Smudge
Michael Smith Joined: January 25th 2006
Logged in: October 25th 2011
Logged in: October 25th 2011
I'll try and keep you posted of my adventures/misadventures over the next few months, although this is dependent on whether i can actually be bothered to find a computer and write all my escapades down!
I'm a novice at this diary lark but i'm sure that when i get into the swing of things it'l be a work of literary genius and a diary that Samuel Pepys himself would be proud of (Look him up on Google if you haven't heard of him!)
Feel free to leave messages on my site or email me of what your all getting upto. Please note that my family will probably be viewing this site, so keep your messages clean and as unabusive as possible (Otherwise i'll delete them faster than you can say "Put another shrimp on the barby"!!!)
I expect to see most of you when i return in October, by which time i expect I will have watched Liverpool become European champions for the 6th time on a beach in Sydney (Damn, thats not happening anymore!?!?!) and England to have lifted the World Cup whilst i'm in Christchurch, New Zealand (That's a write off too!)! Heres hoping,
Smudge
Travel Blog Posts
Lombard Street
Well, well, well, it's almost home time! Firstly Apologies for signing off with an appaling title for my final blog, but it just came into my head and i couldn't resist! My final port of call on my travels is that finest of ports, San Francisco. I arrived from Santa Barbara on the Train, the trains over here are brilliant, so comfortable with lounge rooms to watch movies in- a nice change from the Greyhound Bus and their arsey staff. I stayed in the Green Tortoise Youth hostel, it had a great vibe about the place and is one of the better bigger Youth Hostels i've stayed in on my travels. On my first full day in San Fran I left the hostel armed with my map and walked and walked and walked... Being from the ... read more
The Pier
Oi Oi After San Diego I went upto Santa Barbara for a couple of nights, staying at the Santa Barbara Tourist hostel. It is picturesque little place with a biggish a student population, with most activity in and around State Street. I done a bit of walking up and down the pier, the beach and down town but all in all nothing exciting! The Youth Hostel had a really good atmosphere, it had loads of students staying there who couldn't find any accomodation anywhere else. A few of them worked at the hostel when they didn't have class and they were always entertaining, a couple of Ivan Campos (Gay guys) called Edison and Alex were always quick to compliment all the guests on what they were wearing?!?! I got quite pally wih a couple of Ozzies ... read more
Symettry with a great centrepiece
Hey Hey My My, Just had the pleasure of spending 4 nights in San Diego, the setting of the film Anchorman (and Top Gun) So, it seems fitting to quote Ron Burgundy on the meaning of San Diego:"San Diego, nobody knows what it means anymore, scholars maintain the translation was lost hundreds of years ago" People claim it means Saint Diego, but i think i'll agree to disagree. Anyhoo, i arrived quite late in the day from Las Vegas on the Greyhound bus. God, the staff at Greyhound are (as a general rule) so useless- they couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery let alone run a bus company. I arrived at 9am at the Vegas terminal, half an hour before my proposed bus, to find the place in chaos-cues a mile long. All i ... read more
The Slots
Oi oi, I arrived in Vegas on 18th September. I was staying at the USA Hostel on Fremont street, which is about a bus ride away from the main Casino strip. The first thing i did when arriving in Vegas was to book a Grand Canyon tour for the next day. I was up at 7 the next morning for the long day ahead, we were going to visit the West Rim of the Grand Canyon, also going to the Hoover Dam on the way. As Dams go the the Hoover Dam was purely belter, half way across the bridge over the Dam is a sign saying you are leaving Nevada and entering Arizona. Once in Arizona we had another coupe of hours drive, often over dirt roads until we reached the West Rim of the ... read more
Walk of Fame
Hey Folks, just thought i'd quote the opening lyrics from Sheryl Crow's most famous song to point out the fact that i've just been to the City of Angels, LA. I arrived late on the 14th of September, the hostel (USA Hostels Hollywood) was on a side street off Hollywood Boulevard aka where the Walk of Fame, Kodak Theatre and Chinese Theatre are. The next day I went on a tour of Beverley Hills which the hostel organised, met 3 English peeps who I hung out with for the next three days: John, Rich and Erika. After getting a bus ride from Sunset Boulevard (Of Hugh Grant/Divine Brown fame) we arrived at Bel Air (of Fresh Prince fame) and proceeded to walk around Beverley Hills as our guide pointed out all of the celebrity homes. To ... read more
Smoke on the Water
Hey Flew over to Kona on the Big Island from Honolulu on the 9th September on the tiniest Plane ever. By the time we arrived it was getting pretty dark so we had the option of hiring a car or paying for a Taxi to the hostel we'd earmarked to stay in Kona. After muchos hanging around the Car Rental companies we found out that because we were both under 25 there would be an extra surcharge of nearly $30 a day for us to hire a car, We had seen one company offering no surcharge on under 25 drivers on the internet so we thought we'd check it out the next day. Hiring a car is pretty much essential on the Big Island because the public transport here isn't great and relative to Oahu everything ... read more
View from Diamond Head
Aloha Arrived in Honolulu in the morning of the 5th of September after leaving Fiji at 11.59pm on the 5th September- Groundhog Day! I had just crossed the international dateline meaning I had the pleasure of having the 5th September all over again. I met three people from the Motherland (England) as soon as we landed in Honolulu, Hawaii: Gemma, alex and Leafy (real name Aleathea?!) We got booked into a hostel just by the famous Waikiki Beach. The first day involved finding our bearings and having a Mcdonalds (When in Rome-Thats one of mine!) On Day 2 we visited the Arizona Memorial aka Pearl Harbour. After watching some original footage of the Japanese attack we got a boat over to the memorial, which is stationed above the wreckage of the SS Arizona (the warship that ... read more
Top 5?
Hey hey My My, For the past week or so we've been doing the Feejee Experience, a bus tour around the main Fijian island, Viti-Levu. We stopped off to do loads of activities whilst travelling between our destinations. On Day 1 we left Nadi and headed to a nearby Beach, apparently one of the Top 5 in the world and then we visited a Fijian village. We had to wear a sarong whilst walking through the village as not to offend the vilagers' modesty- looked very chic?! The most enjoyable part of day 1 was sandboarding, basically (that word again) this is a bit like sledging, only down sand dunes rather than snowy hills. The walk to the top of the Sand Dunes was knackering, so steep- on reaching the top we had to lie down ... read more
Alright Trigwell my son,
I'm gonna slow it right down, the days moving just too fast for me... Bula my friends, We arrived in Nadi, Fiji on 14th August and quickly sorted out a Youth Hostel, halfway beween the airport and Nadi town. Our first two days were spent trying to organise what we'd be doing for the next 3 weeks which involved getting the bus from our hostel into Nadi. Nadi is relatively small, containing a lot of Souvenir Shops and a couple of Supermarkets. It felt like we were back in Thailand because we couldn't be left in peace to walk for 10 seconds without being hassled by some locals trying to chat to us. They'd start off all nicey nice asking where we were from and coming out with all this spiel how they love Englnd, the ... read more
Welcome to Hobbiton
Ey Up, During our last week in New Zealand we've been upto all sorts of activities, making our way from Taupo to Auckland via the Waitomo Caves, Hamilton and Hobbiton. The weather has been pretty shocking, many places have been flooded, in Taupo it rained constantly while we were there. Me and Jonny had planned to do a Sky Dive in Taupo but unfortunately it was too cloudy so it was cancelled two days running. Our hostel, Rainbow Beach Lodge, wasn't a bad place to hang out though whilst the weather was so bad. They had a Movie Room with sofas and a large screen so we could watch DVDs all day. As well as watching DVDs, playing cards and reading Jonny took the opportunity to perfect his Frank Butcher impression: practice makes perfect and it's ... read more
