Home Well after about 4 and a half months I’m back home. Really great. First thing I noticed is that people seem more friendly. Don’t know if people really are friendlier here in NZ, perhaps it’s just that you always feel more comfortable at home. You know how things work etc, so you perceive that things are easier and more friendly. Having said this, just after the SMILING NZ immigration officer had checked my passport at Auckland Airport, he said “Welcome Home”. Awesome. What now? Arggggh! Back to the grind, looking for a new job. [View Full Entry]

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Well, have spent a few days in Melbourne in the Australian state of Victoria. Flew from London with a couple of hours stopover in Singapore and then onto Melbourne. The journey was about 20 hours or so. Left London on a Tuesday night and got to Melbourne on a Thursday early in the morning. Needless to say was very tired. Day 0 Stayed with some relatives who were quite enthusiastic to drive me around different parts of Melbourne. On the day I got there they took me to a reservoir/park area with a view of the city in the background. Pretty [View Full Entry]

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Flying to Austrailia in next couple of days, so haven't done much, just revisited a couple of museums. Also went to a Latin American festival (Carnival del Pueblo) with a friend from school. 19 different Latin American countries, food (including beer from Peru!), music, dancing, etc. Nice day out, sunny and relatively warm, and evidence that London is a very multicultural city. [View Full Entry]

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Well have been to Prague and back over the last week or so. Day 0 Left London on a bus at about 7pm at night. (I know you must be thinking that is crazy to go to Prague by bus from London, but it was part of a package I bought from the bus company, return fare, plus 3 night accommodation in Prague, plus a tour of the city for £150. Plus I am fed up of going to and from airports, going to Victoria Bus station is a lot easier. (Some people think that one of the August 21 alleged [View Full Entry]

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Spent a few days in Caernarfon Wales. Well worth the 10 hour bus trip from London. I was nice to get away from the crowds and pollution of London. Heaps of things to go and see and do, wish I had planned it better to stay longer. Have to admit that I got up early on the first day that I was there to watch the All Blacks versus the Lions in a pub because the game was on pay television here. Had to wander around for a bit before finding a pub that was open. Did eventually find one open, [View Full Entry]

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If you want to get away from London for a few days then I would say that Canterbury in Kent is the ideal place to go. Sure it's crowded with tourists, but so is London and here things seem less hectic. Canterbury had everything you would expect of England: Roman History Castle Cathedral which forms part of a World Heritage Site, (Canterbury was the cradle of the re-introduction of Christianity to Britain), aside from the Cathedral there are two other parts of the World Heritage Site, St Martin's Church and St Augustine's Abbey. Links to famous literature and authors: Marlowe, Conr [View Full Entry]

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Okay, so have spent a bit of time in London, taking a break from travelling. I've also went to a couple of places for a few days. (See my other entries , and ) I have to admit the weather is not the greatest, and I'm here in mid summer. They call a weekend when the temperatures in the high 20s a heatwave! About 50% of the time I have been here it has been grey and overcast and only moderately warm. (It was much nicer in Kent and in Wales.) When it is hot, it is horribly humid. The other [View Full Entry]

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Well have made in to London. Got the Gatwick Express from Gatwick to Victoria Station, passed though green countryside with terraced houses. Amazing to see the green after the brown countryside of Spain. As the trian pulled into London, you could look out and see the roofs of houses, and it looked like something out of Corranation Street. (I know Corranation Street is not set in London, but the look was the same.) Tube ride from Victoria to the hostel near St Pauls, horrible as ever, hovever it was rush hour so it is to be expected. People crowding into trains, [View Full Entry]

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So today is my last full day in Spain, I leave for the UK tomorrow, and it rains. The day is not cold, but dawn was cloudy, and the sky dark, you could smell rain in the air. Felt a bit humid like Auckland. Went to the Parc Güell, and what a difference going there at 830am on a Monday morning makes, hardly anyone arround. Later ... Luckily had my best Peruvian raincoat because it started to rain. This did not seem to deter either the locals or tourists on the streets, still seemed pretty crowded, especially La Rambla. Went to [View Full Entry]

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Okay, so yesterday I looked up three or four Gaudi Buildings and decided to try and go and see them today... First walked from the hostel near Vallcarca to La Rambla, quite a long way but at the start it was quite a nice morning, sunny but not too hot, however as I walked along it got more and more cloudy. (But hey, I´m holiday, so can´t really complain.) There were three examples of Gaudi work along the way, Casa Vicens, La Pedera, and the Batlló Building. The first one was in a side street away from the main tourist route [View Full Entry]

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