sips a cappuccino while surfing the free internet, swathed in the Hotels bath robe, one that has been handmade by blind Bavarian nuns, his feet ensconced in complimentary lambs wool slippers. 'Eva', he says, turning the heating up a further 1 degrees whilst admiring the view of the harbour bridge from the triple glazed window, 'how about we rent a camper van in New Zealand?' 'A campervan?' I say, only half listening as I fiddle with the TV remote trying to find something to watch from the 853 channels available, ' Won't it be cold in New Zealand?' ' Naah,' he says, 'it will be the same as here......'

This is how we found ourselves in the campervan offices in Christchurch on a cold, wet dark Wednesday in July.


Let me start by saying that a campervan is the best way to see New Zealand. It gave us lots of freedom, and we saved a lot of money by not staying in places like the Amora Jamison (aaah the amora Jamison..) However, nothing could have prepared us for the unbelievably cold weather that we have experienced and by the end of these 3 weeks, a motel lodge is now our idea of luxury- how the mighty have fallen..






Christchurch, in the south island, is, we hear a nice city,more english than england itself; but as out holiday park was a good 20k outside the centre, we never really got to experience it. We spent our first New Zealand night there and headed off first thing the following morning. We headed south, stopping in a place called Oamaru which is famous for its blue penguin colony and not much else. As it is winter, the penguins are not into coming in for a bit of breedin' so our guide told us not to expect to see too many and if they hadn't come in by 6.15 pm they weren't coming at all. At 5.45pm one little dude rocked up onto the shore and stared back out at sea waiting for his buddies. As if he was watching the clock, at exactly 6.15 he gave up the ghost and made the long lonely walk up the rocks to the breeding ground where he was met by 2 rabbits. As if they need a designated breeding ground!


Oamaru was a strange place, so quiet! Although as it is winter most of the places we have visited have been in semi-hibernation. But Oamaru was like something out of a movie, there was a bookbinder-that was only established in 1988-lots of curio shops and ye olde shoppe type affairs. We had dinner in a pub called 'fat sally's', run by rather a rotund lady called...sally. Although the kiwis would pronounce it 'fit silly's' which may be more of an insult...but maybe not.

Speaking of the kiwi accent, one thinks that one can't distinguish it from the Aussies but rest assured one can. You will remember Peter and Peter who we met in Cairns; they told us that Kiwis pronounce fish and chips as 'fush and chups' and if we say turty tree they double it with suxty sux. Fush and chups are everywhere by the way, brought to NZ by English settlers along with cats and stoats who are the biggest threat to the kiwi bird (v cute but bit dull)

After Oamaru we headed west across the island towards Queenstown, spending a night in Cromwell (brrr! -3° at 8pm!). The scenery on the drive, and indeed most of the drives was fantastic, every turn providing a new vista of lakes, snow capped mountain or forest- really fabulous. The roads are interesting though. Well maintained but don't let the title of 'state highway 1' fool you. Most of the roads have more twists than an episode of 24 and more curves than Pamela Anderson. Not ideal for a beast of a campervan or 'road lice' as the kiwis affectionately call them.




Queenstown is an absolutely fantastic place, one for the adrenaline junkies... and the Irish. Everywhere we looked there was somebody doing some death defying activity from hang gliding to parachute jumps to snowboarding (ok, not so death defying) On the ground then were lots of cool kiwis, and lots of sore looking Irish, limping, or wincing from said death defying stunts. We spent a day on the slopes of Coronet Peak learning how to ski. I can't say I enjoyed it, but I didn't hate it either, it's just bloody terrifying! There is a really great vibe in Queenstown, lots of lovely pubs and restaurants with outdoor log fires, perfect for chatting to friendly kiwis.


We would have stayed longer but there is just so much to see here that we had to leave the beautiful lake and picture perfect snowy mountains and move on. We headed further south to Te anu, another town in hibernation, but the gateway to Milford Sound, one of the major tourist attractions in New Zealand. Milford sound is one of many sounds in New Zealand, basically a large inlet within rocks created by volcanic movement. There is no doubt that Milford sound is fantastic, beautifully serene water surrounded by magnificent waterfalls and rocks so pure that they contain diamonds and rubies. Our day on the sound was beautifully crisp and sunny, and it was a great experience, but I'm not sure that you won't experience such magnificence simply driving through some other parts of New Zealand. In addition, the sound was full of noisy tour boats with over zealous tourists (of which we are two) taking pictures of everything.





Apparently, Doubtful sound- so named by captain cook as he was doubtful that the winds there would blow their boats back out to sea- is a lot less touristy, and is only explored by 2 tour boats as opposed to probably 15 in Milford. We also saw gloworm caves in Te anu, a really eerie experience, these caves are lit up by the larvae of fungus gnats of all things (nice...) and we did a little boat tour in complete and utter darkness, the only light was provided by the gloworms. You couldn't even make out the shadow of the person next to you, and I'm still not convinced that the person groping my leg was Barry....

Back up north then and on to Franz Joseph, via Wanaka, Queenstown's little brother. Franz Joseph was definitely the highlight of NZ so far and maybe even the whole trip, fighting for first place with Uluru. This is glacier country, and fox and franz joseph glaciers are about 25km apart- the drive between the two was hair raising to say the least. Here we treated ourselves to the luxury of a motel for 2 nights and had proper showers and did laundry. It's shameful to admit that despite seeing some of the most amazing sights in the world, the prospect of clean laundry is almost as exciting. Nowt as comforting as clean long johns. Anyway, in Franz Joseph we did a heli hike, a helicopter ride landing on the glacier and a 3 hour hike on it before getting the helicopter back.


The helicopter was exhilarating enough, (we both thought we were in the A Team), a first for both of us but the hike was really fabulous. Again, the weather was perfect, beautiful blue sky which gave the top of the glacier a lovely blue hue. The snow looked edible, like big fluffy meringue (although blue meringue probably should be avoided) and the hike was great fun, but hard work, especially wearing crampons on your boots which allow you to grip the ice. The most precarious part is taking off the crampons but still thinking that you have the same grip on the ice. There were a few sore bums after that I should imagine; the landing is not a soft 'un.



We left Franz Joseph and headed further north, our ultimate aim to get the ferry from Picton at the top of the south island to wellington at the bottom of the north. More jaw-dropping scenery- it's a shame to stop driving really, as most of the towns we stopped in are pretty dreary places. It's easy to forget that New Zealand is an agricultural country, where herds of sheep cross your path on the road. Therefore lots of the towns are farming ones selling cow poo, Massey Fergusons and not much else.

We took the 3 hour ferry ride to wellington at night, which was a pity as it must be a pretty scenic journey and arrived in Wellington at about 10pm and drove straight to our holiday park which was about 20km outside the centre of the city. Wellington is a nice place, though pretty unassuming for the capital city. The museum there Te Papa (our place) is really fabulous, one of the best we have seen- really interactive, modern and best of all -free! There are lots of nice bars and restaurants in wellington, and it was really busy for a midweek night, like a Saturday in Dublin. We were dropping the van back in Auckland so our plan was to head north via Napier and Rotorua. Napier is a town that was completely flattened by an earthquake in 1931 and was rebuilt in the art deco style of the time. Its worth seeing, but they really trade on the art deco thing, and in parts it feels a bit run down and dated. Barry's campervan fuse was wearing thin so we stayed in the Masonic hotel in the centre of the town. There is a movie in that hotel. It was so unintentionally dated; sink in the bedroom, pitch dark corridors, a string from the ceiling that controlled the light. An eerie place, betcha there has been some dodgy incidents there over the years...
Rotorua is a bit like Queenstown for the north island, except with a really bad smell. Rotorua is a sulphur rich thermal city (darn it more science!) with geysers, hot mud pools and thermal springs rockin' up all over the place. As fascinating as it is to be only 3km above hot molten lava, the smell here is really bad. Apparently it's great for the sinuses, and after 2 weeks one has become used to it. The locals reckon if they smell sulphur in the air then rain is coming. Rotorua has a very strong Maori influence and we spent a day at the Maori cultural centre where we saw Maori blokes teach tourists to do the haka, including a Japanese tourist who looked like he was doing the 'timewarp' instead. He was enjoying himself no end, arms and legs flailing everywhere! The haka is really great, and I have been practicing my facial expressions with little success. It wouldn't be Eva and Barrys 'set the world to rights blog' without mentioning the Maori of course; since leaving Australia we have also left our aboriginal crusade (© John O'Farrelly 2007) to begin the Maori crusade, although the situation is a lot different here. While the colonial fundamentals are the same, the Maori are settlers to New Zealand themselves and seem to have put up a hell of a fight when the Dutch arrived, even eating some of them...eek! After long battles over land rights and equality, the Maori are now an integral part of New Zealand society, and while represented at government level, as an ethnic minority, it's probably fair to assume that they don't feel as equal to the European settlers as they would like.



After Auckland, our OZNZ experience comes to an end, bringing us a new challenge in South America. One thing that has amazed us is the amount of Irish and English youngsters in Australia and New Zealand; the rite of passage for English is the gap year between school and college, and for the Irish it's a little older. While it's pretty easy to get around here, its still a big challenge for an 18 year old- jaypurs, I thought I was intrepid at 18 going to Santa Ponsa! It has to be done though; they are both absolutely fantastic countries, with spectacular scenery and wonderfully friendly people. We feel that we have done New Zealand justice albeit in a short space of time, but Australia...In the words of that famous Austr(al)ian: I'll be back.
Ps- we would get A1s in Leaving cert geography without opening a book at this rate, and loupol the blue mountains are caused by eucalyptus trees!
Pps- the bogs in campervans 'flush' anti clockwise.
Ppps- we miss you all and are really really sorry that the weather in Ireland has been so miserable.
Pppps- we're not really that sorry.

Barry's Cliff Notes:
New Zealand: south island is just beautiful, every corner you take on the drive around the island is a different mix of mirror lake, snow capped mountain, forest, wildlife, snow, greenery, rivers, you name it is just gorgeous and met all expectations on that front. Definitely somewhere you should visit.

Highlights: Queenstown, Queenstown, Queenstown, this is where I could live, retire and die, just brilliant, there is so much to do at your fingertips, skiing one day, luge the next, skydive the next, bungy the next, kitesurf the next, I could go on. Lovely place to boot, with very cool and friendly people abound. Only down point is that I bottled out of the famous AJ Hackett bungy, it is just WAYYYY to high.

My first time skiing also on Coronet Peak in Queenstown was great fun, but hard work and I wiped out big time, but I guess this comes with the territory.

The Franz Joseph glacier heli hike was also amazing and well worth a try, I also took a major fall on this one too!!! May be ice/snow and me are not bedfellows!
Funny enough, the rest of the south island is beautiful but not as exciting as Queenstown and in mostly hibernation at this time of year.

On the Van front, it is the best way of seeing New Zealand, but it was bloody cold, minus 5 some nights, see photos. Also New Zealand is basically a lot of mountains and driving is a challenge to say the least, especially a van, also see photos. So with all this, the novelty of living in a van wore off about 2 weeks into it, the last week was a bit of a nightmare, I must have smashed my head off that goddamn van about 50 times!!! I hate that van!!!!

SO.. between my falls and head smashes I am fairly bruised but delighted by our NZ experience and thrilled by what is to come in South America.

Cheers Barry
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/makusdigus/the_world/1184335620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/makusdigus/the_world/1184335620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/makusdigus/the_world/1184335620/tpod.html Wed, 18 Jul 2007 06:55:53 -0400 Eva & Barry's Journey

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Cairn to sydney, Australia

Our OZ experience continued in Cairns where we only spent one night on the advice of the seasoned travellers who have worn this path before us. We probably aren't completely qualified to judge cairns as we weren't there for very long, but we didn't find it as bad as had been expected. Just like any other touristy resort really, but our hotel bar closed at 10pm which was against type, and should have been the sign for us to get an early night, but alas twas not to be. We scoured the streets for an open bar and ended up..next door at the Holiday Inn where the bar stayed open until 11.30. Wahoo!!! Here, we met 2 Irish girls and two Aussie guys, called Peter and Peter and we had a good chat for the rest of the evening. Peter and Peter told us about their interpretation of the aboriginal situation, and like we described in the last post, seemed pretty frustrated by the whole thing- Peter 1 told us a joke which he felt summed it up perfectly: 'what was the last thing Jesus said to the aborigines? Don't do anything until I get back.' Hmmmmmm no judgement.
The following morning, we got a bus to port Douglas, about an hour north of cairns. This part of Queensland is so beautiful; on the one hand, they have some of the most magnificent rainforests in Australia, and on the other, the Great Barrier Reef. To top it all off, its 20 degrees in the middle of winter! Port Douglas is a lovely town, but very white, very middle class, lots of Australian families enjoying the school holidays. Here we rented an apartment a few minutes from the beach and chilled out for 5 days. Having said that, we saw plenty of sights, from the Mossman gorge,

a fabulous gorge on the edge of the daintree rainforest,

to rainforest habitat which is a wildlife park which claims to create a natural environment for the animals that live there. I don't know what natural environment has its koalas removed for a 3pm photo op with horrible kids but however.

There were kangaroos

and wallabies roaming around the park, and they had crocs as well!
Of course, it's not possible to come to this part of the world and not see the Great Barrier Reef. Barry will describe his experience of the reef, but let me tell you mine entitled:'dude, where's my comfort zone?'
As some of you will know, I am aquatically challenged. I can't swim and it has nearly been the death of me on more than one occasion- an unfortunate incident in tiglin adventure centre comes to mind, and more recently on a wave runner in Thailand. We chose to go out on the 'low isles' where it is possible to snorkel from the beach to see all types of sea life. We went with a company called 'shaolin' which promised a unique experience on an ancient Chinese sailing boat.(? we couldnt make the connection either.) The journey out to the island took about 1 hour 45 minute, and once I had ensconced myself on deck I wasn't moving for nothing or nobody. There were no outer railings on the boat so one had to hold on to the railings on the side of the boat itself and only walk on the high side of the ship. Arrgh!!! As we approached the island, this little dinghy yoke sailed alongside to take us there as the water was to shallow for our ancient. Chinese. Sailing boat. So on we trundle, sans lifejacket, and rip off to the island. When we get there, we get our snorkelling gear including those ridiculous flippers that are impossible to walk in. Into the water we get, and are divided up into 2 groups, the proper swimmers ready to go off and explore the reef and the less confident who would be taken on a smaller tour. A girl from Belfast and I were the only 2 non swimmers so we were told to wait a few minutes and the instructor would be back to us after she had sent the other groups on their way. Except that she never came back for us and so my trip to the reef was spent in flippers, goggles and mask in water that was about 4ft deep chatting to Wendy who had just arrived in Oz after a year in New Zealand. We were too afraid to take the gear off in case she came back for us and we couldn't get them back on again. That mouthpiece sure is a communication barrier!
The way back to port Douglas was more of the same heart in mouth fear, and the water got a bit choppier as the sun went down, the views were beautiful though, and hey, it beats working!


We left port Douglas on 4th July and flew to Sydney. If we could do it again, we would have taken the time to drive down the coast but hindsight is a wonderful thing, and take in some of the spots that some of you suggested. Next time. It was great to be back in Sydney, as we had only had one night there on arrival in Australia. Sydney is a really beautiful city, and it knows it! Even the docks look good! We were lucky with the weather, it was crisp and sunny the whole time we were there. Again, like Melbourne, we walked our little feet off in the place. The usual suspects, the opera house and the harbour are magnificent, darling harbour is lovely too, and a little less daunting than Sydney harbour, lovely bars and restaurants with beautiful views of the city, darling. There is a 'world from the air' exhibition on there at the moment, with fantastic Arial photography from all over the world with an emphasis on conservation. Another must see is the Australian museum which had a particularly good exhibition on the history and culture on the aborigines which was told a really balanced story of the situation finishing with Cathy freeman carrying the Olympic torch at the 2000 Olympics. I found it really moving- what a moment that was!


We found it really hard to get cheap accommodation in Sydney, live earth was on, as well as a make poverty history event in the opera house, and of course, Australia v south Africa in the tri nations in Telstra stadium which we went to on the Saturday night. It was a big night for Aussie rugby, the last game on home turf for two guys...of course I know! George Gregan and err some other guy. The game itself was good fun but not as atmospheric as we would have thought- no singing, no Mexican waves, in fact the atmosphere in Paddy's bar in Port Douglas for Australia v New Zealand the week before was better, although that was largely down to one guy with what appeared to be severe ADD dressed like John McEnroe at the height of his career. We could teach the Aussie rugby fans a thing or two about support, but they could teach us a lot about logistics- the journey two and from the Olympic park was so seamlessly efficient, with transport costs included in the ticket price.



Sunday we got the train to the Blue Mountains, about 2 hours outside Sydney, and stayed in a place called katoomba. We walked into the hotel reception to the receptionist saying to the owner '...b the way, there is a redback outside.. A redback as most of you will know is a really poisonous spider.arrg! the portly Greek owner responded by walking out and standing on him before Barry got the chance to take a photo and pretend that he had found him on the toilet seat in the middle of the night. Katoomba is well worth a visit, but could probably be done in a day trip, unless the weather is better. It was only brassers there, which would set us up for New Zealand (brrr). The mountains are lovely and get their name from the blue hue which sits over them, something to do with science. Our full day there was marred by mist, but we got some good walks in and got the 'skyrail' and a cable car in and out of the rainforest. Overall, a nice end to a great week in Sydney and our Australian adventure. We had such a great time here, and would have loved to say longer and drive around a bit more. But, alas it's on to New Zealand (!!!!!) where weather and scenery await in equally breathtaking measures.




Barry's Cliff Notes:

Cairns:Wierd place, kinda white trash resort, kinda like Ocean city, for any of you guys that have been there!, I think that explains it all. Yeehaw...where's the tattoo parlour Lurlene?
Port Douglas: Kinda like Hyannis, for any of you that have been there, nice town, lots of pubs and The GRAND barrier reef beside it. I say grand, cos I went out on it and it was abit murky, I'm sure other days are better but I got abit unlucky. Still got to swim with turtles which was amazing. Eva was flopping about on the shore having a natter!, On the grand barrier reef I tell ya!!!!???
Daintree Rainforest: Amazing scenery and flora etc, which brings me to the question we could not answer: If a tree falls in the rainforest, does a catholic bear hear it, if the pope is having a sh1t?
Sydney: Nice town, I think I prefer Melbourne, but Sydney does grow on you. Really cool to sit and look at the opera house and just say " Wow I'm in Sydney Australia!!!"

Off to Ski, Bungee and look at Middle earth in NZ now. Cannot wait...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/makusdigus/the_world/1183268280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/makusdigus/the_world/1183268280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/makusdigus/the_world/1183268280/tpod.html Sun, 01 Jul 2007 02:07:37 -0400 Eva & Barry's Journey

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Melbourne to alice springs, Australia

And so to Australia. We have only been here about 10 days and already it has been more amazingly fabulous than we could ever have imagined. Judging by our experiences thus far it wouldn't be possible to cram it all into one blog entry, so here is part one, Melbourne to Alice Springs Airport via a certain large rock along the way.

Before we begin, thanks for all your comments on the last entry, we really enjoyed reading them- keep 'em coming! Lots of you were intrigued by the toilet in Japan, another fine example of where man has been replaced by the machine... the ladies rooms of nicer hotels and restaurant offer the visitor a choice of musak to be played whilst doing ones business to drown out any unwanted noises that may occur. Or, if that is too obvious, one can choose the noise of the toilet constantly flushing. It sure made a change from the holes in the ground of Hong Kong and Beijing...Apologies if you are reading this over breakfast but the toilet theme continues. Barry was excited about travelling to Australia to see the toilets flush in the other direction, now that we were entering t'other hemisphere. However, we couldn't remember which way they flushed at home so we are not sure if it is different. Video clips of your flushing jax welcome so that we can compare!

We arrived in Sydney airport from Thailand on 19th June. Loads of you have been to Australia so you will know all about the length of the flight, but we found it tough, and it must have been even tougher for the 6 foot 10 inch man sitting a few seats behind us at the mercy of British Airways hospitality. They don't make planes for the likes of him anymore! Immigration in Sydney was a long process- they are very careful about keeping foreign food and insect type things out of the country, even cleaning some guys' boots of mud that had accumulated on them in his previous destination! We spent the night in Sydney in a hotel in The Rocks which is where the first convicts landed when the English Government decided that Australia was an appropriate place to bring their criminals- who cares about the people already living here? Let's dump all our criminals on them!!
The following morning we got the train from Sydney to Melbourne, it was a 13 hour journey, but enjoyable seeing the scenery and stopping in places with great names such as Wagga Wagga. While Sydney had been really cold and wet, the weather en route to Melbourne was bright and sunny and it was lovely to watch the sunset whilst listening to good tunes on the oul ipod. We spent our first 2 nights in Melbourne in the Central Business District. Melbourne is a fabulous city, and we walked the length and breadth of it in those 2 days, from the immigration museum, which illustrated the creation of a 'white Australia' over the last 150 years at the expense of the aborigines; to the Melbourne museum where they have the set of the Robinsons kitchen from Neighbours along with loads of Neighbours triv (the real Ramsay Street has people from 22 different ethnic backgrounds living on it); and Lygon street which is just packed with on-street restaurants and cafes.
On the Friday night we went to an Australian Rules game in the Melbourne Cricket Ground; Richmond V Melbourne. We didn't know the rules, or who to support, (who ya goin' for?) but early on we pledged our support for Richmond and it was a good call because they hammered Melbourne something like 130-60. Great atmosphere and good fun- man those guys are fit! The game lasts 2 hours and they don't stop running!
We spend 3 days in St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne, which despite our initial reservations turned out to be a great place and we would have loved more time there. At first, St Kilda made us feel the way one does when they can remember who sang the original song first time round, or when they look in a mirror first thing on a Monday morning- old.
After the AFL game we headed back to a proper spit and sawdust bar to have a couple of VB's. In the bar were lots of 21 year old Irish folk living it up on their one year visas drinking jaegermeister to beat the band. Now, I (Eva) was born 40 and Barry is fast approaching 35 so for us these spring chickens made us feel really old...:o(

The following morning we headed off on a tour of the Great Ocean Road, which is a coast road running from Torquay (about 70km south of Melbourne) to Warrnambool (many many more kms south of Melbourne..) A coast road is a coast road I hear you cry! But no, the great ocean road was magnificent, and we could only imagine how fabulous it would be in the height of summer. As it happens, the day started out a bit dull and overcast and then brightened up in the afternoon. Highlights included the 12 Apostles, a series of magnificent limestone sea stacks- one of which collapsed a couple of years ago, so now there are only 11, Lockard Ridge another series of unbelievable rock formations; The sea is really wild here, and it is known as the Shipwreck coast, where lots of people have died on the epic journey from Europe to Australia- so close! Although Barry won't commit to one, my highlight of the day was a trip to Maits Rest Rainforest, a cool, temperate rainforest in Otway National Park. The rainforest was such a calming, cool, soothing place, I cant do it justice by describing it, but to be surrounded by so much forest, including some of the world's tallest trees was so relaxing- I could have stayed there all day, except it was pretty cold, what with all that damp and no sun getting through. Magnificent. We also saw koala bears in the National Park, possibly the cutest things we have ever seen; and what a great life! Like the pandas in Beijing, their diet is pretty specific; they just eat eucalyptus leaves and as such have to sleep about 19 hours a day to digest it properly. They were gorgeous!
Our last full day in Melbourne was the first chance we got to take a proper look around St Kilda, and it's really lovely, a bit like malahide, or ranelagh by the sea for you southsoiders! Lots of bars and restaurants, a Sunday market along the promenade, a fairground with a pretty eerie big face at the entrance; it was a beautiful sunny day, and we were having a great time just strolling around taking it all in.

Monday 25th we flew to Alice Springs, right in the centre of Australia. Alice Springs has marketed itself very well as the hub for Uluru (ayers rock). Well, it is only 450km away... Alice Springs was the first place that we had not booked accommodation etc for in advance, and had hoped to arrive at the airport and be able to book a bus to Uluru and everything else that we needed. Unfortunately, all you could get in Alice Springs Airport was a beer and /or a rental car, so we got the latter, which turned out to be a good decision as it gave us so much freedom over the 3 days that we were here. We spent a night in Alice and drove to Uluru the following morning. A day in Alice is plenty, if just to see first hand the aboriginal town camps which house members of the indigenous communities. It's hard for us not to be voyeuristic about this; we have been absolutely fascinated by the aborigines and their placing in Australian society since we arrived. The Australian Government have recently completed an investigation into child sexual abuse among the communities and it appears to be a massive problem, particularly in the Northern Territory, where we are now. The governments plan to address the problem includes sending police, army members and doctors into the communities as well as controlling welfare payments so that money cant be spent on 'grog' or petrol . It would be interesting to know how much of this is being reported at home but basically it is on every TV and radio station and newspaper since we arrived. It's probably fair to say that non indigenous Australians struggle between guilt, a sense of duty but a lot of frustration in relation to the aborigines. Overall, the general message is that what the government is doing is right, if a little paternalistic. It's really easy for us to be critical of Australia and their treatment of the aborigines, but really, one can make a lot of comparisons to the traveller situation in Ireland. Anyway, more of that later, back to a Town called Alice. This part of the world ain't called the red centre for nothin'. It's red and dry. Alice Springs is located by the 'usually dry' Todd River. It's impossible to look at where the river should be and not feel the roof of your mouth go dry, like you were stuck in the desert and followed the map to where the Todd River should be only to find that there was no water. Its main street is unashamedly geared towards the tourists, lots of souvenir shops, tour centres and a few restaurants and dodgy bars. Alice Springs is also home to the MacDonnell Mountain Ranges and the HQ of the Flying Doctors, and ultimately, we enjoyed the time there - its Australia baby!

Driving directions to Uluru from Alice Springs are as follows:
Turn right on to the Stuart highway and then right at Erdlunda (about 200km later).And it's that easy! We took about 5 hours getting to Uluru with plenty of stops along the way. Tourists and campers are so well catered for here, toilet stops, bbq and camping facilities all along these major roads, it makes it so accessible., despite the fact that you are driving through quite possibly the most scorchingly, aridly inhospitable places in the world (anywhere we haven't been not included) It is so barren here, the only buildings are the hotel/cafe/post office/pub/shop at the rest stop- we wondered where the employees lived. We could drive 200km without passing another car- and this is on the road to Uluru; imagine what it's like when the road doesn't lead to a major tourist attraction. We saw some funky road kill on them there roads. Lots of Kangaroos, birds, and some cows at the side of the road who had just given up the ghost looking for the Todd River....
Yulara is the Ayers rock resort which has the monopoly on all eatin' drinkin' sleepin' and shoppin' that one will do whilst at Uluru. All we could get was a hotel room for about 150 euro per night, which is pretty expensive, but it was a nice room and the resort has everything that one could need while here, albeit at inflated prices. So on to the rock! It rocks! Uluru is magnificent, so imposing on the landscape and the changes in its colour during sunset are magical. It goes from being a light brown to a blood red in a really short space of time. We walked around it- 10km which will tell you how big it is. The issue of climbing the rock was an interesting one. Everywhere tourists are asked not to climb the rock- from your guide book to the tickets to the national park, to the signs at the rock itself. The rock is considered a sacred site to the aboriginal people and the Lonely Planet describes climbing it as akin to climbing the altar at Notre Dame Cathedral. Yet, climbing it is not forbidden, and when we arrived at the rock we saw a trail of about 100 people going up and down what must have been a really steep, tough climb. We thought it was strange that people would climb it when it was requested that they not do so, but when we asked a guy who worked there why so many people did he said that 'if people see a rock they want to climb it'. I thought there was more to it than that, but nowt as queer as folk so maybe not. Interestingly enough, our second day at Uluru was day one of the governments intervention in the indigenous communities, and they began with the Mujilutu community who live in Uluru. There were lots of soldiers having their lunch at the Uluru coffee shop when we were there; strange and ironic, and sad too.
Overall a fabulous few days, we drove back to Alice Springs and flew out on 28th June. Initially I (Eva) would have advised anybody travelling to Uluru to fly straight there to avoid the hassle of Alice Springs and the 450km journey. However in hindsight, the journey was almost as good as the destination and has made us really hungry to see more. It's just an amazing place- who'da thunk that we would be in the red centre of Australia? Next stop is Cairns, and upon advice from our learned traveller friends, we will be getting out of there quick smart and heading to port Douglas for a nice holiday. We need it ;O)

Barry's Cliff notes!
Sydney for a night!.. Very cold after being in Thailand. Got to see the harbour bridge and the opera house by night., Very Cool. Back to Sydney next week for more.

Melbourne: I love Melbourne, and to this point I love Most of Australia and the whole vibe of the place, Melbourne demonstrates this best. It is just cool, lots of coffee shops, bars ,backpackers etc . It seems to cater for everyone . Would live there in a heartbeat, if it was not the other side of the world. To be a bit boring the architecture here is brilliant amazing mix of old and new. Great Ocean Road is amazing. The WW1 soldiers built this on their return from battle and stayed together in their battalions so mates could stay together and work as in war. I think that demonstrates Australia to me, nice common sense. In most things!

Outback.. Alice Springs is worth a visit, It is worth it to see how the aborigines in the northern territories have been placed in compounds (for lack of a better word) outside the town. They sit around doing nothing in the barren land all day or wander around the town like ghosts. Mad and sad in one. Eva has covered the intervention above. Very interesting debate. 500k Drive was brilliant and gave us a first real sense of how massive Australia is, one forgets that it is a continent on it's own!
ULURU.. Just see the pics.. Amazing. We walked the circumference of the rock and suffered death by 1000 flies. Also see pics. To talk on the issue above, when we arrived at Uluru, there was a school tour there specifically to climb the rock!! This says it all to me about the respect for the indigenous people if a school is bringing them to climb it!!! In your face Abbos!!!!
Interesting side fact. China grows by the population of Australia per year.. 20M!
Hope you enjoy the photos, Barry's wildlife snaps will be on the next entry! Diving on the Great Barrier Reef here we come!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/makusdigus/the_world/1181649720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/makusdigus/the_world/1181649720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/makusdigus/the_world/1181649720/tpod.html Fri, 15 Jun 2007 07:10:28 -0400 Eva & Barry's Journey

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ASIA, Thailand

  So the Asia leg of our trip is coming to an end, we are currently in thailand and will head to australia on Monday 18th. We have had a great time so far, and its really hard to belive that we are only gone just over 2 weeks- we have been to 5 different countries in that time,and our carbon footprint is such that we will be planting trees for months after we get back...

Note: if you are short on time, scroll down to Barrys cliff notes- otherwise, read on!

We started out in Hong Kong, a great city, but unfortunately we only got to expericence it for about 23 hours. It was a great start to the trip in the sense that it is a city that caters really well for tourists and ex pats, it was so easy making our way around, everything was so efficient, the streets were spotlessly clean and really safe. But the heat! Wowza! We thought because it was an island there would be a grand oul breeze around the place to cool us down. Not the case, our walks around the city were delayed by impromptu stops outside department stores to steal their cold air for a few minutes. It was a short but sweet experience, and definitely worth seeing again, if only for the skyline which resembles a colourful manhattan.
We flew out of hong kong at 3am, the only flight out of the airport that night, so it was really just us and a lonely janitor in the airport. Man, were those floors buffed to perfection!

Our next stop was Beijing which is a really interesting clash between old and new, on one side of the street there are fancy new shopping malls with starbucks, kfc and even oasis, and on the other side there is the old beijing with the communist grey buildings and the massive high rise delapidated apartments.The city is so crowded, so many people and so many bikes! If there are 9 million bicycles in beijing, then we nearly hit every single one of them in our various taxi rides. Neither the cars nor the bikes pay much attention to traffic lights and so there will be hundreds of bikes weaving their way through hundreds of cars, and apparently its very skilfully done, they just all do it very slowly. But despite all those bikes, there is a huge pollution problem in the city. it is hardly possible to see 10 feet in front of you, the smog in the city is really bad, so if there is a beijing skyline, we didn't see it! On our first full day we went to tien'man square, the forbidden city and to Beijing Zoo. We had walked from our hotel to tien'man square (about 45 minutes) and every time we stopped to look at our map or looked like hapless tourists, somebody came over to ask us if we needed any help, including a guy who was fascinated by Ireland and the clean air and high salaries. He asked us to tell him what 'thank you' and 'goodbye' were in Irish (it was a struggle..), and it was amazing to think in a country the size of china, so far away from Ireland, that some guy knew about ireland and its language. Tien'man Square was interesting, although the student bloke and the guy in the tank must have been off that day... There are really too many tourists on the square (of which we were two of course) to get a real sense of how monumental the place is. There are very impressive sculptures however, all depicting the communist struggle and how Chairman Mao was the saviour of everything. This guy seemed pretty egotistical, his face was all over the square and indeed all over the city.

Beijing Zoo was depressing, it's an old, run down zoo that has seen better days. All the animals, especially the pandas look stoned and all of them were asleep while we were there. The elephants were the worst. 3 beautiful elephants in this enclosure that consisted of a big grey building and a couple of balding trees. Actually, the most interesting experience in the zoo was when barry dropped a peanut off the top of his cornetto. Within minutes, an army of ants had assembled to carry the peanut off to their ant hut. To watch them was fascinating, they were so strong, and so resourceful!

The following day we took a trip to the ming tombs and to the piece de la resistance, the great wall. We had a guide for the day who gave us a really good insight into chinese culture. There has been a one child rule in china since 1979, and if families want to have more than one child they have to pay for them. Most families want their one child to be a boy, and as a result there are orphanages all over china full of unwanted girls. The other problem is that there are way more boys for every girl which means that lots of men will end up alone unless they reintroduce polygamy- for women! Also china has similar housing issues to dublin, and land is at a premium, resuling very often in 3 generations of family living in one apartment in beijing just for the location. Apparently in China, when a women is looking to marry, she doesn't look for a fiancee that she can get on with, but a mother in law. Mwah hah hah.
The great wall was a great experience, but do your stretches before you attempt it! The weather was quite bad that day, so the views werent great, but to climb it in really hot weather would have been unbearable. When we first looked at the wall from the ground, it looked so steep, and windy, as in those building it didn't take the most direct route from point a to point b but followed the edge of the mountain. Anyway, up we went alog with thousands of other tourists all clad with massive umbrellas and ridiculous latex raincoats. The steps are really uneven, and im sure accidents must happen regularly, especially as there were some very senior folk climbing the wall, and a few glam russian ladies in miniskirts and high heels. Back to the hotel later that day via a jade factory, a tea making ceremony and some brass type factory, where we were given the hard sell in each place to buy jade, tea and brass. We didn't bite- we were saving our money for tsing tao beer!!!

After Beijing we flew to Tokyo, another great city, full of clean living law abiding citizens. Smoking on the street is frowned upon in Tokyo, not for health reasons but to reduce litter. Smoking is restricted to 'smoking stations' outside train stations and shopping areas. Like Hong Kong, Tokyo feels so safe, bikes unlocked all over the city, cool kids walking around with their Louis Vuitton wallets hanging out of their back pockets.. (Barry left his wallet in the bathroom of Tokyu department store and it was still there when he went back for it 20 minutes later). Everything is done in glorious Technicolor and in cartoon form where possible. Of course Japan is the home of Hello Kitty, and we were greeted by her at the airport in a kimono with a little umbrella. So cute! We went to Shibakoen which is where all the cool kids hang out and the home of massive cross roads where the Killers video for 'Read my mind' was shot. The shops here were something else, and the fashion- the Tokyo chicks really dress up for Saturday afternoon shopping! City shorts, over the knee socks and high heels, and the boys; big hair, tight jeans and waistcoats. However, after the magnitude of the Great wall and the Ming tombs, we felt a little deflated in Tokyo (awwwww) it's a great city, but there really isn't that much to do apart from eat, drink and be merry. Tokyo tower is a remake of the Eiffel Tower and that is fun, and there are lots of temples and lovely parks, but it's a city break type of place, and a great place to go shopping etc, but malhereusement we had neither the rucksack space nor the cash to do so.





Bangkok the following day- I am probably not qualified to comment on the city, because I really didn't explore it very much, Bangkok was a sensory overload, the smell, the heat, the noise- and not in a good way. It was impossible to walk anywhere without being hassled by somebody and to me was such a strange experience. The airport is covered with pictures of the king and queen, everybody wears these yellow t shirts with pictures of the palace on it, and there seems to be a real respect(or fear) for the monarchy and religion (temples EVERYWHERE!) So much so that you tube and other file sharing websites are banned in Thailand because people posted anti monarchist files on them. So why does the place feel so dodgy? And seedy? PHOTO_ID_L=snc10281.jpg]





A big thing which I noticed in Asia was the prominence of 'whitening' beauty products. All the cosmetics companies have whitening skin creams and make up which claim to reduce melanin. Michael Jackson would make a killing here with whatever he has goin' on. I thought it was really sad, but I guess it's the exact same as us wanting to be bronzed and beautiful. The grass is always greener....

In Koh Samui now and really not much to say other than it is hot, the beaches are nice, and Chaweng, the main beach on the island is the best example of the wests destruction of the east that I have seen. Chaweng has Boots, KFC, Starbucks... It has men carrying eagles and chimps and charging tourists to have their picture taken with them, the resort was never intended to have so many people on it so the sewerage is pretty bad, its just nasty. There are much nicer parts of the island, and probably much nicer islands too...

One final story is that of Barry and the coconut. a mythical tale of a man wrestling fruit. A load of coconuts fell of the back of a truck (no, really) and Barry insisted on bringing one home. After many hours and copious tools he managed to prise it open to get the milk. bleugh, waay to much work for very little return, but still, Barry enjoyed it- he is man. He break coconut.



PS apologies for any spelling mistakes.


BARRY's Cliff Notes:....If you're short on time!

Hong Kong. Asian New york. But nice mix of old china and new world. Very nice and worth a visit.Hong Kong Harbour very cool. Hot!

Beijing. Loads of people, loads of bikes, Eva was like a celebrity with all the Chinese tourists taking her photo. V Funny. Tianamen square and forbidden city are very cool. The most polluted city I have ever been to, it is is disgusting. I hope they are ready for the Olympics as they are far from it now!

The Great Wall.... Brilliant and an ambition to have walked on it. Very very well worth doing. I lost all the photos of that day..Stupid camera! Also did ming tombs that day. Very intresting.

Tokyo. Lovely city, very clean and modern. All teenagers dress like Russell Brand. Mad! I had high expectations of how cool Tokyo would be but it is very much a american photocopy, shame it does not exude more of the culture that it has.


Bangkok.. Dirty and smelly.. Quite exilirating to walk around though, you could be in any decade in parts and in others you could be in the future, mad place. Stinks and won't be back!


Ko Samui/Ko Tao. Holiday Islands..Blah Blah,, HOTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Going Scuba diving tommorrow.!

miss you all xxxxx keep in touch!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/makusdigus/the_world/1179914580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/makusdigus/the_world/1179914580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/makusdigus/the_world/1179914580/tpod.html Tue, 12 Jun 2007 08:02:11 -0400 Eva & Barry's Journey

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Athens, Greece

Kind of the first of our trip, but of course just me on this one, Barry that is!. Not quite the result I was hoping for in Athens, but getting the opportunity to go to a European Cup Final that Liverpool are in was Amazing! (Thanks Dave!) Basically we flew to Athens at 6am on the morning of the match which gave us an opportunity to see a bit of the city, Hard city to find your way around on foot, but the metro way is the business so we were ok. Had a few musacka and a beer then went up to the Parthenon/Acropolis. Am delighted that we got the chance to see this as it is amazing and makes you realise how old the world is, if that makes sense!...

That's the culture out of the way!, now the match!, in short, we got there, that's Dave Barry and Myself by train. We arrived with about 20 mins to spare, and by that time there was no hassle with ticket entry or trouble as reported on Sky, we just walked in as normal. Stadium is amazing and was just full of Liverpool fans and we were right in with them, was brilliant. The noise was incredible.
The game itself was not great, but I thought Liverpool should have won, if only we had a striker I think 'ol big ears' would be in Anfield now. But not to be. The train back to the city was a lovely experience.. NOT. Full of lovely people, discussing fights and 'twatting' coppers or 'bizzies' It was like something out of India the train was that full! Lovely, but we survived. Great experience and hopefully there is a trip to Moscow next year!!!!! So the lyrics stay the same 'we won it five times'!!!!

Anyway just an intro to the travelblog, lots to follow from Eva!

B

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