http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/mr-wind-up-bird/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from mr wind up bird en-us Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:21:03 +0000 Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:21:03 +0000 I'm sitting in Bula internet at the heart if Nadi Fiji. It's roasting and humid outside but thankfully it's air conditioned in here. Nothing except church happens on a Sunday in Fiji. All that shops are shut and I've spent most of the day here.Tomorrow I travel to Levuka the old colonial capital off the east of Viti Levu the mainland. I'm not entirely sure how I'm getting there yet. I've been http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Fiji/Viti-Levu/Nadi/blog-107910.html The best thing about So Cal is the sunsets. For some reason the precise natural humidity and human pollution factors combine to turn the skies brilliant shades of orange and pink almost every evening.I was in L.A for a bit of a reunion. My friend Matt had just moved out there about a year ago and as luck would have it two more of my friends from University Rob and Leo would be there at the http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/blog-107657.html New York for all intents and purposes is the centre of the Universe. I suppose I'm reasonably well traveled for someone my age but stepping out of the Brooklyn Bridge subway station into an overcast Wednesday afternoon was still an awe inspiring experience. To put it bluntly everything is just so tall and busy. Hundreds and hundreds of iconic yellow cabs speed past you are jostled by sharply http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-York/New-York/Manhattan/blog-101238.html Not much to report here I'm afraid. Bulgaria's Black Sea coast is a bit like an action film. It's fun but not very interesting.Trying to escape from some zealous American missionaries Missionaries Bulgaria is almost entirely orthodox Christian I had met on the Bus from Velika I jumped into a taxi that drove me to the hostel I had planned on staying in. Up three flights of stairs later and it http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/East/Varna/blog-80414.html I think I managed to get sick of Music in Vel305ka Tarnovo. Don't worry it's not a permanent illness But a few days I just wanted silence. The problem was that the hikers hostel where I was staying although lovely deemed 305t reasonable to play mind numb305ng trance music from early morning to early evening. From then it got even worse as a couple of obnoxious australians whose majo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/North/Veliko-Tarnovo/blog-79162.html My last day in Sofia was very lazy I don't think I got up until midday and so I eventually left Sofia rather later than I should have done. Sofia train station was a vast grey labryinth of Cyrillic signs and communist architecture. I had a quick flap as I couldn't find anywhere selling tickets to Plovdiv. Fortunately I had my trusty Rough guide to hand which informed me that they could be purc http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/South/Plovdiv/blog-73174.html Riding in from the airport past scores of decaying grey communistera tower blocks wasn't the best way to lift my spirits after a sleepless overnight flight so Sofia seemed a bit miserable at first. But then what doesn't at 630 in the morning. My mood wasn't helped when the hungover ticket inspector declined to show any leniancy towards my unvalidated bus ticket. I was clearly a new arrival in http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-72379.html 1 Portugal is definetly and defiantly not Spain. Before I arrived I too would have been hard pressed to distinguish between Portugal and its larger Iberian cousin. Portugal does however retain an immediate and distinct atmosphere of its own although this atmosphere is hard to define. I suppose it seems somewhat Carribean or South American to me although having never been to the Carribean or http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Lisbon-and-Tagus-Valley/Lisbon/blog-54847.html My little travel alarm begins to play it's irritating high pitched melody. Shit I fell asleep. Of course I knew I was going to fall asleep otherwise I wouldn't have set the alarm. But it's 400 and I have a night train to catch at the insane hour of 500. Too late to stay up for and too early to be waking up. So I compromised drinking too many cans of cheap lager and finally passing out around http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Castile---Leon/Salamanca/blog-54674.html Every Sunday El Rastro is a frenetic bustling entity. Stretching down from Metro Latina to the Grand Arch of the Ronda de Toledo the vast mass of browsing tourists rickety stalls and hard bargaining locals sprawls so far in every direction that it seems a disservice to label it a street market. One can get quite literally anything here from Moleskin Notebooks replica football shirts variou http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/District-of-Madrid/blog-52138.html The train to Bilbao should have taken less than an hour. But passing green little valleys scarred by the proliferation of high rise blocks and desolate industrial projects it ended up being closer to four.I arrived hot sweating and without the slightest idea of where I was stayingConstruction projects were everywhere. I had set of along the riverbank in the hope of finding a tourist office but http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/Bilbao/blog-51152.html Patrick Ross was the most interesting of my various all to brief aquaintences. A burntout violin prodigy with an oversized goatee. He teaches music in Vermont and is from my observations a borderline alcoholic. He disapeared sometime on a friday night after babbling drunkenly in french canadian which he speaks fluently for an hour. As expected I didnt see him again.There is a strange co http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/blog-50863.html A coach load of field tripping Exeter Geography students wasn't really what I was expecting on my first night at the youth hostel in Bordeaux.Standing in the lobby I saw a familiar looking badge on a jumper. It took me a few minutes to recognise what it was and I had to ask to be certain But sure enough the hostel was crawling with Exeter University first years.I made very little contact with http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Aquitaine/Bordeaux/blog-48708.html Alone and unwellstuck in an expensive foreign hotel room. I can't say I was really 'living the boho dream' during my three nights in Blois.I didn't fancy the 5 mile trek to the outoftown youth hostel and more importantly I needed to sleep. Such a goal was never going to be acomplished by being turfed out into the streets from 10 to 6 as is often the policy at Hosteling international.So I chec http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Centre/Blois/blog-48498.html One of the major policy flaws with my first hostel in Paris was that alcohol was prohibited from being brought in from the outside. It could of course be purchased in hostel at an overinflated price 2 euros for a tiny bottle of bavaria. Last time I checked Bavaria was a part of Germany not Holland but the label begged to differ but poor backpackers like myself can't afford that kind of thing ev http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-47268.html It's difficult not to feel selfconscious in Paris. The city's reputation as the pinnacle of high fashion is well known but it's more than just clothes it's the whole attitude. A flick of the wrist to stub out a cigarette the casual almost lazy swagger a nonchalant tilt of the head to express distate.This is kind of stupid but a few days ago while sitting in a laundrette waiting for my was http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-46215.html It's fair to say I wasn't in the best of spirits when I arrived at my hostel. I't was raining a lot getting dark and it was rush hour. I had also managed to cut my finger open somewhere on the metro so I was bleeding everywhere. The nervous energy I'd bult up over the last few weeks along with grave warnings about pickpockets on every corner from my 'rough guide' had made me slightly paranoid a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-45321.html Itrsquos a funny old place Amsterdam. While this may not be the most profound sociological statement with which to open this entry it is rather apt. The Dutch attitude to pursuits which other nations might regard as extracurricular is well known. Whether or not one chooses to engage in such activities this tolerance and bloody minded commitment to liberalism even under pressure from the Euro http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Netherlands/North-Holland/Amsterdam/blog-44464.html The first thing I noticed about Leeds was the size of the buildings. Actually thatrsquos the second thing I noticed. The first was that it was really fucking cold and as usual dressed in a thin suit jacket I was woefully unprepared for these types of temperatures. Oh the sacrifices we must make for fashion. It was clear I was now in a big city. I was surprised to find out later that Leeds http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/West-Yorkshire/Leeds/blog-39245.html So as it turns out I am an imbecile of the highest order. I will hear no complaints this is an indisputable fact. While my trip is not exactly in danger there are certainly some complications. Handling finances abroad can be a tricky procedure particularly so if something gets stolen. The idea then is to spread the risk. To have several backup options if something goes wrong. My cunning pla http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Cardiff/blog-36549.html