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Published: April 3rd 2007
Straight out of Africa on a 11 hour flight we arrived in London into 4c and
overcast at 7am in the morning. Caught the tube to Gavin's house in Richmond
(one of Casey's mates from years ago who is a legend to let us stay at his
house) which was fun as most of London joined us, great entertainment to get
off a fully packed peak hour train with fully laiden backpacks. Dropped our
stuff, put most of what we owned on to combat the cold and headed vaguely in
the direction of the city back on the tube. Got off when we heard some place
we recognised and came out of the tube station to be standing there looking
at Buckingham Palace....and the 'Changing of the Guard'. Huge crowd numbers
for something that happens everyday, entertaining, but really get the
impression that it's all a bit of a production for the tourists.
From there went to the Cabinet War Rooms, Winston Churchill famously told
the nation in a broadcast "We will fight them on the beaches" from this
tomb-like bunker, war rooms were closed and sealed at the end of the war
only reopened about 1980, everything left
the way it was on the last day.
Checked out Westminster Abbey (huge), Big Ben (not that big!) and No 10
Downing Street, ended up in Trafalgar Square along with sooo many pigeons.
Long day of walking but saw heaps of the major touristy stuff....
On the 2nd day in London half asleep and freezing cold we went to buy our
tickets for the London "Eye"....short delay in getting it going this morning
so we went to get a coffee to kick start the morning and what presents
itself but 2 Screenco trucks and 6 staff all having coffee and generally not
doing much. Good to see nothing changes too much between countries......had
a chat and got out of there before I started to think about work again.
From the Eye went up to "Borough Markets" where Jamie Oliver frequents when
doing his shows....cruised around checking things out for a while and had
some really tasty food. Just kinda walked aimlessly the rest of the day,
having a look around London City. Had our first of many, many, many pub
meals for lunch....Bangers and Mash and a pint is a winner and at about
$60AU for the two
of us it's the cheapest option for food, apart from the
Indian strips like in Brick Lane where it's just solid streets of "Curry
Munchers".....Greatest food ever - anywhere!
Caught up with Aunty Marie (Tanya's side) at Camden Markets and had a long
lunch at yet another great pub on Camden Locks. It was so nice to see a
familiar face....it's been more than 6 weeks since we have and it was great.
See why the English love their pubs and beer, also explains why you don't
drink beer cold in this silly cold weather.
Kew Gardens, London's Royal Botanic Gardens were awesome, by far the best
gardens either of us had ever seen, every display under the sun and the
diversity of some of the plant displays was mind blowing. Some of the
greenhouses were built to house specimens that were coming back from when
Australia was first discovered. Some of those are now the largest indoor
plants in the world.
Caught up with one of Casey's great mates, Ryan, for a night out in
Shepperds Bush, went and saw Donavon Frankenreiter (Jack Johnson cross
Xavier Rudd style) Ryan got ejected just near the end from
an altercation
with someone's fist....very funny night though. Legend mate!
The following day we met up with Anita and Paul (some of Tanya's old friends
from Airlie Beach) for St Pat's Day and made good use of the excuse to have
a few drinks. Girls went shoe shopping while the boys talked about football,
this was followed by an all night session at another of London's fantastic
drinking holes! Loads of beer, Red wine and Airlie beach memories.....
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TANYA, how we organised this I don't know, but after climbing
the 600 or so steps up on the roof of St Paul's Cathedral at about 11am in
the morning the snow started coming down....not bad timing...Tan's bday, in
London, on the roof of the Cathedral and snowing.....!!! Magical.......
That night we went to the musical "Chicago" in Soho.....fantastic show and
afterwards Tanya and Aunty Marie came out thinking they were in it doing the
high kicks and singing....
Thankyou to everyone for my birthday wishes... I had the best best birthday
ever... one soon not forgotton....
Wales for a night near the end of the stay to see one of Casey's best mates
Mark
C....Did Cardif Castle...Tanya got a little carried away on the Sake at
Japanese (with the crew from Lionel Richie present) that night and ended up
passed out behind me on a seat in the middle of the "Walkabout pub". Mark
and I ended up drinking at the backpackers until they showed us the
door.....
London was great....spent more money in 9 days, than Africa for a month but
it was still great. Got down to Neg 4c and did not get over 10c but we did
manage to see the sun a bit. Glad to be heading back to the beach
though.....Bring on Rio!
Viva RIO
Arrived to the Ipanema Beach House (cheers Nicko for the recom) to stories
of 2 girls having been held up at gunpoint 2 days before we arrived, 1 block
for the hostel at 8pm at night. Nice to hear.....so we decided to do what
anyone should do and checked out the danger from the air....Handgliding over
Rio was an essential thing to do on a clear day they told us.....so there we
were, running full pelt off a platform overlooking Copacabana Beach at 8am
in the morning......unreal....Had air time of
about 20min.....could not
recommend a better way to get a perspective of a place when you first
arrive. Touched down onto the beach and jumped into our first swim in the
insanely warm waters of Rio.
Dinner that night with about 15 guys from the hostel, Tanya (being the only
female) had the pleasure of sitting at "Help" which loosely translated
means....if you want to pay for sex come down to dinner at this big outdoor
street restaurant and the place is surrounded by pros. Like 3 deep in
places, they are not allowed to enter unless invited in, but an invite is
just by looking at them. If you like people watching, this is a hilarious
place to come. The night ended in some multi level dance club in the back
roads of Lapa...only our group among the locals of course.
Rio was bizarre....although you kinda get lulled into a false sense of
security there is always a reality check just around the corner. 2nd night
there and having a few drinks around the bar and a girl walks in with a
white ashen face, having just been mugged on Copacabana Beach....lucky she
had only about US30
on her, we all bought her some drinks so by the end of
the night passed out in the hammock, she had forgotten her problems.
Went up to the Cristo Redentor Statue on one of the clear days for a great
view of the city.....totaly breathtaking!!!! Looking out over Rio like
that...WOW!
Football!!!! Flamengo Vs Vasco at the worlds largest stadium. We only had 65,000 but it seats 120,000. Used to hold over 200k before they installed seats. Nuts, constant drums and the chanting was soo loud, the entire match we were standing and had to shout to each other to be heard. Unreal, small explosions going off, flares and rolling fights through the crowd....energy was amazing, outside the stadium was no different after the match.
Did a tour through the Favela (Slum) beginning with a nutty helmetless motor
bike ride up to the top of the slum dodging our way though dogs, kids and
buses....Walking down through the inside pathways is something we will never
forget.....hygiene is out the window, open sewers everywhere. NO PHOTOS was
a call that regularly came out from our guide as we passed a group of guys
twirling a gun or 5!
These guys' jobs are to let a shot off into the air if
the police or a rival gang enter the Favela, letting the controling gang arm
up and prepare for some action. The Thursday before we were there 8 were
killed in a gang related shoot out. The gangs control the flow of drugs into
the area and with a turn over of over $US1million a month it's big business
and worth fighting for.
It was the kindergartens annual party on the day we were there and all the children were in clown suits....made from crape paper....smiles from ear to ear....
The rest of the time in Rio was really just spent walking the countless
markets, street stalls, and beach time. Finally seeing something
different from the markets of Africa was a nice change. Life on our
packpacking trip is starting to get a lot cheaper in Rio....nice not to have
to freak then they present you with the bill at dinner, and $1 beers - not
complaining....going to get cheaper though.....
Spent an entire day on Copacabana.....got down there at 8am....chairs,
umbrella and endless supply for beer, food and market stalls on hand as
every man
and his dog walks past trying to sell you something. Did not
leave till 6 at night which is advisable as it gets a big dangerous after
dark. Talk about bodies. Never seen so many good looking ppl in all our
lives....every girl was a size 4 or less and tanned to dark brown. Around
here you start wearing a G string bikini when you turn 10 and keep wearing
one until you're 90.
Gotta say we took books to read on the beach and never opened a page.......
way, way, way too many good looking things to look at!!!!!! Best day at the
beach ever!
We were going to catch the bus to Iguazu Falls but at the last minute
someone at the bar at the hostel suggested we try the net for
flights....Jackpot.....22 hours in a bus...how about 2 hours in a plane and
an extra $20 each and we were there. Stayed at the best hostel on the planet
called Hostel Natura on the Brazilian side of the falls. Middle of nowhere 2
lakes to swim in....surrounded by corn fields and some truly good food to
eat. Such a nice break from the standard hostel
with so many ppl.
You can see the falls from both sides, Brazilian and Argentinean as it
creates the border between the countries. They are 3km wide and 273
individuial falls, which makes viewing much better than Victoria Falls as
there is nowhere near as much spray getting kicked up. Did the falls walk
surrounded by butterflies, not just regular butterflies but huge - bigger
than your hand types and they were everywhere in plague proportions. Just
nuts - never experienced so many....Tanya had about 20 covering her back at
one stage of all different colours and size.
On the way out of the park we stopped as a bit of an afterthought at a bird
park. Turned out to be by far the best bird park in the world. Over 200
Toucans and thousands of other species of tropical birds. Enclosures were
massive up to 20m high and 60m long and were just so nicely done. Whole
place was set in tropical rainforest which just made walking between the
enclosures an experience. Rattled off about 500 pics and got some amazing
close up shots.
Brazil was sweet but we moved on quick to safer ground. Our
time is too
short to spend it looking over our shoulders in Rio....Loved to have done
more in Brazil but want to stop for a while in Buenos Aries.
Stupid fact
Confimed by about 5 Americans now is the fact that there is a hydro
electric station at the bottom of Niagara falls. It runs between 5am and
10pm and its sole purpose is to run the pumps to push 30% of the water back
up over the falls for the tourists. Only in America. Believe it or not!
P.s HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMBS.... hope you have a blast and I'll have a few wines
for you... cheers Tans
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Marie
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hang gliding
what great memories to look back on. You guys looked like you had a ball on the hang gliding. I will expect to see you jumping out of a plane eventually as well.... keep up the blog and have fun. cheers from Marie in London