Homeward bound

As of typing this I'm sitting in the Premiere Lounge at the Kl airport, relaxing, enjoying the massage I just recieved, a shower and a small buffet of food i'm so eagerly awaiting to sample. I have a 9 hour (or thereabouts) layover here, I fly out later tonight and arrive in Adelaide early Thursday morning. Looking back it feels like only the other week that Robert and I left Adelaide and landed in San Francisco, but in reality it's been a long fun 3 months, and actually felt like longer to me!!

I spent this last weekend back in London, staying at a hostel near Kings Cross, pretty central.. I was within walking distance from Soho, Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Street, so it was really cool! Unlike my first 4 days in London back in July, this time I finally found a cool little independent cafe to go to, found it just off of Oxford Street, pretty sure it was owned and run by a group of lesbians because the posters on the wall were all orientated towards 2 female models in various poses with sexual connotations, not that it matters.. because the coffee was great!

I had an awesome time at the hostel too, I was hanging out with a wide range of people, the hostel manager is from Swaziland, for instance. On my last night, Monday night, we had a birthday party for this Chillean guy who was also leaving on Tuesday, so that was a LOT of fun.Apart from that I also spent 2 days on the piss, quite literally.. getting back to the hostel on Sunday to find my Aussie mate Leighton out the front waiting for me, then taking me out to a place called Church for a long afternoon on the turps. Had a great time though! Oh yeah I also sussed out Portobello Market, it's another large outdoor market to the west of Central London, not the same as Camden Markets but still pretty cool!!

Well I can't think of much else to say right now, soon after coming home I should be starting a conracted position with a small graphic design studio in Adelaide's CBD (grote street), working with my friend George and I also studied my Advertising & Graphic Design course with! And i'll be planning a trip to Japan for 2009 (and about time too!!)

London!!

I'm going back down to London tomorrow afternoon, so I can spend the weekend there, relaxing and such, trying not to spend much money.

Edinburgh has been great, have really enjoyed it here!!

In stitches

Before leaving Australia I thought I would better myself by experiencing the world around me, and I think I have done. I've now got more patience, am more open to new experiences/people and generally have a much better outlook on life. Another skill I've picked up is looking on the bright side of things, even bad things.

Last night i slipped on some stairs here in the Castle Rock Hostel, Edinburgh, landed face first onto the steps before coming to a stop and noticing a constant drip of blood from above my left eye, like a leaky tap. It was quite gymnastic of me really. The staff here were kind enough to get me to the hospital where I hung out for a little while, chatting to a nurse who was giving me stitches in my face. I'm all good now, just a little tired.

Thought i'd learn from the incident of rolling both of my ankles simultaneously earlier this year in February? Guess again!

What an adventure Edinburgh has been!!

Good things and bad people

Am loving Edinburgh so far, apart from the people spending their whole day sitting on the street asking for money, everything else is pretty cool! Yesterday I got to check out the Edinburgh Castle, had a tour guide for a half hour and he showed myself, and other people, around the main sections of the castle, throwing in some jokes and a lot of interesting historical facts. I'm even more intrigued with this place now more than ever!

At the castle I went into the War memorial primarily for the fallen soldiers from WW1, was a really cool memorial. I remember walkign through the enterance and an American family were in front of me, one of the daughters tapped on a sign saying "no talking inside" .. or something very similar, then soon as we got in the mother goes "this is amaaazzinggg".. totally oblivious to the sign she had just read! What an idiot! Also an older German couple were taking photos despite there being No Photography signs all around... some people hey!

I also made the effort to go to Carlton Hill which has good views looking from New Town and towards the docks, which is now where my friend Robert is working!

I also went to the National Museum yesterday with my friend Milena, the museum is pretty much based on this history of Scotland from thousands of years ago up till now, so that was real cool too.

I've decided to stay here until next weekend, will probably do a 3-day highlands tour during the coming week, and head over to Glasgow next Saturday with Robert, Aidan and Ben (all mates from school), then it's back down to London and back home.

What a lovely town

So I can't say too much as i'm in a net cafe and time is limited! I arrived here in Edinburgh on Monday afternoon, met up with Robert Daniels, my mate who i was traveling with earlier in July/August, and we're both staying with our friend
Aidan (whom we know form school), funny though because Aidan's off in Poland!

Today I climbed Arthurs Seat, it's a big hil with the best 360 views of this town and was wel lworth the time spent to climb up there, was pretty windy as well but at least I didn't over-heat! In the next few days i plan on checking out the Castle which.. is brilliant, especially when lit up at night time!!

I wish i could stay and have the feeling i will come back here to live at some stage, it's just so nice here.

Can't think of much else to say but i'm safe and happy and having a great time!!

The Emerald Isle

I'm sitting on my laptop at my friend Denis' place, eating breakfast, only hours before having to leave to fly to Edinburgh. I've got nothing but positive memories of Ireland, apart from the amount of Euro I've been spending, apart from that I've had one of the best times on my trip so far! Much thanks goes to Denis and Angie for inviting me to stay here with them in Dublin, they're 2 of the best, kind-hearted people I know.. even organised accomodation for me in Galway with some mates of theirs!

Galway was brilliant, I stayed with 3 lads just outside the center of town. We went out for pints on 2 of my 3 nights there, only planning to have a couple of drinks, it always ended in half a dozen or more, but whatever, it was all good. One night in particular we went to a pub called Taaffeys (or could have also been The Quays) where there were some irish blokes playing Irish songs, I ended up having a song requested for me by one of the lads, the song was Raggle Taggle Gypsy O..

Here's a link to Youtube if you want to hear the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2QZIuFPrTo

Also at Galway I did my first touristy thing in Ireland, I went on a coach bus tour down the coast into The Burren where I was able to see the Aran Islands f rom a distance, the Cliffs of Moher, the Aillwee caves (where I experienced total darkness) and the stone shelter called Poulnabone Dolmen. It wasn't just about the main attractions for me, I enjoyed passing by the country-side.. looking at the rolling hills, traditional Hooker sailing boats, dilapidated castles and the small stone walls seperating people's properties and keeping livestock in.

Dublin has been good to me too, Denis and Angie took me to the Dublin Botanic Gardens on 1 of my first days here, took me to the beach at Portmarnock, played some hurling in the park up the road, watched Gaelic football in a pub, also watched the all Irish final of Hurling in the pub.. it's a good spectacle sport.

I hope I paint a pretty picture of Ireland but like all places there are people you'd want to avoid, those people here would be the Pikies, who are also known as travelers, basically you wouldn't trust them as far as you could throw them, in other words you'd want to avoid them. Denis here had grown up knowing plenty of travelers and knows how rough and sketchy they are, anyone with a deep-rooted culture of fighting should be avoid really. I actually saw some riding past on their horses, that's another thing.. they have horses, back home you'd never find a poor minority group owning dozens of horses!

I could keep going on but I need to pack my bags as I'm flying off to Edinburgh in a few hours. I have no more plans after this plane flight, will probably stay in Edinburgh until the 20th and only make my way back to London for 1 night or before I leave. I've also been adding photos to my picasa album if anyone would like to see some of Ireland.

Dublin dublin dubliiiiinnn

In the last 2 days i've managed to pack in a huge range of awesome activities. The other morning we (myself, denis & angie) went for a drive down to portmarnock, a sweet little beach area, the beach was SO good, stretched for ages and the water was flat as, in the horizon I could see loads of small sailing boats just hanging out together, was either some sort of race or just a meting point. Anyway, this place was real nice, we walked down the beach for half an hour.. which meant we had another half hour walk back to the car, we hung out for a bit drining coffee and resting.

We went to a pub called Porterhouse North (there's also Central and South) to watch the Gaelic Football, we watched 2 matches and had a brilliant time, I drank some more crazy drinks, one was a double chocolate stout and a Swedish pear cider!! Heaps nice drinks too.

I've had a little game of hurling with Denis in the park up the road from his place, in the coming weekend there'll be some hurling matches and so i'll be in town to watch them, apparently they're very rough and fast-paced, having dabbled with the hurling bat and ball a little bit I'm heaps excited to see a proper game! I've seen some young teens play but they weren't very rough, have been told the older guys make for a good sight!!

I also got taken through the Dublin Botanical Gardens, it was real lovely, and there was some rain during my little visit there. I have to say that i enjoy the botanical gardens back in Adelaide but the one here is just much much nicer, the river Tolk runs through the gardens, there's ups and downs instead of the flat ground back home.. and hey, it's Ireland! This place is great!

Tomorrow i'm heading off west to galway for 2 nights, hopefully I can stay with one of Denis' mates. There's some nice coastlines in the west with big big cliffs and some castles, so i'm looking forwards to that, then im coming back to Dublin for the weekend like I mentioned.

Also there's a cheese here called Dubliner, it's possibly one f the best cheeses I've tasted.. apart from the cheese Lee and I bought in Delft. Dutch cheese is just something else!!