It is simply impossible to imagine a more religiously enigmatic city than Jerusalem. Amongst the old city of about 1 sq klm, the Big 3 religions have some of their most significant temples of worship all competing for a piece of the prime reverential real estate cake. I found it mindboggling to have the Wailing Wall butting up against the Al Aqsa Mosque. Watching orthodox Jews going through their paces against the Wall in the shadows of the Temple Mount on one side and the previously mentioned mosque on the other is prime front seat viewing. These orthodox Jews can be [View Full Entry]

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Out of Syria, across the border and before you knew it we were "CROSSING JORDAN". Amman is the capital and the inevitable first stop for most tourists rolling in from our direction. Amman is hardly your quintessential exotic Middle Eastern city but there were enough distractions in and around to occupy us for a couple of days. There's nothing particularly wrong with Amman but nor is there particularly anything right with it. Petra, on the other hand, is THE must see and everyone who visits Jordan does see. There's a reason for that. Petra is (I'm trying to think of an [View Full Entry]

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Syria? Aren't all those Arabs lecherous terrorists with a bomb in each pocket? All those people guilty of having even remotely such notions, get yourself into the kitchen for a big steaming hot cup of REALITY. Better still, get yourself over here and experience these people for yourself. The Turks are welcoming, the Syrians equally so but on a more "energetic" level. A couple of brief examples. * Meandering around the Aleppo Citadel, we stumbled across a group of about 100 school children at the citadel's open theatre. When the teachers spotted us they roused up a 100 strong chant - [View Full Entry]

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Let's begin wıth the positives. If someone had asked me, on leaving Europe, who were the most endearing people we have come across this year, it would be a close contest. The Argentinians came out of the blocks, the Greeks were competitive, Albanian police got a guernsey. The gold medalists for me were gererally the French, particularly while the women who work ın boulangeries maintain that almost ıntangible demeanour I found so engaging. Now, sorry France, it's time to stand aside and hand the yellow shirt over to the Turks. These people extend the welcome mat way above and bey [View Full Entry]

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Turkey - a long necked, wıde backsıded, ugly bırd wıth a small head that goes 'gobble gobble'. The natıon of the same name ıs gratefully a heck of a lot more exotıc. Istanbul was for us, lıke most people, our entry poınt and an ıdeal place to be weened onto the Mıddle East and off the West. It ıs festooned wıth: . cats, zıllıons of them, but at least they appear well treated and healthy. . natıonal flags. The Turks are a patrıotıc bunch. . posters of ımages of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - hero of the [View Full Entry]

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Planes, trains and automobiles. The self drive is over and we are back on the local transport merry-go-round. Fırst up London between maınland Europe and Turkey. London was manıc. I can't remember anywhere, ıncludıng London last tıme we were here, beıng so crowded. Perhaps ıt was the fact that clear blue days ın thıs cıty are as rare as competıtıve Wallaby props, so wıth the lovely weather we had, ıt seemed EVERY Londoner wanted to be out amongst ıt to savour thıs most Indıan of summers. The hıghl [View Full Entry]

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Brittany and Normandy. The area was a hive of conflict in times past and was disputed over for nigh on 300 years by the French and the English. Sounds like a precursor for the Rugby semi finals but I'll come to that later. Brittany first up and on arriving, the architecture appeared to be plucked direct from the English rural scene. Hang on, England is part of Britain, I think. Britain/y! Put 2 and 2 together and...... this is all commencing to add up. The weather was also a bleak reminder of all things British just across the channel. Grey, foggy, [View Full Entry]

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No doubt about it, I gotta get myself a new body. Something around 30 years younger than the one I've got now would be handy. What was a minor rib complaint after Hossegor blew out to full on crippler after 3 crummy waves in Lacanau. So after those 3 waves, the surfing is over. Is it time to bite the bullet, admit defeat in the age war and buy myself a longboard on return to Oz? 11 days of prepaid accommodation in Lacanau meant we were staying, surfing or no surfing. 11 days in a beach town like Lacanau can drag [View Full Entry]

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Montpellier. The Wobblies are based there and so too did we for 2 nights either side of the game against Fiji. The win was solid but exposed a few deficiencies. The highlight was Montpellier itself. A biggish city with real charm and the most psychodellic of trams. We also caught up with our mate Rod who was over with a few of his Londoner comprades. All nine of us had a wonderful night out after the match in a restaurant tucked into the corner of a quaint plaza somewhere in the back streets of Montpellier. The food in the restaurant was [View Full Entry]

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This is to be a blog choc-a-hoot full of guest contributers. With such a multi-talented group of would-be journos scribing their 2 cents worth, I’ll leave my contribution centred on 2 topics: The RUGBY kicked off for us in Lyon which was abuzz with the fever of “the thinking man’s game”. The tournament came out of the blocks with an upset, “Le Cauchmar” (nightmare) read the headlines. Lyon was a sea of gold in the streets as the Wobblies faithful pranced around town, but the Japanese also had their ration of “hopeful” support. The game itself [View Full Entry]

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