Final blog.

Saturday night i went to the BBQ at Brad and Emma's place, friends I met when travelling in Australia. It was great to catch up and have a few drinks, they introduced me to Pimms which I really liked.
The next day Dave and I headed back to Birmingham and from there i trained back to London. Met up with Karen as I walked from the tube to Paul and Julie's place (Karen and Clem's friends) That evening we went out for dinner at La Porchetta and had pizza.

Monday we took the tube to central London where we wandered down Regent street to do some shopping and visited Hamleys, a very large, and famous toy store. I still haven't gotten over the novelty of the street names, having grown up with them all when playing monopoly and now they have materialised into real streets and stations. I also very much enjoy taking the tube, its so simple and logical. We had lunch at All Bar One where we had tapas and Pimms cocktails. Next we went to Westfields London which was quite a large mall and had a section for all the fancy brands, such as Gucci, Tiffany's, Chanel etc, spent a few hours there. After we went to Piccadilly Circus for a Cinabon which is a well known American cinnamon scroll company that i discovered in Panama, they are amazing.

That evening we cooked dinner for Paul and Julie, we had spaghetti bolognese, with salad, and garlic bread then hot chocolate fudge cake and after dinner mints for dessert. Needless to say I was very full afterwards.

Tuesday we did some very touristy things, starting with a Thames river cruise down the golden mile. We had a great Irish guide giving us amusing commentary of the famous buildings. My favourite fact i learnt on the cruise was that Richard Harris (actor who played Dumbledore in the first 2 Harry Potters) had been living in one of the famous hotels on the edge of the Thames river. He died of cancer a few years ago, but when he fell ill he had to be taken out of the hotel via stretcher and the lobby was packed so they had to carry him through the restaurant, as they went through he yelled out "Don't eat the food here!!" He obviously had a great sense of humour though I'm not sure the chef would have appreciated it.
After the cruise we went on the London Eye, I had heard mixed reviews of this attraction but i quite enjoyed it, the views were awesome and it feels pretty high. From there we took the tube to Leicester Square where we had lunch then headed out to the O2 where there is a Body Works display. This was incredible, it's something I've wanted to see for a while. Basically it's real human bodies that have been treated then partially dissected to reveal different layers of muscles, nerves bones and joints. It was amazing and a bit creepy. The first room showed fetuses from 1 week through to 8weeks in test tubes to see how much they develop. Then fetuses from 1 month through to 9months, including an adult female body who died while she was pregnant so they have opened her stomach so you can see the baby. It's incredible. There was a man that was was down to the muscle layer but he carried his skin in one hand like a blanket. They had taken off the skin in one piece, you could clearly see the hands, feet and face.
We also learnt about different diseases such as cancer and strokes and they showed what affect they have on the body and compared them to healthy bodies. Also explained how bodies age, the affects of smoking, and also showed what artificial hip and knee replacement look like in the body. My favourite displays, was of a man on a horse and both bodies had been dissected and split into layers so you can see, muscles layers, bones and the brains of both man and horse. And in the final room was a massive giraffe stripped to its muscle layers, it was amazing.

That evening I arranged to meet up with Nic and Craig and another friend from Contiki, Marie. However when i got on the tube we were told the service will be delayed due to a person going under a train. It was a bit of a shock to hear that but apparently its quite a common occurrence in London, and usually its someone trying to kill themselves rather than accidentally falling. It was a strange feeling driving past the station where someone had just committed suicide. I wasn't able to get to my stop so I walked the rest of the way and when I got there it seemed Craig and Nic had had the same problem. We went out for dinner at a pub and then took the bus to Leicester Square to go see The Hangover at the movies. Movies here are so expensive, i think we paid 11pounds, i.e 22AUD each. And the theatres are nowhere near as nice as the ones back home. But the movie was hilarious.

On Wednesday, our final day in London, my final day of travelling, i decided i wanted to see one last theatre show. I had really wanted to see the Lion King but struggled to find anyone who wanted to join me. I was singing Lion King songs all morning annoying everyone who was with me. I went to the ticket office but they only had seats left with view obstructions so i had to abandon that idea. Nic, Craig and I decided to go see Chicago instead. The singing was good but visually it wasn't amazing. The one interesting thing, and one of the reasons we saw this show, was that Jerry Springer played the role of Billy Flynn. (played by Richard Gere in the movie) It was definitely a novelty to see him, but he wasn't a fantastic performer, his timing was off and he couldn't really dance. Overall it was entertaining but i prefer the movie.

After the show we went and had a final drink before I said goodbye to the boys.

The next morning we took our final tube ride to Heathrow, it took about an hour but we were over 3 hours early so had plenty of time to spend in the airport lounge. Fortunately the duty free store was giving out free samples of a large selection of alcohols. I tried Pimms, whiskey, mango vodka, a vodka cocktail and cachaca. After i was feeling a bit tipsy. We had lunch wandered the shops then headed to the boarding lounge. Our first plane was an Emirate A380, i was very excited about this plane. The best part was plenty of legroom, and overall the plane was very nice. The next plane felt like a major downgrade, especially in terms of legroom. By the end of the flight I had swollen feet, wasn't much fun. Did get to see quite a few good movies though.

So finally I had returned to Melbourne. Hai picked us up from the airport, Clem didn't have any house keys so I had to climb through a window. My bedroom was different and all my stuff was gone because other people had been staying in that room. Being home, even now after a few days, is not as sad as I had expected it to be. I have loved my travels but I was ready to come home. I appreciate being back in my own bed and not living out of a backpack. My biggest issue now is sorting out my future, a daunting task.

Thanks to everyone who read my blog, I know they get very long winded sometimes, and often focus too much on food. Sorry for the huge gap in blogs during my time in Europe, I was just having too much fun. However I have enjoyed writing these and I'm sure I'll appreciate being able to read back on them in a few years time. To everyone in Christchurch, I hope to get back and visit soon, however as you can imagine I'm a little low on funds so may take a while.

20 countries in 134 days. It's been incredible, fun, exciting, scary, fascinating, exhausting, eye opening and stunning. Tried to learn Spanish, Portuguese, Quechuan, Italian, French, German, Dutch and Greek with very limited success. Learnt about the cultures, ate churros, empanadas, traditional Peruvian and Ecuadorian food (don't remember the names) gelato, snails, Italian pizza and pasta, French crepes, Greek souvalakis, Austrian apple strudel, delicious dutch waffle biscuits, raw cacao beans, lemon ants from the amazon, coca leaves, plenty of chocolate, Cinabon, traditional English breakfast, pork ribs, and more ham and cheese breakfasts than i could ever possibly want. Drank schnapps, absinthe, rocket fuel, Acai berry drink, German beer, cachaca/caprianas, pisco sours, French wine, Grand Prix cocktail, South American coffee (not that good) Inca Cola, Coca tea, Pimms cocktail, and my favourite Kahlua. Explored jungles, canyons, cemeteries, malls, theme parks, castles, palaces, churches, climbed hills, mountains, and stairways. Met people from all over the world. Travelled by train, bus, car, bike, ferry, boat, tok tok, London underground, quad bike, and tram. My favourite memories include, horse riding in the Pantanal Wetlands, Carnival's Sambadromo in Rio, week of recovery in Ilha Grande, floating down a river in the Amazon, climbing out the window of a church steeple in Quito, Quad biking in Banos, Salt flats in Uyuni, our week in San Pedro especially the star gazing, exploring Paris, staying in a chateau in France, George's boat and the resort in Corfu, Greek dinner and dancing, the beauty of Switzerland and all the activities in Amsterdam.

So that's it. I hope you enjoyed it.

Birmingham

So I've spent the last week in Birmingham with my mate Dave. The first day Dave showed me around Birmingham centre, checked out a massive mall called Selfridges(it looks crazy, see- http://jameswoodward.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/selfridges_birmingham_01.jpg) and also checked out some art galleries. 

Day 2 we went to Stratford on Avon, birthplace of Shakespeare. That was pretty cool, saw his house and his grave and Dave and I went for a row on the Avon. Had traditional English fish and chips for lunch with vinegar. 

Day 3 We went to the Cadbury factory. It was awesome, we were given 2 chocolate bars and a bag of chocolate buttons before we even went into the first room. There was a vat of melted chocolate being stirred which looked amazing, we walked through the jungle to learn about the origins of the cocoa bean, learned about how the Cadbury factory began, wrote our name in chocolate, got more free samples, watched the chocolate being packaged in the factory, went on a silly ride that felt like the duff beer ride, and got a cup of marshmallows drowned in melted chocolate but the best thing was the entire factory smelt absolutely delicious! Felt incredibly sick afterward. Almost felt like i wouldn't be able to eat chocolate again, but I decided that would pass and I bought some chocolate at the super cheap chocolate store. 

That evening Dave and I went to a movie, Drag me to Hell, it was pretty scary and a bit gruesome. 

Day 4 we went to Warwick Castle, The best castle i have ever seen. It actually looks like a proper castle with turrets and whatnot. Unfortunately we got rained on while watching the Trebuchet (catapult thing),  and we also saw an archery demonstration. We were able to walk through the rooms of the castle and they had wax people in each room to give you an idea of how people used to live hundreds of years ago. The wax people were really creepy and I didn't like to look at them for too long because they look too real and i thought they might move. The gardens around the castles were beautiful and had peacocks all over the place. 

Day 5 Went to Alton Towers. England's main theme park. I have wanted to go to a theme park for so long so i was pretty excited. Dave was less excited. This resulted in me going on all the rides myself. I didn't mind too much but it made the queues pretty boring. The waits were massive, an average of 45mins per ride. Hence i only went on 6 rides. So i only chose the most extreme rides. I went on Oblivion twice, Air, Nemesis, Rita-Queen of speed and Spinball Whizzer. Oblivion was definitely the best, its a roller-coaster that has a vertical drop, it holds you at the top of the drop then you plummet into the ground, literally, there is a hole in the ground which you drop into and then you go through a tunnel and back up again. It was awesome. I managed to go on it twice by running to it at the end of the day just before it closed, i just made it in time and i didn't have to wait at all! I live for that speed and stomach dropping feeling. So that was a fantastic day and Dave managed to find things to entertain himself while i was o the rides. 

And today we've had a relaxing day and Dave made me a traditional English breakfast, eggs, bacon, sausages, cooked tomato, mushrooms, baked beans and toast. It was delicious. I did opt against the black pudding though, dried blood holds little appeal to me. This evening we are going to a BBQ and then tomorrow i go back to London and will be catching up with Karen and Clem. 

Hey remember me??

So I doubt anyone even checks this blog anymore because its been 3 weeks since my last post. It's gotten to the point where i can't possibly recall all the things I've done anymore so I'll attempt to write a summary. 

So currently I'm in Birmingham staying with my mate Dave. It's actually really nice to just relax, have a bedroom that I'm not sharing with 8 other strangers, cooking our own dinners, (made Thai green curry!) and saving a few pounds. London was fantastic, Except very expensive. The weather was typical, half of our time there was sunny the other overcast and rainy. I invested in an brolly. Loved all the theatre stuff, went to see Avenue Q, which was hilarious, Romeo and Juliet as well as As you like it in Shakespeare's globe theatre, which was fantastic. We stood right against the stage so we could actually reach out and touch the actors, (i resisted) and Orlando, the main character was quite dreamy.  I really enjoyed that day as I had spent the morning with a friend, Savio, at the Natural history museum and then the Tate modern. So it was a very cultural day. Also spent a day at the Tower of London, saw all of King Henry XIII's armour walked over the Millennium bridge several times, went into St Paul's Cathedral, saw The Gherkin (fancy building looks like a bullet, or perhaps a gherkin). Also went to the original Hard Rock Cafe on our final evening with my Contiki mates. Spent hours on the London underground, rode a double decker bus and one of there silly black taxi's with excess leg room. Saw a play called The Cherry Orchard, it was crap, but starred Ethan Hawke. Almost saw Jude Law playing Hamlet.. may still do that. Once all my Contiki friends had flown home was a bit more lonely so was glad to head to Birmingham with Dave.

As for my Contiki, it was fantastic, best tour i've ever done, met so many fantastic people, saw so many famous sites and had some incredible experiences. Lets see I:

Sung Karaoke in Florence

Rode a gondola in Venice

Saw a sex show in Amsterdam (sorry mum)

Climbed to the top of 3 different churches

Went to a cheese and clog shop in Holland

Drove a car on the right hand side of the road in Corfu

Rode on a 4 person biscuit behind a boat also in Corfu

Got a tan! (it's gone now)

Went to a Space Electronic Discotheque ( yes it's an odd word)

Walked the red light district in Amsterdam

Ate snails in Paris

Did a biking tour of Prague

Climbed the Eiffel Tower

Tried greek dancing and drank a lot of 3 for the price of 2 bottles of wine

Went to the Anne Frank museum

Went to a sex machine museum in Prague

Did plenty of shopping

Went on a pub crawl that ended in a 5 story club

Went to a schnapps museum where i tried Absinthe and Rocket fuel

Did wine tasting in the Beajoulais wine region

Went skinny dipping in Corfu (with about 35 other people)

Went to the top of Jungfrau Mountain (Switzerland is stunning)

Built a snowman

Went into an Ice Palace

Drank cocktails in the Grand Casino in Monaco

Ate a lot of gelato and pizza in Italy

Drank at beer hall in Munich

Saw a church decorated in bones

Visited Pompeii

Threw 2 coins into the Trevi Fountain to return to Rome and find true love. 

Favourite historical sites were... Notre Dame, Arc de Triumphe, Eiffel Tower, The Duomo, Trevi Fountain, Anne Frank's Annex, Vatican City, the Colloseum and Venice's canals.

Favourite country... Switzerland

Favourite city... Paris

And that's the best i can do at summarising my month! 

Catch up

Right this is going to be condensed to see how much i can fit in, although summarising is not my specialty...


Ok So our second day in Beajoulai we had a picnic lunch which was fun but a bit cold, then we spent the afternoon playing backyard cricket, had to teach the canadians how to play. That evening we had ribs for dinner and they were delicious and then spent the evening eating chocolate and playing cards, it was fairly relaxing day.


Day 5 Drove to Nice. We stopped in Avignon for lunch, the palace the other pope used to live. Apparently there used to be 2. We had McDonalds, a traditional french cuisine. arrived in Nice, did our washing, went to the bar, had dinner, drove to Monaco, the 2 smallest country in the world, Fun fact: only 7 people are accepted to become a citizen of Monaco each year. they have to be millionaire and preferrably famous. Also Monaco has a 0% crime rate. We went to the Grand Casino which is the super famous super classy casino, it cost 10 euros just to get in. the cars outside the casino were super impressive. I bought a cocktail for 15euros, equivalant of 30nz dollars which is ridiculous!! Headed back to Nice where we spent the evening playing pool, i was partnered with a guy named Savio from our tour and and we did quite well.

Day 6

Took the train into central Nice and had a relaxing day, walked up a hill to a chateau and had a good view over Nice, walked alongside the beach and saw many topless women, walked down a hill and a cannon fired and then massive sirens sounded and we thought a war was about to start. Ate lunch in a cute little side street, had gelato, walked through a few shops, sat on the beach, built small towers of rocks and then smashed them down again, did some more shopping then trained back to the campsite. Chelsea and I dyed each others hair, then we went to bed.

Day 7

Headed to Florence, stopped at a purfumery and learnt about different types of purfumes then I bought some. Headed to Pisa to see the leaning tower, took photos of us pushing it over and saw the cathedral too. Bought some lemon gelato. Arrived in Florence that day. That evening we went to karaoke, there was a crap DJ who wouldn't let us sing the songs we wanted to sing and kept taking over to sing songs himself. Bought a litre of kiwifruit daquiri which tasted pretty average and spent the rest of the eveing dancing. Rodney and I wanted to sing you outta know by alanis morisette and the DJ made us sing I kissed a girl, by Katie Perry and i am not a fan of that song. Nonetheless it was a fun night.

Day 8

Full day in Florence, started at Leonardo's Leather store and our guide was hilarious, taught us how to recognise fake leather. Then wandered around admiring statues, did a walking tour and saw Ponte Vecchio Bridge which was beautiful. Walked to the Duomo Basilica and did the 500approx step walk to the top of the dome. Amazing view of teracotta roofs and green hills that surround the city. Had lunch, wandered the markets, bought a ring then headed back to camp. Got dressed up, did our group photo overlooking florence, found a restaurant for dinner and then went to the Space electronic disco. It was a really nice club, spent the evening drinking and dancing, formed a massive circle of our tour group and each took turns at dancing in the middle.

So this is very summarised and i'm still over 10 days behind but its a start!

Apology

Hey guys just a quick note to say sorry for my lack of blogs, things have been soo busy that i haven't had time and not many of our campsites have internet. The ones that do tend to charge 5euros an hours so its fairly expensive. However I am keeping track of my activities in my diary so i will write a summarised blog as soon as i get some decent internet time. Rest assured i am having an incredible time, I've met some fantastic people and i am loving Europe, its so beautiful!!

Contiki begins...

So I'm on day 4 of my contiki and I already have a cold. But its been fantastic so far.

Day one we left at 8am from london and took the bus to the white cliffs of Dover where we boarded the ferry to France. It was a big driving day but that afternoon we arrived in Paris. That evening we were greeted by he contiki staff who gave us sparkling wine and escargo to try then we had a delicious dinner of lamb souvalakis. That evening we got a night tour of Paris to see the main tourist spots so we could decide what we wanted to do the next day. Paris is stunning, definately the most beautiful city i have ever seen the buildings are so old and so impressive.

So after the bus tour we got started drinking and had a good night getting to know everyone, played a few drinking games and had a wee boogie. headed to bed about 2am.

Our full day in paris began as all tours of Paris should-at the Eiffel tower. The tower is so impressive. We weren't the first to arrive and everywhere you looked directly under to structure were people in lines. We found the end of a line and waited around 30mins to get to the front. we took the stairs to the first and second floors and the esculator for the final section, the view was beautiful and we could spot heaps of other famous landmarks from there. We then took the metro to Notre Dame which is such an amazing church, its soo big and the details on the building are so intricate and beautiful.The church took 180years to be built which is ridiculous, thats means the people that started the building would never have seen it completed. From here we got crepes for lunch then did some shopping and i bought some new shoes. We still had 2 hours before we had to meet the rest of the group so we went to the Louvre and it was free because we are under 26 which was a bonus. We managed to see the Mona Lisa which was less than impressive, Venus de Milo which was quite cool and Napoleon's apartment which was soo extravagent. Thas all we had time to do in 2 hours because the louvre is so massive that its takes a long time to get from place to place. They say that if you spent 1 minute looking at each painting in the Lourve it would take you 9 months to finish.
From here we met up with our group, got changed in the coach and went out for dinner in a fancy area of Paris on a hill with a nice church and a gorgeous lookout, i don't remember the names of them right now. It was a 3 course meal with wine but i wasn't overly impressed with it. After dinner some people went to a caberet show but we wanted to see Arc de Triumph and the eiffel tower at night so we spent the evening wandering around the city. The Eiffel tower looks amazing when they light it up at night and it sparkles every 30mins or so. It was beautiful. I didn't want to leave Paris because i felt there was so much more to see.

Yesterday we spent the majority of the day driving, making small stops along the way including to see a famous chateau (again i don't remember the name, i'm not good with french words) and then we arrived at our Chateau owned by the Contiki company. We are staying in the Beaujolai wine region and its awesome to be able to stay in a chateau and it has a swimming pool! After we settled in we went on a wine tasting tour, where we were taught how to appreciate and understand good wine. It was really interesting although i still don't exactly enjoy wine.
Last night was the first big party night and the theme was tight and bright.Underneath the Chateau is a basement that they have nicknamed the cave and its an underground bar. It was a great night, we got to know everyone a bit better, most people had quite a few drinks and we did alot of dancing.

Today was just a chillout day. They packed us picnic lunches in a basket and we could walk up a hill to get a nice view of the region and have our picnic. It would have been more enjoyable if it wasn't such a cold day but the lunch was really good, french bread sticks with ham, brie and tomato, then fruit and a Mars bar. And this afternoon we've just been playing cards at the chateau and catching up on some sleep.

Final South America post and London

So its been a week since my last blog, things have been pretty busy! I'm borrowing Craig's laptop which is a nice change from paying for the internet.
So the last night in San Pedro we went star gazing, it was really incredible, we went out to the desert and the sky was soo clear and the astromomer who was our guide was really funny and he taught us so much about the stars. Then we took turns at looking through telescopes to see galaxies, particularly bright stars and Saturn. Saturn looked unreal because you could see the rings around it.
The next day we took a 24 hour bus to Santiago, it was a slow day trying to find ways o pass the time. the bus was quite a nice one but we were all feeling very sore and stiff from the sand boarding adventure the day before. Unfortunately when we got off the bus for a food stop a passenger stole Nats backpack, Anthea's money belt and another passengers laptop. They don't know which passenger stole it so it all needed to be claimed by insurance.
We arrived in Santiago at 8am the next day, and we spent the day at the police station and the NZ embassy trying to arrange for Anthea to get a new passport. And i got my legs waxed. That evening we had a BBQ at the hostel.

The next day we went for a wander in the Bella Vista area which was really nice. We went to markets, out for lunch and then to a famous poet, Pablo Neruda. It was a very quirky and interesting house and our guide was really knowledgable on Pablos life. He was a real romantic and built the house for his mistress. The house was built like a boat and there is another part built like a lighthouse. Then we had coffees at the cafe next door.

That evening we went on a mission to find a McDonalds, the first time i had eaten McDonalds since i came to South America (other than sundaes) It was pretty average in the end. The we went out drinking. We didn't head out til 1am and the bars were still quiet. The first bar we went to was called bedrock and was themed in the style of the flintstones, it looked cool but the drinks were horrible. although they were very strong. We then headed to a club and stayed there til about 5am. It was a really good night

The next day was my final day in South America but we didn't get up til 12 cos of our big night. Anthea, Chris and I went into central Santiago and walked up this beautiful hill that had rock walls, stone stairways, statues, fountains, and a castle at the top. There was a really nice view of the city up there too. Santiago is soo smoggy that you can hardly see the mountains that surround it. We then slowly made our way to the plaza stopping at shops, markets and food places along the way. we tried some mini empanades which were delicious, bought some fancy chocolates and i got a new jersey too. By the time we reached the plaza it was dark. but it still looked really nice and then we caught the subway home. It was a really good day.

The next morning i was still getting ready when my bus transfer arrived, it was 20mins early so I had to rush around getting my stuff together and saying goodbye.
My flight was pretty nice, i got a personal tv screen which was a first for me so i got to watch whatever movie liked. The first flight was only 3 hours to Sao Paulo and then i had to wait in the transfer lounge for 6 hours before my next flight. i wandered the shops, read my book, wandered the shops again, tried all the testers in duty free, read my book, listened to my mp3, read my book and eventually it was time to board. This flight was 11 hours and again i had my own screen so i passed the time alright, The inflight food was pretty average but thats to be expected.

I arrived in london and found a significant lack of customs staff. all i found was an empty room with a phone on the wall which you had to pick up if you had anything to declare. Then i had my first experience on the London underground. It was surprisingly simple. I caught the piccadilly line to russell square. I loved that everyone was speaking english again and that i recognised the names of so many station names.
That evening i bought dinner at the supermarket in order to try and spend very little money.

Yesterday Nic and Craig arived in the morning and we grabbed a free map and explored the city. We saw so many famous landmarks. such as Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, the London Eye, the Globe Theatre, Millenium Bridge and St Pauls Cathedral. We also went to see a matinee show of Wicked for only 20pounds which was pretty cool.

Today i went down to the shops at 9.30 and only one shop was open, French connection. I thought i'd takea look around while i waited for other shops to open but i ended up buying a pair of jeans, they were a little pricy but i really did need another pair of jeans since the weather here is a bit colder than i expected. So its completely justified. Then i bought a pair of converse shoes cos i'm sick of wearing sneakers. And that brings me up to date.