http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Delek-Delek/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Delek Delek en-us Mon, 04 Jan 2010 06:10:51 +0000 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 06:10:51 +0000 It was somehow ironic that we would be going to Italy of all places for a weekend of Kiwi sporting pride. And going to Milan to watch my first ever All Blacks match on a cheap Ryanair flight 16 return it seemed inevitable that I was going to bump into some fellow Kiwis that I knew.And sure enough when I got off the bus from the airport at Milan's central station I saw my old cricket mate Ja http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lombardy/Milan/blog-453940.html Can you see what I've done with the title here It's like I've been to Hungary and was feeling hungry as well Ah creativity lull or I've read too many British newspapers.Anyway in terms of a city break Budapest is simply awesome. As you will discover by reading on this place has everything.As is worryingly becoming the norm before a holiday I had so much going on that I had not really http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Hungary/Central-Hungary/Budapest/blog-449569.html It's autumn in GothenburgI'm walking home to my suburbRain falls hard on the cityOn every homeless kittyOh please God bring reliefEven if it's only briefBut she said that dreamers just makebelieveBut I thought she said maple leaves.98 of you will have no idea what the lyrics above are all about but it just about sums up my September trip to Gothenburg Sweden.The lyrics are from one of http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Sweden/Vastra-Gotaland/Gothenburg/blog-436079.html I've not done a huge amount of travel around this country that I live in so I decided to change that by taking a weekend trip to Bristol and Bath.It was a bit of a class trip as I was going with four friends I went to school with Davies Gkee and Kelley who have all appeared on this blog before and another one of my old school friends Mitra.I had heard good things about Bristol that it is a l http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Somerset/Bath/blog-428387.html Before sending away my passport to the UK Home Office for six weeks I decided to take one last holiday for some fun in the hot sun along the Adriatic coast. I only organised the whole trip about two weeks before leaving and so my first holiday since Krakow came a lot sooner than expected.It also gave me the chance to visit the second newest country in the world Montenegro. Having gained indep http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Montenegro/Kotor/Kotor/blog-408124.html After a hiatus of a couple of months it was time to continue my travels and next on the list was a lads' weekend in Krakow for the first May bank holiday weekend.Everyone I had spoken to about Krakow had only said good things about it so I was looking forward to seeing if it would live up to the hype.The trip could not have got off to a worse start.It's Friday afternoon and a colleague of mine n http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Poland/Lesser-Poland/Krakow/blog-396587.html Imagine the oh shit look on my face when a week before I was to fly home to New Zealand for two weeks I discovered that I had a 14hour stopover in Singapore. Fourteen hours. From 1845 to 0845 the next morning.What would I do for fourteen hours The logical thing would be to find somewhere to sleep but whereFortunately I have a cousin who now lives in Singapore and thanks to Facebook I http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Singapore/blog-372564.html It was weird being in the cold of London in the runup to Christmas as everyone was all about winter wonderland mince pies and mulled wine. Then one notso foggy Christmas Eve I boarded a flight to deliver presents to the most unChristmas of places Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Christmas Day isn't even a public holiday here. And as opposed to the freezing Christmas temperatures in E http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/United-Arab-Emirates/Dubai/blog-359678.html Admittedly in the days before I left for Oslo I did not have the feeling of excitement or anticipation that usually preceded a holiday. I had heard that Oslo was expensive freezing dark and with not a lot to do so not only was I lacking enthusiasm before the trip I was almost filled with dread. Didn't help that I was going to one of the world's most expensive countries just days before pay http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Norway/Ostlandet/Oslo/blog-352230.html Having endured a nonexistent English summer in London I was thankful that my old travel buddy Davies and I had booked some Mediterranean sun as an insurance policy. I was looking forward to some proper summer weatherWhen choosing a summer getaway I was looking for somewhere warm and relaxing with enough to do that could be covered in a long weekend and somewhere ideally that was a new coun http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Malta/Malta/blog-333327.html Before I left New Zealand I had promised my British flatmate Alex that I would pay him a visit in Cambridge while I was over here and his birthday party presented the perfect opportunity to do exactly that.I haven't seen much of England so this weekend I was looking forward to seeing what England was like outside London.The train ride was just under an hour from King's Cross so it was nice an http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cambridgeshire/Cambridge/blog-333317.html Welcome back to the TravelBlog Yes I am still aliveIt has been six months since my last trip six months since I arrived in London aboard the Eurostar from Paris.So it seems only fair that I should let you know what I have been up to since the last time you heard from me very brieflyWithin two weeks of arriving in London I had managed to find myself an awesome job with Orange it was a thr http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Rhineland-Palatinate/Sankt-Goar/blog-298843.html After travelling 35066km to 55 cities across 17 countries in 129 days to say that this has been an incredible journey and an amazing experience would obviously be an understatement.Once I had arrived at my cousin's place in London NW6 I have to admit that relief was the overwhelming emotion as perhaps rather unsurprisingly I was all travelled out. In saying that though with the English http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Kilburn/blog-246718.html So this was it Paris our final destination the icing on the cake a glorious finale to 4 months of travelling 4 of the most fun and exciting months of our lives. Well that was the script anyway.When I was lucky enough to land tickets to the Rugby World Cup Final it was all set up now the All Blacks just had to do their bit and make the final. They of course choked against the French a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-239154.html ...are tiny Gimme the big juicy New Zealand ones any day. Although if anything they're slightly more flavoursome though not enough to justify their size I always enjoy coming to Belgium especially for the food scrumptious chocolate tasty mussels crisp fries with mayonnaise delicious waffles and fantastic beer is always readily available. Davies commented on how Belgium is lucky t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Brussels-Capital-Region/Brussels/blog-230904.html The first time I was in Berlin last year for the football World Cup I had to say that I wasn't that impressed. The city seemed too big we didn't seem to have the best time there and it seemed to lack the party atmosphere present at all the other World Cup host cities.I didn't really spend quality time there though it was mainly just a stop to watch football matches. Therefore this time wit http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-229388.html Everyone we had talked to about Prague all used the same word when describing it beautiful. So we were to find out for ourselves whether Prague would indeed live up to all the hype.So it was October 6th 2007 does everyone remember this date If your memory needs some jogging then read on...As a final gesture to Andreas for letting us stay Davies decided to cook up a hot breakfast for every http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Czech-Republic/Prague/blog-222373.html With 38000 people crammed into a small town all chucking tomatoes at each other this has to be the biggest foodfight known to man.In any case it was madness.But before I detail the big fight you're probably all wondering if and how I made my train after my huge night in Madrid rightHaving got home from Kapital at 6.30am or so I was up a mere 2 12 hours later to catch my 9.25am train to Bar http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Valencian-Community/Valencia/blog-201116.html The train I was supposed to catch from Strasbourg was full bugger. Luckily though there were a series of trains I could catch without a reservation that left half an hour later. So after almost missing my connection to Karlsruhe because I was on the wrong platform in the tiny town of Appenweier there were finally no dramas from Karlsruhe to Munich as I received a text from Andreas the guy http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Bavaria/Munich/blog-215687.html My journey from Tampere to London was an arduous one.The flight was around 2 hours and 40 minutes long. After half an hour going through immigration things would be so much easier with an EU passport and baggage pick up the bus from London Stansted Airport to Victoria Station was 70 minutes and then after waiting 20 minutes for the night bus it took a further 25 minutes to get to Nicola's fla http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Alsace/Strasbourg/blog-214512.html