matt_australia

10c, fine 22c, warm The last stop of the 'Matt road show' was Amsterdam. The mere mention of this city instantly conjures up sordid images of coffee shops, 'window shopping' and... windmills (okay that's not sordid.. but you get the idea). It's all true, you'll find whatever it is you're looking for in Amsterdam. I'd liken the parts of the city to a theme park - in your face, loud and noisy. Most people go to experience 'the atmosphere' (not the rides.. pardon the pun!) and not surprisingly nearly 95% of people in the red light district are tourists. This is not Holland but I never expected it to be. The first sight of a scantly clad teenager wearing lingerie behind a window was a bit a bit 'in your face', especially in broad daylight. ... read more

4c, rain and wind (Ie - bloody freezing!) I could pretend that I experienced a lot of Danish culture and saw the majority of Copenhagen, but that’d be a big fat lie. I had merely 24 hours in between flights from Iceland to Finland - that didn’t allow for much ‘Danish time’ but I did get to see Copenhagen.. just.. Go easy on me if this entry doesn't exactly set the world on fire. I had visions of Copenhagen being a big messy city to get around, instead I was surprised to find a quaint and fairy easy city to navigate. The population is well under a million and all the streets are squeaky clean (even if noisy with the cobblestones). Arriving at 8pm is a pain anywhere, but doing it with a massive wheelie ... read more

22c, Fine It’s amazing how you can check in your luggage on a small Caribbean island like.. say.. St Lucia and it makes it all the way to Nice, France isn’t it? I waited in anticipation at the baggage carousel in Nice and watched everyone pick up their luggage. I waited and waited until the carousel was empty and got a sinking feeling in my stomach before Iberia confirmed the worst - they’d lost my worldly possessions and no idea where they were. What an awesome start to my arrival in Europe and the first thing I wanted to deal with in my jetlag haze! I’d just sat in my own filth for three cross country flights from St Lucia to San Juan to Madrid to Nice and now I had NOTHING (‘nothing’ in this ... read more

30c, Mainly fine with isolated thunder storms ‘The Natural Island’ - that’s the tourism slogan for Dominica and it fits perfectly. This is not the Dominican Republic, this is Dominica where tourism is still a buzz word and the main international airport is called ‘Cane field’. There are no direct flights from anywhere outside the Caribbean and it remains the regions poorest and least visited destination. I arrived via catamaran from Guadeloupe without a CARICOM (Caribbean Community) visa. The website said I’d be turned away or fined, but I figured little Dominica would have a simple answer for me… and they did. “No problem sir, enjoy your stay in Dominica and the Caribbean” - I was in!! but not before a customs official wearing a Bob Marley shirt asked if I had any weed in ... read more

36c, Fine Boarding the flight to St Maarten from New York I immediately knew I wouldn’t be your typical tourist on the island. All the other passengers were well to do elderly couples kitted out in the latest fashions from (insert name of fashionable elderly store here) and ready to sip Pina Coladas on the beach. Fair enough, I just hoped I’d fit in somewhere on the island because it was obvious that without Marg there would be no sunset cocktails and candle lit dinners. My first taste of the Caribbean was the ride to Sint Maarten’s Dutch capital Philipsburg - a rather un-Dutch kind of place that was packed to the brim with Gucci stores, duty free outlets, the latest electrical goods from Japan and everything a travelling US tourist would want in less ... read more