http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/chazlie/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from chazlie en-us Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:39:57 +0000 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:39:57 +0000 One word......WoAhhhhhhh ......more words as transcribed from my scattered journal so excuse the writing.25th JulyWell it's been the most wonderful week of fresh air pixies family and awesome hitchhiking It all started a bit slow after Salt Spring Island with Steve n I not getting the best of luck with our rides up to Courtenay but nothing as bad as the previous week But eventually ou http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Arcata/blog-424436.html Well it's been an eventful week since the end of the Toby tour. Many more adventures than I expected but then what do you ever expect when you're on the road We took 4 days hitching from Canmore before we got to the island. Two of them spent in the pouring rain about 7 hours waiting for a ride and the other two spent in the roasting sun. After a short but wonderful stint in Victoria invol http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/British-Columbia/Vancouver-Island/Courtenay/blog-421157.html ...something of interest here soon... til then enjoy photos http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Alberta/Banff/blog-415662.html Still trekkin around with the band... playing the same ol songs... stayin in the same ol hotels. I've managed to shake my swine flu at last or whatever feverheadachecoughdizzycrappiness I've had for the last week with lemon ginger tea and lots of good food. Been driving through some spectacular country although never seem to get the chance to step outside for more than 5 minutes Vancouve http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/British-Columbia/Vancouver/blog-411169.html Well the town I'm currently in Fort St John in Northern BC isn't even currently listed on Travelblog which probably sums up a lot right there. Instantly reminding me of something of a cross between Manjimup and Karratha in West Oz I'm not quite as distressed as I would otherwise be that I'm holed up in a hotel room with the flu oink oink hahaha just joking... or AM i Getting here w http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/British-Columbia/Fort-St-John/blog-409524.html The thing that is so weird about America is how familiar it all is yet I seem to be experiencing some of the strangest kind of culture shock of my life It's as if someone has taken all of the overthetop inyourface hyperbole of every bad Hollywood film or American sitcom and plonked it into real life... only the sad thing is that it's the other way around. It is ACTUALLY like that Everyone http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Wisconsin/Milwaukee/blog-407277.html After a two hour drive another 2 hour fourwheel drive through some VERY hairy bush terrain and a 2 hour trek up a muddy vineentangled ferncovered mountain Qua Lee Ben and myself found ourself well and truly in Da Jungle And it was Massif Thankfully having watched the 5 minute instruction video of the Gibbon Experience earlier we kind of knew what to do when we were given a han http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Bokeo-Nature-Reserve/blog-181958.html Well what a milestone Two years and no blogs later I've found my password and can blog once more This is just a quickie really seeing as there are no thousandword pictures to put up YET i'll have to raid Qua's camera when she gets backPai is a beautiful litte town in amongst the mountains of NorthWestern Thailand. It's got some of the best music I've heard in the whole country which http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Pai/blog-178659.html Well to explain the lack of blog for a while I've been travelling incognito as I went around the Australian countryside surprising friends and family who had no idea I was home. Lex at first thought I was a recording of a ukulele both Struth and Luce didn't seem to register that I was back for a good 5 minutes Dad looked at me funny then went a bit teary and Mum asked me who I was sitting on http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Pemberton/blog-50250.html Well so end the adventures in France for now. I'll spare you all the details to avoid provoking jealousy but pretty much it boils down to the fact that I had an absolute ball in Tours thanks to my wonderful friends and travel guides Alex and Thierry. I have eaten enough pastry for the next four years tasted stinky cheese so stinky that is actually illegal in most parts of the world seen c http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Centre/Tours/blog-47018.html I'm actually not in Tours at the moment but in a small town called Vierzon. Alex took me to her parents' house in the countryside where I am being pampered wined and dined with stinky cheese foie gras and manyastick of crusty bread.The trip out of Paris proved to be another interesting escapade. At the last minute on a suggestion given to me be my CouchSurfing host I decided to try and hitc http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Centre/Vierzon/blog-46060.html OK here's another one to send your hair grey. Man I'm going to regret being so honest with everybody one day PIt's 150am and I've just arrived at my CouchSurfing destination for the next few days courtesy of a guy named Stephane. It's a great old shop that's been converted into a flat and it's completely decked out exclusively for couchsurfers Including this computer and a FREE internatio http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-45153.html Back in Fort William now after hitchhiking the measly 40 miles from Oban. It's the tailend of my first 'highland experience' but that didn't mean there wasn't room for one more day of actionpacked adventureEven though there are extreme blizzard warnings heavy snowfall and ice plaguing nearly all of Scotland and most of Great Britain at the moment the only place the weather seemed to have for http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Fort-William/blog-44126.html I've just finished a ten day stint on small relatively featureless island somewhere off the westcoast of Scotland... and it was luverly I finally managed to get off my arse a bit and do some work. Not that much but just enough to appreciate the sparetime and solitude in between and get some inspiration for many a song on Lila. I stayed in a converted barn next to an old millhouse with a strea http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Isle-of-Tiree/blog-43640.html ...life goes ON HAAAAA Or more accurately life GOES once again I'm finally off my arse and 'OOT' of the Edinburger for a while The last five days have been spent charging around the Highlands taking in all of the marvellous beauty it has to offer. Pegs Angus and I set off on Sunday to the Isle of Skye on the way to which we were entertained by our animated bus driver 'Party Marty' while h http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Oban/blog-41603.html Well I think the title sums up the last month and a but quite well. There has been much twiddling of thumbs and knitting needles I am making a Dr Who scarf much procrastination over what kind of nothing I should really get up and do and much dreaming of sun sea and music.All is shaping up well for the next month though as Angus Pegs and I are planning a trip to the highlands for a week sh http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Edinburgh/blog-39172.html It was like having christmas with the army... or an orphanage... or a mental institution At ten O'clock in the morning as ungodly an hour as there ever was the fire alarm went off so that everyone would wake up and congregate in the main lounge. Everyone had begun to wonder why no mail had been coming in for the past couple of weeks but as we arranged our many selves around the tree it beca http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Edinburgh/blog-32830.html Well if for some reason I wasn't coming across as random enough for you up until now then get a load of thisSome American girls I met at the hostel in passing comment mentioned that they'd met a 'friendly hippie' at the markets who invited them to come and stay at a commune up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. They didn't really know much else about it apart from the mud map this guy had http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Andalusia/Sierra-Nevada/blog-31409.html After about a week in spain it's almost inevitable that you will develop semireverse sleeping patterns. If you sleep in a bit too long you will finally venture outside at maybe 130 or 2pm to find that everything is closed On discovering that nothing reopens until 5pm you decide to may as well go and recline on the terrace with a beer until it does. And that's the point of no return. For the http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Andalusia/Granada/blog-31134.html When I come back to Granada I know where I'm going to live. Today I went for a walk up the hill to the Cuevas de Sacromonte. If there is anything in this world that comes close to a reallife LordoftheRings style Hobbit Village this is it It is incredible Centuries ago people actually just dug caves into the side of the hill and setup their lives in them Some families are still there wi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Andalusia/Granada/blog-30533.html