After meeting so many people who had been to the Roskilde festival I was destined to go there. Also and more importantly my friend Lizette lived there. I met Lizette in Xela, Guatemala at the Spanish school. The month or so around the time I had spent in Guatemala had been some of the best times of my life. Lizette was one of the people that made it so good and I was really looking forward to seeing her again. There is always some trepidation when meeting a friend again - especially when it's a friend that you've only known in one set of circumstances and in this case one country. But it was great - we got on really well, which I had known we would all along. So Roskilde, from the tourist perspective. Charming ... read more

Being an experienced and worldly traveller is very useful. The experience I have gained means that I know now how important it is to check for local events when arriving late in a new city, and if necessary prebook accommodation. But being an idiot I don't follow my own advice and just turn up. The Roskilde festival is one of the biggest in Europe, rivalling Glastonbury. I arrived in Copenhagen the same day as most of the festival goers departed Roskilde and made their way back to various countries all over Europe. There was no where to stay. Ok that's an exaggeration, there was one hostel with beds, the "Sleep Inn" a school gymnasium that is converted into a two hundred bed hall in the summer, complete with communal showers. I was lucky to have found ... read more

The long journey home was sad - I'd really got attached to life in Brisbane - the friends, places lifestyle... but time to move. Plans change, all the time sometimes huge life wrenching changes, going home or continuing travelling in Australia and then South East Asia was for me one of those choices that would lead one way or the other. I choose to use my ticket to go home, see my family and friends and then think again. I had been working on a website over the last few weeks for a company called The Cloud. It turned out that I choose to arrive in London just a few days before the launch of the entire brand. Picked up at Heathrow in a Mercedes taken to a hotel and then made my way to work... ... read more

I flew into Sydney - from Auckland on the 21st Jan 2003. For two days I stayed in a scummy hostel in Kings Cross, an area with a deserved reputation. I headed over to Bondi - found a superior hostel - Indy's Backpackers and hung out. Again the backpacker crowd had changed - this time lots more young English and Irish travellers - on years working visa, looking for work, and taking pretty much whatever came their way. I got on with them but didn't make any friends or meet people of a like mind. I met up with Matt, Tank and Hamish - Matt the guy I travelled most of the states with had come out to Sydney on a working visa, got a job in the city and lived in Bondi. The lifestyle he ... read more

Dunedin is New Zealand's Scottish city, Christchurch was founded by English Christians and Scottish Christians founded Dunedin. Today Dunedin is one of the most important university towns in New Zealand, home of some really nice architecture, and the site of New Zealand's largest chocolate factory. We stayed in the city centre Nomad backpackers, not as nice as the little hostels out in the small towns but a good location for going out and seeing the city. Laura and I drank a bottle of wine each and went out for a really great evening at the Raa Bar. The next day we had two activities first the chocolate factory tour - Cadbury's World then the Speight's Brewery tour. Cadbury's World Dunedin was pretty interesting, lots of detail on the history of chocolate, from Central America and Mexico ... read more