We arrived at London Heathrow at 6:30 after a 5am start, courtesy of Bob, Hannah's dad. The Virgin check in area was sleek and modern, like a 1950s spaceport. You scan your ticket and passport at one of many automated machines then weigh your bags after printing out passes, you still have to go to the desk so the whole process feels a bit redundant. The 10hr flight was pretty bad, seatbelt lights were on the vast majority of the time due to turbulence - happily, this coincided with the serving of food. It felt like an eternitiy before we started [View Full Entry]

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We were picked up by Joe (Jeroen) at Auckland airport, after a painless 13hr flight from LA. I'd arranged a 3 week campervan "try before you buy" rental over the internet before leaving, this included airport transfer and a free night at his B&B. The drive to his place was about three hours, Joe talked most of the way, covering a variety of topics - fishing, adventure sports, driving advice and of course - campervans. He introduced us to ours when we arrived at his house, a 1989 Ford econovan with 134000km on the clock. After countless (no exaggeration) hours of [View Full Entry]

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I was up at 06:30 after a relatively sleepless night, thanks to a deluge of American exchange students. The ferry to Amalfi left Sorrento at 07:30. With a 40min walk ahead I was cutting it pretty fine. On the way, I realised I needed cash for a ticket. Unfortunately, cashpoints which accept my card are suprisingly hard to come by. Every one I tried returned it - usually after several minutes of whirring and beeping. Stress levels were slowly rising as was my body temprature. 15mins until ferry departure and still had to get cash and descend to the port. I [View Full Entry]

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Naples has a bad reputation as a rough town with a rubbish problem. Much of this is true, my first impressions of the city were not particularly good: Noise, rubbish, decrepit buildings, noise, no parks - NOISE! Geee-ssus gaaad man! It's so loud, ambulances screaming all over the city at all hours of the day. I swear if I wasn't blessed with a saintly temprement I would have hated it. But, I liked it. I liked it a lot. (That was a very Jeremy Clarkson-esque statement....the cock....) Finding my hostel was simple despite their best attempts to confuse me with wrong [View Full Entry]

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My first help-exchange and the first time I've been to Italy. I flew out from Stansted, arriving at Lamezia airport to meet Keith, my host and Hannah another helper. Any worries I had were unjustified - he was not a murderer, weirdo or sex-pest. Just a normal down-to-earth guy. We had about a 40min drive through stunning scenery to his house, located just outside the village of Rogliano. What a place - see photo above but I can't do it justice. Surrounded by rolling hills and a smattering of sleepy looking villages, it's like stepping back in time. Well, until you [View Full Entry]

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Woke up at 0630am on Wed morn to torrential rain. With a 40min walk to the train stn I had a slight sinking feeling - perhaps this was not going to be the easiest trip? Luckily, Keith our host had also heard and offered a lift. The drama really started when we arrived in Cosenza. In keeping with ancient Paul tradition lack of planning would feature heavily throughout the journey. We got off the train, fully expecting to jump on a taxi straight to AVIS and our car. Unfortunately, there were no taxis outside the stn. And, according to staff, we [View Full Entry]

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I left Rogliano station around 11am with fellow helpex'r Hannah. Our train was a single carrige and looked resplendent as fook covered front to rear in graffitt - see photo above. The Italians seem to love graffitti, it's everywhere. Not your average UK attempt, oh no. If an Italian writes on a wall it's to declare his undying love: "Princepessa ti amo!!" We arrived in Cosenza around midday - bad idea. The traffic was not what I had expected. Streets were rammed, horns were blaring, the whole Italian-shebang. Shops close at 1pm for siesta so food was needed before we walked [View Full Entry]

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