South of France (23/08/08-30/08/08)

This will be a relatively short post as I am writing on a French keyboard which is incredibly frustrating to use.

On the 23/08/08 Benoit, Kent and I took a train from Paris to Montpellier to visit our friend Laurent. Who in true Laurent style, the moment we arrived he cracked open the beer, wine, pastis and food. Then along with Laurent`s brother, Arnou, we headed to the beach to play music. Essentially very quickly into the night we befriended another group of revellers who had a fire. Generally Laurent and Arnou were able to provide ample entertain,ent for the crowd, but I chipped in a song or two. To break down the language barriers I started by getting the French folk to sing `aussie, aussie, aussie...oi oi oi`, then a couple of lines from Land Down Under and to finish off an improvised song called `I Got Drunk In Melbourne`...all were a smash.

The next day we started heading down south to where we wuld be staying in Bayonne in Basque Country. However on the way we had an extended stop off in Carcassonne to see a 12th century cqstle and eat lunch. We were also lucky enough to see a brief performance of Chico and Gypsy Kings...very famous for spanish guitar a few years ago. We finally arrived in Bayonne at about twelve thirty and after an hour searching fruitlessly for an open bar we called it a day.

Essentially fromhere our days follow a very similar course...wake up at middayish; eat croissants and pain au choclats for breakfast; go somewhere; eat a picnic lunch at about four; ease back to the hotel at about eight; and have dinner at about ten...quite a life.

So teh first three days ahile we were staying in Bayonne; on teh three days we went to Saint jean De Luz and San Sebastian in Spain, the Bidarre beach, and then to the great dunes in Pyla on the way to Arcachon where we spent the next three days. In Arcachon we went an played music on the beach and the following day we went to Saint Emilion for wine tasting. The next day we just hung out in Archachon and went to the beach in teh arvo. This happened because I had to go to the doctor to have a my earlooked at. My ear had been blocked for three days and I couldnt hear anything out of it. It turns out it was just a wax build up and I had to have it flushed by the doctor.

today we got up extremely early to make teh long trip to Lauren`s parents hour in Loire in St Etienne...where we are going to be chilling for a couple of days before heading off to Germany.

Basically we have been doing a hell of a lot of stuff, but also been taking it pretty easy...

Werewolfing in Paris (19/08/2008-22/08/2008)

Bon jour! It hasn't been too bad trying to get through with bugger all French. I did make a point of learning how to say do you speak english, I don't speak French, and can I have...I've used these with moderate success.

We have been playing in Paris for a few days now, which has been tres bien! Our friend, Benoit, has been very nice to put Kent up in his little one room flat and take out to cool French restaurants.

The first night we arrived in Paris, we rented bike from a little bike station and Benoit took us riding around the sights of Paris. It was a great way to see Paris.

The next day Kent and I walked into the city and went up the Eiffel Tower. I kind of forget that I have a slight fear of heights, which sucks because most of the monuments of the world seem tall! We got spectacular views of Paris. We then walked home and Benoit took us out to a excellent Basque restaurant...where we were only challenged a little to find some vego food. Then we walked up the Montmartre. There is a chapel and lots of little cafes and bars.

The next day Kent and I actually got out of bed before midday and tripped back into the city to see the Louvre. We saw the Mona Lisa...its really small and you can't get too close...and the Venus De Milo. Following that I explored through the Louvre Medieval, the Egyptian (I don't know why I saw this as I am going to Egypt in a month!), Mesopotamian and Arabic art. In the afternoon we saw the Pere Lachaise Cemetary. We saw the graves of Jim Morrison, Max Ernst, Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde and rederick Chopin. It was a beautiful place to walk around. In the evening Benoit took us out with some of his work friends to a more traditional style French Restaurant...it was slightly harder to get veg food, but I did get a cucumber salad for my entree...and Kent also tried his first snail. This was preceded by crepes and beers...hmmm.

The next day Kent and I actually got out of bed before midday and tripped back into the city to see the Louvre. We saw the Mona Lisa...its really small and you can't get too close...and the Venus De Milo. Following that I explored through the Louvre Medieval, the Egyptian (I don't know why I saw this as I am going to Egypt in a month!), Mesopotamian and Arabic art. In the afternoon we saw the Pere Lachaise Cemetary. We saw the graves of Jim Morrison, Max Ernst, Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde and rederick Chopin. It was a beautiful place to walk around.

Kent and I eased up today and took the short trip down to the Chateau De Versaille. It was spectacular...so excessive and ornamental! Unfortunately the it was raining all day so walking around the gardens was not as fun as it could have been.

This evening Benoit is having some friends over for wine and cheese. We are doing something that involves melting cheese and pouring it on potatoes. The fact that walked up the Montmartre. There is a chapel and lots of little cafes and bars.

Tomorrow we head head down south to meet up with another friend, Laurent, before we head around Basque and Boerdeax for the next week or so.

London calling...(16/08/2008- 19/08/2008)

We arrived in London on a red eye flight from Boston at 10am...I think that we were pretty lucky to make it, considering some the weather in Boston. We actually seemed to be the only flight not delayed.

Essentially we spent a very jovial time. We spent a fair proportion of time catching up with friends who were wither working or holidaying in London at the same time as us. So I have now seen the inside of many an authentic Britsh pub and discovered the joys of buying booze in the supermarket.

We did also do a hell of a lot of walking...there was a certain novality that walking past buckingham palce just happened to be on the way back to our hostel! We did see all the main stuff from the outside Westminster Abby, Big Ben etc. I must say Big Ben was rather small...I was very disappointed!

Kent did actually manage to get out of London to take in a bit of the country side. However, I was feeling a little "tired and emotional" and used the day to have a sleep in. I then went to both the Tates...in a very vain attempt to pretend that I was in any way cultured.

Speaking of culture...we did make a journey to northern London to see the house out of the TV show Spaced. It was a little awkward trying to take photos as there were people in the window.

The highlight of out experience was hanging out with the porn tsar Matty Loxham and his lovely girlfriend Jane (this was the first time in three days I had actually spoken to a genuine Pom!). Matty is the brother of a friend of ours (the infamous Ben Loxham) and it became a must to meet him when we found out that he edits porn magazines for a living. The porn thing ended up being not as interesting as I thought i would be. inspite of this Matty and Jane were a hell of a lot of fun to hang out with. Matty had put together a very good little sign saying Nick and Kent with some pictures of Australian celebrities (including Billy Connelly!?) to help track us down...unfortunately to the wrong two guys first.

Now, we here Paris calling...

Leaving New England, about to head for Old England...(14/08/2008-15/08/2008)

Well, its just ticked over to 12am Friday 15/08/2008...our last day in America, before we head off to London. This is a pretty optimistic assessment considering the weather in New England very much resembles the weather you would expect in Old England and as a result there is a good chance of being a delay in the flight...

We have had a very relaxing day. We have been treated soooo well by Dan and Toby. Good home cooked meals, our own rooms and plenty of beer/wine. Today we just journeyed into Boston, walked around a fair bit. I bought tacky Barak Obama shirts for Kent and I. I also go to see the bar, the Cheers bar is based on. We got back home again about 7pm, which is pretty understandable as I didn't get to of bed until 11:30am. Then had yet another amazing home cooked meal and spent the evening watching the Michael Phelps show and the Red Sox thrashing Texas again...I think I'm pretty good on my baseball knowledge now.

I have had an awesome time in America...many good nights out (I will always remember those 80 cent Cosmo's....ahhh), good political discussions (unfortunately I didn't meet one Republican...so the discussions were all headed in the same direction), great food (sooo many good vegetarian restaurants...), great beer (I didn't have to drink one single Bud or Miller fortunately...) and plenty to be seen. The things I definitely think we need to develop in Australia are good pizza by the slice (this was awesome) and Bar & Grills, I love 'em. Its sad that I'm soo food orientated...but wahtever.  We head of next to London where the only plans we have at this stage the only plans are to meet people to drink pints and to see the Spaced (genius comedy starring Simon Pegg)...maybe we'll drop into a museum. 

08/08/08-15/08/2008: New York, New Fucking York and then back to Boston...

Well, I am finally getting around to updating my blog...its a pretty crap blog...

Anyway after a raucous night out at karoke in Boston, we caught a Greyhound bus to New York City. We essentially arrived with just enough time to check into a hostel (which seemed to be full of hicks attending an Iggy Pop concert) before we headed out to the East Village to see a friend of Ariel's play in a band. We got in for free and got some free vodka...so well worth it. Then we caught the subway home at 2am, something that I would have previously conceived of as dangerous...apparently very safe. 

The next day we had to start by checking out that hostel (bye hicks) and check into a new one. Unfortunately due to the season, the fact we were unaware of Harlem's gentrification, and booking late we had three hostel's in hour nights. So we checked out of that hostel at 11am and the next one would not take us until 2pm...so we wandered Times Square and ate lunch for a few hours. We also visited everywhere we could think of from a TV show and saw Anthony LaPaglia filming Without a Trace. I wanted to go up and discuss the form of Sydney FC, but Kent wouldn't let me. I also discovered a pair of Scrubs scrubs that I really really wanted Kent to buy so that he can do a constant JD impersonation, however he didn't do it! After checking into our new hostel (much nicer, less hicks, and we were in the red room...which was literally red!) we had to scoot back to the East Village to meet Ariel's sister Cassie for ice cream. 

After ice cream (well we actually had frozen yoghurt) we went to an Irish pub called McGees...this is the bar, that the bar from How I Met Your Mother is based on. I didn't intend to go to this bar, but we just happened to walk past it....so went there for dinner...they have a very good veggie burger. Kent and I roamed through and drank in various other parts of the city until we met Ariel and John for good-bye drinks, prior to Ariel heading off for Israel. 

The next morning we checked out of our hostel again and went to queue at Tkts, where you get half priced tickets for Broadway. Not being so knowledgeable one musicals, I suggested Young Frankenstien and Kent wanted to see the Little Mermaid...I won out...thats partially a lie Kent wanted to see what is considered to be the new RENT, but he was also keen on the Little Mermaid. Well after queueing for an hour!!! we went and checking into our new hostel on the lower east side and headed back to see Young Frankenstein...I don't know what's musical, I know what i like! On the way there we were held up by the Dominican Day parade, this is something that happened in the penultimate episode of Seinfeld. We met Andy, a German guy working in New York whom we met in San Fran.

The next day was the super tourist day...we saw Liberty island and the statue of course, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Empire State Building. All up we spent four and a half hours at the Empire State Building and Liberty Island...40 minutes of all of that was seeing the monuments, the rest was queueing!! There was huge numbers of people and a lot of security... We also headed down to the financial district and saw Groud Zero. 

That night we met with Ariel's aunt Joni for dinner in the East Village. The next morning we essentially just had to get to the Greyhound bus to hoon back to Boston...we made it with enough to also drop by the Nintendo store in the Rockefeller Centre. 

Upon arriving back in Boston we had dinner and headed to see a baseball game at the hostoric Fenway Park with Ariel's parents Toby and Dan. The game was great, the Red Sox scored 10 runs in the first inning, but by the 8th Teas were in front...the Red Sox won, 19-17 in the end. 

Today (13/08/08) until Friday (15/08/08), Kent and I are staying with Toby and Dan, just outside of Boston. They are essentially spoiling us! We get our own rooms, we get home cooked meals and get driven around New England...we are incredibly thankful! We travelled to see some small towns north of Boston today and tomorrow we will just being heading down town. We are having a couple of days taking it very easy until we head to London...

There you go...updated!

DAy 5-7: Closing the chapter of San Francisco and heading out east...

The last full day we spent in San Fran naturally had a very late start to it all...no idea why :-P We all split of for the day. I headed out again to Castro to wander around and have lunch. It was just such a nice area of the city. I then headed back to the Museum of Modern Art, where I very randomly bumped into Kent. We only spent a very short time there...as our heads were not quick clear enough to appreciate all that was around us...

Kent headed back to the hostel to rest. I took the time to walk up an incredibly steep hill to see Coit tower... Kent, Grace (an English backpacker we befriended) and I headed out for what I would have to say was the best Chinese I have eaten! If you go to San Francisco , eat at Nanking palace! It was Brian's, the hostel's resident Scotsman's, birthday so we headed out for some quiet drinks at Specs...one of those kind of bars that Jack Kerouac hung out at. It ended up with some excited political discussion.

The next day we had to head out early to fly to Boston...the plane was delayed a mere four hours in all! So we eventually arrived in Boston fairly late. Fortunately Ariel and her boyfriend John came to pick us up, and we headed out for a few beers to relax us before bed...

Ariel lined up a very good walking tour of Boston for us...taking in Harvard University, Newbury Street, and the Boston Legal Building (Denny Crane!). There was a lot of other stuff we were intending on seeing, unfortunately though we were the victims of bad weather and were forced to take refuge in a pub...it was quite the hassle :P

Tonight we are off to do karaoke...and tomorrow to New York, New York!

Day 4: Going to a gay bar...

After a very late start Kent and I took a train trip to Berkeley, just outside San Fran. Its a very university town. we spent a couple of hours hanging out at the the University of California, Berkeley Campus. It was absolutely beautiful...what do you expect for full-fees...i mean, fuck, it was exactly ject like a scene out of an American movie. To rub it in more, food was really cheap, unlike my experience at monash where I paid way to much for stuff...except at Wholefoods.

In the arvo kent had a little nap, beause he was feeling unwell.

Then in the arvo, early evening we went to Alcatraz. It was a really interesting experience, much more broad than youc ould imagine...through the history of being a miltary base, to a miltary prison to a federal prison. It was also very cold...to warm up in the evening, we went to a bar in the castro region of San Fran, the gay region, for 80c cosmopolitan night...may I say awesome plus!!! We are back at the hostel now, chilling!

Days 2 & 3: Cheap Wine and Day 3 Growth

Well, day 2 of our adventure we went to the Muir Woods, some massive red wood plantation, and then a whole swig of wineries across the Sanoma Valley. It was a pleasant enough day, the red woods were spectacular, and the wine went down beautifully. We got some amazing views of the golden gate bridge as we came back into the city. It was also kind of eerie how the countryside resembled driving through the Wimmera.

Day 3...after a wee bit of a sleep in (which was as a result of a wee bit of a late night out :P), we took a pilgramage to the Full House house, it was inspirational. Except that we hit the traditional dilemma of only being able to narrow it down to being one of three houses...so got a picture with all three. We then went and hung around Haight Ashbury where the hippies used to hang out. It was pretty much just like Brunswick Street. I also took a short detour to what was believed to be either Jello Biafra's current or former house. This information was gleaned from a poster near the toilet in some cafe...so it must be Jello Biafra's house!

Just to continue comparing everything to Australia we went to San Fran's equivalnt of the Astor, the Red Vic Theatre, and saw of all things Kenny...it seemed to go down well with the audience.

Tomorrow...we will do something that does not resemble something in Australia...Alcatraz! Unless it ends up looking like Pentridge on an island!

San Francisco sans flowers in my hair...

I just thought I would start this blog so I leave brief updates about the trip. Essentially arrived safely in San Francisco...however I still can't get over the fact that we left Melbourne at midday on the first of August and arrived at midday on the first of August. We have absolutely fallen for the lure of San Fran, because it is essentially like Melbourne (including having Jedediah playing in the hostel. We walked around fishermans wharf felt like Movieworld with big novelty chain stalls everywhere), ate dinner a a place called the cheesecake factory (where Kent struggled to finish half a salad, as it was massive), and then went out to some blues bar called the Saloon with some other folk from the hostel. Today we're heading off to the Muir woods and some wineries...yes, we have suddenly turned 60! Unfortunately the enter key on this computer doesn't work, the reason why this has all been written in one paragraph...