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MONDAY, OCTOBER
24 2005
someone sent me some pics
by
mike
 as a lot of people know, i took a lot of photos when i was away. it was probably somewhere around 11-12,000, that was until my bag was stolen in rome, and in it, my camera, laptop etc. so...this meant that i had NO photos at all from my 2 and a half weeks in greece, and much of the trip around europe.
so i sent out an email to each of the people i had addresses for that i'd met in greece (unfortunately, i still can't seem to find a few addresses), and finally someone has come through with some photos.
canadian mike (who i shared a room with in corfu, and met up with again in ios) forwarded me kev's photo gallery link. so i've uploaded some of these to this site, and you can view corfu pics here and the ios pics here. hopefully someone else will get around to emailing me some more pics soon, so i'll put them up as the come through.
kings is back from his week long stint seeing his dad down in manjimup, i'm sure he'll post something soon.
- mike
4 comments.
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER
19 2005
and now for something completely the same
by
mike
hi everyone,
it's a balmy 23 degrees here in perth today, and i'm currently sitting in my room looking out the window wondering why i'm not outside or down at the beach...maybe in an hour or so i'll get down there.
anyway, kings is away this week, spending some time with his father down in manjimup, a little town a couple of hours south of perth. he should be back for the weekend.
last weekend was paulie's somewhat of a birthday gathering. we started drinking at around 2pm and sort of forgot to stop. we ended up walking down to the como at around 10pm, and drank there till 12.30ish. paul, dave (paul's bro), andy and myself were all walking home, with a newly bough 6-pack, when paul and dave both thought it would be a great idea to stick those orange traffic cones on their heads! hillarious as it was, about 30 seconds later a patrol car came driving past and pulled up along side us for a bit of a chat.
i'm not sure if it was because they were highway cops, or they were having a good night or what it was, but this is basically how the conversation went:
cops: where'd you boys get the cones from?
us: they were just sitting up the road there, weren't blocking any holes or antying...
cops: well all right then...listen, you boys should have a camera on you. in 20 years time you'll be wishing you had a camera on you when you were drinking underage and had cones on your heads
us: that's a good point, but it's this guys 24th tonight [pointing at paul]
cops: alright boys, you take it easy [drive away]
it was possibly the most amusing conversation i've had with a cop ever.
- mike
3 comments.
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER
11 2005
New Pics and; is this the end?
by
mike
 the party on friday night was a lot of fun. although there were a few people who couldn't make it for whatever reason (or just didn't show up), i think everyone had a great time, and fortunately there wasn't too much to clean up in the morning.
it was great to see a few people that kings and i had met in london...bryan and nadine (in this pic with me) both worked at the generator. bryan used to run hardman (there's some really old pics of hardman here), and for my money was probably one of the best that ever did. i was also instrumental in bryan and nadine hooking up. monique and terri also stopped in to say hey - they were both semi-regular gen guests, staying on and off over the course of last year.
it was a great night, and it was fantastic to finally catch up with almost everyone. you can see the rest of the pics here.
saturday night was barney's bucks night. kings and i took a couple buses from his place into the city then out to nedlands for dinner with the guys, then we all headed into northbridge to get liquored up before the strip club. unfortunately, there's no pics from the strip club, but i did manage to take a few on a disposable camera before and after the club, so as soon as they're developed, i'll put some online.
as it was barney's bucks night, and as i'm one of his groomsmen, i found it necessary to buy barney some fantastic fake tits from one of the sex shops on james street...it really is quite funny to see how people react when they see a guy wearing fake tits over his shirt. barney couldn't walk 10 metres without someone (guy or girl) commenting or trying to grab/suck on his fake boobs...and he was loving every minute of it!
the wedding is in about 4 weeks time, and hopefully i'll be able to get some good shots of us all suited up!
that's almost it from me...there was one final comment i wanted to make. kings was saying tonight that he thinks it's time for mikeandkings.com to end. personally, i hate the idea - sure, we're back home now, but who knows what tomorrow will bring!? plus, we have all of our pics up for you all to see, and we've had it going for about two and a half years now, it's part of everyone life!
so, i think we should do this democratically and have a vote. in the comments below, please say if you would like the site to live or die, and why. we'll give it maybe a week or so and see how the votes are going before making any decisions. i love the site and want to keep it going, but if no one is going to read it anymore, then there might not be any point. anyway, let us know below, we'll tally up the votes soon.
until later...
mike
8 comments.
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER
5 2005
It's the Mike & Kings Welcome Home Party
by
mike
 That's right boys & girls, strap on your dancing shoes, it's time for the mike and kings welcome home party! get out your biggest party hat and turn that frown upside down, this is THE box social of the season!
when: friday october 7th 2005
time: 7.30pm on
where: email for the address (hint: you may need to exchange an egg)
as you'll be drinking, please ensure that you bring some kind of alcoholic beverage to consume. there will be a few snacks & softies, but if you want to bring something for everyone, that would be great!
there is also a few places for people to crash, and the couch is extremely comfortable. if you do want to come (and/or want to crash) please let me know some time before friday afternoon (just so everything is sorted out).
it should be a lot of fun, and we hope to see you all there.
3 comments.
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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER
29 2005
happenings
by
mike
This week has pretty much been spent, for me at least, looking for work. I've applied for one job and am hoping to hear back from them soon, but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a lot of (advertised) work in radio or journalism at the moment.
Apart from the old job hunt, my time has been spent catching up with friends and family, sitting on my ass watching tv, playing my guitar and pretty much just getting reaquainted with this little city we call home.
Tomorrow night, Mum, Cathy and my sister Aimee are all heading off to the States for the Sweet Adelines International Convention. Cathy is the Director of the Perth Harmony Chorus, representing the Southern Cross Region (#34). Hopefully they'll do really well again (they won the best small chorus award a few years back)! So while they're away, I'll have the house to myself - and yes, we will be having at least a few get togethers. Drop me an email if you're interested.
In a few weeks I'll be a groomsman at Barney's wedding, and Saturday week is his stag night. I've never been a groomsman, nor have I been to a stag night, so it should be an enlightening experience.
I don't think I've got too much more news to tell for the moment. I hope everyone out there is doing well - sign the message board and let us know what's going on in your neck of the woods.
- mike
1 comment.
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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER
27 2005
the end of the road?
by
mike
it finally happened...mike and kings have returned to perth! this post is perhaps a few days late, but here's the news of the past week or two.
kings and i flew into sydney last monday at around 6am. i met up with my sister luarna (who lives in scone, a few hours north of sydney) while kings checked into his hostel. we then spent a few days wandering around sydney, heading out to manly on the ferry, drinking far too much (as per usual) and generally having a pretty good time. all the while, we had to keep it quiet that the whole 'road trip' that we had planned was never actually going to happen.
our last night in sydney we caught up with our good friends garth and phil, who we met in london. they're now living together out near manly, and the four of us caught up for a few beers in neutral bay.
 so we left sydney for perth on thursday morning, arriving here at around 9am. my sisters aimee and melissa, and aimee's husband michael were there to pick me up, while kings had his mum come get him...i wanted to surprise a few people, so didn't tell my most of my friends & family that i was coming home. and it worked out pretty well.
my sister drove me to my dad's place, and i surprised him pretty well...he had no idea i was coming home just yet. next was aunty cathy - we came back home, had a few drinks in the bar, and when cathy came home, i was hiding behind the bar. next was my mother, who said when she walked into the bar "oh i saw this car outside and i thought maybe michael had come home to surprise us"...and then i jumped up and scared the hell out of her.
so that was the family surprises, and next was to be the friends. now some friends knew i was already home, but there were a few that i owed a good surprise to. as you may remember, prue rocked up to new york without telling me, and everyone managed to keep this a secret for months without me finding out. so...i had to get her back. the 'titsoup' group (our group of friends that catch up for coffee every tuesday) were planning a trip down to prue's mandurah house for the long weekend, so i saw this as the perfect pay back. cam and erin also surprised me in NY, and as they were coming to mandurah too, everything seemed to fall into place.
we told our good friend julls we were coming back, so he offered to drive us down to the house. after picking us both up, we headed down the freeway towards mandurah. julls' phone rang at some point, but he ignored it and kept going. we didn't realise it at the time, but cam and erin were driving past us and could see kings and myself in the car. they almost ruined the surprise with prue too - they called her, but before erin could say anything cam realised it was probably a surprise so erin made up some story to cover the call.
anyway, we arrived in mandurah, prue almost fell off her chair with surprise, and we all got very drunk. the weekend was great fun - it was really cool to catch up with a bunch of friends after so long away.
yesterday arvo, i came back home and called paulie, one of my best friends in the world - he and his girlfriend emma came over to pick me up, and we headed down to little creatures. if you've never been to perth, i'd highly recommend a trip to little creatures in freo - it's a brewery in the port that has fantastic beer and really great food. if you come down this way, we'll have to go down there for a pint.
tonight is drinks at the queens with the titsoup group, and for the rest of the week, i'm pretty much looking for work. if anyone knows of a radio job going, please feel free to drop me an email.
to everyone in perth that i haven't caught up with yet, give me a call or drop me an email with your number and hopefully we can catch up in the next week or two. there will be a welcome home mike and kings party in the next 2 weeks, i'm just not sure exactly when at the moment.
the next trip is probably going to be up to my beach house in guilderton, and i'm considering taking a year to work in canada in 12 to 18 months, depending on work/money/life etc. but in the mean time we'll keep mikeandkings.com going, and hopefully some of you people will come visit us in sunny old perth.
until later...
mike
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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER
15 2005
bye bye europe (again)
by
mike
hey all...
well, today marks my last day in continental europe. i will be flying from roma (where i am writing this) back to london in about 5 hours. karaoke tonight, of course (being a thursday), and russ tells me that we now have "f*** her gently" byu tenacious d...one that i have been waiting for for a long time. anyways, i will be spending the next 2 days in london then kings and i are flying out to sydney (which takes something like 6000 hours or something).
i should be pretty used to all these long trips. i left santorini (yes em, i did make it there, but i still prefered ios) on monday at 8pm, arriving in pireaus (athens port) at 6am. then i had to wait for 3 hours to catch the coach to patra (3 hour trip) to get onto another ferry back to italy (patra to ancona, which took 22 hours). then, i had to wait 2 hours for the train to roma, and then sit on the train for 5 hours. i have had one night here in rome (got in at around 7pm, it is now 11am) and i have a flight at 4.30 this afternoon back to london.
basically, i will be on the road travelling for about a full week, less 18 or so hours here in rome, and 46 or so hours in london. fun stuff!
interesting side note, when i was waiting for the train in ancona, a freight train carrying cars went past, and because it was so long i decided to count the cars...and there were 76 cars! one behind another, the train must have been about 20 carrages long.
anyways, this is a pretty random post, but i havent slept or eaten much in the past 3 days.
in signing off, i guess i want to say how great a time i have had in the past 2 years. i was pretty bored on the ferry yesterday, and i worked out that kings and i have been away from perth for 800 days (801 today). in those 800 days, we have met some fantastic people, seen some of the greatest sights in the world, forged friendships with people that will last a life time, and had some of the best times of our lives. it has been one crazy adventure, and while i am sad it is coming to an end, i cant wait to see you all back in perth in a few weeks.
i am sure there will be a few more posts before we get back, but since we dont know what will come of mikeandkings.com when we get back, how about everyone post what their favourite moment has been in our trip, or favourite photo, stupid thing we did, whatever. everyone that comes across the site, drop a comment below and let us know anythi you want to say about mikeandkings.com
till later...
mike
5 comments.
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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER
10 2005
dear liver...i'm sorry
by
mike
hey all
ths has been one crazy week. i'm still in ios enjoying the sun of this beautiful island. i've been here since monday, and have to say this has been one of my favourite spots in the past 27 months.
i've adopted somewhat of a routine here: wake up around midday/1pm. shower, change, leave the house and head down to the ciao cafe for a drink and lunch. jump on the bus and head the 1km down the road to the beach. walk into far out (camping ground, bar, restaurant) and find some people i know, lay around in the sun, swim, till around 5pm. grab a beer or 2, have some dinner, watch the movie (last night was 'the island', which i can't recommend enough), have a few more drinks, jump on the bus back to the village at around 11-11.30pm. then the night goes into too much drunken stumbling from club to club, winding up at rehab and dancing till close, then maybe heading down to sweet irish for one last drink. head home, pass out, do it all again.
so it's been a fun week, but unfortunately it's coming to an end, as i'm moving on to santorini today. i'll be there for only a few days, then have to make my way to rome for the flight to london on thursday.
i have to say a HUGE thanks to amber for putting me up this week. as you may be aware, i'm pretty much completely out of money, so having somewhere to stay really helped. thank you thank you thank you amber! i really apprecitate it.
i also want to say hi to everyone that i've met here in ios. some of you will be coming to santorini today, but everyone else, take care, drop me an email :)
hope everyone's doing well...email me and let me know what's up. i'll see some of you really soon!!
mike
1 comment.
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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER
9 2005
London Still Again
by
Kings
Hey peeps,
Just a quickie to says I'm back in the land of fish, chips, and a surprisingly good English ashes team.
Getting into the country was quite a challenge this time. My stupid working visa had expired and it looked quite sus that I was coming back as a 'visitor'. After about 20 minutes they decided that I wasn't going to cause a national emergency by working hard, paying taxes and contributing to their economy, so they let me in.
Kingsley
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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER
5 2005
German Kezboards Suck
by
Kings
 Hez all, currentlz bitching about the qualitz of German kezboards to Anke invoking her German pride in telling me to shut up äbasicallzä.
Anzhow, if zou can read this Iäve decided that Iäm not going to change the waz in which I tzpe so zouäre all going to have to bare with the crappness which is German kezboards.
I didn´t give him drugs, kings is just his usual self!!!!!
So, anzhow, featured on the right is a picture of me kinda looking like a turtle from Mario Brothers.
Zeah, so Iäm in Aachen again. Having fun laying in the sun. Iäm going to head back to London a little earlz just to saz goodbze properlz. Greece was too far awaz for me and Iäm waz too layz at this stage to bother taking what would be 48 hours worth of trains and boats for 5 dazs in Greece.
Anzhow, thatäs about it. Nothing more to reallz saz. Enjoz the pic.
Kingslez
3 comments.
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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER
4 2005
i heart greece
by
mike
hey all...
well, what's new? i'm sitting in a hostel in athens right now, wasting some time for the ferry to ios. i've spent the past 6 days in corfu, living it up at the pink palace which has been a huge amount of fun. my liver will need to be replaced very VERY shortly, but i've been living on the beach for most of this week, and couldn't really have had much of a better time.
met some really great people in corfu too, and will hopefully catch up with a few of them in these final two weeks of my trip. rob from canada is heading out to mykonos and santorini around the same time as i am - he and i drinking together is very dangerous. to the point that after 4 hours sleep yesterday, i checked out of the hostel at 9am, still very dunk, to find rob passing me another beer...oh the lives we lead whilst travelling :)
last i heard from kings he was leaving leiden to visit anke again in aachen, then heading back to london early. not really sure what the deal is, but i'm sure he'll update soon enough.
enough from me. hi to everyone i've met so far in greece - you guys are crazy, drop me an email some time, and hopefully see some of you in perth!
ciao
mike
2 comments.
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TUESDAY, AUGUST
30 2005
ferry trips that make my head hurt
by
mike
i have now left the land of italy, and entered another new country: greece! after much deliberation, i found myself heading to the train station in florence to buy a ticket to venice, then i would get the ferry to corfu. great, except the train was full, and the next one would have made me miss my ferry. so, i had to go to bologna, change trains and head to ancona. but, this train was 2 hours late, so i missed another ferry, and had to catch one at 7pm to patras.
patras, in case you dont know, is 7 hours south-east of corfu. so, i had to get all the way down there, buy a ticket to corfu, wait till midnight (another 7 hours) get back on the ferry, travel till 7am and finally make it to corfu. all up, it was about 46 hours of ferrys, trains and a bus. and 21 hours of that was pretty much wasted because the train was full.
anwyays, it's beautiful here. and i have to run.
more later
mike
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MONDAY, AUGUST
29 2005
Going Dutch
by
Kings
Hallo!
Wow, its been a while since I posted on here so I thought I ought to take the time to let everyone know what I've been up to.
Well, just over a week ago Mike and I parted ways in Interlarken, he (as you all know) headed for Italy and I for The Netherlands. After 6 trains and about 10 hours I finally made it back to Leiden and where I have remained more or less since then.
 I've come back to Leiden to stay with my (I would suppose you would say) girlfriend Lara who is currently studying law here. She is also working during the week however that has not been too much of an issue since I have full access to the Law University library (featuring one of the best computer labs I've seen in quite some time) and their internet connection.
I've also found quite a novel way to keep busy during the day and that is to learn Dutch. I've got a course book and a couple of translation dictionaries and most importantly two Dutch girls (Lara and Juliette) to practice with. In fact, when their friends come over I suddenly experience what it is like to be a ethnic minority! To put my progress into perspective, I learned how to count today. :)
As for my plans. Well, it has suddenly dawned on me that I've been on the go for 6 months now - leaving the UK for the USA at the beginning of May - and I've decided that I don't want to move around much more. So I am probably going to stay here in Leiden until mid-September meeting up with Mike in London.
Anyhow, I've left a bunch of stuff out because I'm being lazy and want to go home and have a Heineken. It's Dutch you know... :)
Kingsley
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FRIDAY, AUGUST
26 2005
moving right along...
by
mike
thanks for everyone´s concern re the the bag. i´m trying to put it behind me, and i hope that my insurance will cover at least some of the stuff stolen. i´m still in florence, and will be moving out of here probably tomorrow. where to, i´m not yet sure. there´s a few options...
1) take the train to ancona (via bologna), get on a 19 hour ferry and head to corfu.
2) take the train soutgh to napoli
3) head to the croatian island of hvar, which is meant to be absolutely stunning
4) stay here a little while longer
i think that i´m considering either corfu or hvar most seriously, but it really does all depend on costs. without my eurail pass, i have to pay for all of my travel now, which is a HUGE extra cost i wasn´t counting on. if i get to corfu (probably about €90 one-way), i´ll stay at the pink palace, which includes breakfast and dinner...plus all i´ll be doing is lazing around the beach, so that could be a good move money wise. although, croatia is not meant to be that expensive either.
either way, i think it´s time for me to move on from florence. i was considering venice however after checking prices, i don´t think it´s within mhy budget this time.
so what have i been up to? i´ve met a bunch of great people here, the night before last we went off to the park to drink and run around, then came back and sat in the street with beer and wine chatting till 3am. yesterday, dwayne, nick, jeannette and myself took the train out to pisa to see the tower. i went out there 2 years back when i was last in florence, and even though there´s not a lot more to see in pisa, it was still a fun trip. we came back, bought 36 beers between us, had some food, sat around chatting and drinking...nick and i polished off the final two beers at about 3.30am this morning.
jeannette has headed off to la spezia (to see the cinque terra) today, so i´ll be travelling alone again until kings gets off his ass and figures out what he´s up to :P it´s been great travelling with someone else for the past couple weeks, and i don´t think i would´ve been able to cope with the whole stolen bag is jeannette wasn´t around. thanks for everything bella - have a fantastic time on the rest of your trip!
i´m about to head out for a walk. unfortunately, with no camera, i don´t have any pictures to show you, but i will be getting some off jeannette, nick and dwayne (dwayne, i´ll text you when i´m back in london, and if we don´t catch up at the walkie, i´ll see you in perth in jan!!) i was considering buying a new one, but that´s not really feasible at the moment. kings, you better be taking lots of shots mate.
i DID forget to mention, that the night before i had all my stuff stolen, i uploaded some photos! you can find all of these in the europe 2005 folder. i´ve deleted the folders that were empty, unfortuantely, there´s not a lot of photos there, but have a look anyways.
till next time...
mike
2 comments.
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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST
24 2005
home time is getting closer
by
mike
so this week has been, basically, pretty screwed up. i came into rome and my friend jeannette had been ripped off for a lot of money. then, to make matters that much more fun, when we were checking out of the hostel in rome on monday, someone decided it would be a nice idea to steal my bag, with my laptop, camera, glasses, ipod, speakers, passport, eurail pass, credit card, bank card, books, sentimental stuff etc etc etc.
so, i spent the whole day in the police station, on the phone, and at the australian embassy (for a replacement passport...4 hours and 80euro later i got my emergency one issued), and kicking myself for my stupidity.
i left my bag for all of 5 minutes, i dont know why (i never leave that bag), and when i came back, it was gone. a few other guys had their stuff stolen too. after a brief (read long) panic attack, i realised it was all gone, but i'm still freaking out a fair bit.
but, i guess at least i wasn't hurt or anything like that, and it's almost the end of the trip, and i have full insurance. but one of the MAJOR losses, unfortunately, was the 800 or so photos from this trip, which i can't replace. all my underworld photos and videos, all my photos from everywhere this trip, and from the last month or two in london. and i didn't upload them all before it happened. and, with my glasses gone, seeing at night time is getting to be a challenge.
but no one needs worry, everything will be fine...it's really just a major inconvenience. and in other news, i'm in florence, enjoying the sunshine, and i have a lot less stuff to carry now. not sure what kings is up to, he's talking about going to france from the netherlands, and doesn't want to spend 2 weeks in greece. not sure when we'll meet up, but i'll guess we'll figure it out soon enough.
i should run, i have to go find a phone store to buy a phone charger. i hope everyone is well, keep in touch, and see some of you soon!
mike
7 comments.
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SATURDAY, AUGUST
20 2005
moving on, and some people can't be trusted
by
mike
kings and i have parted ways once again, he's up in leiden visiting lara, i'm down in rome spending some time with jeannette. we'll be meeting up again in the next few days.
i should mention the underworld gig in vienna very briefly too - we convinced jeannette to come with us to the gig (our third) - this was the best gig i've seen yet. they floated the stage down the river, karl was everywhere on the stage, and he actually shook my hand!! yes, god slapped my hand :) there's a pic of us here.
more to come later :)
- mike
brief update...it turns out the 'wonderful' americans, mike and ron, are not so wonderful; they ripped jeannette off for a huge amount of money! we spent an hour or so in the police station today reporting it all, so they should hopefully be arrested sometime soon, even if they are back in the states. i'll post more updates when they arrise.
another update...jeannette received an email from ron today, saying that mike has skipped out on him, taking all his stuff, credit cards etc with him. no one seems to know where he is, including his ex who he has a kid with. so, everything is a little confusing and mixed up, but i'll post more when i hear.
2 comments.
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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST
17 2005
between the lakes...again
by
mike
hey all,
nice and quick cause i`m almost out of time. we made it back to interlaken. for those who dont remember, kings and i came here in september 2003, intending to stay onöly 3 days...2 weeks later we were still here. and since we were SO close (a 13 hour train ride) we decided to pop in again for a few more days.
we were travelling with some wonderful american people, jeanette, mike and ron. they`re now in italy, but i will hopefully be catching up with jeanette on friday in venice - on friday kings will be heading back up to the netherlands for a few days. we will most likely catch up again some time next week in italy or greece.
not a lot has changed here in interlaken in the past 2 years - the hostel is still as great as ever, the scenery is absolutely amazing, we`re taking some bikes up on of the mountains today, and will probably head out to the lake at goldswil tomorrow.
i want to say hi to our new friend jeanette...hope you made it to rome ok :) was great fun travelling with you for the past few days.
my time is up for now. photos are coming one of these days...
mike
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THURSDAY, AUGUST
11 2005
sziget festival, budapest
by
mike
have to love free net...especially when its at a huge festival. i wont write much but we're at the festival now, we met up with stimpee from the dirty.org and rtsr lists (underworld mailing lists). underworld start at around 9,30pm tonight, should be a lot of fun.
anyways, time to go enjoy the festival. more later maybe...
mike
1 comment.
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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST
10 2005
is a kangaroo a bird?
by
mike
no, it's not...in case you were wondering. but someone at dinner last night (an aussie!) asked the question all the same. sure, we may have miss heard her, but it was hillarious all the same.
we went to a place called centimetre, a restaurant chain in vienna. there's 7 of them in the city, and we went to number 2 with a bunch of busabout people. a few wheelbarrow's of food later and we headed back to the hostel to start some good old drinking games. i still think my rule was the best - whenever someone has to drink, they had to stand up and yell "i'm a saint!"...it seemed to make sense at the time.
we've been walking a hell of a lot these past few weeks, and today was no exception. we've walked most of vienna in our few days here, and tonight we're heading out to the vienna film festival - an open air festival of films, mainly music based. tonight is an opera by local boy johann strauss.
off to budapest tomorrow, and thursday will (hopefully) be UNDERWORLD!! for the second time this summer. we bought our tickets for the gig here in vienna yesterday and with any luck that'll be our third gig of the trip.
it's been such a fantastic trip so far, so many great people, great places and way too much fun! it'll be a shame when this whole journey of ours is up...but i guess we have to face reality some time, right?
hi to everyone that we met last night. polly, you owe me an email - hope to see you in oz next year. same goes for you craig!
still no photo updates, but hopefully i'll find somewhere to do that soon. sorry for the lack of pics - it's been a struggle finding an open network to use the lappy with.
more soon...
mike
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MONDAY, AUGUST
8 2005
so many trains...
by
mike
well we made it to vienna. we woke up this morning at about 9am, showered, packed, and left cesky krumlov hostel at around 10am. walked up to the bus, only to find that we had, in fact, missed the bus by about 3 hours. the next one was 4 hours later. no good. we had to find alternative transportation - no way was i sitting at a bus stop for 4 hours. so we grabbed our stuff, and started out for the 1.5km journey to the train station...all up hill.
and by up hill, i mean up semi-mountain. this thing was pretty darn big. but we got there in the end, booked our tickets, and after an hour waiting, got on the train to somewhere in the czech republic. booked more tickets, got on the train with literally 3 seconds to spare (the whistle blowed when we stepped on board), 3 more stops later we were finally in vienna. it took us from 10am this morning till 7pm tonight to get here, but we made it.
tomorrow will be sightseeing and all that jazz, and we're planning on spending a few days here before heading to budapest for the underworld concert. we're having an absolute blast on our trip so far, even though it's all comming to an end in less than 7 weeks. our 2 and a bit years of travelling the world is almost over, but i for one can't wait to see you all back home, and tell you all the stories that didn't make it to the pages of mikeandkings.com (yes, this is the parental edited version of travels)
anyways, i'm a little pissy and an AWFUL track just came on. kings is somewhere here, i'd better go get another beer before i get too thirsty. hope everyone is doing great, wherever you are.
prue, i'll try to mail you now if i have time. russ, hope the gen and djing is coping without me. i'll see everyone hopefully in a little bit.
one last quick message to sara, i hope you're enjoying croatia, and you'd better come visit some time back in oz.
ciao all
mike
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FRIDAY, AUGUST
5 2005
rollin' on the river
by
mike
hi all
so it's been a while, and i dont have a lot of time for a decent update, but we're alive and well in the south of the czech republic. even though our reservation at the hostel was cancelled cause they were full, we managed to get ourselves into somewhere else, and had a great (read: very very drunken) time last night.
we went out early for mexican dinner, drank a few beers, then sat next to the river drinking more beer listening to a czech band. there was an aussie band called 'the lairs' (from newcastle) playing at the horror bar, so we headed down there around 11pm for some more live music. to some other bar after that, i lost kings for a while when i went to another bar, then found him again, and we stumbled through the door at around 3.30am. it was a great night.
we're off to vienna in a few days (for a few days), then to budapest for the underworld concert (if we can get tickets), back to vienna (for the underworld concert, again if tickets can be found), to interlaken (we loved it so much we have to go back), down through italy, around teh greek islands, back to italy, london for a day or so, then sydney, road trip, back in perth some time soon(ish). we only have about 6 to 8 weeks left on this crazy adventure of ours, which is a little sad, but we've had such a fantastic time in the past two years! it will be nice to get back to perth and see everyone again :)
anyway, time to fend off a hangover. i know we're pretty slack with the updates, but we're travelling and all. you people need to write some more comments/post in the message board.
oh, and hopefully some more photos soon, as soon as we find an open network :)
mike
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SATURDAY, JULY
30 2005
live from sony
by
mike
quick post...we're in berlin, at the sony store. god bles free net.
off to prague tomorrow i think...we'll post more later on
mike
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MONDAY, JULY
25 2005
it's all dutch to me...
by
mike
kings and i have been away for a little over a week now, and we're still in thje netherlands. we spent 5 nights in amsterdam, until we realised that we weren't able to book accommodation over the weekend in hamburg, so kings kindly asked lara if we could crash at her place in leiden, about 30 minutes from amsterdam, for a few days.
my plan was to go to spain for a few days and catch up with friends there, then meet up with kings in berlin on wednesday. but, for some reason, friends failed to contact me after saying 'sure come down' so i've been a bit of a third wheel for the past few days.
we really haven't been getting up to that much - watching movies, drinking a decent amount of beer and wine...i cooked toobs (canelloni) the other night, which turned out fantastically well, and yesterday lara drove us out to the beach.
we're still yet to find any decent wireless connections so i haven't added any photos yet, but hopefully we'll be able to soon. we're off to aachen, germany, today to visit our friend anke (who we met way back in 2003 in madrid, and have caught up with a few times in england since), and then on wednesday we'll be jumping onto another train bound for berlin. after that we're still not sure, but we're still hoping to catch two more underworld shows - one in budapest and the other in vienna, in mid-august.
not much more to say - except a huge thanks to lara and juliet for putting kings and i up for the past few days! it's been a lot of fun :)
one final word - you people who read this page all the time, post something so we know you're still around!
ciao
mike
update..........ok, i've put some pics up for you all!! you can see them here. the underworld pics are on the main page, and there's a few more in the netherlands folder, i'll try to keep the updates coming a little more often. enjoy :) - mike
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WEDNESDAY, JULY
20 2005
underworld,
by
mike
ok so enough with the bitching about my lack of gloating re: the underworld gig. so here it is, and apologies if you have no idea who underworld are (but really, if you don't know who underworld are, well, you don't know us! :P)
kings and i rocked up to the venue a healthy 6 hours early at the heineken music hall (HMH). the plan was to get out there around 4ish to meet up with my friends from the underworld mailing lists rtsr (fan site) and dirty.org (official site), but we got there a little early (only an hour). so we wandered around and found the pepsi music hall AND grolsch music (cube) - all located within a few minnutes walk of the HMH and a AJAX stadium, amsterdam's football team.
we ended up meeting around 18 people from as far away as the USA and poland, as well as a bunch of native dutch people, english, belgians...we were a mixed bag of fans. after a few hours of sitting in the sun drinking, we settled the €134.20 bill and headed the 30m to the hall. security was typical of most venues, pat-down, turn, cough, the norm, but we got inside with not too many problems.
drinks at the venue had to be purchased with munten, or little tokens you buy (1 munten costs €1, a bottle of water was 4 munten, a beer 2 munten), but the cool thing was the beer guys walking around with a mini-keg strapped to their backs, pouring out beers to the willing crowd, all the while never having to leave your highly wanted close-to-the-fence position.
darren price was mixing when we entered the hall, and after a short while the support act began. the opening band was blackstrobe, who started out with some nice old-skool hard dance that merged on industrial. the merging was pretty much complete by the second song, when they started out with some very NIN sounding effects.
blackstrobe didn't do a lot for me, it's really not my sort of music, and my excitement of FINALLY seeing underworld live was getting the better of me. darren price jumped back on the decks for another 20 minutes or so, so the stage could be set-up for underworld (who darren was going to be playing with also!).
the stage was set, the guitar was out, rick, karl and darren (price) were about to storm into their first track...and it was a new one! the new album will hopefully be out later this year, and the guys have been trying out new material at the gigs this summer, as you can see below by the tracklist:
Underworld 2005-07-17 Amsterdam, Heineken Music Hall
1. New Track (with guitar)
2. Juanita/Kiteless
3. Pearl's Girl
4. Born Slippy.NUXX (including 2003-version)
5. New Track (vision)
6. New Track
7. New Track (slow)
8. King Of Snake
9. Push Upstairs
10. King Of Snake
11. Cowgirl/REZ
------------------------
12. Jumbo (encore track)
obviously, with such a large group, we were bound to lose some people throughout the night, which we did. but most of us managed to stay together for the majority. we even tried to sneak backstage, find the guys at the stage door...but to no avail. they weren't interested in meeting the fans on that night...which was sad, cause there was a decent group of us.
anyway - i guess the highlight for me was the beaucoup fish tracks, especially king of snake; that lazer was simple brilliant! and the version they played also went on for aaages! born slippy, cowgirl and juanita/kiteless were superb as was pearl's girl. mr price is still learning his way, but with rick's help i think he'll get there pretty damn soon. the whole gig was flowing, almost seemless, and will be something that i'll remember forever.
a quick word on the new tracks - these ranged from ambient, slowish pieces through to DnB-trip-hop inspired beats. it's clear they're still growing their sound, and i just can't wait for the new album!!
kings and i are hoping to catch the guys again in hungary (budapest) and austria (vienna) in august, which would really make this trip home one to remember.
i'll try to post some pictures soon, but at least now you have some idea as to one of the greatest moments in my life!
mike (& kings)
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MONDAY, JULY
18 2005
hacking the gibson
by
mike
kings and i are currently sitting next to the nemo building in amsterdam, sucking down some sweet free wireless....enter prodigy music...
we had to email russ some docs to go with the boxes home (yeah, we forgot to do that, stupid alcohol), and the only wireless connection we could find was a 20 minute walk past centraal station to the nemo building: national science somethingorother.
anyway - we saw underworld last nite, but i'll post more on that when i have time to upload the 100 or so pics and videos. it was possibly the greatest thing i've ever seen...but more later
mike & kings
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SUNDAY, JULY
17 2005
The Dam (v 3.0)
by
mike
we've left london. no more can i call the gen home :( it's actually pretty crappy, but we are back on the road, so i'm sure it will become easier sooner or later. this afternoons activities (underworld LIVE) will surely help!
but friday night was our last night in london, at least for the next short while. as such, everyone proceeded to feed us mountains of drinks and shots. there are a few hours where i have NO memory whatsoever, sometime around 1.30-2am as the bar was closing until when i woke up at some ungodly hour (after we missed the guys to collect our boxes to send to australia). i somehow almost had one of my piercings ripped out (no idea how), my ear was all bloody in the morning, random cuts on my feet, and the photos only tell some of the story.
as far as i can tell, our shots were mostly absinthe, kings ended up yacking in a bin the bar, i got almost naked and knocked ALL the chairs and tables in the bar over...i don't recall leaving the bar, receiving about 3 text messages, going downstairs or getting into my room and bed. it was a fun night, i just wish i could remember a little more hehe.
i want to say a huge thanks to everyone at the gen, especially louise and russ and arno and, well, everyone. i had such a fantastic time not just on friday night, but for the past 21 or so months there. i did indeed fall into the generator trap, and i can't wait to fall back in again! i miss you guys already!
on saturday morning our boxes of crap were meant to be picked up at around 8.30am. i woke up at around about 9.30am to find kings looking at his phone trying to figure out why it didn't ring - we missed the truck, apparently they had problems getting onto my street. so we've had to organise another pick-up for tuesday.
i was still hideously drunk when i woke up, but think i managed to pack almost everything and get out of the door at around 11.20am. when we finally made it into amsterdam, we got into the hostel and crashed for a few hours before grabbing some cone fries (kings LOVES those things) and heading across the road to our favourite coffee shop (and usual first stop), blues brothers. we played some poker back here in the hostel (louise gave me some poker chips for one of my going away presents) and kings ended up leading out to catch up with lara...i assume he's coming back soon, cause we have to go to a concert soon :P
anyway - i won't bore you too much more'. i'll try to get some photos up in the next few days (there's free wireless so it should be pretty easy) - definately some photos of the concert and leaving party soon.
since we're back on the road, expect a lot more updates. that also means, get writing in the message board and leave comments here too people!
more updates coming soon.
mike
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SATURDAY, JULY
16 2005
Farewell London
by
Kings
after 19 months living and working in london, kings and i are up and leaving - hitting the road again one last time before heading back to sunny perth. i'm not quite ready to say goodbye to london yet - it's been a fantastic home to me for such a long time, and i have so many great friends here - it will be really difficult to say goodbye (or see you soon as i hope the case is).
last nite was the big leaving party, and being a thursday it also was karaoke night at the gen. louise, my boss, grabbed the mic and told the entire bar i was leaving and then sang 'time of my life' with me. i also had to say something, but didn't have any idea what to say so stumbled my way through. russ and i sang 'tribute' one last time (of course to roaring applause).
the last song of the night was a (slightly out of tune) acoustic set with russ and myself, singing 'more than words'. kings videoed this, but i'm not sure it'd really fit for a public audience - i was pretty drunk and didn't sing all that well.
anyways, there's a bunch of photos that i'll try to get online when i get a chance.
tomorrow afternoon we're off to amsterdam for a few days, and sunday is...UNDERWORLD!!!! will be great to finally see our favourite band playing live.
but for now, i'll say see you soon, i'm really going to miss everyone here in london, thanks louise so much for my pressies (a 7/2 offsuit DOES rule!!). we'll be back for 2 days in september before flying back to australia, and i hope to see you all then (and remember new years - gen reunion in perth!!)
we'll post more as we travel around europe.
mike
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THURSDAY, JULY
7 2005
London Blasts
by
Kings
  Thanks to all those who have called, emailed, smsed and posted on here. Mike and I and everyone we know are all okay. I was asleep when it happened and Mike doesn't need to catch the tube to work.
It is rather scary that today marks the second year anniversary of our trip.
It's also such a shame that after the announcement of London winning the 2012 Olympics that something like this should happen. Last night the city was so happy with the win and now everyone is devastated.
So far I've spoken to or indirectly had contact with Mike, Trev, Jen, Jess, Leah, Julls, Meishe who are all okay.
Kingsley
from mike: i'd just like to add thanks for all the messages too. i was woken up by a loud noise this morning just before 10am, followed by the largest amount of sirens i'd ever heard...the bus blew up about 2 blocks from the generator, my home for the majorty of the last 18 months. one of the trains was inbetween the two closest stations to here, russell square and kings cross - i used to go through these stations at least twice a day.
everyone that i know is ok, but i have to say i'm pretty shocked and devastated. really i'm at a loss for words. thanks again to everyone for the messages, and i hope everyone in london is safe.
mike
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THURSDAY, JULY
7 2005
he's back
by
mike
kings is back in london...he's also a lazy bastard and hasn't bothered to update the site yet. i'm sure he'll get around to it one of these days.
in other news, i have 2 more days of work left!!
...and...tomorrow marks mike and kings 2 year anniversary of leaving australia!!! 2 years ago tomorrow we jumped on a plane headed for europe. can't believe it...
mike
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THURSDAY, JUNE
30 2005
Deep Dish
by
mike
kings and i are (hopefully) going to see deep dish at MoS on july 9. this is a week before we leave london, and will also be the first time we've been to ministry. should be a lot of fun :)
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MONDAY, JUNE
27 2005
Montreal
by
Kings
Hey all. Currently in Montreal in the strangest hostel. It is brand new, looks really nice and no one is here. I have to say it is quite creepy! I guess if you build it they wont come.
Montreal is a great town, after getting in at 5pm on Friday and dropping off my gear I headed into town and found a nice bar with a terrace that looked out onto the street. I pretty much remained there until 3am and in that time met a load of interesting people and even bought a piece of art in exchange for a beer!
Yesterday I took a walk around town for most of the day and after coming back to the hostel - to my surprise - there were a large group of guys drinking beers. Turns out they were all on a bachelor party and were in the process of formulating a list of tasks the bachelor had to achieve. While I cant recall the list in full, some of the items included:
* Obtain 10 signatures on chest to petition against getting married.
* Have ass slapped by two girls.
* Get phone number of girl.
* Correctly guess bar size of girl.
* Get photo with law enforcement.
What was not on the list - but happened anyway - was get stripped naked and whipped on stage by two strippers in a strip club.
It's starting to dawn on me that my North American trip is almost over. I will be heading back to London on the 2nd of July - 6 days from today! Then as Mike has mentioned, we only have 2 weeks in London before we leave! It looks like the end of this trip is finally in sight.
Kingsley
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SUNDAY, JUNE
26 2005
Summer's In the Air
by
mike
 yes, it's that time of the year again in the top part of the world...the wind's nice and warm, it's balmy at night, and beer drinking in the sun is looking more and more like a viable option.
to help celebrate the fantastic season which is upon us, we held a start of summer party. i did mention this a few weeks ago, and promised photos, but i'm slack so it's taken a little while to put them up. but...for your viewing pleasure they are all now on the site, and you can view them here.
we also had ANOTHER party at the gen on wednesday nite - 70's school prom. sheets adorned the ceiling, and the place was pretty packed. i think someone spiked the punch though, cause it was pretty damn alcoholic!
 we have 'welcome hosts' here - the pepople who run the games in the bar, greet people in reception (they used to be called backpackers when we first arrived, but the role name was changed)...anyway, alex is one of the welcome hosts, and he took it upon himself to chug an entire jug of punch at around 11.30pm. it was quite a sight - i'll try to find a pic to add tomorrow (as well as the rest of them).
today marks 3 weeks left in london before jetting off to amsterdam, and in 22 days kings and i will be seeing UNDERWORLD LIVE!!! *dribble* i can hardly contain my excitement.
anyways - enough of my boring ranting. i've been trying to take a lot of photos recently, but don't have a lot of time to upload them - some great shots of the british museum from last weekend will hopefully be up soon. ooh, and i might be heading down to wimbeldon tomorrow to check it all out. don't expect to get in, but would be cool to see it all anyways.
hope all's good wherever you are. keep kings and myself up-to-date as to what you're doing in the message board or drop us an email.
mike
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TUESDAY, JUNE
21 2005
Oh Canada
by
Kings
Greetings. Well I've left the west cost behind, crossed the border and re-entered the Commonwealth - caus I really miss not having the queen on my money - and have arrived in Toronto.
I almost was not able to leave the airport when I arrived tho. You see, the taxis are on stike, and to make their point they blocked all the entrances to the airport so no buses or taxis could come collect people. After about an hour wondering around I had managed to find myself with 3 other Australians (we're everywhere) and collectively we wandered the deserted airport roads until we found someone who was dropping off a friend at the airport that would take us all to the nearest metro station.
I've also come across another bit of good fortune in that Will and Obi from Atlanta are here and they are letting me crash with them at their hotel.
Tomorrow I will head into Toronto itself and take a look around. And perhaps do a tour to Niagara Falls the day after that. When it is time to leave I should be - with any more luck - be meeting up with the other airport Aussies and together make our way to Montreal.
Kingsley
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SUNDAY, JUNE
19 2005
Amtrak and Seattle
by
Kings
 Amtrak sucks. There, I said it. It's true. It sucks so hard, and for so many reasons I wonder if I'd be able to do my laundry list of complaints any justice by attempting to list them all in one place. First, they are NEVER on time. NEVER. Not once. And I've taken a bunch of trains. My for example last night I was suppose to get into Seattle at 8:30pm, I arrived at 2:30am. And that wasn't the worst of it! My train from New Orleans to Orlando was delayed 27 hours! 27! How or why I don't know. So for all of you thinking about heading to the states. Hire a car or put up with the drunks on the Greyhound.
So I'm in Seattle. Birthplace of Microsoft and Starbucks. Probably my two favourite things to come out of the states. Paul Alan, the other co-founder of Microsoft (no, it wasn't just Bill Gates who started it) has poured quite a lot of money into a place called the Seattle Center, and in particular the Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum. Guess which one I went to. They had Kirks chair from Star Trek! So it was quite cool. I later took a walk and found out that the national juggling festival was on. So I hung out in the park with a bunch of hippies learning how to juggle, use a diablo and playing frisby.
I'm heading to Tronto on the 20th and will be metting up with Will and Obi again. They are currently there showing off their superfly Aveda skills. :)
Kingsley
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FRIDAY, JUNE
17 2005
Heading to Seattle
by
Kings
  Hey everyone. Just a quick note to say that unfortunately my time in San Francisco has come to an end and tonight I will be heading to Seattle to spend my last three days on the west coast before flying to Toronto on the 20th.
Over the last couple days I've explored the Golden Gate Park - a great place to hang out if you are a hippy - and Alcatraz - the former home of Al Capone and friends.
Today I'm going to spend the remains of my last day in the park again. There are suppose to be buffalo living there and I'm going to find them. :)
Kingsley
The Rock: Alcatraz - Photo Update
I happened to go to Alcatraz island while in San Francisco. I took loads of great photos while I was there. You can check out a slide show of Alcatraz and the rest of my San Francisco adventure here.
Enjoy!
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MONDAY, JUNE
13 2005
San Francisco
by
Kings
 This web site has been going for quite some time now and neither Mike nor I really know who's reading it and who isn't. So it always comes as a surprise when someone from a completely random part of your life, who you thought that they didn't even know of the existence of the site, send you an email and says 'hey, lets catch up' - which is pretty much what happened. While I was working for EFTel I took a trip to Geelong for a few weeks where I met quite a few people including Gerard who got the site address off one of the directors of EFTel after I had left the company. He is now living in San Francisco with his girlfriend and fortunate for me he has a car and will be showing me around! Thanks Gerard!
 So I finally had to say goodbye to Lara in LA :( since I had to move on and she wanted to stick around for a bit and work in the hostels. I also had to become reacquainted with my nemesis Amtrak but fortunately for them they were on time and rather pleasant for a change.
So I arrived in San Francisco last night at around 8 to be told as I was checking in that there was a free cocktail party in the hostel - free booze is sweet! And later that evening Gerard and his gf picked me up and took me to a local bar. And today I'm getting the tour of the city Californian style (in a car - you should see the smog here) which should also be very cool.
Kingsley
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THURSDAY, JUNE
9 2005
Road Trip
by
Kings
 Hey everyone. Sorry for the late post. I have been finding it difficult to find cheap internet cafe's here seeing that wireless hotspots seem to be all the rage these days. I have also been visiting some fairly remote places in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona which seem to have only recently introduced to electricity so the internet is all but non-existent.
My last post was from New Orleans where I was rather pissed off at the quality of Amtrak and decided to hire a car with Lara and drive west. After leaving New Orleans we headed to Austin, Carlsbad, Santa Fe (via Roswell - UFO anyone?), the Grand Canyon and finally to Las Vegas (where we left the car) and I'm now sitting in a net cafe on Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles.
I have a load of photos, and lots more to talk about but I will wait until I have the photos up.
I'll be heading to San Francisco on Friday or Saturday depending on availability at the hostel.
Anyhow, hope everyone is well.
Kingsley
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