Kelvin's Wacky Overseas Adventure

One Last Time

2007-09-17T20:01:00.000+09:30

this will be the last post of my journey. for those that don't know i'll be coming home on this thursday, the 20th and i guess i should write up what i've been doing the last few weeks as a conclusion to this story.

so for the past few weeks i've been working, earning money but not having any fun cause i was getting quite homesick. since i had booked the flights i have just wanted to jump on the plane and go. so one of my colleagues saw that i was looking bummed and suggested i go on one last trip and go met some people and have some fun before i leave. best advice ever. i was saving my money to come home with and pay off some debts but i decided to blow it all over here. i booked a trip to Madrid as i had always wanted to go to spain and its another world capital i can tick off the list.
i flew out last monday and while i got to madrid safe and sound my luggage did not. it was still in amsterdam. so for the first day and most of the second i was stuck wearing the same clothes which was made worse for the fact that i was wearing pants coming from holland (as its still stupidly cold here) and i came to spain to wear some shorts and get some colour back in me as i am pasty white at the moment. so i soildered on, i had faith that it would show up eventually and i didn't come to another country to dwell and worrying about things. so on monday after checking into the hostel i walked down to the city centre, the puerta del sol, and walked around from there. Madrid is a really busy city with people everywhere and at the end of just about every street there is a fountain or statue of something. so with every street there was something new to discover. i saw the Plaza Mayor, which is a big open air square, the Palace and a good lot of the centre from walking everywhere.
tuesday i met some girls at breakfast and got to talking and they invited me to hang with them for the day. thats the best thing about travelling, you get to meet some fantastic people that even though you only know for a day you feel like they'll have an impact on you for the rest of your life with the stories you share and the times you have together. so with these girls we first went to check out an art museum, however that was booked out so we walked back to the plaza mayor (i did so much walking on this trip i was ready for bed around 10 each night) and decided to grab something to eat and one of the terraces. we found a place that served to dishes and included a drink and dessert for under 9 euros. the best part was that the food was actually really good and we sat there for a few hours eating and drinking some wine, which is also incredibly cheap there. after that we went on a guided tour of some of the old places in madrid and then headed back to the hostel for a seista as after all the walking and eating we'd done we were quite tried.
that night we went to Parque del buen Retiro, which was an old palace gardens with plently of monuments and nice areas to see if there was somewhere there we could grab a drink. unfortunately there was not so we walked back to the centre and found a place in one of the side streets to have a drink and a little something to eat. along the way i was approached by this kid, would have been no older than 16, and he started shouting "discotech, discotech" at me and tried to get me to dance with him or something. i tried to brush him off and he grabbed that arm and with his free hand he made a go for my wallet in my pocket. i caught on straight away and pushed him away and gave him a look that would have said in the strongest possible way "fuck off".
the place we went to was just a small place where i ordered some tapas and sangrina and spent the next 2 hours just chilling out. at this stage we where joined with 2 other people from the hostel as well, including a guy from switzerland that i hung out with on the next few days.
wednesday i went to the Museo del Prado, which is a huge art museum in madrid. however, try as i might i still can't spend more than an hour in those places without getting bored. what i did find interesting though was they had an exhibit for the guy that invented landscape painting. as if someone had to actually come up with the concept! again more walking around the city, eating, sleeping. that night i hung out with one of the girls from the night before and an american guy from the same room as me and we went and got some food (which i couldn't finish as it was too much and thats saying something!) and then went to a pub to watch the soccer that was on. i thought i was in the middle of a joke when i walked into an irish bar with an american, mexican, swiss, austrian and myself. again, thats the beauty of travelling.
the next day, thursday, i was meant to go to a town called Toledo with the mexican guy from the night before as a day trip but by the time we got to the train station the train had been sold out and the next one wasn't for 2 hours. since i had already paid for a Don Quixote tour later that night at 8 i needed to be back by then so it didn't give me any time in Toledo. instead, i went on a tour of the bull fighting arena, went to Retiro Park to have a look at day time and then got back to the hostel to met the swiss guy. we went and got some food then i went on my tour, which was really cool. you get a guide that tells you about the cultural history of madrid and takes you to important places and along the way you get actors put on a show for you about don quixote and its writer right there in the middle of the street. of course the plays were in spanish but for us monolingual people we had a translation sheet. that lasted 2 hours and after that it was some more walking and eventually bed time.
the flight back to a'dam was with out drama and i spent friday night with family in a city close by to catch up with them before i go.

saturday night.....saturday night was by far the most entertaining night i've had on my trip and this will not be a complete retelling of it as this is a family orientated blog. AJ, Casper, Kim and an american guy i've met here Tim all met up in Bergen op Zoom to make my last weekend in holland a memorable one. First we got some beers in the town centre then decided we wanted ribs for dinner so we went to a restaurant that had a beary unusual theme. and if you didn't get it there it was a restaurant that had a bear theme. we had decided that we were going to antwerp for the real drinking and after organising a taxi to pick us we we headed down by train.
so from here we hit a few pubs, had some beers and eventually went to the same karaoke bar i went to on marcel's bucks night cause i remember there being girls of our age there. oh before that, we were looking for a good pub and someone came up and gave us a free bottle of red and white wine so we sat somewhere and drunk them. anyway, i managed to convince a girl at the karaoke bar to get on stage with me at a song of my choice. unfortunately she left early cause she said her friend was feeling ill, a likely story. so i found another one to take her place and while i was struggling to find 50 cents to go to the toilet (i tried haggling to 10 cents but no dice) AJ came up and dragged me out of the toilet to tell me that my song was on. i then proceeded to blast out a rendition of My Sharona, really giving it to the Whoos. good times. we were also approached by a girl on her Hen's night and for a small donation you could get a lollypop from here that had a task to complete writting and stuck to it. mine was i had to write the worst thing about her. thanks to some quick thinking by kim i wrote the worst thing about her was that she was wearing pants.
after that we went to a club and again more beers, more talking to girls, some dancing, and of course tequilla. bloody shots were so big you just about to had to do it in 2 mouthfuls and if anyone knows me, tequilla and me are not a good mix but i managed to save face and keep it down. it was getting to 3 at this stage and we needed to get to our cab so we left but on the way back we took a detour through the red light district of antwerp to have a look at the girls. not as good as the ones in amsterdam but there were some alright ones there. on the way back from there i picked up a street sign and was convinced that i was taking it as a souviner however the stupid cops there had other ideas. we were already running late for the cab at this stage so i had to run back to the place "i got it from" ie nearest suitable location i had to run back to make sure we got the cab. in hindsight i should have just gotten arrested as that would have been the icing on the cake for my holiday. the guys were staying at tims place and i had to ride home and after narrowly avoid a few parked cars trying to fix my light mid-ride i got home at 530.
the next day i had to say goodbye to AJ and Casper, which totally sucked but i'm sure its not the last time i'll be seeing those boys. Kim and i watched the f1s and moto gps during the afternoon, which was the perfect way to recover from a big night and once they had finished it was also time to say goodbye to him but at least i'll be seeing him in december when he comes home from christmas.

today, monday, i'm packing and its becoming quickly apparent that i'm not going to have enough room in my bag and some stuff will have to be sacrificed. tonight there is a family dinner and tomorrow i'll be on my way home.

so there it is, my trip. i'm glad i kept this (somewhat) up to date as i'll always have it here to look back on for my own records.

i'll be seeing most of you all soon!

Until then

I'm coming home

2007-08-25T02:21:00.000+09:30

So i've done it, i've booked my flight back home. not what i originally wanted but now that i made the choice i'm happy with it, somewhat.
I rang today to change my flight from the original date of the 13th of Nov to an earlier time because i hadn't intended to stay that long for a while now. however the only options given to me where that date or something much earlier because of the discounted ticket i'm on. they only let so many of us cheap skates on the plane you see. so after humming and arring and decided that i didn't want to stay till november and took the early flight. how early? i'm not telling. if you wish to know you know where to contact me and i'll decide then if you shall know the secret. who knows maybe i'll catch the J1 bus from the airport straight home and not tell anyone.
After i had made the tough call to go early i got a ring sometime later saying they've found a way to get me home at the time i wanted. however, by this time i weighed up why i was staying here against what i have to gain by going back home and i believe i made the right call for the right reasons. i've been gone for 6 months already and while i am still having fun here, i'm not doing anything that i can't do back home (asides from attending parties in amsterdam of course AJ, and we will party hard on sunday). i'm sure work won't be happy with this but these things happen i guess. of course i feel good about it now but when the time gets closer and i realise i'm not coming back here for quite possibly a long time i'll probably start to get a little sad as i will miss a lot of people here.
anyway, i look forward to seeing you all soon(ish). i'll still be posting as i'm sure there will be things to tell until then.

Until next time!

Weeding!!

2007-08-24T03:14:00.000+09:30

So last weekend it was Marcel and Marsha's wedding. No that wasn't a typo in the title, its a simpsons reference.
It was an absolute blast and i was happy that i could be there to see it. The whole reason for this trip was to be here for that day. when marcel told me 2 years ago it was going to happen i promised i was going to be there, everything else (canada etc) was an add on to planning around this event.
So what happened how did it go down? well the day started with a trip to Marcel's parents place to get ready and do all the final preparations. marcel's suit was a gold and platinum theme and i must say i thought it was a really good choice.

Marcel with Pieter (his dad) and Erwin (his bro)

For the wedding car Marcel's parents neighbour had restored an old Renault from the 1930s. this thing was so damn fine it made frank sinartra look like a hobbo (anchorman quote for those not in the know).

So while marcel took that car to marsha's house we (family and friends) took our own cars to marsha's place to await the arrival of marcel to pick up marsha for the wedding. Dutch weddings work a bit differently than what we are used to so you'll notice a few things like that through out my story. i think i prefer the Dutch style actually, much more personal and unique.

so marcel came and met marsha at her house and after a quick stop to the cemetery to visit the grave of marsha's mum we all walked to the hall in the city where they were getting married. the wedding itself took place in an old fort (really no other way to describe it) and there was about 60 people in attendance. instead of being invited to the wedding, invitations went out to invite people to the reception with the choice to attend the wedding and only the close family and friends were directly invited to be there and the reception. during the ceremony marcel and marsha we're seated as marcel's uncle conducted the wedding. he is not a member of a church (at least i think now) but is a member of the city council and therefore has the power to marry people here. even though i didn't understand a word i knew that he was talking about marcel and marsha as a couple and what they have achieved so far and what the future holds. much more personal than some parish you don't know. he even made a joke at my expense saying that they are running a hotel now because i'm living there. i found this out afterwards of course.

after the commencement of the ceremony it was off to the restaurant for dinner. this was only attended by family so i felt very privileged to be there. people who go to the wedding do their own thing in the afternoon and come for the drinks later. so dinner went from 4 to 8 when people started to arrive. one of marcel's friends came up with the idea to make a large M & M cut out and have people take their pics in it and then sign a photo album next to where they'll put the pic as a way of a guestbook. it was M&Ms because Marcel and Marsha were getting married, get it? again, another personal touch to the weeding. once the majority of the guest had arrive the family could break line (they were standing in a line to greet everyone as they came in) and the night could begin.
through out the night friends and family did small presentations for the newlyweds. firstly, marcel's uncle proclaimed that he had made a mistake at the wedding and had to redo the vowels but before he did so he asked if there were any objections. then people came forth with que cards and told everyone why they should marry. this was essentially like telling embrassing stories at a 21st. keeping up with the "we do that at 21st theme" next was a slide show showing some baby and teenage pics.
after that some friends did a sketch where they presented some gifts to M & M.

first were some porcelain animals for marcel to smash because of his dislike of marsha's rabbit. next, a vase with their wedding invitation engraved on it. followed by a computer for marsha to smash for her hate of computer games and finally they were given a weekend hotel package.
the next presentation was a slide show about marcel and marsha's house and the things they already own together and then some pics of marsha's bachelorette night and some footage taken of marcel singing karaoke (a long version of what i posted last week).
after all the presentations it was time for dancing and this went on until about 130 when it was time to say thank you and goodbye.
i didn't get home till about 330 due to a mix up in taxi's (oh, i should mention at this point that the reception was technically in Belgium, how's that? they had their reception in another country!) and i like to think that i was the last one to bed that night, something to be pround of.
well i'm probably missing a lot of info but i'm going to throw some photos into this and hopefully that will cover some gaps. for how i've had enough typing today. (crap, most of my photos are in portrait and i can't turn them in this, or at least i can't find a button that will do it for me. if anyone what to see more you can ask!.)

get to see my parents this week and i'm so pumped for that. homesickness is starting to set in.

until next time!

update

2007-08-09T20:16:00.000+09:30

hey all
sorry about the lack of updates, i think i'm suffering from whatever it is that makes travelers slowly stop communicating with back home. i think i've done well to make it this far with fairly regular posts.

ok, so what have i been up to? well just living a normal life really, going out on weekends, socialising, bumming around the house during the day doing nothing. normal stuff.

i got a job today, working with the GE plastics plant here, just doing admin type stuff. i got that through my uncle who is one of the big wigs there so i start that next week at 12 euros an hour! thats like 100 australian dollars! even though it means i can no longer stay at home surfing the net all day i think i can do it for a few weeks. hopefully there is enough work there to see me out for the rest of my trip.

2 weeks ago there was an event in BoZ called krabben foor, i have no idea what the translation is or if there even one, basically all the stores set up street fronts and have sales and there are rides and attractions. i found this happy camper painted on the side of one such ride:they also had a crazy street circus where people dressed up as weird insects :good times. and notice the lack of rain? really a great weekend for that reason

last weekend it was also great weather, which was good cause marcel's buck party was on saturday. ever since marcel told me he was getting married (2 years ago) i've been looking forward to this bucks night. and while some of the essential bucks night activities were missing it was still a top night and everyone had a lot of fun.
so first up we went to an adventure park where you have to climb across rope bridges, swinging logs and balance on planks to make it through. here's a pic of the course:
did i not mention that it was 8m above ground? my bad. basically they give you a harness and a helmet and you are supported by cables that run above you. now because i did that bungee in canada this didn't phase me at all so i flew through the course pretty quickly and without any stress, unlike some of the other guys. marcel has a thing about heights so this is why this activity was chosen. this shot is of peter, my uncle, getting across the gap obstacle with my waiting on the left to go through. they had people going in both directions, which was made possible because there were two support lines to travel on.me again.

so after completing the course it was time for a drink then to the next challenge, the leap of faith. at this challenge you have to climb a pole, again 8m, up and jump of trying to reach a bell that it hanging a metre or so out.
we did that twice each with the second being with the bell further out but everyone managed to hit the bell on both occassions. next up was a canoe drop, well it wasn't but i can't spell the other boat name, the one that starts with ki, but its the same thing anyway. it was just like that old solo commercial where the guy jumps down the waterfall after slamming a solo. so wish i had a solo do drink while do that. so you gear yourself up and they have a ramp they push you off into a little pond. the trick is to lean back so go in perpendicular and try to centre the boat so that when you bob up again you "land" the boat. this was really tricky and only Erwin, marcel's bro, managed to nail it. i had 3 goes at it but failed each time. i rolled it to the side on the first 2 times and then i leant back too much on the 3rd and i flipped back over again. mind you, i had the hardest one to do it in cause i was the only one small enough in the legs to squeeze into the small boat, which submerges completely, unlike the other one which one went in half way.

after that we went home to shower and then had a BBQ at marcel's parents place. it was here that we told him that his costume for the night was an ape one. marsha calls marcel her aap (ape) so it was very appropriate. here it is custom to dress the buck up so thats the reason for the costume. so after a few beers and some meat we went to BoZ to start the partying. as an added item, marcel was given a container of banana lollies to hand out to girls.
after having a few drinks at boz we took a taxi bus to antwerp to go to a karaoke bar. why? cause marcel is terrified of karaoke. we got him up there though! we belted out an outstanding rendition of bon jovi's its my life.

we stayed at this bar for a long time, putting back the beers and having a good laugh. once we left we went to another bar for a whiskey of all things and then got some much needed fries with mayo. it was around 430 so that was the end of the night for us and we got a taxi bus home again. i had planned ahead and put water and panadol next to my bed so i took that and passed right out as soon as i hit the pillow.
the weather the next day was awesome and i was trying to convince people to go to the beach but everyone was too hung over for any sort of activity. but from reports i've heard it wouldn't have been worth it cause every dutchman and his dog had the same idea (seriously, dutch like to take there dogs everywhere) so it would have been more frustrating than relaxing. to anyone thinking that the weather was starting to resemble a summer, forget it, its raining again today with no sign of slow down, which is crap cause i wanted to go to the thursday market and get some awesome stroopwafels. stroopwafels, for those that don't know, are the greatest food on earth. its two soft waffel pieces glued together by caramel. they are so awesome i think i might put up with the rain to go get some fresh hot ones. normally they only come in a small size and in packs of 10. i'm bringing a suitcase back full of them.

coming up for me is the wedding in a week and a bit and also work. i haven't had a full time job in 4 years so i'm going to die getting up early everyday of the week but for 12 euros an hour i think i can manage (seriously, when the guy ask me if that was alright and had to hold myself down so i didn't start yahoo-ing around the office and doing the floor circle dance, fans of the simpsons will get that and if you don't then you're not really a fan).

Until next time!

----------------
Now playing: Jebediah - Lino
via FoxyTunes

Amsterdam

2007-07-24T19:33:00.000+09:30

So this is a follow on from the last post, if you haven't done so read that first (or not). these events take place on the 6th to the 9th of july.

the flight over was easy, i scored an exit row seat and the flight was only an hour so no big deal. only problem with the exit seat is that it is in the middle of the plane so i was one of the last to get off which meant that i had to wait for ages at passport control. finally got out of there and then had to get someone to change a 50 euro i had for some change so i could pay for the bus back to the city centre. eventually i had to buy a twix for this guy to open the register and give me some change. all that running around took about 10 minutes which meant i missed the bus back and had to wait another 30mins before the next one. thank goodness for ipods, making intolerable times bearly tolerable.
so bus to the city and then a train to amsterdam to meet up with Arjan and Casper, 2 guys i made friends with last time i was here. after i bit of disorientation i eventually meet up with Arjan and it was basically "hey how's it going? nice to see you again, lets go drink" and drink we did. after initially been told off for getting on the bike side saddle, which is the gay thing to do apparently (now i know why all those people were looking and kim and i the other week, it wasn't cause we were talking english, its cause we were talking english and being gay at the same time.) we got on our way through amsterdam for the first watering hole. we stayed for a drink there then headed to the next one, which turned into the generally trend of the night. even now as i'm writing this places are coming back to me that i'd forgetting we'd visited. all the while i was carrying my bag of clothes and possessions like a hobo. so after about 5 or 6 pubs we went to a club for some dancing and more drinking. i was pleasently surprised with how easy it was just to dance with random girls there. they only game you need is to say hi, thankfully it wasn't more otherwise i would have been out of my leauge. that would never fly back home, girls are too closed off there. while at this club i witnessed a lot of girl on girl action as well, stupid attention whores but dammit it worked!
no idea when we got out of there but afterwards we went to another club for more of the same till that shut down at around 5am. so to create an overall picture, i woke in the morning on friday around 9 to meet sophie in hyde park and then by 5am saturday morning i was drunk off my arse in downtown amsterdam. if it wasn't for the weather i'd love europe (seriously, the weather in north europe anyway is appalling). after a late night snack of fries with mayo (dutch mayo is the best mayo in the world) it was time to hope on the back of the bike again and finally get to Arjan's place.

after getting a good 6hrs sleep it was time to get up and meet Casper at the train station. caught up with him, grabbed a coffee and then spent the next 4hrs or so walking around amsterdam just checking the city out. of course i forgot to bring my camera, ah well i'll be back there. i was meant to meet sophie at around 4 but because her phone didn't work in holland i didn't hear from her till around 7 and which time casper had gone home and it was time to charge up the battery again with some more booze.
first stop that night was a coffee shop for a local specialty, hash joints. from here we did another little pub crawl waiting for the sun to go down (it gets really dark around 1030 here) so we could check out the red light district. yes tonight was a typical tourist night in amsterdam as we joined the 100s of english bucks nights in smoking drugs and looking at girls in windows except were weren't making arses of ourselves. so the red light district is everything you thought it is and some. there are 100s of girls in small red light lit rooms (some of them quite hot mind you) and when the curtains drawn that means they're busy. there is even, as Arjan puts it, a sex trench where you go down some stairs into a little dead end allyway and check the girls out there. there's even a big black mama ally if that sort of thing floats your boat.
from here we went to another coffee shop and then another pub where sophie started to bog out and we called it a night around 1.

sunday was spent riding around the city however this time Arjan let me his spare bike so i didn't have to dink the whole day. we covered pretty much every corner of the city which wouldn't have been possible without Arjan (thanks bud!) and ended the tour at a cafe on top of a muesum in the shape of a sunken ship. it was 2.50 to get in but you get a free drink coupon, this can be exchanged for beer so in the end you save money. i have no idea how their business model works but i like it!
i would also like to point out at this time that the weather was great for the whole weekend, which is certainly atypical of the weather here.
after a free beer we met up with casper to go see die hard 4. ok, this has got to be the best movie i have seen in a cinema in a very long time. i had a blast watching this movie, it was just so outrageous. go see it!

monday and the weather finally came round and started to piss down. i meet up with sophie one last time in amsterdam for some lunch and then started the ordeal that was getting back to bergen op zoom. normally it takes 2hrs by train, i think it was 4hrs by the time i got home this time. first of all there was no train driver for the train so we were waiting on the platform for 20mins before leaving. then the shit weather had caused damage to the track inbetween the Hauge and Delft (about 40mins down the line from a'dam) so everyone had to get off the train and get a tram to delft. because the tram has 3 entry/exits i decided not to line up behind everyone coming off the train like a sheep and move up to the furtherest point of entry. these trams come every 30mins so when one finally came it was a stampede to get on. i had smart enough lined myself up with the door by looking at the previous trams so i managed to get on board.
what would normally take about 10mins by train took 40mins on the tram, the whole time being packed in like rush hour in the london underground. got to delft and got on a train going to rotterdam. once there i managed to decipher from the annoucement that the train was turning into a stop train to rossendaal, my next stop, which is not what i wanted cause that meant it would stop at every country outpost in between. so i got off and luckily the train i needed was on the other side of the platform. so i jumped on that and finally got to boz but my dramas had not finished yet. marcel was there waiting for me but when he tried to start the car we discovered that the battery had died. we tried to push start it but with no success. eventually marsha's dad came and gave us a boost and which point we finally made it back home.

so that was my party week. since then i have been doing all sorts of things, none of which make a good blog post so what i might do for my next one is write up a list of things that i think are quintessentially dutch, much the same i did early on in canada.

until then!

london

2007-07-20T07:21:00.000+09:30

Sorry it has been so long between post. i've done so much in that last few weeks that i haven't had the motivation to write it all up. since i have been inundated with requests (well two actually but its good to know that people read this) i will write up my trip to london that occurred 2 weeks ago. i've also had a fair few drinks tonight so this will probably be very sloppy.

ok, so two weeks ago (the 3rd) i took a trip across the channel to london to meet up with rick, josh and sophie (all friends from australia) and also cousins from australia (hi Jo and James!). so no events in the traveling between countries except for the fact that i had to go buy some lunch bags from the local supermarket so that i could take toothpaste with me. that was just a pain in the arse. anyway, got to stansted which is about an hour out of london, got a bus to liverpool street and then a tube (that cost $AUS10 for a 20 minute trip!) to my cousins house. that was a tuesday night, wednesday i met sophie in Hyde Park (which was just down the road) and started the sightseeing. first stop was big ben and parliament house. few snaps there (forget about pics for now its too late to upload them) then to westminister abby, then to downing street, then trafalgar square. all these places are within easy walking distance from each other. the weather was confusing to say the least as it would turn hot and cold very quickly but at least it wasn't raining, yet...
so after trafalgar (apologies if i'm spelling that wrong, can't be arsed to spell check right now) it was to the london eye, the big ferris wheel located on the other side of the Thames from parliament. initially i wasn't going to to it as i had very little money but i reasoned to myself that i was just going to spend that 14 pounds (yes thats how much it cost, about 35 dollars) on beer anyway so i might as well to the "right" thing and do something useful with that money.

i would have been happier with the beer.

london isn't really a city to see from up high like toronto is. there are no big buildings and no interesting roadways to look at due to the location so after going half way up i was done taking pics and just wondering whether the capsule had any fan system as it stunk like pakis (its racist i know but its true!). after the giant waste of money soph and i went to the london tower. now i don't want to spoil anything for people who haven't been but i was dissappointed when i saw that the tower isn't really a tower, but a fort. this also cost 14 pounds to visit but i feel it was better value for money (let's face it, nothing is value for money in the UK) as we spent a good 2 hours in the there checking things out. it did rain while we where there though which sucked but nothing you can do about it when you're in the middle of summer in england...
they have the crown jewels there but you are not allowed to take pictures which completely sucks. however, we did manage to take a few to stick it to the man. i would share these but i somehow deleted them off my comp, which sucks.

after a bit of confusion on what the london bridge was (honestly, when you think london bridge you think the big one with the fancy supports, not some dinky tiny bridge. apparently the good one is called tower bridge. go figure) i finally met up with rick. he took us to a few pubs and got some good old fashion indian curry for dinner. i chose the chicken vindaloo for the pure fact that lister from Red Dwarf is always going on about them. i should have taken the hint when the waiter said "you know its hot right?"
"no worries, i can take it"
i finished it, it was quite good but if i knew what was in store the next day i would have gone with something milder. i was fighting that bad boy all the way to lunch the next day, damn bombay belly.

wednesday soph and i checked out oxford st where she did some shopping, followed up with some maccas from lunch after looking around for any cheap alternatives. its really sad that it was the best option around and this was the second day running that we'd have it for lunch. so after oxford st we saw picadilly circus and leister square. then a quick tube ride to buckingham palace where i finally had some memories come back from my visit (of a day) in 2002. from there we saw the australian war memorial, which was impressive. it had all the places where we fought in bold made up of smaller names of where soliders are buried. from here we went back to jo and james' house to make some dinner (its way cheaper) after which we met rick and josh for some more drinks. nothing to special to report from here as the bar shut at 11 and we had to get a tube home anyway.
thursday was my last day in london and we decided to check out the Tate modern, an art gallery, as it was free. weird, weird, weird. thats how i'd describe it. its basically full of abstract art that makes no sense and i even saw a container that the "artist" had shit in and closed to make as a piece of art. i wish i hadn't deleted that photo too. so we kicked around there for an hour or so then headed across to st pauls cathedral for a quick look, quick cause its cost 8 pounds to get in. after that i headed to where my bus left for the airport and started the journey back to holland.
this was a journey in itself as there was traffic on the highway to stansted (luckily i had taken an earlier bus) then i thought i had done well when i got to the check in counter as only 8 people were in front of me. however all these people seemed to have problems with checking in and instead of getting another person to help them, the sole check in lady dealt with them meaning that by the time i was served the line behind me was probably about 100 deep. i was checked in within 2 minutes and i think the lady appriciated it and gave me a priority boarding pass so that i didn't have to line up with everyone else to get good seats on the plane. she did however manage to give me the wrong gate number on my boarding pass, luckily the real one was across the aisle as by the time i figured this out there was only 10mins to boarding. the flight back to holland went without hassle and i was ready to go to amsterdam and begin good times there.
to hear about those good times you'll have to tune in for the next installment as i'm going to bed. its 1am here and writing this has taken me an hour (ok, i was on msn too). the next part will be up soon, promise.

until then!

Enschede and Moto GP

2007-07-02T23:54:00.000+09:30

What a top weekend! if this is going to be any indication on how holland is then is going to be one hell of a trip.
so during the week i didn't do much, just get my bearings around bergen op zoom again and get settled in. on friday i travelled all the way across the country to enschede where my mate from back home Kim was living. getting there was an adventure in itself. first i had to ride to the train station from the house on the bike, only the second time riding in and the first time by myself. i found the station easy enough but then had to find an ATM to get some money out as you can't pay for tickets with VISA (you can't pay much with VISA, something i'm going to have to get use to) i was running tight as it was and by the time i found the bank and then made it back to the train station and locked up the bike it was too late and the train had already left. didn't matter anyway as there was a big line in the kiosk to buy tickets so even if i had made it on time i would have been screwed. as it was one lady took the opportunity to discuss her life in detail to the cashier and was holding up the line with no regard to anyone else. good thing the train did leave otherwise i would have been very pissed off by this. so the next train came in 30mins but now instead of taking the planned 2 stops to enschede i had to make 4. fun...

first few transfers went ok but when i got to the third one in zutphen i jumped on the wrong train and started to head in the wrong direction. lucky for me the ticket inspector told me this 15mins into my trip and i had to go back again and this time catch the right train. after that it was smooth sailing to enschede where kim was waiting for me. since bike is the prefered mode of transport here i hopped onto the back of kim's bike and he gave me a dinky to his place. fortunate for us there was a girl's U/19 world softball championships on in town and australia was playing that night. so we went to check that out, as you do, and enjoy a few beers while watching girls play sport. i know, that really suss but it was just too random to pass up. the aussie crowd there had all the chants going, which i can get into back home but i found myself cringing when they did it here. so after that back to kim's place for some more beers and then a bike ride to town to see some of the nightlife. i never knew sitting on a bike was such had work. since i was sitting side saddle i had to work to keep my legs off the ground the whole time and to stay upright. it took me a long time on saturday to figure out why i was so sore but that probably cause i wasn't in the mood for thinking then.

so enschede has all their bars located in one area so its very convienent and i had actual been here before on my first trip to holland in 2000. strange how things had come full circle. so we went to this one place that was descent enough. can't really remember much about it now as the drinks were flowing easily as we put to the back of our minds that we had to get up at 6 the next day to get picked up to go to the GPs. so it came about that we started chatting to some girls and surprisingly i got one of their numbers. i must have said something right!
maybe around 230 we left and grabbed some late night yiros, the saviour of the drunken man whose had very little to eat all day and now incredibly drunk. after that kim "rode" home with me on the back. we were all over the place and in fact a parked car jumped out of no where and kim ran into it (quite slowly mind you) and we fell off and had a good laugh on the ground for a while. when we got back home i decided that i wasn't getting up to make sandwiches the next day so i made them then and finally crashed out around 330.

we slept through the alarm and the subsequent door bell rings of the person picking us up. not to matter though as he finally managed to call kim and said he'll pick up some other people first and come back to us. it was 7am when he picked us up. i spent the whole time in the car asleep and at one time falling asleep on kim's shoulder.
however, once at the track i felt a little better from my power snooze and the sound of motorbikes got me wide awake. we found our seats, which were located on a series of hairpins so that we had maximum viewing time of the bikes as they went around. there was also a big screen in view so you could keep up with the activities on other parts of the track. so the seats were great but the weather was not. it was cold and windy the whole day yet somehow we all got sunburnt on our faces. the first 2 races (the 125cc and 250cc) were good but i didn't pay that much attention to them as i wasn't going for any particular rider. the main race, the moto GP class, was fantastic! there were 3 australians riding including casey stoner, the greatest guy ever (i'm a huge stoner fan). in fact it was an australian 1-2 for the starting positions with chris vermeulen qualifying first and casey 2nd. by the first corner casey was in front and leading strong for half of the race (which kept me very excited) until valentino rossi caught up to him with about 10 laps to go of the 25 lap race. casey kept him at bay for a few laps but with 4 laps to go rossi got him and thats how it finished. it was a great race and i'm definitely going to try to get to the australian race next year.
it seemed that everyone who owed a motorbike in holland was there as the parking field was full of them and just about 3 out of 4 people were wearing their motorbike leathers.

we left the track around 4 and i can't remember much of the trip home as i was half asleep for it. when we eventually got home it was straight to sleep for 3 hours and then time to get ready again to go out and meet that girl i had gotten the number of the night before.
i only stayed out till 2 as i was still drained from the day and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow that night.
so drinking, dutch girls and motorbikes. it doesn't get much better than that.

this week i'm going to london for a few days and then amsterdam so more good times should be just around the corner!
i've put a few pics at the end of the post
until next time!

STONER!!!!!!!

goodbye Canada, hello Holland

2007-06-26T18:26:00.000+09:30

well here i am reporting from sunny holland (read grey, windy and wet). i got in on sunday and its really good to be back here, its almost a second home for me. my last week in canada was fairly uneventful, mostly spent saying goodbye to everyone. i did manage to do one last canada activity before i left which was a river run. in the summer there people like to jump in the river and because the current is so strong just let it take them downstream to a predetermined spot. the river run i did was in in Corruna with Adam and it took us about 20 minutes to do. the water was still REALLY cold but it was definitely something worth doing. the weather in the last week was really nice, it actually got up to 30 and above during the week which had everyone complaining about how hot it was. i didn't mind it so much and it was only the humidity that bothered me. it was very much like sydney in that regard. i flew out of canada on saturday but kev, jay and i travelled to toronto on friday to have one last night out in the big city and to finish the trip the way it started. the drive into toronto was a small nightmare as we got stuck in traffic trying to make our way downtown so that i could pick up my passport from teh dutch consulate as they had it to put my visa in. toronto has less people than sydney living in it yet somehow they can still bring an 8 lane highway to a standstill. after surviving that and making it to Dallis and Jeremy's house we got some dinner and headed into town, again. in fact, we ended up in the same part of town but this time things were a little clearer as i wasn't running of 4 hours of sleep on a plane. since we don't know where any good bars are in toronto we just bar hopped between a few, having a drink at each one. since we were all poor or sick the night ended reasonably early at around 12 but we started at 7 so i was still quite liquored up. i didn't fly out till 8pm the next day so there was no rush to do anything on saturday, i got some swiss chalet for lunch so that the cycle was complete as it was the first meal i had in canada and now the last. the boys dropped me off at the airport around 6 and i successfully avoid the check in queue by checking in online. seriously, how dumb are some people?? i waited 5 minutes to check my bags and i got to choose where i sat cause i was smart enough to do it online. oh well, they deserve to wait in line if they can't work the internets. anyway, kev and jay bought me a shirt as a going away present which was really nice and then it was time to say goodbye. that was really strange and i still think it hasn't really hit me as the memories are still really fresh in my mind. i don't know when , but i'm sure i'll see those guys again. the plane was delayed by 40mins as it was late coming in but no big deal there. i was sitting at the front of a section so i had plenty of leg room and since no one was behind me i could lean all the way back too. there was also no one next to me, with the aisle on the other side so i had plently of room. that was until i offered to move across for a guy that was travelling with his family. initially one of his daughters was going to sit with him and his wife but of cause that got uncomfortable and i had already offered to move across at the start when i first saw it so about an hour in he came across. that was all well and good until the kid got put to sleep in a cot which left one seat free at his section. instead of moving back he stayed next to me and his wife got to stretch out across two seats now! ah, that was no big deal as i probably wouldn't have gotten any more "sleep" either way. i don't sleep on planes, just drift off. the flight took 7 hours but because of the time difference it was now 8am in london when i landed. after waiting for the plane to taxi and getting through security i only had an hour to kill for my flight to amsterdam of the 4 in my itinerary. i had book an exit row seat for this flight so it was very comfortable and the flight itself only took an hour anyway. schipol is so big we probably taxi-ed on the ground for 15mins before getting to the gate. dutch customs are fantastically quick (unlike the fickle US) and i was through in no time. marcel (my cousin) and marsha (his finacee) came to pick me up and after about 2 hrs in the car i was back in Bergen op Zoom. i showered and shaved then went to my auntie and uncle's house (i stayed with them last time, 5 years ago now!) to catch up with the rest of the family and have a few beers and a BBQ. to my surprise and delight, my cousin luke from adelaide was also there with his girlfriend as they are over here doing some travelling of their own at the moment so it was good that we were able to cross paths. i was in bed by 10 i think (maybe later) and went to sleep straight away. i woke early yesterday (6am) due to the jet lag and today was 9am so give me a few days and i'll be sleeping in till 12 just like canada!

its amazing how much i'd forgotten about holland, from the food, to the TV, to the cars on the street but its all coming back very quickly. just one quick example, when i had a glass of milk yesterday i could have sworn it was just cream as the milk here is quite richer than it is in canada.
this weekend i'm going to the dutch moto GP (go casey stoner!) with a Kim, an old friend from back home who is over here doing a phd. next week i'll be going to london and amsterdam to catch up with some more friends. this week i haven't got anything planned. probably take the bike out and get my bearings. that is, if it stops raining for 2 seconds. thats another thing i forgot, the weather is terrible over here.
next update will probably be after the weekend telling you all how good the race was!

so until then

The Dangerous Floater

2007-06-14T06:21:00.000+09:30

The dangerous floater, aka the poo, aka mark phillaposis is in a new reality tv show here. i believe this to be a sign of the rapture and that civilisation as we know it will crumble soon. its just incredible what is on tv these days.
the show, called age of love, follows the poo as a group of female contestants compete for his affection. sounds like the bachelor right? well you're wrong fools! some genius in hollywood thought it would make for even better viewing if a group of 35+ women were competing against a group of 20 somethings. what an amazing concept!...
TV sucks

more travels

2007-06-12T02:43:00.000+09:30

hey all, more stories and pics to follow

so since my last post time has flown by. my tour is over now and its time to go back to corruna for a week and a half before coming back to toronto to fly out. by my recollection the last thing i wrote about was the war museum. now i would like to tell you what i did that night but i can't remember, the rum and coke i was drinking might have something to do with that. it was a huge night, started at the hostel, then the city centre in ottawa to watch game 5 of the stanely cup (which ottawa lost and consequently lost the cup, losers) and then to a bar for more drinks. i have pictures from the bar but i don't remember getting there, let alone leaving. that would explain why i woke up the next morning missing a jacket. luckily for me it was at the bar we went to. i walked in and still didn't remember much about being there.
i left ottawa around 1 with a new crew of moose travels and a new bus driver and headed to a town called fort coulonge, which is situated on the ottawa river. the hostel here is run by a company that runs a white water rafting business but unfortunately i couldn't take advantage of this opportunity as i checked my bank account before leaving ottawa and it wasn't pretty. the night in fort coulonge had a fantastic sunset and lend to good times at the bar with a lot of beer consumed (i really didn't get hangovers on this trip so i was able to back it up, a lot!). the karaoke was busted out in the end and i became a singing superstar. together with a beatles loving japanese guy we rocked the place. the next day i went for a bike ride with two other people on the tour to a nearby waterfall. it was a pretty warm day and i was looking forward to a swim however when we got to the waterfall we discovered they charged $5 to have a look to help towards the upkeep of the area. i thought they cheapened out on some stuff. the falls themselves were alright and we spent a few minutes there just chillin out. after that we cruised back, took a quick dip in the river that was freezing but really refreshing afterwards and after sat down to ease the bike seat pain.
that night we travelled to our final destination, madawaska. madawaska is a small village about 4hrs north of toronto, just outside a national park. the tour goes there because the moose company owns the hostel and its a good opportunity to do some outdoors activities. we got in around dinner time and cooked up a group pasta meal and then did what travelers do best, drink. it was a very casual night with some drinking games and just general drinking with the staff at the hostel, which consisted of 4 french girls. yeah, the place really sucked....
the next day we went for a short hike to a look out spot in the national park nearby which paid off with some really great views. thats one thing i've really noticed on these travels, the environment. there is a lot of great scenery, i can only imagine what the west looks like. after the hike we went to a lake to have an outdoor lunch, however i choose not to eat there as i was going to wait it out till we got back to have left overs from the night before.
after lunch we went for a canoe trip along a river to check out a waterfall. it was a great day and it was such an awesome thing to. the trip there took about 30mins and we spent about and 2 hrs there swimming and checking out the sights. the french girls brought along a tube, one like you'd tie to the back of a boat, to ride down the waterfall on. i sized it up about 5 or 6 times before deciding that i was gonna do it. i'll let the pics do the talking.i was left with a few cuts from the rocks as i didn't stay on the tube for long but it was really good fun. we paddled back, played some volleyball and basketball at the hostel, had a BBQ dinner and then lit the bonfire up. we all sat around the campfire listening to music and roasting some marshmallows having a good time. Nic, the bus driver, showed us all how to cook a marshmallow so that you can lift the outside of it of, fill it with chocolate, then eat. now that was good eatin! i was playing around with the exposure of my camera and figured out how to leave it open for a while so we got some sticks on fire and took a few shots of some patterns. the idea then came about to spell moose (the travel company i was with) and after about 30 goes we got it. we hung out for a bit more at the fire then headed inside to watch a movie but by about 20mins in most people were falling asleep so it was time to call it a night.
that pretty much concludes the tour, the next day we took off around 12 and got into toronto around 5, said our goodbyes and headed in our seperate ways. its really sucked that i wouldn't get to see these people again (and the ones i met on the earlier bus) but i guess that is the downside to traveling.

my plans now are to go back to corunna for about 12 days and then come back to toronto for a few nights before starting the next chapter of my trip, holland!
this weekend promises to be a big one so if crazy times happen you'll be able to read about them here.
until then!

travels

2007-06-07T06:14:00.000+09:30

hey everybody. sorry bout the delay of posts, i've been doing too much to be bothered to sit down and write something. the last week has been pretty full on and (unfortunately) i've spent quite a bit of money having too good of a time. this is probably going to be a long one with plenty of pictures.

so, i guess i'll start at the beginning of the moose tour as i think thats where i'm at. the moose tour is kinda like a contiki tour except you go at your own pace but to only certain stops. so starting in toronto the first trip was to montreal. along the way was a boat cruise through the st lawerence river in a region known as the 1000 islands. as you can imagine, there are lots of islands here. they interesting thing about them though is the houses on the islands, some are large enough to fit 2 or 3, some just big enough to fit a patio.
got into montreal late and it was pissing down with rain so the bus driver took us on a short trip around old montreal. montreal is in Quebec, the french speaking province. its incredible just how french everything is, its really like another country (a french one). there is a real mix of modern architecture with old. the first day i spent walking around the city taking plenty of pics but as you may notice, the weather was pretty shit and it started raining on the turn back. not to worry though as montreal has a series of pedestrian underground walkways that serve to keep people warm (and dry) during the winter months. they are not the most well signed walkways so after getting a little lost i managed to get back the hostel. that afternoon/evening i went to the beer festival that was on not fair from the hostel. i had a bunch of crazy beers with the craziest being a stout that tasted like ice coffee. it was great.

the second day i woke up feeling a little unwell but got up to visit the formula grand prix track which was on an island just outside the city. the canadian grand prix is on this weekend so construction was already well underway. initially i didn't want to walk the whole track but where we got on it was right on the other side to the start/finish line so i ended up doing the whole thing anyway. also on the island was a strange dome museum that i have included a pic of for easier understanding. to be honest, i can't remember what i did that night so i'll leave that out. i gotta stop drinking, some time in my life at least.
the next day i was scheduled to leave montreal but before we could get out of the city the bus broke down. i decided to kill the time by taking some of the fellow travelers with me to experience the beer fest, which was still going. come on! what else was i to do? anyway, stayed there for a few hours, had more crazy beers and went back to the hostel with a nice buzz. the bus still wasn't ready so the company gave everyone $10 for dinner, i spent it on beer. it turned out that the bus had shit itself and that another driver was coming to pick us up. we ended up getting out of montreal around 7:30 and didn't get to the next stop till 9, which was too late to do anything.

the next stop was Mt Tremblant, in Quebec, which was a small hostel on the premier ski slope of the east coast. the next morning i got up early to go canoeing on the lake just down the hill. did that for a bit then left the hostel with the bus to go to the actually ski village itself to have a look around for a while. i decided that i was too poor to do anything that involved money so me and some other people went hiking up the ski hill for about 40mins before getting too tired and decided to come back down.from here we went to Omega park, which is a type of safari park however filled with canadian animals. people buy carrots from the visitor centre and feed the elk and deer from the windows of their cars. i'm not going to describe every animal i saw i i'll say that feeding carrots to elk got pretty tiring after 30mins. i'll only include the funniest and therefor best pic i took. enjoy!

from there we went to Ottawa (check out their parliament house, totally kicks our's arse. australia really has no good buildings), where i have been for 4 days now. the second day i was there i went bungee jumping! 200ft (about 65m) drop. it was the most intense thing i've ever done and it was such a massive thrill. i'm so glad that i did it. words can not really explain how i feel about it, its more a big smile and a serious of excited noises. i'll show you all when i get back.
that night there was a get together with people from the hostel to drink and watch the hockey game. ottawa is competing for the stanley cup at the moment and it is a very big thing for a canadian team. i got pretty drunk that night, which included running through down town ottawa to the liquor store to buy more booze before it shut. for those that care, i made it! it wasn't really an out of control night, just a long one.
yesterday i went for a massive run with one of the girls that works here at the hostel (which, fyi is an old jail that is supposedly haunted). it wasn't a cracking pace but it was non-stop for about and hour and a half. i'm so incredible sore today.
today i went to the war museum here and that was very impressive and tonight the ice hockey is on again (its best of 7 series) so that means more booze and stupid behaviour.
i'll probably be cutting the trip a little short due to lack of funds but if anyone wants to donate to the cause they are welcome to do so (just like my wonderful sisters have).
only 15 days to Holland!

Until next time

On the Road

2007-05-31T10:30:00.001+09:30

the last 3 days have been the most eventful since i've been here. monday and tuesday i spent walking around toronto and today my bus trip started, taking me to montreal. currently i'm in the hostel on my laptop watching the ice hockey finals.
it would be impossible to describe everything that i've done and what i've seen but i'll try to cover the main points.
i got into toronto on sunday night via train from sarnia and headed straight to friends place to go to sleep. monday began with a trip to the dutch embassy to sort out my working visa after which i walked around for a bit. the first thing i noticed about toronto is how clean and big it is with none of the craziness that sydney and melbourne have. traffic is moderate and foot traffic is really light.
first stop was the hockey hall of fame. it was interesting but contained too much stuff that i didn't really care about. for example "this puck was used to score this goal in this game to win this thing". an essential stop of the to-do list while in toronto though.
after that i continued my walking all the way across town to the CN tower, the highest building in the world. its not so much a building but a communications tower with some observatorys and a restaurant tacked on. upon first approach i was told there would be an hour and a half wait. bugger that so i walked across the road and to my surprise, and delight, there was a little brewery. to my even bigger surprise and delight they gave out free beer! so had a beer then walked around the harbour before heading back to the tower to see if the line had shortened. it hadn't but i didn't think i would have time to do it tomorrow so i lined up. and sure enough an hour and a half later i was finally in the elevator heading for the observation deck, which is 336m above ground. i spent about 20 mins looking around, taking pics (so it worked out to be $1 a min!), before joining the line to go down. another hour later i was back on firm ground and walked around some more before heading back home.

the next day started at casa loma, a "castle"/mansion on the edge of the city. it was $16 to get in so i said poo to that and headed back into the city on foot. i went to the royal ontario museum but found out they were opening a new wing this weekend so i decided to hold off until i got back. to the lady readers, toronto also has a shoe museum. i didn't go in.
i bought a hot dog from a street vendor (which i thought was a very canadian thing to do) and did some more walking to the government house. during all this walking i noticed that australia (and adelaide in particular) got the arse end as far as architecture is concerned. the old buildings here are so much more interesting to look at and far larger too.
after seeing that i proceeded to china town to see what that was all about. its hard to describe typing it so i'll leave it at "it was cool".
i saw a blue jays (baseball) game that night so i can say i saw an american sport while i've been here. they played the yankees so now i can say i've seen them too. i got some seats in the outfield, grabbed a beer ($10 beer mind you) and took it all in. for the most part it was good fun with random stuff happening inbetween innings to get the crowd involved (and various sponsors of course). was i out getting a preztel when the only home run was hit (other runs where scored with good old fashion base hits) however that was overcome when i witnessed for only the 3rd time in blue jays history someone stealing homebase. one of the hardest things to do in baseball. i was pumped and started high fiving the guys next to me. those guys were pretty funny as they were getting drunk on booze they snuck in and yelling at the outfielders that were easily within earshot.
so that covers the main things i did in toronto, the next day (today) i began my bus trip.
the first leg goes from toronto to montreal with a stop at a town called rockport for a boat cruise on the st lawerence river in a region known as the 1000 islands. this area literally contains a crap load of islands, each with a house on built by people with too much money. in some cases the island is only big enough for a patio, others a mansion. here was also the smallest international bridge in the world with a bridge no larger than 10m connecting 2 islands with one on canadian waters and the other in american waters.

we got into montreal late and had some dinner before going on a short bus trip around the city. its amazing how things instantly turn to french as soon as you cross into Quebec. english takes a back seat here.

well i'm tired and can't be bothered writing anymore. i should update in a couple of days with some more pics and tales of my time here in montreal.
Until then!

Niagara Falls

2007-05-22T05:15:00.000+09:30

Hi All
well finally i have something to write about. i went to niagara falls on the weekend and it was awesome! it was quite an eventful weekend beginning with the car breaking down 20 minutes out of Sarnia. the car just died so a police officer, a tow trunk, and 30 mins later we were back in town swapping cars and giving the trip another shot. you might imagine that a horror start to the journey but i saw the funny side of it (thats cause its not my car i guess!). the trip took about 3 and a half hours along the multitude of highways here and unlike the highways back home these are always crowded with cars and traffic so it makes for one strenuous trip. kev missed a turn-off half way there that added an extra 15 minutes to the trip with all the on-roads and off-roads we had to take to get back to where we needed to be.
kev and i were staying at the house of one of his old room mates from college and after getting the necessities of the night (ie beer and mcdonalds) we got to her house, drank for a bit and then went to see down-town Niagara. this town is very much a tourist town with neon lights, themed restaurants, haunted houses, novelty "museums" and a gift shop in every second building. we started at a pub with some more beers then moved onto a club where i got my groove thing on and supplied myself with some more alcohol.
after the club we walked down to see the falls but i could only hear them as it was dark, derrrrr. so we got a cab home and went to bed.
we woke around 12 the next day and went back into town for some lunch. after which, kev and i checked out the falls, as we could see them now. while the town area has lots of cheesy tourist stuff the falls area has a parkway beside it, with lots of tulips growing, which was a nice change in scenery from the tackiness. the falls themselves were spectacular and definitely worth the trip. as you can see in the pictures it was an awesome day to be outside and the whole surroundings were really breath-taking. after taking about 50 shots of the falls we went on the Maid of the Mist boat tour, which takes you right to the face of the horseshoe falls (the one on the left of the pic here. the give you delightful blue ponchos to wear and the pile you onto a boat with about 200 other people wearing the same thing. the whole trip take about 20 minutes and after that we went looking around in gift shops to find stubbie holders. Nobody knew what i was going on about when i said "do you have beer coolers? you know, you put your beer in there and it keeps it cold?" everyone showed me glasses. now i realise that there isn't a huge market for these in day to day activities but surely if someone sold them, canadians and americans, plus everyone else, would buy them. outrageous. after that disappointment we went back to the house were staying and did what we do best: drink. we were too lazy to go see the falls at night (kinda regret that now) so we stayed in until Kev's friend got home and then she convinced us to go to a pub for a bit. got pretty hammered again and my wallet was not appreciating it. got back home around 3 and woke up the next day around 11 with absolutely no energy at all. good thing kev was driving. we got our stuff together, said our goodbyes and hit the road at 1 to make it back to sarnia.
if anyone has the chance, go to niagara falls. with its mix of camp tourist activities and awesome scenery it definitely is an unique place. i took so many pictures and wish i could share them all with you but you'll have to make do with the chosen few for now.
my bus trip starts next week and i'm looking forward to that so much, this weekend has really reminded me how much i love traveling and why i came here in the first place. unfortunately with only one shift a week at the bar its gonna be a credit card job but i guess thats the price i have to pay! the next post will probably be from toronto next week so,
Until then!

Adelaide is a small country town....in southern Ontario

2007-05-10T06:59:00.000+09:30

Well that of any interest has happened to me over the past week. i've booked a bus trip for the beginning of June so i'm trying to save every dollar i have so i can make the most of it. one shift at the bar a week doesn't help matters either.
i'm so poor that yesterday the guys went golfing cause they wanted to test out their new clubs. it was a crappy course and since i had no money i decided i wasn't going to pay and just play. well after a serious of events there was too many people cutting in and one of the guys we were playing with decided that was enough and went back to the club house to get his money back cause we weren't going to play anymore. the lady initially offered only a raincheck but he insisted he get his money back. i went in to see how it would all go and sure enough he got his money back and then the lady just started giving kev and jay their money back too. i stuck out my hand and scored myself $16. i walked out without saying a word.
THATS HOW POOR I AM!
anyway thats the only story of interest thats happened. i've also got a picture to share as well and it ties in with the title of the post.
Enjoy!

My Birthday

2007-05-01T04:27:00.000+09:30

Sorry for such a delay between posts, i didn't do anything noteworthy during the week and the weekend was too busy for me to be able to write anything down.
So, it was my birthday friday and let me begin by saying that saturday afternoon when i finally woke up i had the mother of all hangover headaches and Kev was plunging the toilet because apparently my vomit backed it up. i had no idea. guess i should learn to chew my food more. so that sets the scene for the night i had before. it began at 1 in afternoon with a few rounds of tiger woods drinking golf on the xbox 360. for those out of the loop its a golf game with some homemade tweaks to allow for a vast amount of alcohol to be consumed. so that had me off to a descent start as i'm pretty good at tiger so i didn't drink a lot (the one downside to the game i guess). after that it was the all important BBQ, which consisted of giant buffalo steaks that i had bought earlier in the week. i think i have a new favourite meat. its basically a massive steak with no fat that tastes quite similar to a T-bone and if i had known what was going to happen the next i should have chewed it more! :) (and yes mum that is my plate with veggies on it however here they add sauces and spices to them to make them taste alright!)
After dinner Kev, Jay, Adam and myself went to a friends place to watch the hockey and drink some more beers. i had quite a few here, including a molson cold shot (they're mentioned in another post) so by the time we decided to leave i was feeling quite fired up.
First port of call was the strippers for my first Canadian lap dance courtesy of the boys. Strippers are strippers and are pretty much the same everywhere ie not really attractive, but it was good for a laugh at least.
after a beer there we went to a pub, that was probably the biggest in town, called the lazy duck. its much bigger than the bar i work at and from what i saw looked like good fun if only i could keep my eyes focused for more than a couple of seconds. after a few drinks there we went to the Cantina, my work, to finish the night so i could score a few freebies and be a drunken fool at work. well as soon as we got there the head bouncer took me to the bar and got me a shot of tequilla, straight up. for those who know my past with tequilla you know that this isn't a good thing and you would also know how messed up i'd be after 2 more of these shots, a jagerbomb and a few beers later. all this turned my into Kelvin, the Karaoke King. I fired up the vocals and "sung" Build me up Buttercup. I was a superstar (at least in my head). One of the girls i work with said the next night that she heard a song that she liked and looked up to see who was singing cause she could hardly hear it and it was me with my mike turned down! i guess i wasn't doing as well as i thought i was. i crawled out of the Can at close and went to the coffee shop to get some after boozing donuts. i remember lining up, then remember vomitting, inbetween is no where to be found in my mind. good times!
Saturday was spent recovering as i had work that night, which wasn't very busy in the end.
Sunday i played another round of golf but i'm still not improving any, i really have to hit the driving range to "iron" some things out (what a delicious golf pun).
I've decided that i'm gonna travel with a bus company here that allows you to go at your own pace, all they do is take you to certain cities. kinda like a contiki except you can stay in the cities for as long as you like. its not too expensive but i will have to look into getting a second job as i still need some money to take to europe.
well i have no work this week, so no money, so no doing anything but if something does happen you'll be the forth or fifth to know about it.
Until then
Kelvin

Lake Huron

2007-04-22T02:43:00.000+09:30

i took this as a series of pictures and used a program to stitch them together (thats the dark marks you can see). it is a landscape picture of Lake Huron, with the inlet of the St. Clair river to the left. i'm not sure how its going to turn out on the blog, you might have to click on it to get a better view.
this is a Canadian beach, not much to look at but they all love it. no wonder they all go nuts when they see the beaches back home.

this is the bridge that connects canada to the states at the entrance of the St Clair river. Sarnia is just to the left and Point Huron is to the right. there are ferrys that can carry you across further downstream but this is the main way to get across. there are actually 2 bridges there, one going in each direction.

Alanis Morrisette vs. Black Eyed Peas

2007-04-20T07:53:00.000+09:30

this is just bizarre

Canadian taps

2007-04-20T05:52:00.000+09:30

just quickly while i think of it, Canada has the worst taps, anywhere. every house has different ones. some you have to turn clockwise, others counter-clockwise, pull out, push in, some are levers, others buttons. the hot and cold are always switching resulting in quite a few near burns and a lot of frustration.
i'm calling for a national change to the tap system here and for it to become standardised across the country.
only in Canada i tells ya.

$5 doubles are bad news

2007-04-20T05:11:00.000+09:30

Well this week i think i had the biggest night i've had since i've been here and the biggest in any country for some time i reckon.
tuesday night kev and i went and saw Interpol in London, which was awesome. i've been wanting to go to a show for a long time now and to see a band as big as interpol at a club show was a huge deal for me. we stayed with kev's friend ryan, the same as last time, so naturally before the show there was some guitar hero to be played. i've cleared the first 5 songs on hard now (thats good!). so we had a few beers and headed out to the show which was at a place called cowboys ranch. this club was set up like a much larger version of Jive back home. for those who dont know that venue it basically has a floor space with an upper mezinene (i think thats the right word, not sure on the spelling though, you can figure it out). the support band sucked some serious arse so i wont even talk about them, except to say that. Interpol played an awesome set that included most of the popular songs of their 2 albums plus some new tunes that sounded promising. photos were hard to take cause the venue had a strict no cameras policy, which is totally stupid. anyway, at the door the bouncer asked if i had a camera and i just said no so it was easy to bypass. i took a couple of movies but nothing of any good length cause i was afraid that i might get the boot. i also managed to take a couple of pics during the set and a few more during the encore cause by that stage i was 9 beers down on the night and it didn't matter if i got the boot so close to the end. i did get told off once for having my camera out and i'm lucky it didn't get taken away. i just moved and tried taking more pics :) to top the gig off i scored a set list from one of the roadies. it might have been how much beer i'd had but i was feeling great after that. ryan took off back home cause he had work the next day but kev an i hit some pub closer to home and had a few more drinks. i was told by some guy at the bar that double were only $5, so double it was. what a bad idea that was. these guys were watching the hockey game with us and we made a few bets about the outcome, which we won, so they bought us a round, and then another, and then another. i believe i started to tell the cover band to play something australian and they played the first 2 verses of land down under. i was a total write off by this stage but it wasn't 2 yet so we hit the next bar. we went to the irish bar we visited on our first trip to london and the place was pretty empty but we got a few pints and at some stage some girls approached us, got me on the dance floor, and disappeared just as quickly. i was so drunk that everything after is basically a black out. what i do know is that we got some yiros, walked home along some train tracks, kev dropped kicked a moving train and at some point kev lost his wallet. he puts it down to jumping into signs and bushes. we also came home with some poles that we must have stole from somewhere. anyway, kev headed back out to find his wallet with a lantern. seriously, it was a candle lantern, while i called god on the porcelain phone. kev thinks he was out for an hour and a half and found me past out in a sitting position on the couch. he didn't find his wallet so he went back out in the morning to have a look but again no luck. when i got up at around 1130 i think i was still drunk and we went out for another look. we walked all the way back to bar but didn't see anything but on the way home i had a look by this small drainage creek and kev came up not remembering that we walked along here but as soon as he came up he saw his wallet! just at the point when he was about to give up all hope too. when we got back home i had a look on my camera and there are pics of kev mucking around on that side of the road which i dont even remember taking, let alone happening. had he checked this first he probably would have found it a lot easier. anyway, all's well that ends well. we went to bed early yesterday, we were still feeling pretty crook.
earlier in the day (on tuesday) we played some golf as the weather is turning around again. i even went for a run today. it was great except for the fact that i discovered i'm horribly out of shape and have to step it up fitness wise otherwise i'm gonna end up a tank even before i hit europe and all their fat filled food goodness.
on the weekend gone by we saw the "world famous Harlem Globetrotters". it was alright, good light hearted entertainment but not worth the $30 we paid for it. basically they play a "game" of basketball with intermissions where they do set pieces to break things up. one of the guys wears a mic and stuffs around the whole time and the whole thing is very much catered towards kids. it would have been better had they actually played a real game and used their skills to actually win, rather than showboat. i did see some pretty cool dunks though and a did buy some awesome sweatbands so it wasn't all bad.
this weekend i dont think we'll do anything cause we have no money and are still trying to work the alcohol out of our systems. next week i'm hoping to go see strike anywhere and the loved ones (they are bands) in london on thursday and then friday is my birthday so if all goes well i'll have nothing to tell you as i would have forgotten everything that happened! good times.
Until then!

I am a Guitar Hero (2)

2007-04-10T13:02:00.000+09:30

Hey
Hope everyone had a good easter and used the 4 day weekend to get some serious drinking done. i know i did. thursday kev and i travelled to a city called London to hang out there for a couple of nights and to finally get out of sarnia to do some boozing. London is a city of about 350,000 people and is mainly populated by college students as the some of the best unis and colleges in ontario are there (the pic is of downtown london). i spent a good portion of the 3 days playing guitar hero on the xbox 360 at one of kev's friend's place. that game is insane. on the friday we must have played it for 6 hours and when i woke the next morning i had a pain in my left arm and my first thought was i did something while drinking the night before but then i realised it was just sore from all the guitaring i was doing. kev is just as hooked and as soon as we find one for the ps2, we're getting it.
so drinking is drinking so i dont need to tell you about that but some of the more interesting things that occurred on the weekend were:

the return of snow. it was hot last week but its swung around and we got enough to cover everything.
the taxi driver not seeing us when he was picking us up and then watching him slide 30m down the road as he hit the brakes when he drove by.
late night drunk food was taken to new levels with the tasting of a peanut butter burger. its a regular burger with peanut butter and it was surprisingly tasty. mind you, i was very drunk by that stage.
dont give me yiros as a late night food otherwise i become what could be classified as a chemical weapon.
i wrote my name in the snow for the first time
one of the main roads in london is adelaide st.
this london has its own Thames River
bars are open all easter weekend here

so the stay in london was good fun, hopefully i can get back up there soon to check more of it out.
this week nothing much is on the cards. i'm going to see the harlem globe trotters this weekend so that should be pimpin.

Until next time!

the worst blog post ever

2007-04-05T12:26:00.000+09:30

well not much going up here on the news front. no crazy stories to tell you all, no interesting sights really. i worked all weekend and played some golf on sunday as it was a very nice day, probably around 25. however, today (wednesday) it dropped back to 2 with snow. crazy.

its really weird bring overseas at the start of footy season. i miss it. i also dont get to see any of the cricket world cup but from the sounds of things its not very exciting anyway.

i'm going to a town called london this weekend, which apparently is a big college town so i should have a few entertaining stories to share with you when i come back from there.

easter here is really non-existent. there are no big chocolate displays or anything that gives the easter vibe. i did buy some chocolate donunts today so i guess that sorta counts as celebrating....

well just letting you all know i'm still kicking
Until next time!

The best blue men since the Smurfs

2007-03-28T01:57:00.000+09:30

Over the weekend i took my first trip into the states to see the Blue Man Group. they are a performance group that use a variety of percussion instruments to create a very unique sound, and they are also painted blue. essentially they play harmonic pipes with a backing band and use lights and paint to create a very unique show. they started off as a vegas act but now have become so big that they travel the country performing in arenas.

the show was in Auburn Hills, which is a suburb of Detroit and where the Pistons (NBA team) play, so while i didn't get to see Detroit i did see some very American things. things such as funny road signs, fast food everywhere, big highways and the impression that everyone lives in very similar looking houses. getting into the states wasn't a big deal as we took the ferry across the river as thats how close it is here.
oh, before i forget, i had KFC before leaving for the show as i had a craving for KFC fries. imagine my disappointment when i discovered that they dont have the same fries here! instead they are like wedges but cut to a chip shape and without the goodness that is KFC salt. the burgers are even different as its more like a chicken patty then a chicken breast and they dont have the same variety of burgers. now i did go to a small KFC so maybe the larger ones have them but none the less i'm hurt. hurt deep.
Anyway!
the travel to the show took about an hour and upon arrival we were kinda thirsty so we decided to grab some beers....at $CA10 each! they were $A8 and we totally confused the poor lady serving us by paying in canadian money but we got through it. it wasn't even good beer, it was bud light (not light like our beer but less carbos in it). at least i kept the cup as it was a pistons cup and it look pretty durable. at least macca's isn't expensive. $1 cheeseburgers, alright! (and justin, dont worry, robbie has nothing on me)

in other news over the weekend i worked on friday. wasn't crazy busy but just enough so that i was actually working the whole time. i also saw the local ice hockey team play a playoff game before work. i'm totally getting into the ice hockey culture now, i even bough a hat! speaking of which, thats another thing about canadians, every guy wears a hat, even in bars (dress code is not an issue here, you can wear what you want generally). i'm normally the odd one out but now i have one to fit in. i didn't have to work on sunday even though i was meant to as the other girl working said it was ok if i didn't cause it wasn't going to be busy enough for two peole. i'm starting to have some doubts with the bar work just for the fact that i lose my weekends because of it and since i dont do anything during the week thats a big loss for me. i might stick it out for another month and see how it goes but i know i'll have to get some more cash behind me for europe as getting a job there is going to be a bit harder than it is here so getting a full time job might be the way to go. i also want to travel a bit and with kev working the week it would be easier to do so if i had weekends off too.n i'm working all weekend this week and i'm not looking forward to that at all but at least i'll earn a fair bit of coin.

yesterday and today the weather has turned warm. about 25 degrees with what seems like 80% humidity. i didn't get out of the house till 4 yesterday so i didn't take advantage of it but today i got up before 12 (first time in a very long time) and walked to the shops to grab some gatorade just for something to do. it also allows me to catch up on roy and HG as its pretty much the only source of aussie news i listen to. the humidity is going to kill me over here, i can already feel the sweat.
oh, something that i haven't mentioned yet is the crazy standard sizes they have for beers over here. bottles are about 341ml with cans being 350ml and tall cans being 437ml. seems kinda backwards to me.
well i've sat enough of the computer long enough now, time to sit in front of the xbox :)
Until next time!

(i'm having trouble with encoding the videos today for some reason. the website mustn't like them. you can find them here though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxs11XgP4wQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H62fuC6nDk
and sorry about the formatting, its shit how the preview i have is on full screen and then when it posted it goes narrow. i'll have to find a way around that)

Crazy Canadians

2007-03-21T04:31:00.000+10:30

So i've noticed quite a few things here in Canada that are very different to back home, some good, some down right bizzare. Here is a list of such things:

fire hydrants are yellow (guess that why Shellbyville's are)
back indicators are not yellow but rather flashing of the brake light
massive Utes are everywhere but aren't called utes but trucks and people seem to go bananas for them
you have to buy beer in the beer store and liquor in the liquor store, which also sells some beer. the beer in the liquor store is awesome cause thats where you'll find the imported stuff (and some canadian) and most of them come in large cans, such as this Heineken can.
the can next to it is a Molson Cold Shot. it is designed soley to allow fast consumption of 250ml of 6% beer. the target that you can see is where you make a hole (gently otherwise it sprays all over the kitchen as i found out), you place the hole up against your mouth and open the can from the top. the beer rushes into your mouth allowing the euphoria of drunkenness to come to you at a quicker pace.
you are not allowed to drink beer in a car here. at all! you dont realise how important this is until you are leaving for a party and you want to take that last "roadie" with you. sorry, can't be done, so its important you finish all your beer before you leave.
at bars people prefer to drink from bottles than from tap. i dont know why as its scientifically proven that tap beer is the best form of beer but whatever. this means that i'm constantly open bottles at work and on st pats day i developed quite an cut on my hand in the place where it grips the bottle.
10 cent pieces are smaller than 5 cent pieces and while 50 cent pieces exist, only those fools in Alberta use them.
there are stop signs everywhere here instead of roundabouts. maybe roundabout is too hard to say here with their crazy accents so they put a mass of stop signs in again. places where we'd just have give way signs are replaced with a stop sign. just about every T junction and 4-way intersection has one.
there are speed limits here that are set by the government but they only relate to the road type, not how the road is used. streets in towns are 50, roads connecting towns are 80, and highways are 100. so instead of setting speeds limits to roads separately, as they do back home, there is no give and take here. as such, it is common place to speed here and if you're not going at least 15-20ks over the limit you are going too slow.
no RBTs or speed cameras, only cops in cars with radar but it seems lots of people still get caught speeding (the cops generally allow 10-15 over)
drink driving seems to be common place (which i hate)
ice cream can come in a box
milk can come in a bag that then gets placed in a jug (Kev got me a ripper with this one as when i initially inquired about it he said it was a canadian trick to be able to stand the bag up and cut the tip off without spilling it. so after 5 mintues of trying he couldn't help it anymore and gave me the jug to which the bag goes in. i almost had it though!)
despite their superior cable and internet choices, their mobile phone plans and technology sucks. i guess we're lucky we are so close (or the fact that there are so many in australia) to the asian market.
Curling, although incredibly boring, is on TV. a lot.
and lastly, this is a picture i took in Sarnia. it seems he is getting ready for life after being a PM., not sure about the pic thoughUntil next time!

Working Class Man

2007-03-15T06:31:00.000+10:30

Well the days of relaxation are over, i have a job. I'm living the backpacker dream and i have scored myself a job at a bar in Sarnia called la Cantina. i got the job by drunkenly asking the owner on friday night if he needed anyone to work there not expecting much to come of it. he told me to come back on monday and speak to him so after a bit of a run around on monday i caught up to him and within 5 minutes he gave me a job. i'm pretty sure the only reason he gave me a job is because i'm an australian wanting to work in his bar and the wife, who basically runs the show, thinks i'm good looking. so i'm being used as a novelty but that doesn't bother me that much (yet) plus i'm the only guy there that works behind the bar. i worked 3 hrs on monday to get an intro to the place and the procedures and last night i worked 7-2am. the pay rate is bugger all but you make that again in tips so it turns out to not be so bad and since i'll have cash on me from the tips hopefully i'll be able to save what goes into my bank account.
last night it was pretty dead so i didn't have to do that much. basically its a lot of name learning of the regular people, remembering drinks and how to work the cash register and not much beyond that. it is a little tricky at the moment but as soon as i find a good rhythm it should be a lot easier. next shift is on saturday, st pats day, so that should be interesting. at least there should be some good tips.
the bar has a karaoke and last night the boss got me up there so i decided to "sing" roll with it by oasis cause it really only has 3 melodies. still was pretty ordinary but i dare say that this wont be the last time you hear of me getting up on the mic.
so apart from getting a job i didn't do a great deal on the weekend. got drunk friday, had an easy one saturday to save some money and on sunday played some squash and went for some beer afterwards.
since i dont have to work till the weekend i'll just bum around for the week, maybe go to the chiropractor cause my back is in all sorts of shape at the moment.
i'm compiling a list of crazy canadian stuff which will take the form of my next post i think.

so until then!

Mega Extreme Snow Sledding! (to the max)

2007-03-08T10:39:00.000+10:30

Today i enjoyed the good old canadian past time of sledding. Jay and I took a couple of sleds to the highest hill in all of sarnia...which was no more than a dirt mound but it still was way wicked. we sled for an hour before we busted up one of them real good when jay didn't hit the wood we placed over the train tracks and ran straight into them (you'll see the tracks in the vid). enjoy the crazy times!

GT SnowRacer, its my sled of choice. if only we had these things back home...and some snow

this was the practice hill, just to get used to the racer

this was the real deal. i get like 3ft of air here. radical!

My Liver Hurts

2007-03-06T15:40:00.000+10:30

So i've had an action packed week here. last i wrote i was getting settled into the place and now i have just about got a good routine going.
last weekend was very much a party weekend as i experienced nightlife in Sarnia for the first time. it started on friday when we decided to go ice fishing, a true canadian pastime. we went out onto the bay here with a few cartons, or cases as they are known here, with as much clothing on as possible to try to catch some fish with some very primative rods in a few holes in the ice. the hut is no more than a wooden structure with tarp wrapped around the outside to keep the extremely cold wind out. we stayed out for a few hours (much to Kev's disappointment) drinking beers and having a good laugh before we decided to head back in and meet Kev back in the car (as he had cracked it by this stage) to ensure we had enough time to go back to Corunna, get ready, and head out for the night. highlights of the fishing trip were:

not being able to see where i was walking on the ice cause the snow was blowing into my eyes that hard i couldn't keep them open
Adam dropping the tourch into the ice hole just as we needed it
drinking beer (duh!)
me not being able to hook up my bait properly and just killing the fish with the hook

We got back home and had some more beer before heading out to a bar in Sarnia. the bar was somewhat of a sports bar and we got there at around 1130. here in the pubs people prefer to drink out of bottles rather than glasses and there is no smoking inside (it is bliss!). so after having a few more and meeting heaps (one word that doesn't exist here) of new people we all got kicked out at 2 as that is the time that bars shut here. apparently the place was packed but by aussie standards it was just a reasonable crowd but at least that means not waiting long for a beer. we moved on to a house that one of kev's friends was house sitting. dont really remember much at this place aside from the fact i was drinking long island ice teas. we left there i think about 430 and went back home where for some reason we stayed up till breakfast time (i'm sure there was good logic for it in the first place) and then went out for bfast at around 7. i thought i was sober enough at this stage so i offered to drive home as the trip was just down the road and i would have my first experience driving on the right (wrong) side of the road. if i had know how terrible i would feel waking up during the day i would have concluded that i was not fit to drive but none the less i got us home in one piece. so i went to bed at 830, got up at 12 to sort out my headache and dry mouth, back to bed, up at 4 to make sure i was ready to do it all again that night.
saturday night included going to another friends house to play some drinking games and celebrate a birthday. the first one didn't sit too well but i put that down to the fact it was budweiser. it didn't take long to get drunk again and we piled into a taxi to head of to the bar (same as the night before) but not before Kev took a big wipe out on the front porch stairs that sent us all in fits of laughter.
so got to the bar, had more drinks, meet more people but this time all seemed a little more familiar. again, kicked out at 2 and back home and after spending some time on skype it was time for bed at 5.
i didn't rise again till 2 and just stayed on the couch all day. that night we went to see the local hockey team play as my first experience with live ice hockey. it wasn't NHL level but it was a high scoring game that was entertaining to watch. no fights though so i was a little bummed about that but the home team got up. the one thing to write home about though was the size of the beers there. Oh My God! they were freakin massive. 1.1L apparently. if only i wasn't so hung over i would have had more than 1 (at $9 a pop mind you) and i would have drunk it faster than 40mins.
so after spending yesterday recovering from all the beer and fast food i've had over the weekend (i need the gym really badly) today was spent buying some awesome grandpa sleepers, buying a phone, getting new headphones cause the cat chewed through my other ones and not to mention eating more junk food. this week i plan on getting my social security number so i can apply for jobs and doing some exercise, not to mention watching more hockey and drinking more beer.

Until next week!

"I'm from Canada and they say I'm slow, ey?"

2007-02-27T02:53:00.000+10:30

Hello All
Well, what an journey. Currently i'm at Kev and Jays house settling in but the past few days have been extraordinary. i will try to retell as much as possible but already some of the details seem so long ago.
It started Saturday in Sydney where i said good bye to Dad and my Uncle and went through customs. i had a look at some duty free gear but was informed that carry liquid on a flight in america is a big no no now so decided against getting anything there. as i entered my gate i found that there was another security check point that was a bag search and a pat down and this was after the x-ray and metal detector.
the flight to LA took 14 hours but thankfully there was plenty to do on the plane. QANTAS now has a pretty good entertainment system and there were over 60 movies to choose from so i watch Babel, Fast Food Nation and Borat. the food was average but what can you expect and sorry robbie, i didn't beat your record. its no fun drinking on a flight by yourself however i did manage to squeeze in a few bundy and cokes (its the good time juice) around breakfast time. i didn't get much sleep and what i did get was very light.
coming into american i was thinking that everyone was going to be a real prick but thankfully i couldn't be more wrong. we arrived into LA at 6am local time on Saturday, so an hour before i woke up in sydney and this truely was going to be the day that never ends. in america it is necessary to go through immagration regardless of whether you are transiting or staying and pick up your bag and put it on the next flight. luckly i was at the front of economy and subsequently in front for the customs line. you have your index fingers scanned and a photo taken as part of the security arrangments which is a bit over the top but a harmless process. when you enter the airport there is 2 a4 photos of George bush and dick chaney. george is sorta giving this look which suggests "i'm president of what now?" and dick is like "you know i'm evil, but what are you going to do about it?" smirk.
so after immagration i picked up my bag, got it transfered and went through another security point to the boarding lounge where i had a 4 hour stop. i had my first experience (one of many over the next couple of days) with fast food here as i got HJ (burger king) for bfast. i thought the fact that there was 2 starbucks in the space of 200m here rather amusing and a sign of things to come. i bought some jim beam black here as it was allowed to be bought and carried on here.
from LA to Toronto it took 5 hours after delays. again i didn't get much sleep but it was very interesting flying over america. the place just has this sorta charm that makes you want to go there. so the rockies were covered in snow and after that were the canyons and thats all i saw before switching off. by the time i looked outside again we were above michigan and the whole place was covered in snow which just looked incredible to me. desert and nothing i can do, but snow and stuff everywhere is new to me. i touched down in toronto around 6pm local time and by the time i could through customs and immagration and got my bag it was 7 and i had been travelling for 24hrs now since the time i got up in sydney. Kev and Jay picked me up and the first stop was the beer store. the government owns all the beer stores here and this the only place you can buy it! certainly a change for me. it works like a fast food place where by you order your beer and they bring it out for you. beer prices are generally the same, there is just a lot more choice. its gonna be hard work getting through all of them but i'll give it a crack.
from here we went to one of kev's friend's place where the drinking would begin. it took a while to get started because i was tired but once i was in the zone i was playing the drunken aussie guy to a T. so after a few beers and a shot of whisky (keeps the body warm) we were off to downtown Toronto. to get there we got public transport which we got to by walking. this is the first time ever that i have experience where my beer got colder the longer i was outside. by the time i got to the bus stop it was like out of a fridge again. we got the bus to the train station and by this time i was just legless. i was carrying on about not having a beer in my hand and telling some guy drinking a smirnoff and coke on the train that i couldn't respect him cause he wasn't drinking beer. good times. we had a rum and coke mix in water bottles and by this stage i couldn't taste the alcohol, my head hurts thinking about it. we were going to meet some more of Kev's friends in a pub but there was a line up and i dont line up, especially when its -10 out, so after some dicussion we decided to move on. i think we got a cab (this is where it gets hazy) and went somewhere else where i drank more then at some stage we got maccas. i threw my pickle at kev and got him square in the face. so drunk. after that we got a cab back to kev's friends place. i think it was 3 when we got there and straight to sleep for me.
everyone got up the next day very seedy indeed and it was decided that instead of making anything or going out, we'd order fast food on the internet and have it delivered. i love technology. the place was swiss chalet and they're a red rooster type place.
we bumed around for a while longer then decided it was time to make the 3hr journey home. on the way home it snowed for a while which was cool but asides from that there is not much to see on the drive.
home is in Currona, a town right on the border, you can see the states from the other side of the river. I am set up in the basement of kev and jays house which is all good. they have 2 cats and a dog and one of the cats acts like a dog (ie its everywhere and loves people) and the dog acts like a cat (ie annoying).
i'm sure there is heaps that i forgot to mention but if its anything good i'll mention it later. i'll try to put some pics on the end of this so you can have a look at my crazy times.
oh yeah, i did forget to mention that i've had 5 fast food meals in 2 and a half days. i'm gonna be a fat guts after all of this.
Until Next time!
Kelvin

PS its snowing right now

An Interesting Start...

2007-02-21T13:11:00.000+10:30

Hello All!
Well I don't think i could have had a crazier beginning to my trip than the one i had. For starters, all the music that i had copied onto my new ipod (that i had to get because my old one died but thats another story) decided it didn't like its new home and decided to remove itself from the ipod hard drive the night before i left. Over the past 2 weeks i had copied my 200+ cd collection to the ipod only to have it wiped away in 10 secs as itunes decided that it didn't want to play my game anymore. So an early start on Monday gave me some time to burn my favourite cds back on and copy some songs from the family computer back to the ipod.
Then there was the luggage incident. What seemed like a routine trip to the airport turned disaster very quickly as when we got there i opened the boot only to find that my luggage had not been put in the car! The noise we heard of something sliding around in the back on the way turned out to be boxes from mums work. how did this happen? well instead of putting my bag in the car my brother must have thought it would be funny to leave it behind the car and not mention it all the way down. moral of the story: always put your luggage in yourself.
So I got to the airport, went to the sales desk, explained the situation and the guy there said that he'll just put me on the next flight which was 2 hours later than my scheduled one. Mum was going to race home to get the bag but fortunately for me Melanie's (my amazing girlfriend) brother was close by and went by the house to pick it up.
Well, all's well that ends well and i was on the next flight to sydney without any hassles, just 2 hours later than planned.
I got my bag and the train to the city easily enough as well the connecting train to my uncles house and finally got to my destination at 9. So Monday was a very big day for me.

Yesterday i went and saw the Queen Mary 2 and the QE 2 in sydney harbour. the QM 2 is just massive (i'll have a photo up later on) and it has to be seen to believe. its so big it can't fit under the harbour bridge. It seems like at a drop of a hat Sydney has fireworks (australian idol final anyone??) and last night was no exception. it was quite an impressive display that wouldn't have beaten skyshow pants down and we had an incredible vantage point in the botanic gardens on the harbour. Sydney itself was just packed out with traffic jams and people everywhere, which has caused quite an uproar here in the news as it should have been better organised.

Well my first 2 days have certainly been eventful but i guess its a good warm up for when i hit canada on Sunday (Aus time). I may write again before i leave but if not i will be posting from canada! (probably drunk or very, very sick)

Until then!

Welcome!

2007-02-13T12:06:00.000+10:30

Welcome all to my fabulous blog. It is my hope that while I'm overseas on my holiday I will use this site to post out various stories and tales of my adventures instead of using email. That way I can write however short or long I like and by keeping it on a website it provides me with a little extra incentive to keep contributing to it. It's a bit bare bones at the moment but i'll be adding content and links and other stuff to it, hopefully sooner rather than later.
Feel free to post comments on here, i'll read them all. In fact, I want a better name for this blog so if anyone has a good idea let me know.
Well thats all for this welcome, the next entry should be about my time in Sydney.
Until then!