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Doug's Taekwon-do blog

Milano, Warsaw and now Lubartow Poland

The 4am Monday morning bus trip to Milan from Reva del Garda was awful. Virtually none of us had any sleep prior to the bus trip and I think I and Carolina were the only 100% sober ones after the World Cup “after party”.

By 10pm I’d finished publishing photos to the website and then decided I should really back them all up in case my laptop died or was stolen. I’m paranoid about backups so backed them up to a portable hard drive which goes in one case and data DVDs which go in another. That took until about 2am while the laptop worked away copying the 7,000+ photos I’d taken during the tournament. The number of photos sounds more impressive than it really is as sparring comsumes thousands as you hold the shutter down when you anticipate an interesting “strike” or move and the camera rattles off 5 images a second for short bursts. Only about 10% are keepers.
While this was going on I finished a novel I’d been reading… it was a thriller so the last quarter of the book was naturally the most exciting.

Then it was a matter of getting everyone to the bus in a car park 100 metres from the hotel by 4am. I think Carolina and I were the only 100% sober people and it was a little bit of a mission. But we made it.

Everyone else fell asleep on the 3½ hour (I think) bus trip – but I couldn’t. The driver was awful, accelerating and breaking a lot more than he needed to and jerking us in our seats while we tried to sleep.

Toni and Christine were left behind as they had different travel plans. Toni was on another bus which didn’t leave until 6.30am. More on Toni later…

We arrived at one of the Milan airports in plenty of time for Carolina, Paige, Deejay, Luke, Richard, Carl and Kane to catch their flight to Zurich and then on to Shanghai then Auckland. We spent probably an hour and a half with them having breakfast and filling in time until they left.

After that we headed into Milan by bus. This took ages – the airport was miles from the city. Thankfully we took a bus and not a taxi.

Milan appeared to be a pretty dirty concrete jungle of a city to us. We were staying in a cheap (ie old and grotty) hotel within a 10 minute walk from the central railway station. By the time we got there and the uncaring unhelpful reception let us have our room at 1pm we were not interested in playing tourists and flaked out on our beds until about 5pm. Actually, I’m being kind. The Hotel was a dump and wasn’t cheap by our standards either. We didn’t even shower because of a lack of hot water and a bath with a hand held shower head only!

We walked the streets looking for somewhere to eat returning to a classic basic Italian restaurant right next to the hotel. There we chose classic hand made Pizza and loved it.

Tuesday morning we were up reasonably early for breakfast and to check emails before catching a bus to another airport at Bergamo – just over an hour’s bus trip.

While clearing emails from their reception wifi we rang Jan on Skype and had our first phone catchup since before the tournament started. That was really nice.

She’d just returned Monday night from a long weekend in Dunedin and is trying to have a week off work holidaying at home… not quite as glamorous as what we’re up to.

We walked to the central station again and found a post office to post Luke’s room keys back to the hotel at Reva del Garda – he found them on his when he got to the airport! Anyway, as we got to our bus Toni yelled out “Hi Mark”! This was a surprise to see her as she was supposed to be in Ireland by now. She’d had an awful time and was returning to NZ. She’d arraived at Stanford Airport, London and they asked her lots of questions about what she’d be doing in Ireland. She was planning to stay with her best friend who is living there until about Christmas time. Finally they agreed to let her in but by this time she had missed her connection to Dublin. So the buggers sent her back to Milan. When she got back to Milan she got in touch with family back home and by this stage wasn’t feeling up for another shot at going to Standford then on to Dublin so her Mum had arranged tickets back to NZ from Milan. We felt gutted for her but it was nice to see her and offer some support. Had we been 30 seconds earlier or later we would not have seen each other – how’s that for coincidence.

We passed away a couple of hours at the airport waiting for our flight to Warsaw. We had cheap tickets on Wizz Air. By cheap I mean 5 euro for three seats plus baggage fees and taxes of about 100 Euro. (A Euro is about NZ$2.20).
The flight was uneventful but the passengers clapped when it landed – a bit of a tradition on the cheap European airlines I understand. It was a modern looking plane (like a 737) and seemed fine to me.

When we landed we expected it to be quite a bit colder. We all had jackets at the ready in our luggage but it was 16 degrees and quite comfortable. We changed some of our money at the airport into the local Swatti so we could taxi into town. The airport conversion rate was really bad so pleased we only changed a little.

Next – a mistake – while I’d intended to organise a Warsaw hotel booking on the web during the tournament after meeting up with Master Jedut I hadn’t got around to it and we decided to take pot luck. We asked the taxi driver to take us to a cheaper hotel in central Warsaw and we’re at the Metropol at 105 Euro per night. They couldn’t do a triple room so we took two rooms. Rats – expensive mistake! On the web I am sure we could have got it for half this price and will plan better for our return here in just over a week when we fly out. However, our rooms are very nice and so roomy after what we’ve been used to in London, Rome, Reva del Garda and Milan.

What we have seen of Warsaw so far is really impressive. The central city is modern and upbeat. There is a huge amount of billboard advertising and many buildings, eg most hotels with a single ad on them that completely covers one side of the building.
Monday night we walked a way and found a restaurant full of young people eating huge meals. It was great and we filled our bellies. Mark said “anything except pizza and pasta please” after having this every day for the last two weeks.

Overnight it was really hot in our rooms but cool outside. It was hard to fathom why – there is no visible air conditioning or heating but it was sweltering. If you opened the window – which we did – there was a ton of traffic noise as we are right next to a 3 lane each way main intersection. Maybe the temperatures here are going to be more comfortable that we expected – time will tell.

Tuesday morning we spent a bit of time exploring the central city before we checked out and met up with Master Jedut who flew in from Milan. He guided us to Lubartow via the train and kinkdly organised our accommodation here.
We had our first training under Master Jedut tonight… that will be the subject of another post.

Cheers
Doug

Day trip to Venice

Today a bus load of TKD supporters and contestants went to Venice for the day. We had kiwis and USA (Alaska and Texas) on the trip with us.

The trip consisted on a bus to Venice then a ferry boat to take us directly into the main attraction – San Marco Square and Basilica. The trip normally takes 3 ½ hours but we got off to a slow start only getting to the square at mid-day. We had too many people for the coach so they had to get a second one and we passed a bad motor accident which held us up for 20 minutes… a motor cyclist had been killed on the motorway.

You may know how the Italians drive… crazy fast, pushy and expecting everyone else to get out of their way. Our bus driver was excellent but had to hit the anchors and blast the horn on several occasions. I saw cars passing us on the motorway at I guess 120kph texting on the phone while driving!

Venice was stunning. We had a guided introduction to the main attractions in San Marco Square. Then we had about 3 ½ hours to explore ourselves. Toni and I joined up and firstly went into the Basilica. This building is many centuries old and is heavily mosaic tiled. The floor was stunning and the walls and ceilings we’re amazing. All the images you can see in the not-permitted photos I sneaked are made with mosaic tiles. The golden ones get the glow by a sprinkling of gold dust on the surface of the glass tiles.

We then bought a map and traipsed through many small streets for the rest of the time. I finally learned how to order a coffee to my taste – the nearest equivalent to a NZ Latte is a Cappichino. It’s actually like our Latte only smaller and not as hot. The Italians consume their coffee in a minute or two – not taking ¼ of an hour like kiwis and others like to.

We shopped, map read, people watched, checked out a few churches, found a café for food and coffee and made it back to our starting point just in time to come home.
It is an amazing place but I can see why they are so worried about the sea levels rising.

The trip back was uneventful (fortunately) and overall we really enjoyed the day.
Cheers
Doug

Reva Del Garda photos

I've been sneaking out in the late afternoons when the sun has gone down and the lights is at its best to try and capture some of the essence of Reva Del Garda.

It's not complete and I wand to do more but thought I'd share it with you folks back home.



Leave me a comment if you like.
Cheers
Doug

Ferry trip to Lemone

Famous for its lemon production this little village, a 35 minute ferry ride from Reva Del Garda, is built into the foot of the mountains. It now gets its income from tourism and has been converted to small hotels, restaurants, bars and lots of shopping.

Watch my two blog sites

Just wanted to let you know that I'm now updating two blogger sites while in Italy:
This site - for personal photography stuff about the trip
Doug's Taekwon-do Blog - for coverage of the 2008 world cup
So keep an eye out on both of them for the full story...
Cheers
Doug

My picks so far

Five hours on a train… what else to do?
I’ve been through the images I’ve taken so far and pulled out the ones I like the best. Here they are...

Melody of Colour

I’m on the train from Rome up to Northern Italy. It’s a 5 ¼ hour trip. And we’re just chilling out chatting, snoozing and enjoying not having to walk anywhere.

I’m loving the Italian scenery… it is changing quite a lot as we go along, from large ploughed fields, to rolling grassland, vineyards and bush coloured hills and mountains. We’re spending more and more time in tunnels which is means it is getting more mountainous as we get further North I guess.

It’s mid-October and many trees are starting to turn yellow. There’s not a cloud in the sky yet the light is soft and hazy… it is very different to the light that I’m used to. Subtle, soft and oozing out the colours of the landscape. It sounds like a cliché but the light is beautiful. I can’t do it justice with the odd photos I’ve been taking from the train window. I think that the light that we’re used to in New Zealand is much harsher and colder. Maybe it is something to do with the differences in UV. I mean over here we’ve been out in the sun for two days in a row without any sunscreen and we’re fine. We’d be fried after just one day in NZ like this.

The streets of Rome were a huge contrast from London. The architecture in both places is grand, old and much more attractive than most modern architecture in my opinion. London was precise, grey natural sand stone or granite with some buildings painted crème or light yellow. It felt clean, tidy, organised and monochromatic. Grey everywhere. The sky was grey, the buildings were mostly grey, and there was little colour.

Rome has been a big contrast. Older, rougher, much more worn, and colourful. Worn cobblestone roads, worn large buildings with huge wooden doors – mostly 4” thick – pastel coloured walls with timber shutters are typical of the central city areas.

The Colour of London...


The colour of Rome...


Cheers for now
Doug

Playing Tourists at Vatican City then more shopping

Everyone seemed to sleep well last night, so much so we were a little slow to rise with most of us making an appearance at about 8am.

Breakfast in Rome is very different to what we are used to. Typically it consists of a pastry and a tiny cup of strong coffee. The biggest latte I’ve been able to get (when asking for a very large one) is about the size of the average kiwi coffee cup. I’d kill for a latte in a bowl! So, forget the cereal and toast – it doesn’t exist. I looked in a small supermarket and the closest thing I could find to cereal looked like rice with fruit flakes. It wasn’t rice but some form of seed I guess. Those hungry go for a Panini or similar at a cafe for breakfast.

Next we took the underground to Vatican City. The underground is much more modern and better engineered than London or New York. I suspect Rome’s was built a lot later. The carriages are perfectly level with the platforms and they are really smooth to ride.

When we got to Vatican City we made our way into St Peter’s Square and a queue to get into the Basilica had formed and went right around the inside of the square. Again there are clear skies and the sun is harsh and hot. I'm trying not to complain because I know it is stormy back in NZ but man it is hot and gritty.

Fortunately the queue moved quite quickly and after ¾ of an hour or so we entered the Basilica. It was a visual shock to see such beauty inside a building after being outside in the harsh light and having spent yesterday looking at ruins.

Unfortunately they were preparing for a service and we could only mill around near the entrance before we felt we had to leave.

We left the square and queued to go to the Vatican Museum. The queued there for what seemed ages. It was a massive queue that would have stretched 400 metres long and 2-3 metres wide. We stalled for ages and Carl scouted ahead. We tried out the tiny radio telephones that I’d bought to use at the tournament which passed a bit of time. They seemed to work ok when the guys actually spoke English into them.

Jeremy and I decided we didn’t have the patience to spend another couple of hours in the queue and we decided that we’d just like to walk and check out some shops.
Apparently about 15 minutes after we bailed out the queue moved and they got into the Sistine Chapel... ce la vi.

Jem wanted to find the shop where I bought a present for Jan yesterday. He’d seen something there that he’d liked and hadn’t since found anything else. So, we had vague ideas where it was and set off. Found the subway and jumped off near the Spanish Steps. It must have taken us at least an hour of walking around to find the tiny shop we were after. We walked past it once without seeing it. We asked a policeman to show us where we were on our map... this was only about 10 metres from the shop! He could not show us on the map where we were... sheesh! Eventually we found it.

Fortunately Jem found something in the shop that he liked (oh and it is really awesome if you are reading this Kat). We might need another bag to fit it in though.

Back on the subway and back to our B&B by 3pm or so to chill out. Mark, Carolina, Richie, Jem and I chilled out for an hour and a half talking, looking at photos of the Honduras trip while the heat of the day passes.

The internet cafe is open again now and a few of the team have headed down there to check emails and send messages home. I guess we will soon too.

We must be near a hospital here because every 10 minutes or so an ambulance goes past with it’s siren on... I am so sick of sirens. Here they are just like leaving your horn on all the time with an additional wailing tone as well. On the other side of the square from us there have been preparations going on for some type of MTV rock concert. Hopefully it won’t be tonight.

Tomorrow morning we need to be up early, packed and off on the subway to the main train station for our 4 hour trip north to Rovereto. The high speed train leaves at 9am. We’re really looking forward to that... no walking and hopefully plenty of countryside to feast our eyes on!

Cheers for now
Doug

The long Colosseum walk

Today we must have walked 10k. We left at about 8.30am and got back about 4.30pm after walking the central Rome sights of (in Italian from the map):
Colosseo
Palatino
Circo Massimo
Foro Tralano
Fontana Trevi
And more

The ruins were amazing. Some 2,500 years old. It was good to get there early as wer were some of the first there and avoided queues and having too many people around.

Overall the street scenes are quite grungy. A big contrast to London. But I loved the atmosphere, the colours and textures and how old and worn everything is.
The streets are mostly cobbled with cut blue rock… the sort of cobbling that the rich in Auckland spend a fortune on for their expensive driveways… and yet it was everywhere here. It looked great where it was really worn.

It was incredibly hot and by the time we got back we were all pretty stuffed. Mostly from the endless walking + the heat + lack of food for most of the team who are trying to loose weight.

On the way back we did a bit of browsing in the street stalls and found a stall selling really nice fruit which tasted fantastic.

As I write this some of the team are downstairs practicing their patterns. After nearly an hour sitting here sorting photos and writing this I’ve finally cooled down to a comfortable level again.

Today I wore my only light T shirt and it definitely can’t be worn before a wash. What to wear tomorrow – now that’s a challenge.

Carl is the expert on the history and the sights and was great to have around today… especially as I know so little about ancient Roman history.

He’s planning on taking us to see the Vatican tomorrow. It’s miles away so might be a small challenge to get there.

Now to find an internet café to post this stuff up for you to see. We occasionally get a tiny teaser of access to an unsecured wireless network but it comes and goes (mostly it goes actually).

Cheers
Doug

Yay - the sun is out in London

Typically woke at about 4am I guess and snoozed until quarter to six when we decided to get up and cracking.  Looked out the window to check out the weather – dark so can’t tell.  It’s not raining.

After breakfast I decide it is time to do some washing.  Now to most people this is just normal life but to me this is a bit of a challenge!  Like stepping out into the unknown. Reception said there is a Laundromat 10 minutes walk down the road.  I get to it at 8am and it’s closed. No sign on the window saying what the hours are… sigh.  Back at the hotel I ask what time would be typical opening time and was told maybe 9am.  Back in NZ I’m sure something like this would be open from 7am-7pm but not in London.  Opening times all over seem to be very gentlemanly.

So, rolled up my sleeves and tackled the washing in the bathroom sink. Hung it in the bathroom on our handy elastic clothes lines.  I wonder if it will dry.

We took the subway to Westminster and found our way to the London Eye.  The sun is just starting to poke through the grey sky, it is going and there is no queue – amazing.  I need to go to the bathroom – dumb!  Anyway, 3-4 minutes later there’s a bloody queue about 50 metres long plus a ton of school kids have turned up.  No one is getting onto the Eye so I grab a brochure and see that it doesn’t open for another 15 minutes at 10am.  They must be just warming it up.

Eventually we get on board and it is stunning.  The clouds have cleared and the sun is shining on us for the first time.  The ride is pretty cool – it takes half an hour.  Check out the photos and the comments.  I was pretty fascinated with the engineering of it.  The whole thing is kept upright by 4 cables.  They must be amazingly strong.

Once off we decide to give the Movium (movie making in London museum) a go.  We spent an hour there and it was boring.  The brits make great movies but the need to take a lead from Hollywood when it comes to putting an exhibition like this together.  Sorry guys but you score a thumbs down on this one.

Next is about a mile walk to find the Photographers Gallery.  I’d googled  for photographic galleries before we left NZ but hadn’t brought the address with us.  When I looked them up on the web last night I find that we’d walked past within 1 block of it yesterday… sheesh!  Bad planning.

Anyway we get there and the main exhibition area (with an interesting looking exhibition) is closed on Sundays and Mondays. Damn.  We check out the other exhibition which only took 5 minutes.  As we left Jeremy fortunately noticed that there was another The Photographer’s Gallery sign just down the street.  There we find an exhibition and a photographic bookshop packed with books.  I take some photos of Jem there so that he can put it towards his photography course study points.  Jem waits outside while I spend half an hour looking at photography books.  Some really nice ones there that I haven’t seen before but the wallet stays in my pocket because we are already overweight for the flight tomorrow and at ten pounds per kilo over I’m not planning on adding to it with a heavy book.  They sell rare/weird cameras in the store and a tiny digital Leica screams out “buy me” but I resist – just.

By now it’s after 1pm and we’re sick of walking.  Well… we’re over roaming the city full stop. We’ve walked miles and miles in the last couple of days and just want to hang out and relax. We grab a light lunch – Jeremy is now officially on a weight loss diet leading up to the tournament – and head back on the subway to our hotel.

When we get back I check to see if the washing is drying.  It is still sopping wet and I reckon it will take a week at this rate.  Off to the Laundromat.  Sit next to an old lady while the washing is in the drier – she reeks of whisky!  This is different.  Anyway, half an hour later and it is dry – perfect.

Now we’re just chilling out, writing this and researching how to get to Stansted Airport on the subway + train tomorrow.  It’s about an hour’s trip so we need to head off at about 9am to give us plenty of time for our 12.45pm flight to Rome.

I’m going to read the manual for our video camera and Jem’s cruising channels between a game show and an American soap. Boring eh!  At least we are off our sore feet!

We checked out the photos from the Nationals tournament that we missed last weekend. Auckland North won and Mark Hanna did well coming home with an individual silver for patterns and team golds for patterns, sparring and specialty.

Our time in London has been great but we’re over playing tourist here now and ready to move on.  If you were into art galleries and museums you could be here for weeks but we’re not and so we’re really happy to move on tomorrow. 

We’re meeting up with about 8 other team members in Rome tomorrow.  They’re on the same flight we were on but at Zurich change to a Rome flight.  They left at midnight last night NZ time and arrive Tuesday afternoon.

See ya
Doug

We get the feel of London today – grey and wet

Woke at 2am, downed a sleeping pill then we both woke at 4am.  And we thought we’d beaten the jet lag!

It’s Sunday morning and we thought we’d be smart today… get up early, have breakfast and race down to the London Eye to use our tickets before the masses arrive.

So, we have a great breakfast in the basement restaurant then leave the hotel.  It’s raining lightly… maybe we should get our rain coats.  “What do you reckon?  Yeah might as well I suppose.”  Just as well we did because as the day went on the rain got heavier and heavier.  It wasn’t cold but it was bloody wet.

We used out “Big Bus Company” tickets again and took the blue circuit through Knightsbridge.  We decided to jump off at Harrods to take a gander at what the rich and famous spend their money on.  It’s 9.30am but the wealthy are still having tea and toast in bed because Harrods doesn’t open until 11.30am on Sundays (and a frightfully early 10am on week days for the bargain hunters).  However, it closes late – I think it was 8 or 10pm.

So, we peer in the windows at gob smacking displays.  It made no difference being closed because the 50 quid in my wallet wouldn’t have bought anything in there anyway.

So, race back to the bus stop to jump back on and we get on what must be the oldest of the “Big Bus Company” busses.  We’re downstairs in the rain and it’s leaking all around us from upstairs.

We decide to sit tight on the bus for a while until we get to Oxford Street – shoppers paradise.

Go past Kensington Palace where Princes Di lived, around Paddington, Gloucester Place, Marylebone Road, Regent Street and leap off at Oxford Street for some shopping.

Stop for a coffee (caffeine boost) at a French patisserie.  It’s new in town, opened in 1883 and is still run by the same family – well descendents of.  I order a latte for me and a double strength Mocha for Jem.  My kiwi accent and quiet voice meant they delivered Jem what looked like a short white double strength brew.  He managed to drink it and has been very perky for the rest of the day so far!

Walked the length of Oxford Street visiting a fair few shops.  For a place where it rains and snows heaps I’m surprised at the lack of shelter over the footpaths – it is non existent. So everyone just get’s wet through. There were a couple of shops which were pretty amazing. HMV was huge and had many aisles of music and DVDs.  I checked out a couple of favourites, Eric Clapton and Queen. Well I’m used to finding 2-3 albums but there would have been at least 15 albums of each.  This place had everything imaginable!  Managed to keep my money in my wallet though.

Next was the Nike store. It was fabulous. Check out the photos.  There’s a section on the 3^rd floor – by appointment only – where you choose your shoe model and size (from the display of grey coloured shoes) then on computer add your own colours, materials and designs to create a unique shoe.  I guess you then order it and a few weeks later it makes its way from China to your doorstep.  The shoes on display were works of art.

Next it’s try and find something for Kat’s birthday.  There’s no shortage of female clothing shops and Jem does his best with me traipsing behind.  They’re going into winter here and back home of course we’re heading for summer.  Looks like the summer sales are well over and there is plenty of choice of winter styles.  Jem eventually finds something he’d like to get but Dad says it’s too expensive after I do the math (sorry Kat!!).  We’ll try again in Rome where maybe there’s more summer stuff left.

By the time we finish with Oxford Street we’re getting pretty tired of waling, pulling raincoats off and on again each time we go in and our of a store.  We come to Charing Cross Road – recognise that – and head down it, back toward Trafalgar Square and the tour bus route.  No pub lunch today… we decide to lighten up and have Subway.  But the experience is pathetic compared with our subway. The dudes behind the counter aren’t interested in us, there’s only 2 choices of bread left, both “white” and boring and while we’re eating a deliver man drops in about 4 more boxes of “white bread”.  So much for “we make the bread fresh on the premises” that we’re used to.  However, it does the trick and refuels us.

We walk a few blocks in the now teaming rain and jump on a tour bus.  No room downstairs so we go upstairs. No room in the forward shelter so bugger it we go to the back seat and sit in the rain.  You can see us eating it up in the rain.

Well the bus route map shows the route breaking into two and one heading back to Victoria Station near our hotel and the other going in the opposite direction towards old London Town.  We assume, because we want to go home, that we’re on the Victoria route. Wrong. Bugger. We jump off on the London side of Waterloo Bridge and decide that it is more reliable to walk home (probably about 3-4k).  We get wetter and wetter.  We stop at a bus stop but can’t fathom the system.  I ask a cabbie how much to take us home. Ten pounds. Bugger that – we’ll walk.  We pass The Embankment underground station and I suggest we have a crack at the tube.  We enter the station – it’s pretty big.  The famous tube map baffles us beginners at first look so was ask for help.  Londoners are always “lovely” to you when you ask for help.  We get put on the straight and narrow, buy a couple of oyster cards which are electronic and you just load money on them and when you get on and off the train or bus it deducts the amount off the card.  So we’re set for tomorrow too.

Well the underground was brilliant and got us home quick smart.  We’re only about a 400 metre walk from the Victoria Station.

I say we’re staying in a hotel. But it’s one of a line of many very small hotels.  It is I guess 4-5 storeys high, with I guess about 5 rooms per floor.  It’s brilliant though and we did well getting it.  Booked via www.londontown.com – a fantastic site for planning a visit to London – and we got it at rock bottom prices of between 65 and 85 pounds per night by booking a couple of months ahead.  It’s no sweat to pay 200-300 pounds a night staying in London – do the math on that at x2.5 for NZD!

As we walk back to our little hotel it has stopped raining and is blowing strongly. This is brilliant because it dries us out really quickly and our damp jeans and saturated coats are virtually dry when we walk in the door at about 3.15pm.

Time to “chill” says Jem.

We both jump on our laptops and decide to “write home”.

Next… let’s go see what kind of deal I can get for a wireless internet connection.  The 30 minute “complimentary” went last night.  We’re suffering from lack of sleep and lack of internet access.

Back now… got 2 internet tickets. Each lasts 1 hour for 2 quid.  That’s $10/hour – pretty steep. But at least we’ve got it.  If we want it full time they charge 15 quid a day (about $40 which would normally buy you about 10 gigs of data over a month).

We’re going to see if we can log in two laptops on one ticket at the same time… I wonder if we can get away with it.

Cheers for now

Doug

Message home from Jem

(Edited from Jem’s message to Kat)

Finally have a chance to tell you about the trip so far..

…jumped on the plane no dramas, I tried to check out what movies are on the plane but in the end I just wanted to sleep.

Slept on and off the whole 11 1/2 hours and we got off at Shanghai.

We had 2 hours to make our connection to Zurich and there was another couple of people who were making the same connection so we decided to stick together.

Made the flight, 12 hours to Zurich and we had to stay awake the whole way to decrease the effect of jetlag.

I watched 5 full length movies to keep my eyes open.

One hour in Zurich and we made our connection to London comfortably, 1 1/4hour flight. Went by so fast!

Taxi to hotel took quite a while but we got a pretty good look at London.

Our room is small but pretty nice. Bed is really comfy but that’s just coz it’s not mine.

We meant to go out to dinner that first night but I just collapsed on the bed and comad out till 5am next morning.

So Saturday morning we get up and head off to the big bus tour. These tours are mean - you can just jump on and off whenever you want and we have a 2 day pass. Each bus has a tour guide with a microphone and they’re all hilarious!

No wonder British television is so good they all have really good senses of humour.

Went on a 2 hour walking tour through the royal kind of areas. That was pretty interesting actually. Normally that stuff would bore me to death but it was pretty good.

Then we went to the tower of London, that was cool as. Once again a crack up tour guide. Told us about all the torture and beheadings etc.

Looked at lots of old guns and swords and castles and stuff, then we walked back home.  That might not sound like much but it was a HUGE day, we wandered round lots of places in between.

London is awesome. You'd love it. Waaaaay cooler than Auckland - no shit :P

Went to the pub across the road for dinner, me n dad both had sausages and mashed potato it was the best mashed potato iv ever had it was INCREDIBLE!!

We spoke about 3 words at dinner just coz we were so dead.  We were phasing in and out and were pretty 'wacko' hahaha.

Up this morning (sunday) at 4am.  Snoozed with my ipod playlist till 7ish (bloody Kanye song is screwed up and doesn’t play properly dammit!).

 

Breakfast and then headed out shopping at 8.30. None of the shops open in London on a Sunday till 11.30-12 coz they’re open so late in the evening, so we had a lot of waiting to do.

Best shops are on Oxford St so we went there.  There was an incredible Nike store 3 levels high. Coolest shop ever.

It had 2 nikeID offices one was appointment only where u can design ur own shoe with them! so sweet.

Went to HMV music store, most famous in Europe apparently. Again, 3 levels tall and it had its own DJ. 

Spent a couple of hours trying to get home. Got on the wrong bus, walked in the pouring rain for about an hour then decided to just take the tube.

10min later wer back at the hotel chillin out on the laptops.

So yea basically that’s what wev been up to. Might not sound like much and im sure iv missed out heaps.  But the days have been packed and im exhausted.

4.21pm now. I’m getting tired as u can see my English has gotten progressively shittier as the message goes on.

So yea ta ta for now

Jem

31 hours Auckland to London & “jolly good” to be here

Auckland – Shanghai, 2 hours to transfer, China stamp in passport then onto Zurich – 12.5 hours flying over land, 1 hour transfer in Zurich then on to London. By the time we arrive at Heathrow we’re pretty shattered and grateful to be met at the airport by the pre-arranged pick-up service.

Most of the English tourism people we've met are really friendly with a wicked "English" sense of humour.

The trip went flawlessly. It was heaven to hop into a hot shower and brush my teath! We were too stuffed to go out to eat. Jem had collapsed in a heap on his bed within 15 minutes of arrival and I followed him at about half past 8 or so after we made a few text messages home.

We’re staying in a small hotel in Westminster near Victoria Station and have a small but very comfortable twin room and slept pretty well through until about 5ish in the morning.

This morning (Saturday morning) we woke early and enjoyed our first decent (ie non-airline) food since Auckland with a really nice continental breakfast in our Hotel.
Before leaving we went outside to check out the temperature to be met by a pretty cold blast of wind.

It has been a pretty cold day… singlet, long sleaved t shirt, jersey and jacket and we were only just warm enough. Will take my beanie tomorrow. Should have though about gloves too… I think we’re going to be much colder in Poland.
We grabbed tickets for The Big bus Company double decker tour bus. They’re running a bonus special – 24 hour tickets extended to 48 hours so we’ll get two days out of the tickets. You jump off and on at any of their many stops. The buses are commentated which makes a big difference, seeing everything in context.

After landing at Heathrow which was the grottiest of the 3 other airports we’d used by a mile, London itself was very clean and looks well looked after.

I couldn’t face dragging a large camera around all day so took my point and shoot so you can see some of the stuff we enjoyed.

It’s 7 pm and we’re feeling a bit jet lagged but not too bad. I thinkt he “no jet-lag” pills that we religiously took on the plane have worked. Jem needed a caffiene boost after lunch to keep him going and collapsed on his bed once we got back to our hotel about an hour ago. Actually he’s asleep now… I’ll have to wake him to go and get some dinner soon. I hope I can move him!

We spotted a nice corner pub just across the road. Better get on with that…. Will try and connect to the wifi here and post this and pictures for you to see. We can get 1/2 an hour of pretty weak wifi for 1 pound – not a bad deal. If you’re reading this on your Sunday morning then it worked.

Check out the London photos...

Cheers
Doug