SATURDAY, OCTOBER
4 2003
does anyone belive that it's been 3 months?
by
Kings
 i certainly don't. today marks our 89th day in europe, and i cannot believe that this time tomorrow we'll be stepping off the plane in london. i have to say that this has been the greatest experience of my life, and i hope i can come back and visit all the great places i've see thus far (and the hundreds of other places i didn't have time to visit). i do know for sure that i have to go back to interlaken to stay at funny farm for my 23rd birthday in january - can't wait to go skiing there!
we are currently in munich, and have spent the past 2 days at the öktoberfest, enjoying the singing, dancing, and of course copious amounts of beer. yesterdayit rained pretty much all day, but that did't dampen ANYONES spirit, and the turn out was even bigger than the day before (i am guessing here, but it seemed that way).
 all the tents were closed by around 1pm because every single one was full. and these aren't your backyard sized camping tents; these things hold 20,000 people...each! that makes for a lot of drunkeness after the tents close at around 11pm. in fact, we were pretty much forced out of the höfbräu häus last night because they were closing, and the group of people we had met, plus us, weren't ready to leave.
we haven't really seen a lot of munich because we have been really lazy, just walking around when we had to, and having too much fun with many locals and tourists at the fest. so i have to come back here too and see what the city has to offer...there are meant to be some really great museums and historic walks here.
ok, well, there really isn't too much more to report on right now. oh, i do have to say happy 1st birthday to max, our pink and grey galah back in perth. i hope melissa gave you some new water and seed :)
to quote an old add that keeps popping into our heads..."so london, here we come eh?!"
until then...
- mike
ATTENTION CAM!!! sorry i missed your birthday, but my phone was out of credit, and i couldn't call. but i will call u when i get a new number in london :)
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER
1 2003
we really are going to leave now!!!
by
Kings
very quickly, i only have 4 and a half minutes left. we in interlaken...still. i know, we were meant to stay 5 nights, and now it's 13 nights, but we HAVE to leave tomorrow because we have paid for our accomodation in munich for oktoberfest, so we are catching a train tomorrow morning from here.
thanks to everyone who's signed the guestbook - i still think i have to agree with anke, who is german, who said my haircut does NOT look german, not that it would be bad if it did. it's short, and i don't really care right now :) anke, you can find the YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR HERE!
oh, did i mention that we have spent 85 days in europe, and fly to london on sunday??? very scary! it's gone so quckly. but i will be sure to put up some top 10 things (places etc) when we get to london.
but until then,
- mike
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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER
28 2003
moving on...well, maybe!
by
Kings
 ok so i know that i said that we were leaving interlaken about 3 days ago, but this place has a way of drawing you in, making any stay at least a few days extended. oh course our stay is no exception. we arrived here on thursday last week, and are still here 10 days later! but we are (hopefully) leaving tomorrow for zurich, and then to munich on wednesday.
kings and i have been very active while here. so far we have done two mountain bike treks through the alps. the first was only 3 hours, taking us about 250m up in elevation. but the second trek yesterday took us right up to over 1000m (interlaken is at about 560m). we rode for about 5 hours or so, around 45km.
 a few nights ago saw the greatest sunset i think i've ever seen. decide for yourself, but personally there is nothing more beautiful than looking from your hostel window and seeing the orange sun setting over a snow capped mountain. i think most of the hostel took photos of this!
last night there was a HUGE party at funny farm that saw about 200 people dancing into the wee hours. i, however, was asleep by 2.30am.
 well there's not really much more to report right now. well there's not really much more to report right now. keep the guestbook entries coming, and vote in melissa's poll -- does my new hair cut make me look like a german? VOTE NOW in the guestbook
- mike
oh, one final thing --- has anyone downloaded the 5 second video of my bungy?
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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER
24 2003
update and swizerland
by
Kings
 ok - we are not dead. in fact, the bungy was for me anyway, one of the best experiences of my life! there is no describing how amazing a feeling it is to fall 450ft out of a gondola towards a lake, with nothing but elastic bands stopping you from falling into the water. i took the photo here just before i jumped out of the gondola...
if you would like to see more photos, check out the INTERLAKEN folder in the media section. there is a 5 second video i took with my digital camera, but unfortunatley it stopped because i think i hit the button again (the camera was gaffa taped to my arm) when i jumped out. but there are also photos of stockhorn, where we did the jump, plus photos of kings' jump (a little small though) etc...
also, in the MEDIA section we have uploaded new photos, so you can see up to date images of the two of us from spain, all the way through italy and finally in interlaken.
 as previously mentioned, we are staying at a hostel called the funny farm, which is so laid back and relaxing, everyone seems to stay at least a few days longer than they had planned. it was the boss' birthday 2 nights ago, and we had a huge party in reception and down in the club downstairs. free drinks are always welcomed by backpackers, so everyone that was staying there (which totals about 30 i think) was dancing around and celebrating. a lot of fun.
as you can see from the photo here, we are staying right up in the alps, about 500m above sea level. kings really wanted to see sow (as did i) but unfortunatley there wasnt enough on the mountains to go and see (without a helicopter anyway) so instead of seeing the snow, we went with a group of people to a lake called goldswill, to swim, dive and just have an enjoyable hike. again, there are photos in the media seciton :)
we are heading off to zurich probably tomorrow, and will stay there until wednesday when we head off to munich for öktoberfest 2003.
leave us some more messages in the guestbook - especially about the photos if you like. stay well...
- mike and kings
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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER
20 2003
hey swiss miss...there's no missing you!
by
Kings
hello all.
 as i sit here in the internet cafe, i can look out at a road, and then, towering over the entire landscape are mammoth mountains - alps in fact. we are currently in interlaken, in central switzerland - a stop we hadn't really planned on making, but are both so glad that we did.
as we came in on the train, the scenery was like a post card. i haven't seen anything like it before - ever! and i ahven't been so excited by a new stop in quite some time too. as we looked down from the train into the passing towns, it looked like a model railroad, with the perfectly carved wooden houses, perfectly aligned pencil pines along the road, right through to the tiny wood piles next to the houses. it was an experience i won't soon forget.
 we are staying at a place called the funny farm, where we can organise a lot of EXTREME sports and what not. in fact, in about 4 hours, kings and i will be jumping off the largest bungy in the world - 450 foot down, jumping from a gondola. so...this is the pre-jump post. if there are no more posts before next saturday...well, i guess the cord snapped! no, it won't of course...
tomorrow we are catching a trian up into the snow so kings can FINALLY see snow and shut up about never touching the stuff. and we are possibly going to take a sea kayak at some point too, oh, and hike into the mountains etc etc etc. we are staying here until wednesday or thursday or friday before heading to zurich and then munich.
i have one more thing to add...i was recently travelling with my very good friend prue for about two and a half weeks. i didn't get tiem on the last post to say a lot about her leaving, so i will do so now. we have been friends for far too long, and travelling with her and her family was one of the best times i've had in europe so far. i didn't want to make a big dea lof it online, but i think i will now. so...PRUE, THANKS FOR A FABULOUS TIME. we really did have far too many drunken arguments about nothing, not to mention the copious amounts of grappa we consumed. di and craig, thank you so much for putting up with me for the time we spent together. prue...i hope u had fun galavanting around with me all over italy.
i have to run now...out of time. think of us at 4.30pm (GMT+6) as we go flying towards the crystal waters below...
- mike
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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER
18 2003
so much walking
by
Kings
 ok a really quick post, because we have to jump onto a train to portofino (yes mum, we're finally going to make it there!!! this photo is the bay)
ok, well kings and i are back travelling together in case you haven't heard. prue and her family are back in perth, apart from di who is galavanting around europe/uk for the next 3 weeks. i hope everything is going well with you di :)
 as for us, we are in la spezia just near the cinque terre. we walked the whole thing yesterday - all 5 towns, and it took a little under 4 hours...though it was meant to take 4 and a half. i guess we were pretty quick!
tomorrow we are heading to milano to catch a train to interlaken. we will stay there a few nights then head up to zurich, and then finally end up in munich for the oktoberfest. munich is our last stop on our 3 months around europe, and from there we head to london to start our working lives once again.
stay in contact - we'll post more from interlaken :)
ciao tutti...
- mike and kings
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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER
11 2003
is anyone here a marine biologist?
by
Kings
 a boat trip to capri. what better way is there to spend a sunny summer afternoon in italy? so i headed out onto the open sea in a beautiful little boat (i guess it was about 25ft?) with prue and her parents, plus cass and dan.
the weather was looking fine, and when we arrived at capri after about 40 minutes on the boat we all took a swim in the crystal blue water that surounds the tiny island.
after a tour around the island, we pulled into the port for some lunch. it was then that the rain started to trickle down. but we couldn't let this take away from a fantastic day, so cass, dan and i took the train up the mountain to see the view from high above the water. after catching the train back down to the sea, we jumped on the boat and noiced that the rain had almost stopped, but the wind and the swell had increased a great deal.
the sea was angry that day my friends, like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli! but we charged forwad, throuh the rough seas, and, after almost an hour of an 8ft swell, we reached the port of nerano (where our hotel is, about 35 minutes from sorento). and then we had the trouble of trying to get prue off the boat in the severe wind and swell. fortunatley, craig, prues father, didn't fall in, and everyone made it ashore alive and well, allbeit a little wet (though, cassie and dan were by far the wettest, as they sat directly in the splash of the water).
anyway...it was a great day, and there are some fantastic photos of capri and the surounding area that i will hopefully get online in the next week or two (as well as the rest of the photos from spain and italy that aren't already online).
it also appears that kings and i are in the same city, though i haven't heard from him as yet. with any luck we will meet up in the coming days and from wednesday (as far as i know) we will be travelling together once again. i can't wait for all the stories...
thanks for all the guestbook entries...anke i promise i will get some photos up (i loved yours by the way) but it's difficult while you are travelling. oh, and if you sign the uestbook, you need to let us know who you are because i just can't figure out all the aliases on there anymore...hehhe
ciao for now :)
- mike
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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER
9 2003
Florence, Pisa & Sorrento
by
Kings
ok my last post was pretty much all about the 27 hour trip from barcelona to florence...so this time i will (briefly) let you all in as to what i have been up to...
 florence was a beautiful city, and we (prue et al) went on a 4 hour long walking tour of the city and saw a lot of the great buildings, but also learnt so much about the history of the artistic centre of the renaissance. the last stop of the tour was the duommo, the mammoth cathedral with one of the largest domes in the world (i think that st peters is the largest?). anyway...it was a great way to see a lot of the city, plus afterwards prue and i went off to see the david and the academia, the museum built specifically to hold the huge sculpture.
 i have made one purchase now on this trip - i was wlaking through florence with prue doing a bit of window shopping and came across the diesel store. well...i couldn't help myself and i purchased the best pair of shoes...look for yourself!
oh, speaking of photos...craig, prue's father, has his laptop here so i have been able to upload ALL my photos to that, and in rome (we will be there from wednesday - see below) i will burn the hole lot (over 1300 photos now!) put them to CD, and then hopefully uploading them should be a hole heap easier, at least for the time being anyways.
i did a half-day trip to pisa to do the very typical tourist thing and see the cathedral, bell tower and the baptistry, but it had to be done. the tower, as everyone knows, is still leaning, but for the rather large sum of 15euro you can climb to the top. i decided not to do this however, instead admired the view from the ground. the cathedral is beautiful, and was definatley worth the hour on the train. but, there is very little to see there other than the cathedral and the tower.
oh, and one more mention on florence. i was walking through the streets on one of my days there and who did i see but nikki and kirstin, two of the australian girls kings and i met in paris. now, this wouldn't have seemed so strange had i not already bumped into them in barcelona on my one night there, AND they were catching the same night train from barcelona to nice as i was. anyway...europe in summer is quite small!
 we left florence on saturday and headed south to sorrento, which is on the other side of the bay to naples. this is the farthest south i have been in my trip so far. we are staying outside of sorrento in a small fishing village. the hotel is right on the water - the photos will tell better than i can, but i walk out of the hotel and hit the rocky beach! it is simply stunning.
 another great thing about being down here is that miss cassie alp, our old friend who set off on her world trip back in june 2002 has flown over with her boy dan for 5 days to sit around, drink far too much grappa and talk into the early hours. yesterday we all sat around on the beach until the late afternoon, then celebrated craig's birthday with a wonderful dinner.
we drove out to sorrento from the village this afternoon after a huge storm to see the back streets and have a meal. tomorrow we are hoping to jump onto a boat and take a day trip to capri, the tiny island just off the coast from here. this all depends on the weather, as we were going to go out today had the first rain of 10 months not come in.
we will be driving back up to rome on wednesday, and at this stage will spend 5 days there before prue and her family head home. after that, i have no idea what is happening, but i hope to catch up with kings again and then head north to end up in munich for october 1st for the oktoberfest!
so that's the dealie for the moment - i hope everyone is having as much fun as i am. keep sending the emails, i will try to get online more often to reply to you all i promise.
stay well...
- mike
oh, one final word...i think rome will be my 20th stop on my trip so far! pretty exciting!!!
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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER
8 2003
Florence, Siena and men in tights
by
Kings
 I finally left Venice and arrived in Florence. After a bit of a rough start Ive managed to get a room in a really great hostel featuring free internet, a 300+ movie collection, great breakfast, and really nice people like Tom and Katie (right), drama students from London, whom I have been spending most of my time with.
 Today the three of us took a train to Siena, a little Tuscan town about an hour out of Florence. While there we took full advantage of a impressive town square and had a nap for about an hour. Siena is famous for a bi-yearly horse race where just about any form of cheating is allowed. The teams are formed from the 17 family (i think) factions within the city, each with their own colors and flag. Shortly after we awoke, a large procession of drummers, flag bearers and men in tights filled the square and proceeded to walk through the town. We assumed that the procession was of the last team to win and the procession was part of the winnings.
Thats about it for now, Im going to spend two more nights in Florence and then head to Rome with Tom and Katie.
Ciao,
kings
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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER
4 2003
Fair Verona, and Venice
by
Kings
 I made it to Verona and spent a lovely night in a converted 16th century villa hostel. The next day I wandered around the city seeing the sites including Juliet's balcony (yes, I am aware Romeo and Juliet is a work of fiction but it is still nice) and the various cathedrals and castles around the place. The roman arena (one of the major attractions of Verona) was closed that week because the open air opera finished THE NIGHT BEFORE I ARRIVED - so I saw neither the opera nor the arena. That afternoon I managed to meet up with Gary and Amy (that I met in Milan) for lunch before hopping a train to Venice.
 The metro in Venice consists of a fleet of boats and once you get the hang of it, it is quite easy to get around. My hostel is close to the end of the line so i managed to see quite a large section of the city as we drifted down the grand canal. I must say it's kinda creepy around here, there are no cars, bikes or scooters which is quite unusual for a european city.
Today i wandered around the city with Debbie and Emma (Scotland) and took a trip to one of the islands in the north of the bay which is famous for its lace work. Each of the houses on the island are painted a different color making the entire thing very pretty and a great place to go to get away of the chaos in Venice.
kings
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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER
2 2003
Fines on Italian trains (lessons learned vol.3)
by
Kings
yes, kings and i have separated for the next two weeks. while he is off playing in the north, i am sitting here in florence with prue trying to figure out how to fit everything that has happened since barcelona into a small, easily read post.
so...here goes. as i said before, i could not get a direct train to milan from barcelona, so i had to arrange 4 trains all up (including the trip to florence). fine, i thought, i can do this. and fortunatley olga from canada was going to nice on the same train as me (we met at the kabul hostel in barcelona) so i had a friend to keep me company for the 10 hours or so it was going to take to get to nice. we even got our own compartment, because the train wasn't full!
 after breakfast in nice, olga and i walked back to the train station so i could get my next connection to milan. this is where everything started going wrong! there was a block in the track somewhere between nice and menton so the train company organised a bus to take us to menton (about an hour on the bus). fine! not a problem.
 but then the connection to be made was to just inside the italian border, then to milan. the train from menton to ventimiglia was delayed almost an hour, then the next train to milan wasn't until 13.22, about an hour and a half after i arrived. my connection to florence was due at 14.50, and i had already paid for my ticket. and i knew i wouldn't make that.
pretty much this meant that i wouldn't get into milan until around 5pm (i was only guessing though). so i called prue to tell her i would be late. not a problem.
get on the train to milan (which was also 25 minutes late) and fell asleep, only to be woken up by the conductor who fined me for having my feet on the chair opposite me. 7euro! what a joke! so i had to pay that.
then the train into milan, the one i was on, didn't get in until almost 6. so this meant that i had been so far delayed by about 3.5 hours!!! PLUS my ticket to florence was no longer valid because the train that i was supposed to be on had left 4 hours earlier. so i had to buy ANOTHER ticket. plus i was told 4 different stories by 4 different conductors about which train to catch and where to catch it from.
but i made it in the end - prue and di and craig picked me up from the train station and we headed back to the hotel just outside of san giminagno.
we are currently in florence - yesterday we got caught in the rain, so much so i felt like i had jumped into a pool, and prue's chair stopped working for a little while. but it's all good now.
tomorrow we're heading off for a walking tour of the city. we'll be staying here in florence until saturday and then heading south to sorrento to meet up with cassie and thing...i mean dan.
but i have written far too much. i have to say hello to olga from canada who kept me company on the trains from barcelona to nice. i hope you had fun on the boat to monaco.
oh, i have a phone now too, so if you want the number EMAIL ME.
ciao
- mike
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SUNDAY, AUGUST
31 2003
A Cafe Oz miracle, Milan, snow and da Vinci
by
Kings
im currently sitting in the 'museo nazionale della scienze e della tecnologia' (aka the lenardo da vinci museum) taking advantage of a free internet lab they have to 'demonstrate' the wonders of the connected world. so far milan has been pretty good. getting here was was quite interesting too.
towards the end of august a spectacular number of italian people migrate from their holiday locations in various parts of spain and head home. so i was unfortunately unable to get a direct train from barcelona to milan and had to opt for three trains spanning the better part of 21 hours. the first train put me somewhere on the italian-french border, the second a night train to nice (france) and the third to milan. on the night train to nice, i was standing in the hall getting some air when i heard someone calling my name. it turned out to be two girls (kate and juls) whom mike and i had met at cafe oz in paris. i now feel that i have every right to say that the world is a very small place.
  today i spent most of the morning with gary and amy (nottingham, london) checking out the piazza duomo (and the cathedral there) and castello sforzesco. the cathedral features a nail taken from the cross that held jesus, but more importantly from the roof i saw FOR THE FIRST TIME snow on a mountain not too far from the city!
tomorrow i plan to take an early train to verona, spending a night there and then heading venice on tuesday afternoon.
anyhow, off to see more technology history that only i could find interesting.
ciao,
kings
ps: has anyone heard if mike made it to florence?
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FRIDAY, AUGUST
29 2003
The breaking of the fellowship
by
Kings
Im all alone. But its okay. I saw mike off at the train station about an hour ago. He will be meeting up with prue tomorrow evening in florence. I am staying one more night in barcelona and then making my way to milan.
after 2 nights in milan i make my way to venice. Unfortunately due to venice being quite popular and the venice film festival being on now/soon, rooms are quite rare but hopefully i will be able to stay at least 2 nights. I plan to make a day trip to verona (remember romeo and juliet?) while i am in the area, but unfortunately even short term plans don't always work out.
tonight i have the pleasure of enjoying some free beer after discovering that one of the organizers of the pub crawls here is not only from perth, but has a computer science degree!
well, not much time left, gotta run.
solo kings
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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST
27 2003
things learnt on spanish trains vol. 2
by
Kings
always check your ticket. even if you pre-book, and pre-pay by up to two or three days, you should still check your ticket. even if you specifically ask for the 23.00 train to barcelona from madrid in two days, still, STILL CHECK YOUR TICKET!
we learnt this last night, when trying to board our '23.00' train, only to find out that the train we actually had a ticket for was the 22.00 train, so we missed it by 30 minutes. fortunatley, we were able to get a ticket for the 23.00, though we had to pay another €6.
but at least we managed to get onto the train, and make it to barcelona in one piece - no jumping!!! the train wasn't too uncomfortable, though we only had reclinable chairs, not beds like the last night train.
i am only staying here one night as i said before, but kings will be staying longer. i have to catch 4 trains to get to florence now, as the night train is booked, so i'll have to keep changing trains all night. oh well..
i have to run now, but will write more soon...
- mike
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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST
27 2003
Madrid to Barcelona & trains that take far too long (remember, no jumping!)
by
Kings
for those who haven't travelled to spain, you are missing a great deal. spain is a beautiful country, with fantastic people and nightlife. madrid, spains capital, reflects this so well. the city has some fantastic museums (though i only managed to get to one - the contemporary art museum regina sofia) and also is the site where the 'KM 0' is marked (just outside the post office) - this is the marker where all distances in spain are measured.
 we have been staying at a hostel call LOS AMIGOS where many people from all over the world flock to in droves to sleep the few hours each night we all seemed to get. i think this place has more australians than any other nationallity - we are slowly taking over europe! there is a fabulous common room where i spent far too much time relaxig, listening to music etc. in the evenings the common room transforms into a rowdy, drunken party until 11.30pm when we all get thrown out, so we head downstairs, then up the road to one of two bars - the beer station or o'connell st. both are like your typical irish pub, but hey, they're cheap and that's good!
typically, there are a group of us that go out. this includes, but isn't limited to lenny (pictured right) from melbourne, anke and alex from germany, gizmo from the states, rob from the uk, mira from canada, munira from new york, claire from aust too...the list is almost endless so i won't keep going. but i do have to say a big hello to everyone we've met here - i have had a great time, and i hope to catch up with at least some of you in the furture.
we have spent longer in madrid that we first expected. we were meant to leave yesterday, but the train was booked so we had to stay another night here and get the train tonight at 11pm. that means we will arrive in barcelona by around 8am tomorrow morning. from there, we will find a hostel (the kabul hostel is apparently the place to be - just hope we can get a bed) and then see what we can of the city. because i am meeting prue in florence on the 29th, i will have to leave barcelona on thursday night at 8.30pm. the train will travel through the south of france, before arriving in milan at 9am. from there, it's another train (3 and a half hours) to florence. about 16 hours in total! now, i don't know about you, but for me, being stuck on a train for that long is not going to be fun!
 this will also be the point where kings and i split up travelling together for a few weeks. as far as i know he will be catching a train from barcelona to milan, then to venice and travel through the north of italy, and down to rome to meet back up with me on september 15th (if all goes to plan that is). so you should (hopefully) be seeing some different posts and photos from the two of us over the comming weeks.
that's just about all the news for now, except for one important message. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEISHE!!! i'm really sorry we couldn't be there to celebrate with you, but i did get to speak to you which was fantastic! i hope you had a great day, and enjoy your party!
if anything else interesting happens in the next 3 hours i'll try to post again. otherwise you will hear from us (separatley) from italy.
- mike
As Mike said above we'll be splitting up in the next two days. Mike is traveling to Florence to meet with Prue while I will be spending a few days in Barcelona and then making my way to Venice - an even longer train ride than mike has to take.
The last few days in Madrid have been fairly relaxed; the Spanish siesta has rubbed off on mike and i in a pretty big way. Today I took a trip to see Plaza de Toros - the main bull fighting arena in Madrid; tho i did not see a fight. And then to Estadio Santiago Beranabeu, the home ground of Real Madrid and the one and only number 23 David Beckham - unfortunately i didn't get to see him either.
I've had the fortunate pleasure of spending some time with two lovely Italian girls, Eleonora and Cinzia, who have taken great pleasure in cooking dinner for me over the last few days. :) If all goes well, they'll be meeting me again in Ferreira (Italy) to show me around town.
We'll its almost time to catch the train to Barcelona so i had better go.
Ciao!
Kings.
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FRIDAY, AUGUST
22 2003
things learnt on spanish trains vol. 1
by
Kings
generally speaking, we haven't taken a lot of risks while we've been on this trip. everything has gone along pretty normally, with only a few stupid acts actaully occuring. this all changed on wednesday night.
we were waiting for our night train to madrid, sitting on the platform. we got to talking to an american guy named will about general travelling things etc etc. anyway, a train arrived, and seeing as it was about 15 minutes early we thought it must be the right train, as ALL the other trains we have caught in the last month and a half have been that early.
so of course we jumped on, not exactly knowing which car we were meant to be in. about three minutes later, it started moving. we were tbinking 'well just as well we jumped on', and then i asked will the time. he said it was 10.22pm. i knew that our train wasn't menat to be leaving until 10.37pm, so it clicked that this may be the wrong train.
in a huge panic i yelled 'what the hell do we do!?' to which wil responded 'JUMP!'...so we did. keep in mind the train was only just leaving the station and hadn't picked up too much speed at this stage.
kings was first out, will was next, and i was last. kings jumped, landed fairly well, then the weight of his pack forced him to crash to the ground. will was next, and the same thing happened. now i was last, and this meant the train was probably going a little bit faster...but i didn't think about that and just jumped.
i was a little unlucky to land in a part of the platform that was like a ramp down, so landed on my feet, fell to my knees, then to my hands, and finally rolled around for a bit.
then, to the surprise of all of us, three spanish police came running up screaming very loud in spanish at us, while we were still trying to figure out if any ribs were broken, where all of our stuff had rolled to etc. we were lucky they didn't do anything worse than yell, but they were none to happy with the stupid travellers jumping off their train.
of course, we are all OK!!! no serious injuries, just a few bruises, strains and scrapes. i guess we were really fortunate nothing serious came from this, but i guess that's the reason for the title of the post...we won't be jumping off ANY trains in the future.
anyway, we got onto the right train, tried to sleep, and then 8 hours later arrived in madrid, found the hostel, and crashed for a few hours after a very long shower. last night we drank a few beers here at LOS AMIGOS then went out with some fellow travellers (there are a lot of aussies here by the way) to a local pub, before running for food at 2.30am. 4 of us came back to the hostel for a few extra drinks before heading to the park next to the palace for our final nightcap.
we haven't seen a huge amount of madrid, mainly because it's so huge, but also because we have only walked around for about 4 hours so far, but we will see more of it tomorrow, including the fabulous museums.
one final word for this post - HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNTY CATHY. hopefully i will get to speak to you this evening.
that's about it for this post. more photos to come soon, plus check out the ABOUT US section, as we will keep updating that with extra information, links to sites of friends we've met and from home, hostels, and just other usless and useful stuff.
so until next time...
- mike
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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST
20 2003
i would've killed for tapas tapas tapas!
by
Kings
 BIG NEWS...more photos are up on the site. we hope to get them all up at some point, but there are over 1500 between us,so we have just selected some of them for now. check the media section and click on the folders - some may be empty but they will be filled soon :)
last night we went on a pub crawl called 'smashed'. we had so much fun, drank far too much and danced for far too long, but we met some great people along the way and had an absolute ball.
 we have to say hello to bree and lauren especially because they told us to - you guys are the full tick. but that's not to say that everyone we met last night (barre one irish guy who triedto pick a fight with both akings and myself) wasn't fantastic. some of the photos are up HERE
i also have to say a big hello to kylie and julia from NZ. they were both staying in our room at pension aussie for a few nights, and we had a ball wandering around the city, eating far too much tapas and drinking just enough beer. unfortunatley, i only have 2 photos of both of them and they're not online just yet because you can't actually see who they are. hopefully kings will have some better photos - i should learn to hold the camera still when i've had a few drinks :)
we will be jumping onto a night train this evening and travelling to madrid. unfortunatley, we won't have a lot of time there, nor in barcelona (we have to bypass ibiza for now because of time) because we are meeting up with prue in florence on the 29th. but we can always come back later on :)
san sebastian is a beautiful city, and i urge EVERYONE to come here, even if it's just for a few days. the whole town, especially parte vieja (the old centre) is filled with beautiful buildings, tapas bars, pubs, clubs...the beaches are sandy and amasing also. so, if you're ever anywhere near here, stop by. if you need somewhere to stay, drop into skippy at the pension aussie - he knows far too much about this place!
well...that's about it for now. we will attempt to get the rest of the photos up today, but we may not, depending on the money and whether we want to sit in here all day or not.
so until next time...
- mike
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SUNDAY, AUGUST
17 2003
Cafe Oz and Pension Aussie
by
Kings
we spent friday night in paris, deciding it would be far easier to spend the night there, and then attempt the cross country train ride to spain. so we attempted and (finally) found accomodation, then headed out into paris to see some more of what we may have missed.
i think i mentioned before about the cafe oz - that place that says hahn premium is ´the next best way to pull chicks in sydney´. anyway, we stumbled across it again on friday night, and just had to go in and have a drink. and 2 jugs of good old fosters later we found ourselves chatting to lots of people, some australian, a french guy and even a couple of new zealanders.
the rugby was starting at 9am on saturday morning, but due to the hideous state of trains that day, we didnt make it back to the pub to cheer the australians on. very disappointing i know, but we had to jump onto a train with all our packs and it just wouldnt have worked out any other way. so sorry to julia and kate and everyone else that we met there. you guys are the full tick!
we left paris for irun, which is pretty much on the border between france and spain. then jumped into a metro at 10.20pm to get to san sebastian, where we are now. of course we had no form of accomodation, no map, and no idea of where to begin at 11pm, when we finally arrived here. so we wandered, and wandered...at around 12 we gave up and went back to the train station, thinking we would dump our packs in lockers and stay out all night. BUT we found a hotel right next to the station that charged us 80euro for the night, but...we just wanted to sleep.
so we thought we´d have to take full advantage of the room, so i showered, then took it upon myself to give my hair a bit of a trim...it was cut a few days before i left, and it´s getting towards the awful mullet stage once again. it´s not quite even, and it probably looks really really bad, but...hell i´m travelling and i look really really bad so who cares. if you ask me, it´s the full tick. besides, i cant bring myself to pay any form of money to get my hair cut at this stage - i am really getting poor very quickly!
 so today we took it upon ourselves to find a better, cheaper place to stay. the guide book said pension aussie was decent, reasonably cheap, so we tried there. and yes, there was a few beds left. the guy that runs it is a former australian who has lived ehre for 28 years, and is definatley the full tick. he has fantastic jokes and knows a lot about the town here.
 there is a festival on as i write this that finishes tonight. there are all these strange people walking around with giant costumes of big heads and colourful clothing beating the absolute hell out of everyday people with what can only be described as either a sheeps stomach, or some kind of dirty balloon.
anyway, there´s meant to be a big party on near the beach tonight, so we will have to go along and enjoy the festive spirit with all the other travellers and locals.
we´ll be heading to madrid in a few days, and then to ibiza for a big party on the beach and in the clubs. after that we´re off to barcelona, and then italy.
oh, and there will be more news on my new piercing at some point. its not that interesting though, so i wont bore you now.
stay well...
adios
- michael
ps: if you would like to see some photos in a slide show of europe, visit AL´S PAGE. he´s a friend from home who came to meet usi n berlin, and has some of his photos and some of ours in this little dealie :)
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FRIDAY, AUGUST
15 2003
no whores, no ponnies
by
Kings
well after having my wallet stolen i have decided to be a little more careful when it comes to travelling...i thought i was already really careful, but...well, you know what happened!
apart from the whole 'stolen wallet' ordeal, amsterdam has been the full tick! meeting up with my uncle has been fantastic, even though i've only been away for a little over a month. plus when it comes to slightly distressing things, it's always great to have a close relative near by.
 that said, i want to say a huge thank you to andrew for putting up with me, helping me out, buying me dinner, etc etc etc. he's the full tick. andrew took kings and i out to a festival with ted brandsen, the artistic director of the dutch national ballet (who uncle is working for over here). to get there we had to take a ferry up the river, which was great because we hadn't been on a boat through a canal before that. the festival was like a massive side show alley meets the fremantle arts scene. we drank a lot of rose (that lovely pinkish wine) before heading off to dinner back in town.
yesterday we went to go to the rijks museum (which is aparently closing for 7 years for renovation very soon) but there was a power problem with the building and it was closed! so...i went to the heineken museum while kings wandered home. i did make a video and a photo to send to people, and i think it got there, but i could only send it to 2 email addresses so some of you may have missed out. so if you want to see it GO HERE - it will be there i think for about 2 months.
 the museum is actually really interesting, and there are a heap of things to do and see - you can take a ride inside a bottle of beer for example. plus they give you 3 half pints of heine to drink there, and a glass to take with you. i dropped by andrews hotel one last time to say goodbye (he left this morning) after the museum.
oh, i didn't mention my exciting news of the week...i have a new piercing. i won't say where, because i want rumours to start, but it's the full tick. and it didn't actually hurt that much...i'll post more on this later on...
anyway, for our last night in amsterdam we took it pretty easy and just sat around the hostel talking to whoever would listen pretty much. it's our last day in amsterdam, in fact our last few hours - we're jumping on a train at 1 to get to paris for the night. then we will travel south to san sebastian in spain, stay there for a few days, then make our way through to madrid, valencia, ibiza and finally barcelona before heading to italy to meet up with miss prue.
thank you for all the mails and messages in the guestbook, keep them coming! i lvoe reading all your messages. a big hello to all the people we've met in amsterdam, especially my friends from israel, talia, mika and tali, and also tommy and chelsea from the states, donna, nic and jeff from canada and everyone else - sorry i can't write much more my time is running out.
hopefully i will actually get to speak to some of you soon, but if not, stay well, and keep in contact :)
- michael
ps: the title of the post is something that mika happened to say late one night. i had to write it down because for some reason i found it really amusing, and that's why it's up there :)
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TUESDAY, AUGUST
12 2003
BEWARE! Thieves and Pickpockets may operate in this area
by
Kings
 The warnings probably seemed a little too dramatic up until yesterday when disaster struck. While using a computer in a net cafe Mike suddenly realized that he couldn't find his wallet. We quickly realized that it had been stolen and with it went his credit cards, drivers license and about 100 Euro. It took about 40 minutes to contact the credit card companies but in that time (AFAIK) over $1000 had already been spent.
That evening while Mike spent some time with his uncle, Matt, Brian and I decided to celebrate Matt and Brian's last night with a trip to the Red Light District for a show. It was quite an interesting experience, bananas wont seem the same again. :)
Today I'm off to see Anne Franks house and then the Van Gogh museum. Mike decided after the events of yesterday that he's going to have a quiet day hanging out at the hostel. We will probably be leaving Amsterdam either tomorrow (13th) or the day after heading towards Spain.
Hope everyone is safe and well; keep sending us emails and writing in the guestbook; we love hearing from people.
-kings
mike: ok it's not a complete loss - it could have been much worse. thankfully i have insurance, but it will just be a little annoying not being able to access cash for the next 2 weeks. fortunatley, prue is meeting me on the 30th, and can bring my replacement cards with her
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SATURDAY, AUGUST
9 2003
i didn't exhale?
by
Kings
yesterday's train trip was to say the least, very long. we left the hotel i bordeaux at 7.30 to catch the 8.30 train, which we missed because we were in line for almost 45 minutes. so we had to sit around for 2 hours to wait for the next one. fine. that wasn't a huge deal, we should still have made it to amsterdam by 7pm.
then we get to paris, and the trians are booked out, and the only one we can catch is at 5pm...so we book that one, which means we have to wait another 2 hours, and get into amsterdam at 9pm.
that was really the only major set-back of the whole day of travelling, but waiting around for 4 hours gets rather boring after a while.
 we met 2 american guys, matt and brian, on the train from paris, and considering none of us had any accomodation, we set out as a team to find somewhere to sleep. and after following a scary crack head for a few blocks (he assured us there were rooms at this hostel...of course there wasn't) we ditched him and set out (again) on our own. long story short, we got an apartment for about 30euro each, which wasnt too bad all things considered.
anyway, we got cleaned up and hit the town for our first night. we found a great coffee shop called the blues brothers and sat around there for a while. after a quick walk to get some dinner, we headed back to the room to watch some mtv...and then headed out to the red light district to look at whatever we happened to see.
we did manage to book ourselves into a hostel for tonight, so we have somewhere cheap to sleep for the time being. will post more on amsterdam in the coming few days (with any luck) depending on whether we can remember how to type.
so stay well, keep the messages coming, and send us some emails to tell us what you have been doing!!!
email MIKE or KINGS and leave us some goss.
i have to go...time to look around the city.
- michael
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FRIDAY, AUGUST
8 2003
feeling hot hot hot
by
Kings
there's something strange going on in europe at the moment..it's far too hot! as kings and i sit here in this little room in bordeaux (we'll get to the not being in san sebastian thing in a minute) we are quite literally melting away.
so why bordeaux and not san sebastian? well...short answer is it was goin to take us a day and a half to get up to amsterdam to meet up with unc so we headed slightly north from toulouse to bordeaux so we could catch an 8.30am train tomorrow to get to paris, then change trains to get to amsterdam. the trip will take us about 8 hours as it is, and if we were any further south it would be a complete nightmare.
 today saw our first chateaux tour through the merdoc region - just slightly north of bordeaux where some of the regions best reds are produced. two chateauxs, 4 hours and a (cheap) bottle of red later, we ended back where we started, with more knowledge about wine than we had dreamed.
as i write this we are uploading 5 photos from the tour de france - i have no idea if it will work or not because it is taking so long, but be patient, and hopefully we can get more of the last 3 weeks or so online for you all to see. but for now...well just try to imagine it.
we will post again in the coming days/week so until then, send us come cold weather...
oh crap, i shouldn't have said he was a customer...
oh crap, i shouldn't have said it was a secret...
oh crap, i certainly shouldn't have said it was illegal...
...aahh it's too hot!!
mike and kings
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TUESDAY, AUGUST
5 2003
Did I mention Monaco? Stopped in Toulouse
by
Kings
 have you ever seen one of those old films that happened to have a scene in a casino that looked really grand, like something you would only find in the movies? but then the camera pans up and there you see the 'casino monte carlo' sign...anyway, i stood out the front of this casino for some time, taking in the amazing cars, people and stores that were all around. i stood there just long enought, in fact, to see none other than mr nicolas cage! did someone say academy award winner nic cage? and he wasn't too impressed with people taking photos of him, but i think i did manage to get at least one!
anyway...getting back to what's been happening. we left nice in the early afternoon for monaco, where upon we walked around the city and beaches for most of the afternoon before crashing on one of these fab beaches for a few hours. i went off to get some food around 6 leaving kings and hannah on the beach. we met up again at 8ish and then walked back towards the beach to get some drinks, but the place was closed, and i got a little side tracked by the casino, so again i wandered off to check it out, while kings and hannah got some food.
 now, as anyone who knows me even just a little, they know my love of designer things...clothes, accessories, cars, anything with a label, i'm hooked! monaco is not a good place for someone like me, travelling with very little money to fantastic places housing all the things i love. fortunatley though, the stores were closed so i just took photos for you all to see (will get images up soon...too hard at the moment though sorry...).
 anyway, met up with hannah & kings again, then back to the casino, then i went off to a club while kings and hannah went to sleep in a pirate ship. club closed at 5, so i went to sleep in a park for an hour or 2 before tyring to find the other 2, get our bags, get onto a train bqck to nice before deciding where to go next (we left hannah in nice as she was staying there before she headed home).
and we were planning on going to bordeaux from nice (6 hours by train) BUT almost died oh extreme heat exhaustion on the train so jumped off in toulouse for 2 nights (and that's where i'm writing this). san sebastian is next (hopefully) and then up to amsterdam on friday or saturday to meet up with uncle.
we have so many photos to get up, but we haven't found anywhere/had the time to get them online just yet. when will then be now? soon...
stay well. keep leaving us messages, especially all you people we've met while travelling.
- michael
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SUNDAY, AUGUST
3 2003
Marseille to Nice
by
Kings
yesterday we had a fantastic day of relaxation on the beach in marseille. the water was freezing, which was great because i was getting a little too hot in the sun. kings wandered off to buy some more suncream and said he'd return in about half and hour. well, half and hour turned into 2 hours, and by that time i looked a little too much like a lobster. 4 hours on a french beach will do that i guess.
last night we went out with our new travelling companion hannah and bought a bottle of wine each to drink at the beach. but there were far too many happy couples enjoying the rocks where we were sitting so we decided to lurch into a chorus of anything we could think of from queen to the beatles to jeff buckley. and i think we annoyed them as most of them left!
and today we took a rather hot, long train trip from marseille to nice. we left almost an hour late! with no air con either! hehe but we came out alive even though carrying my pack with this awfukl sun burn is like jumping into a pot of boiling oil before being thrown into a blender...or something to that effect anyway.
so tomorrow or monday we'll head to monaco to sleep on the beach and have a look into the lifestyle we can't even dream of living.
so until next time,
mike
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FRIDAY, AUGUST
1 2003
The Beach...
by
Kings
well...we have finally seen the beach!!! its man made and all, but we walked down the road here in marseille last night and walked on the sand.
cant write more - only 3 minutes left. thanks for the guestbook messages, ESPECIALLY from courtney and laura who we met in paris. no photos from thhe last week or two yet, but there will be soon.
going tp the beach now to relax and swim.
until next time...
m + k
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THURSDAY, JULY
31 2003
South France, here we come...
by
Kings
 much to cam's annoyance, i (mike) am going to leave another short message, but i promise to keep the art talk to a minimum!
tonight is our last night in lyon, before we head south to the coast to the town of marseille. as its out last night, we decided to treat ourselves, and went out to dinner with some poeple we met - estelle fom brisbane and hannah from the uk.
and being in france, we just had to have some traditional delights, so headed down into the old part of town (just down the huge hill from our hostel) to try and find a traditional restaurant that served snails in some form...and we found one!
so we all ordered a menu of around €12 and ordered snails for the 4 of us. now, not being a meatt eater i was a litle hesitant about this - kings on the other hand was ready to chow down straight away. but i couldn't resist, and had some of the best food i think i've ever eaten. the snails were served in a parsley/garlic/oil sauce and were oh so good!!
anyway, as i said, we're leaving lyon for marseille tomorrow and will head to nice for a few days after that. hannah is coming with us as too as she's travelling alone and was planning on going that way anyway. the plan is to go to monaco and sleep on the beach for a night if the hostel is closed (as we've heard it is). otherwise, it will be a day trip and then back to nice before we head to san sebastian in spain.
keep the messages on the guest book coming! and the emails---my inbox is not full enough yet!
so until next time, we remain...
- mike (and kings...)
 ps: did i mention that the cheapest beer here in the lyon hostel is, wait for it............FOSTERS!!! its australian for beer you know ;)
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TUESDAY, JULY
29 2003
Tour de France & beyond
by
Kings
so did anyone happen to watch the last stage of the tour de france through paris? did you happen to see a guy with the australian flag around his neck like a cape? no? oh, well if you did, that was me! we stayed in paris an extra night to see the last stage of the tour because, well, why not really?
 there were people everywhere (not quite the same amount as the love parade, but there were so many people here!) and the flag we saw the most was...the australian! it was great, especially as we went along with about 6 other australians. although we did end up partying with the danish guys because they were the loudest and having the best time.
we did the louvre on friday and spent 4 hours walking around. it was just too big for one viewing, but was fantastic all the same.
i'm almost out of time so i have to run, but we're in lyon, and are both going to head south to marseille, then to nice and possiblky monaco after that for a day trip. then the plan is either to go to san sebastian in spain or up to bordeaux and on the 9th meeting up with andrew in amsterdam.
no photos tis time but soon...we have taken over 1000 between us so far in 3 weeks!!!
stay well...
- mike
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THURSDAY, JULY
24 2003
Paris by day...& night
by
Kings
 we've spent about 5 days here in paris so far, and have loved every minute of it! the hostel we were in wasnt the best, but we did meet a big group of cool people, and 8 of us ended up on a midnight trek to the eifel tower to see the lights. (side note here: the night we went there, Tuesday, was also the night there was an electrical fault that resulted in a fire at the top of the tower!but we missed that...)
 anyway, we caught a few trains, then walked a long way, but finally got there. the tower is stunning when it is lit up, and every hour, on the hour, the tower explodes with sparkling lights running the entire length of the huge structure. it's really something worth seeing! i took about 60 photos that night, and most of them can be seen HERE.
So after spending a few hours watching the pretty lights, we headed for home only to realise that we have to walk as the trains have stopped for the night. its a long way, qnd we walked about half way, but then gave up and found a cab.
i forgot to mention the day though - kings and i went on another random walk only to stumble upon the notre dame cathedral. the stained glass here was spectacular! i havent seen anything of this scale before, yet another breathtaking sight! the only problem i had was the flood of tourists and the huge amount of noise they created - it drove me nearly insane...but i guess you get that with big tourist attractions.
 yesterday kings and i had to change rooms (long boring story) so packed up, dumped our packs and jumped onto yet another train and headed for the national museum of contemporary art - i was HOME!!!! the major artists whose work we saw included Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Kandinsky, Warhol, Ernst, Dali, Pollock and, my favourite piece of all came from Duchamp (on the left here). yet another amazing museum in a fantastic city.
tomorrow we are heading for the louvre, and then...well not sure. we will probably end up heading south to lyon on saturday or sunday.
i have to run - enjoy the photos, and keep leaving us mesages in the guestbook :)
hello to all the friends we've made so far...
until next time -
- mike (& kings)
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TUESDAY, JULY
22 2003
Photos and Paris
by
Kings
hello everyone -
well, we've made it to paris and are loving every minute of it! well, our hostel isn't the best, but we're moving closer to the centre of the city tomorrow.
BUT big news is - WE HAVE PHOTOS ONLINE!!! so click through to the media section, and have a look at our shots from BERLIN, including the LOVE PARADE, BERLINER DOM and CHECKPOINT CHARLIE.
we hope to have our photos from DRESDEN, COLOGNE and PARIS up too, but we only have an hour left at the moment.
 paris is a beautiful city, with landmarks we've only ever read about. on sunday, we walked down to the eifel tower, then climbed the many stairs to the second highest point. the view was fantastic!
after our exhaustive climb, we were almost hit by a falling bottle of frozen water from the top of the tower! but we survived and walked along the seine river to the jardin des tuileries park, just next to the louvre.
outside the louvre was packed with people, so we continued on our walk, and stumbled into the naitonal museum of modern art. we are going out here tomorrow to actually look around, because i believe they have some work by du champ, warhol, leichtenstein (please ignore my hideous spelling) amongst others.
yesterday we meant to go shopping, but kings got side tracked as his hair was slowing turning him into one of the members of zz top. so i walked around while kings tried his best to understand the old french man who spoke no english at all! but, all ended well when kings came out unscaved.
 in an attempt to eat lunch, we found a map, located (what we thought to be) a park, and walked out to it. well, it turned out to be the biggest cemetry in paris. which was just as well, because we had planned on going out there anyway to visit mr jim morrison from The Doors.
 last night we had fabulous pizza and €1,60 (per bottle) wine, played cards with jon from the USA and carl from South Africa. today we're writing this, getting some lunch and seeing more of this beautiful city.
hope everyone is having a blast wherever they are in the world. thanks to our friends mats and leah for posting on the guestbook - but we want more messages! so keep leaving us random things to read :)
until next time, we remain...
mike and kings
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SATURDAY, JULY
19 2003
where to from here?
by
Kings
that's really a question we ask ourselves every day. as i wrote a day or two ago, we were going to head down to luxembourg tomorrow for a few days, but unfortunately we have no where to stay, so that means we are going to go and spend a few nights in paris instead.
that's all for now...just thought i'd keep you all updated as to our current plans.
take care :)
- mike
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FRIDAY, JULY
18 2003
Köln
by
Kings
 Just a short entry this time. Mike and I took a very enjoyable train ride from Dresden to Köln. The trip took about 6 hours but the trains are very nice and the time flew.
 There is a massive old cathedral here which was aparently constructed in stages over 600 years! It is about 2 minutes walk from where we are staying and will likley be the first thing we look at tomorrow. I think Mike may be a little reluctant to admit it but the scale of this building puts the (previously reported) Berliner Dom to shame - which is no small feat.
We're going to spend about 2 nights here after that who knows :)
- kings (& mike)
***update***
today we climbed the 567 or so steps up to the top of teh dom. and while the exterior of the cathedral is more impressive than that of the berliner dom, the interior is not as spectacular. it reminded me a lot of st georges cathedral in perth but to a grander scale
- mike
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THURSDAY, JULY
17 2003
Dresden and other things
by
Kings
after a mad week of Berlin it became time ot leave, so kings and i found a train and headed out to Dresdem - a smallish city about 200kms south of Berlin.
 we didn´t to a hell of a lot yesterday because we were just exhausted from the whole week in berlin, so we stayed in, had some more drinks and went to sleep. but today we walked down into the main part of town to see some of the sites. while the city is smaller than berlin, a lot of the city looks simliar to berlin, and teh architecture is in a very similar style. the cathedral has a fantastic exterior and equally impressive interior, however is nothing in comparison to the berliner dom. the highlight of today would have to have been the museum (the name escapes me as it´s in my room).
 we saw works by botticelli and raphael, with the major piece being the ´sistine madonna´( you would all probably recognise the two infant angels at the bottom of the painting).
we left the museum to a large group of people singing classical pieces of some description (movie will come soon i hope!) and then headed home for food. we were going to try to sneek into don giovanni at the ´zwinger´tonight, but the walk was too far, so we are about to head out and see the nightlife of the city.
thanks for all the messages in the guestbook - keep them coming! it´s fantastic to see so many people from home leaving us notes for the whole world to see! :)
tomorrow we´re jumping onto another train and heading north-west to cologne and then may travel down to luxembourg for the weekend. after that, the plan at the moment is to travel to brussels, then to amsterdam (and meet up there with my uncel, andrew, with any luck) and then down to france. spain after that, then italy and meeting up with prue with any luck.
anyway, that´s the tentative plan for now - we´ll keep you all updated as to where we are as we go. stay well...
- mike and kings
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TUESDAY, JULY
15 2003
Update:LoveParade2003
by
Kings
i know it´s been a few days since our last post, but there are good reasons for this. i did write out a huge long post about everything we´ve seen and all that we´ve been doing, but when i submitted it, it was lost...and i was out of time then to re-write the whole thing (so i´ll try to do that now).
ok...well, we´ve been in berlin now for a week, and are leaving today. we have met up with al and claire but are now parting ways as they head north to denmark, and kings and i head west to köln.
so what the hell have we been doing you ask? well, we have met some fabulous people at the hostel and have been seeing the city with them since around thursday. i can´t remember if i´ve said anything about the cathedrall yet, but we went in on thursday, and heard an organ recital and saw the magnificant dome. it was simply breathtaking (i will try to get photos up from köln, but it´s still a little difficult).
then on friday night, the four of us (kings, claire, al and myself) went to the columbiahalle and saw ´the love from above´which was basically a massive dance party leading up to the love parade. for those who care, paul van dyk, tiesto, mogwai and a whole heap of other people played - it was so big!
  but then came the love parade. as i said, we met a huge group of people at the hostel (sunflowers) so we decided it would be far more fun to travel through a crowd of a few hundred thousand people as a group of 13 rather than just 4. as soon as we got there we lost 5 people, but the other 8 of us managed to stay together throughout the entire day! if you have seen any photos from the parade, you will know that is something special.
being such a huge event, it was necessary to get lots of fluids into our system. one of the people whom we met was a canadian girl named sheila, and we thought it would be far more fun to drink lots of red bull (thats one of those energy drinks if you dont know) with lots and lots of vodka (wodka here of course!). so we drank the water from a bottle and proceeded to mix half wodka half red bull for the majority of the day. in all, the two of us drank 2 bottles of wodka and 17 red bulls (though 8 of those were cheap fake red bull, but they taste the same)...but we had fun, and recovered fine.
but anyway, back to the parade...the floats were huge, the people were everywhere, the tier garten (a massive garden where the parade is held) attacked me at one point, but it was so fun.
we stayed for the rain and the sun, but left around 8 (i think) to get food, more drinks and head back to the hostel to regroup. together i think kings and i have about 100 photos, so as soon as we find a computer with XP we will get them online.
yesterday i went shopping but didnt buy anything. sheila and i waited for kings and claire to show up so we could all go to see check point charlie (the border line between the US and Soviets during the cold war) so we left and went ourselves. if anyone is travelling here, i would definately recommend this museum! its crowded, but so worth it! i think sheila was in tears at one point - it´s definately a very emotional site.
and finally last night al and claire took kings and i out for dinner as they weren´t in perth for our going away party. did i mention that we´ve been drinking a lot recently?
anyway, i should go, i have written far too much. i hope that my next post comes sooner rather than later, but if not, send us more emails, and FILL OUT THE GUESTBOOK with anything! especially all you travelling people we´ve met so far.
miss you all
michael
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FRIDAY, JULY
11 2003
New Hostel, Old Friends
by
Kings
Yesterday Mike and I met up with two people from Perth, Al (Jeebs) and his sister. They´ve been traveling for about a week longer than we have and altho we have only been out of the country for a few days it was great to see some farmiliar faces.
Our second night in Berlin was great. We were staying in a brand new (and Berlins biggest) hostel called ´Generator´ which is best described as a nightclub with beds. While we were there we met up with a group of people visiting from the south of Germany and I got my first chance to talk some German. As it would turn out, saying ´good night´ is something that people new to german may not want to say because it can be easily mistaken for ´good naked´.
We´ve shifted hostels over to ´Sunflowers´ now. Sunflowers is not as good as Generator which is a bit of a shame but since we spend most of our time outside wandering the city it sint too bad.
Berlin is gearing up for the love parade. The main street where it is to be held has baracades up already. The first of a big warmup events started last night and featured Danny Minouge!
We´re having some trouble finding places to upload our picutres but when we do you´ll have plenty to look at.
-kings
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WEDNESDAY, JULY
9 2003
a fantastic city
by
Kings
well we only stayed in frankfurt for a short time because it was early and we just wanted to crash after so many hours of travel. so we hoped onto a train and spent another 4 hours travelling to berlin!
 we didn´t actually venture too far yesterday as we were so tired, but did manage to clean ourselves up a bit, got a loaf of bread for dinner (with vegemite of course!) and then went down to the generator bar (the generator is our hostel - the bar is down stairs). with happy hour making beer cheaper than coke we took full advantage, and managed to drink ourselves into a happy little slumber.
today we had a fabulous free breakfast and then headed out into the city to see some of the sites. i just have to say, this is the most beautiful city! the buildings, the history - it is just so amazing. i wish everyone could be here to see it. but we have taken some photos and depending on whether we can get them onto a machine here (every computer seems to be running linux and our cameras may not like that). but we´ll get them up as soon as we can.
some of the sites we saw included the ´Neue Wache´ which is a memorial to the victims of War and Tyranny. even greater was the natioanl museum (though we are waiting for al to get here before we actually go in).
 but by far my greatest site so far has to be the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral) - this is such an amazing building built of stone and what i think is copper giving a fantastic green tint to the domes and statues. i really can´t describe the beauty of this building. i am hoping to go in for one of their services if i can (the kings school capella choir from england are singing soon, but i wont be here unfortunately).
anyway, i wont go on too much more. i hope everyone is well. miss you all so much already. keep sending us emails and signing the guestbook - its great to hear from everyone.
mike (& kings)
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TUESDAY, JULY
8 2003
12 hours and we made it...well, almost
by
Kings
Hi all!
we´ve made it into frankfurt! the flight was long, but all in all we managed not to kill each other (so far at least).
we´re about to find our way to the other terminal and then catch the train to the main station, leave our packs adn then see the city for the day.
thanks for all the posts on the guestbook. we´ll try to contact everyone a little more personally when we are all cleaned up!
mike and kings
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MONDAY, JULY
7 2003
Singapore
by
Kings
after a 4 and a half hour flight we have arrived in singapore. it's a little hot, but we'll cope.
our next flight is in about two hours - we arrived a little early here. so...with any luck, we will be in frankfurt in about 16 hours or so.
we'll try to keep you all posted as to where we are, what we've been doing and all that.
thanks to everyone who came out to the airport! it was so fantastic to see so many people out there.
a little note to the wesley people - one of our flight attendants was none other than jamie coatsworth! AND...we even had a perthanality spotting with former premier richard court sitting just a few rows in front of us (i thought he'd be flying first class?) oh, and one other person who only cam and i know - wolf from murdoch was on our flight too - he has flown into singapore for colin and keevas wedding! he's also the best man.
anyways...i hope everyone is well - we will try to call at least some of you when we get into frankfurt.
stay well.
mikeandkings
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SUNDAY, JULY
6 2003
Farewell
by
Kings
 Last nights farewell party was great. A huge thanks goes to out to everyone that came and helped Mike and I celebrate our departure. Loads of photos have been added HERE.
Another thanks goes to the Curtin crew that came and made the night a mini reunion. It has been well over two years since we’ve all been together in one place and it may be another two years until we can do it again. Thanks guys and best of luck for the future!
 People keep asking me if I’m feeling excited about leaving but to be honest the only thing I’m feeling is somewhat disappointed that I’m not feeling excited. The thing that really hammers in the fact that I’m going is that as of this moment my once fairly respectable room setup [featuring surround sound, 68cm tv and two computers which made my room my sanctuary] has been reduced to a bed, a desk and a ridiculously puny 14 inch computer monitor in preparation for mothers long awaited house move. It will be good to leave because seeing my toys packed away is almost too much to bear! :)
Tomorrow is the big day and I can’t help but think I’ve forgotten something.
- kings
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WEDNESDAY, JULY
2 2003
Last coffee enjoyed by all
by
Kings
 As our departure date nears we have had a busy week of saying goodbye to friends, relatives and in particular the ‘Tit Soup’ Tuesday night coffee crew.
Some photos of our last gathering have been added to the media section HERE. Enjoy!
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