TravelStream™ news feed for member siscri on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/siscri en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:23:05 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/5/1213551840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/5/1213551840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/5/1213551840/tpod.html Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:23:05 -0400 The United States of America

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Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland

A holiday in the United States of America is prodigious one of incomparable bliss, but to live there is only slightly more desirable than living in one of the countries they are currently bombing.Ah, the banality of criticsing the States. The predicatibility of such statements is cause enough to question them and actually take the time to look deeper. Millions of Irish emigrants can't be wrong. And despite the pricks and the politics, I love the place. I have lived and worked there twice and 'vacationed' there dozens of times.This time with Caroline, in a short amount of time we intend to trace the history of these Americans from East to West overland.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/millweekends/1227292920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/millweekends/1227292920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/millweekends/1227292920/tpod.html Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:43:21 -0400 The Mill Weekends (Vol. 1-5)

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Bremen, Bremen, Germany

Malone's stag.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/millweekends/1206294000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/millweekends/1206294000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/millweekends/1206294000/tpod.html Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:42:11 -0400 The Mill Weekends (Vol. 1-5)

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Carlingford, County Louth, Ireland

Pat's stag.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/5/1219605540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/5/1219605540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/5/1219605540/tpod.html Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:20:32 -0400 The United States of America

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New Orleans, Louisiana, United States

Rosa Parks sat in black section in Montgomery, Alabama"Louisiana in September was like an obscene phone call from nature." - Jitterbug perfumeTHE MINUTE YOU LAND IN NEW ORLEANS,something wet and dark leaps on you and starts humping you like a swamp dog in heat, and the only way to get that aspect of New Orleans off you is to eat it offWhite folks have controlled New Orleans with money and guns, black folks have controlled it with magic and music
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/millweekends/1166439420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/millweekends/1166439420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/millweekends/1166439420/tpod.html Thu, 04 Jan 2007 11:15:59 -0500 The Mill Weekends (Vol. 1-5)

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London, United Kingdom

<img src="http://images.travelpod.com/users/siscri/millweekends.1166439420.img_4654.jpg" width=530>&nbsp; <img src="http://images.travelpod.com/users/siscri/millweekends.1166439420.img_4612.jpg" width=530>
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/littlesthobo-04/1077728100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/littlesthobo-04/1077728100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/littlesthobo-04/1077728100/tpod.html Sat, 09 Dec 2006 09:07:57 -0500 Maybe tomorrow, I'll want to settle down. Until tomorrow, I'll just keep movin' on.

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Dublin, Ireland

I was bored of my opening page, so now here's a nice little table of contents...The End <i>"Going home is totally overrated." England Pt. 2<i> "I swear, the sound of parents smacking their fat kids in supermarkets should be the drumline of the British national anthem."Spain Pt. 2<i>"I fucking hate cancer. It is a coward of a disease that sneaks up on people. It is gutless and pathetic and I hate it."France Pt. 2<i>"Night buses are always signifigant, but the one to Paris seemed especially so."Spain Pt. 1<i>"Listening to Spanish girls talking is as intense and comfortable as a vibrating chair."France Pt. 1<i>"It used to be that you needed alot of money to holiday in the south of France, now all you need is a lack of imagination."Italy<i>"The people aren't as good looking as I was lead to believe by Fashion TV."Greece<i>"I made an outrageous conclusion about Greece on my first day, and that made me content with leaving so soon."Cyprus<i>"I bet you never thought I'd use the phrase 'severed genitals' in this travelogue"Bahrain<i>"This is not an entry...this is just a tribute."Australia Pt. 3<i>"I gave the whole South Pacific one last squeeze on the ass and that was that."Vanuatu<i>"It'sessential after a break-up to make sure that you do something excellentto take your mind of it and attempt to convince yourself that you'rebetter off."Fiji<i>"People in the hotel mistook us for real people rather than backpackers."Tonga<i>"I now carry my snorkel around with me so I can submerge my face in any body of water we find."New Zealand Pt. 2<i>"Meetingthese school friends of mine who are settling down and getting marriedusually makes me think, very briefly, that I should start thinkingabout buying a four door house and finding a semi-detached wife."Australia Pt. 2<i>"The pinnacle of shitness came in the form of some guy who decided to do a medley/blend of 'No Woman, No Cry' and 'Let It Be'."New Zealand Pt. 1<i>"Thegirls are traveling together and have fallen in to 'synchronisedmenstrual cycles'. It's the scariest fucking thing I've ever seen."Australia Pt. 1<i>"It's trips like these that make me want to throw my shoes out the window and head off to some island to live off coconuts."Thailand<i>"There's no welcome to Bangkok like that of a lady boy smearing an unknown substance on your face."Hong Kong<i>"LeavingH.K. was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life, andprobably messed with my head more than any girl possibly could."China<i>"Inthe most impressive serene settings you can suddenly turn to find someguide shouting through a megaphone that now would be a good opportunityfor all the people in yellow baseball caps to take a piss."Mongolia<i>"The fucker who punched him should be sent to Siberia, if he didn't live there already."Russia<i>"We have come to the conclusion that Russia is the ass capital of the world."England Pt. 1<i>"The 3rd Scriver Cup was a great success. It was an English victory this time."Ireland<i>"Is 'rolling' really better than 'folding'?"<img src="http://images.travelpod.com/users/siscri/littlesthobo-04.1077728100.mosaic_face1.jpg">
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/littlesthobo-04/1157551380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/littlesthobo-04/1157551380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/littlesthobo-04/1157551380/tpod.html Sun, 26 Nov 2006 15:41:41 -0500 Maybe tomorrow, I'll want to settle down. Until tomorrow, I'll just keep movin' on.

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Barcelona, Spain

Partying in Valencia was taking its toll on my body, and I wanted to press on northward. Despite a vision Al had (a seagull appearing to him on a flaming tomato and telling him to work in Valencia) he joined me on the bus ride up to Barcelona.Maxi & Celine - BarcelonaFriends from home who I also met up with in Sydney, Australia and Taupo, NZWe met up with Maxi and Celine who happened to be on holiday here, conveniently staying in a beautiful four bedroom apartment. So they´ve been taking care of me and it was excellent to see them again, giving me more motivation to continue homeward.We also hooked up with an American Couchsurfer who was passing through and the 5 of us spent a couple days on those hop-on/hop-off tour buses seeing the sights and talking random shit. There are some awesome things to see in Barcelona - good museums, gorgeous parks and some mental architecture.The highlight had to be Gaudi´s La Sagrada Familia - an eyesore of a church which dominates a block of town. It´s been under construction for over a hundred years and is showing no signs of being completed; that´s part of its attraction I guess.Al fell ass backwards in to a job. He had started getting a bit depressed about the lack of work, despite the fact that he´d made no effort. But things worked out as always - we briefly bumped in to a Kiwi girl who helped him out. So basically, while he said it was so difficult to find work, he sat on a tour bus for two days and then got offered a job. So he´ll be staying here teaching English using some weird new method. Apparently the inventor claims that the method can be used for anything, even to teach a monkey to play piano. Good luck with that.I ran some errands in Barcelona. And I briefly looked in to sending a telegram to Dublin. I don´t know if telegrams still exist but I wanted to send one to anyone in Dublin saying "Go down and meet the train STOP You´re son is coming back from the war. STOP" It didn´t happen. That would have been sweet though.Enough was enough and I said bye to everyone and everything and went to catch a bus. While I was waiting I saw two Muslim guys doing their evening prayers. They were aruging about which direction Mecca was and that made me smile. I watched them take turns praying on the one prayer mat they had brought, while the other one would play with his mobile phone. That's the kind of sight that makes me travel, and I briefly questioned my heading back towards Dublin.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/littlesthobo-04/1157026980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/littlesthobo-04/1157026980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/littlesthobo-04/1157026980/tpod.html Sun, 26 Nov 2006 15:18:39 -0500 Maybe tomorrow, I'll want to settle down. Until tomorrow, I'll just keep movin' on.

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Valencia, Spain

"Europe's always been real good to me,She's always been forthwith with girls with pretty feet."I continued my efforts to do nothing in Dolores with a sense of commitment and determination that I've rarely known. Highlights of the last month included talking to Pat on Skype, pissing around with my young cousins in the pool, winding up my Dad by overusing the word awesome, and watching my parents have a waterpistol fight.Al The Seagull did indeed come to visit but failed to leave. We attempted to learn Spanish and went out on the weekends to practice it on the local señioritas. It was like a practical exam, if your invigilator was a 17 year old loophole wearing a greyhound skirt. It's safe to say I failed.Eventually Al and I said goodbye to my parental units, leaving them to reclaim their sunbeds. We caught a bus up north to Valencia, which we would use as a base while we took part in La Tomatina. Every year in Buñol, a small town just outside of Valecnia, tens of thousands of people arrive to throw tomatos at each other. (I´m having a Dan Quayle moment...is it tomatos or tomatoes?)We´ve been partying every night in Valencia and it´s awesome. We hooked up with some Couchsurfers who were in town and partyed with them a couple of nights. Also, our hostel is full of banter heads (mainly Australians) so we´ve been getting fucked up every night on cheap beer with some excellent randoms. Some of the lads are total legends, and most of the girls are hot and overflowing with banter. I´ve been having some of the best and most random conversations of my life.We caught a train out to Bunol on the morning of La Tomatina and made our way to the centre of town where it was already jammers. The small streets were so full of tourists that you could hardly move. Over 30,000 people go to this thing. The locals were prepared; they had covered their walls and windows with a sort of netting to stop any stray tomatos being launched in to their apartments. They also entertained themselves by chucking buckets of water on the tourists and spraying us with hoses. So straight away I was pretty much soaked.What we couldn´t see from our location was the build-up to the beginning. Like something out of a Marx Brothers movie, there is a really high greased up pole with a ham on the top. People fight to be the one to climb up and grab the ham, wrestling each other to the ground and standing on whoever gets in the way. Once someone grabs the ham a cannon goes off and La Tomatina begins. Of course.We were so cramped and crushed on the street that it was difficult for anyone to squeeze past. It seemed odd then that they would then try to drive several dump trucks down these streets. But they did. And some gay looking people in these trucks then threw out the tomatos to us all waiting below. Once in a while the backs of the trucks opened and a whole heap of tomatos poured out covering the streets.The Tomato fight went on for an hour and it was absolute carnage. One of the most mental things I´ve ever witnessed. Very very painful at times, but just so awesome. My goggles quickly filled with tomato which stung my eyes, so I ended up not even wearing them.I´d made a t-shirt with a bullseye on it and it turned out pretty sweet. But it didn´t last long in the fight. A group of Spanish lads started a chant, which I assumed translated to something like "Take it off!" and started ripping off everybody´s tops...including some girls. Soon enough I was stripped and chanting "Ole Ole!" topless with some random punters. The new found wet t-shirts were then used as weapons and thrown full force in peoples faces.A second cannon signals the end of the fight and everyone is by now covered in a rank tomato juice. Some woman came on a loudspeaker and was saying "Please stop throwing tomatos. Please stop throwing t-shirts. Please stop throwing objects." The streets are flowing red and you could see peoples cameras and shoes floating by. In fact, the majority of backpackers I´ve met since are wearing odd shoes, having picked up what they could find.Al and I filed back to the station and went back to Valencia to clean up. We queued up for the train and some hot chick picked off bits of dried tomato from my back...it seemed so wrong but felt so right. They weren´t letting people on the train without shirts, so I made a make-shift top out of Al´s bag. They tried to stop me but I did a runner.All in all the whole thing was fucking class. It´s inevitable that some time in the next few years it´ll turn nasty and a bunch of people will die. They´ll probably think about cancelling it, but then decide to start regulating it. I´d say you´ll have to buy a ticket and numbers will be limited. So I´m glad I got to witness it while it´s still a free-for-all. While it´s still fucking mental and the fear of death is high.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/littlesthobo-04/1163365740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/littlesthobo-04/1163365740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/littlesthobo-04/1163365740/tpod.html Sun, 26 Nov 2006 15:01:27 -0500 Maybe tomorrow, I'll want to settle down. Until tomorrow, I'll just keep movin' on.

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Waterlooville, United Kingdom

When I travel I never feel more foreign than I do when I'm in England. I know that seems like I'm trying to be deep and meaningful, but I'm not. I just genuinely feel out-of-place and uneasy whenever I'm here. That's what I was thinking on my extremely cheap bus ride down to Portsmouth on the south coast, where Marie picked me up. I was also thinking I would love a can of Dr. Pepper.Marie - WaterloovilleCo-wine bottler in Blenheim, NZAlmost everyone I met in England pointed out that my hair is grayer than the last time I saw them, and most of the girls pointed out I was skinnier. Marie was no exception. She also explained that things would never have worked out between us because I'm a higher class than her. I was truly baffled that people actually think like this. Anyway, she's doing good and happy working at some cosmetics company. She has a small bottle of moisturiser she got free, but it's worth £500. I was truly baffled that these things exist. She also told me her old cosmetics company sent thousands of pounds worth of shampoo and conditioner over to the victims of the tsunami. Baffled.We popped down to the local for a few pints and it was kicking. We had a good catch up and got talking to some of the freaks next to us. They had initiated the conversation because they had spotted my reaction when I overheard one of the girls say, "His dick is so tiny you could floss with it." Don't you love English girls? One of the girls then went on to tell us how her daughter is runining her social life and that she doesn't particularly like her and wishes she hadn't had her. Marie and I drank up and left faster than you can say 'Munchausen-by-proxy'.The next day we went on a bitching road trip. We drove over to Stonehenge, which neither of us have ever seen before. Alot of people had told me it was shit and that you can't get close to it, but actually you can still get a few metres away. It is truly phenomenal. The pagan in me loved it. It looks brilliant, and it's amazing that it was ever made and has not yet been destroyed by God-fearing Christians.We drove over to Salisbury for lunch with one of Marie's friends. I had read that Peter Gabriel's 'Solsbury Hill' was actually written on Salisbury Hill so I wanted to climb it. In fact, Salisbury Hill doesn't exist and I have since learned that the song was written on top of Solsbury Hill in Somerset. Never mind.I've just reread that paragraph and I can't decide if it makes sense or not.We checked out the sights of Salisbury and then carried on the road trip. We tried to find my school friend's grave which is in the area. He was murdered a couple of years ago while backpacking in Thailand. It seemed very close to home since I was backpacking at the time so I'd hoped to pay my respects, but we couldn't find his grave. It doesn't really matter, I guess. I hadn't seen him in years. But he was a good lad in school - selfless and genuinely harmless. I liked him a lot.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/littlesthobo-04/1158025080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/littlesthobo-04/1158025080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/siscri/littlesthobo-04/1158025080/tpod.html Sun, 26 Nov 2006 14:53:11 -0500 Maybe tomorrow, I'll want to settle down. Until tomorrow, I'll just keep movin' on.

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Paris, France

Night buses are always signifigant, but the one to Paris seemed especially so. I was starting the beginning of what is sadly the last leg of my trip. There's still a fair bit to do, but I am indeed on the final straight. I felt like I should be listening to 'Homeward Bound', 'Solsbury Hill', or maybe anything by Harry Nilsson. But I have to admit I was listening to the soundtrack to The Muppet Movie. "There's nothing out there you can't do...even Santa Claus believes in you." Perfect.It had entered my mind to see a bit more of France on the way to Paris, but my funds are low and I'm eager to see some friends so I gave it a miss. In particular I'd thought of spending some time in La Rochelle since it was the case study town that was featured throughout my French exercise books in school. I was curious whether the syndicat d'initiative was really en face de la piscine. I also wondered whether Sylvia still played la tennis and enjoyed la cinema or if, as I suspect, she had grown up with low self-esteem and now sucked off guys in the carpark of le discotheque to fund her addiction a la smack.Pierre & Marie - ParisTwo of the people I lived with in Wellington, New ZealandWhen I got to Paris I had to hang around during the day while Pierre and Marie were still out of town. I wandered through a part of town which was totally dead...there were signs in window indicating they were closed for 'security reasons', so I scurried away.My first impression of Paris: Well, public urination seems to be popular.I couldn't find anywhere to store my bags so I lay down in the park by the Eiffel Tower and had a few naps and people-watched and took in the view. The Eiffel Tower is far more impressive than I had imagined. Photos don't do it justice, and it looks better in real life...which is rare. I really can't rave about it enough and it is now officially in my top 3 world manmade landmarks (along with The Statue Of Liberty and Dublin's Spire). I stayed staring at it until dark and the flashy lights came on and everyone cheered. It was great.Pierre and Marie are in great form and have settled back nicely after their round-the-world trip. We caught up and went out for dinner and they mocked my French and gave me some sightseeing tips.I spent my September 11th climbing up the most famous landmark in a country with questionable foreign policies. The woman at the Eiffel Tower charged me the under 25 rate, which was nice, and I climbed the stairs to the second level and took it all in. Fantastic.I wondered around town a bit and saw some shit, but every road I took seemed to take me to the site of Princess Diana's death. It is now covered in really naff graffiti; it's tacky and awful. But it made the scene less morbid and I ended up writing down some of the more amusing phrases, such as the Australian couple who claim "Your in our harts." Good to see dreadful spelling, punctuation and grammar doesn't prevent you from having a nice holiday.I then headed over to The Louvre. It truly is a fantastic museum. I spent hours wandering through the mammoth complex. It's so big that I swear to God I saw more than one person walking around using those hiking poles. That's not even a joke. I really enjoyed it and saw some of the most impressive works of art I've ever seen. It's so so good.I also saw the Venus De Milo, which is fine. Pretty good. But there was such a huge crowd that I started taking photos of all the people taking photos and that interested me more. I don't understand why people take photos of paintings and art work. I also saw The Mona Lisa and confirmed that it's overrated. I never liked it, and in person it was especially average. But why is it so popular? Can someone explain that to me? And can somebody tell me what is on The Da Vinci Code audio tour that justifies paying 5 Euro?I was exhaused from walking, so I sat in the coffee shop and people-watched and reflected on life. I decided to come back to Paris one day with my wife and my first-born. I then came to the conclusion that I was directly descended from Jesus. That was a bit of a relief.
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