John Sweeney and Kristian Payne
hey everyone...this is our little site where we can tell you all the things that we have been up to in our adventures through america, europe, scandinavia and thailand.johnandpudd
Travel Blog Posts
August 26th 2006
All good things must come to an end, as the saying goes. And our time overseas was definitely good, absolutely, and yes it has ended but apart from the initial shock of arriving back in Melbourne, there doesn't seem to be any reason why the good must now end and the bad must begin. We had such a fantastic time and instead of rueing the fact that we are back it seems more sensible to reflect on how fantastic the trip was. An incredible time of nearly 7 months were neither of us worked a day and did only what we felt we wanted to do. No alarms, or jobs, or responsibilities or deadlines, just freedom. Our time in Thailand was really great, we both had very little money, even for Thailand standards we had really ... read more
August 12th 2006
Hello everyone, quite a bit has happened since we both made our last entries. For starters we are now both in the same country again and that country is quite different to the one where we met up again. For both of us is was quite difficult for a few reasons to leave our adopted countries of residence, Germany and Canada. The thought of travelling to Sweden and Thailand did take the edge off a bit but it was still difficult. Kristian and I have talked about what advise we would give to people setting off on a trip like ours; Socks, bring lots of socks. But also you should always ask yourself this: In this city, where I am flying out of, is there 2 airports? Because sometimes there are, and sometimes you spend 3 ... read more
August 3rd 2006
Well im very sad to say that I am no longer in Canada, instead im back in Germany in the city of Frankfurt killing time till 3:20 pm when I go to meet up with John at the airport. This blog wont be accompanied by any photos or anything exciting since the last entry, its more of a massive thankyou to all the very cool people I met and spent time with in Canada. It was a hard choice deciding whether to leave Germany during the world cup but it was such a good decition and a jorney that has made this trip just that much better. So to all Chelsea´s friends thank you very much for all the good times and laughs, you guy where fantastic. A HUGE thankyou to Chelsea's family for taking care ... read more
August 2nd 2006
Its strange to think that after 3 months in Germany I have now spent just over 1% of my life here. Granted that perhaps seems not so much, however it differs slightly from the 4 days that our original plans had us staying. So today is the last day, so much has happened since we arrived in May. The World Cup, a month long festival in every village, city and town in the country. Trips to Medieval Castles and Towns, A weekend in Paris, A week in Spain, our own little apartment, a music festival, beer gardens, bars, nightclubs, restaurants. Its been a great time. Germany is an interesting country, one that is rich in history both of the good and bad variety. This town for example has a history dating back around 1,500 years. Each ... read more
July 28th 2006
Hello all, As you may have read in one of John's earlier blogs, my travel plans have again changed. An opportunity arose to go with Chelsea and some of her family and friends to the Yukon Territory of Canada for a wedding, and later to Alaska for a bit of a vacation. After looking at flights to Whitehorse and finding them to be very expensive (1000 dollars for a return domestic flight!) I decided to just book the flight home and drive up there with some of Chelsea's friends, who had bought a van just for this trip. A vehicle we affectionately refer to as the Angry Beaver, because its previous owners were two lesbians. The road from Winnipeg to Whitehorse (actually Haines Junction, a small town) is almost 4000 km and took nearly 36 hours ... read more
July 24th 2006
A few weeks ago I got email from an Australian girl I met in Vienna about her travels in Spain, and it was entitled: Spain- Oh Boy!. I think that pretty much somes it up. Spain is the place and the place is Spain. I stayed in Barcelona and that place is hot. When people talk about the Sun beating down, that saying is definitely true in Barcelona, the Sun and the heat is unrelenting. No cool changes, no cloudy days, just heat and this is why that Spain is so legendary for it late nights because some days are hard to do much with. I left Tübingen on Wednesday via the 4:38am train from the station. Cheap flights are early flights, and early flights mean even earlier trains. So when I finally arrived at my ... read more
Ract Festival 2006, Tübingen, Germany
Published: July 16th 2006Europe » Germany » Baden-Württemberg » Tübingen
July 16th 2006
Its funny, the people you meet. While waiting with great anticipation and apprehension for the commencement of the Australia vs. Japan match (all those weeks ago), we were approached by a man wearing an official Australian Soccer shirt and carrying a hand-sewn Australian flag. "Are you Australian?" he asked in English with a German accent. "Yes" we answered. "True Blue?" he enquired. "Most definiteley". This guy was Alex, and over the next couple of hours we came to discover that he was half Australian, half German and that his hand sewn flag was stolen during a political protest in Canberra and that altought he was originally from Tübingen he was there at that time to organise a Poltical-Musical festival. 16,000 people he assured me, in the very same parl where the World Cup screen was. I ... read more
July 10th 2006
What do you do when the country you are staying is knocked out of the world cup? Well if you are in Europe you can always just go to another country that is still involved, so off we went to France. We had since the beginning of the World Cup been saying that if Germany was in the final we would go to Berlin but not really in a serious way. And we always joked that if France got in but not Germany then we would go to Paris. Well as luck would have it France did get in and after the France vs Portugal Semi Final on Wednesday, for the first time we seriously considered it. After a day of deliberating between myself and Anja and ours friends Matt (an Aussie guy form Adelaide) and ... read more
July 5th 2006
Hello all. The weekend just past, on Saturday July 1st was Canada's 139th Birthday. So in celebration of this 3 day weekend Chelsea, a bunch of her friends and I went to spend it at a lodge on a lake in the middle of no where. After packing the truck and cars we headed off for the 4 hr drive to 'Long Lake' in Nopiming Provincial Park. The last hour of the drive was along dirt roads and we made the mistake of not closing the external air inlet and so arrived at the lodge completly covered in dust. The cabin was awsome, right on the lake with no view of any other inhabitants, complete with its own dock and sun deck. The fact that there was zero electricity and that we relied on kerosene lamps ... read more
June 29th 2006
The past few days in Tübingen have been relatively quiet, for one reason in particular: No Football. Its been so strange I feel like I have lost a shoe. The world cup started with 3 games every single day, what bliss, and then went down to 2 per day, still very tidy. But in between the round of 16 of the Quarter Finals there are two whole days where neither a football is kicked nor a shin is grabbed in mock horror and pain at a foul that did not occur. Tomorrow though will make up for that because Germany plays, and that always means goodtimes. Unless they lose. Hopefully that doesn't happen. One interesting thing that has occured is I recieved this message from a fellow called Tim in response to the entry "Stuttgart": Hi ... read more
Tot: 0.096s; Tpl: 0.003s; cc: 18; qc: 91; dbt: 0.0684s; 1; s:notus w:www (50.28.60.10); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.8mb
