Special Post

Just a quick one. This is a special post for you Mum. A reminder that no hair is still the coolest way to go:

Ahhhhh so much lighter :)

Lots of Fun- Aussie Style

Still alive here in Australia (despite not having Killers tickets). Had a really good Australia Day with the BBQ and the party. It amazes me how accepting the people I have met have been. Dzido knew two guys here that he worked with in Banff 5 years ago, and they have welcomed us both with open arms. Even their friends are great and invite us out for beers, or to watch tennis or to surf with them. I guess that is why we are still in Sydney (its been 11 days)- we just love the lifestyle!

I have also discovered surfing. Yesterday I took my first lesson. It was fantastic. The instuctors were really cool. Exactly how you would imagine surfing instructors on Bondi beach (where we went) to be. Tanned, long hair and lots of sunscreen. The class was for beginners and as a result most of us were tourists. Everyone supported each other, laughed about the falls and cheered each other on when we caught waves. I shouldn't overstate it- neither of us are not movie-style surfered yet (though we do look great in wetsuits!) For the lesson you use longboards that are made of hard foam. The longboads are 8 feel long, making it much easier to balance on than the more traditional short boards. The hard foam is so that you don't kill the other surfers if you hit them in the head with your board. In actual fact I have only hit one person, but I have hit myself repeatedly. OUCH. The board is tied to one of your legs so that it can't get too far away from you.

With some good teaching and a very large surf board, I was standing most of the time during my first lesson. We didn't get out too deep and the waves were not huge, but they were big enough to pick up some good speed. It is such a great feeling when you catch the wave, feel the accelaration and actually stand up. I guess it is like learning anything new- you get really excited at the small successes.

Today we went back to the same place we had the lesson and just rented two of the big boards and tried it out for ourselves. Initially it was a bit frustrating because it was hard for us to tell where the good waves were, but once we got that figured out, it was a great time. The ocean was a lot rougher today and I had some great falls. Once or twice I tried to fight the laws of natures and try to breath underwater- turns out those laws are still very much enforced. A pair of gills would be rather useful.

There are a couple of pictures that I wanted to post with stories. This first one is a picture of the massive acorns that fall off the trees around here. Dzido and I were walking when heard a huge BANG. It was one of these things landing on the roof of a car. We could have been killed! In fact I think people have been killed by these things. Its larger than a baseball, heavy, hard and spiked. Mother natures fights back yet again!

Life in the van is still going well. We are currently parked on a residential street that has homes worth 3 million dollars. I am sure that they love us. But it is right in front of our friend Nate's house, so we are allowed...I hope.

And by popular demand, here is a picture of a Kangaroo from the zoo and another of a wallaby. Now you can all stop bothering Dzido about them! But we hope to get some more pictures of them when we drive though the outback next week.

Adventures on Australian Radio

I have been on Australian radio!

Last night Dzido and I were driving along, listening to the local Sydney radio station, minding out own business, when we heard that they were having a contest to win the last two tickets for The Killers concenrt that was happening in Sydney the next day. For those who are unaware The Killers are OUR band. Back in Montreal during the summer we used to listen to their album Hot Fuss while we sat on the balncony drinking beers and watching the world go by. Even now when I hear songs from that CD I am transported back to Montreal. Their new album Sam's Town will always make me think of working in England, and of this trip in general, as we have listened to it non-stop since I got it a few months ago. I think we all know what it feels like when we associate songs with a particular time and place. The Killers take us top our happy place.

The contest for this station was to call in and plead you case as to why the DJs should give you the tickets. Most people had really lame reasons like "I love the Killers, they are great" then when they were asked to name the members of the band, they couldn't. Not true fans. We figured we had the perfect case to make. We have always wanted to see them live, they are our favourite band, we are driving around Australia in a camper van with a single CASSETTE which is Hot Fuss and we are so far from home it would make us so happy.

By some miracle I actually got through to the station after redailing the number for about half an hour. At the time, Dzido and I were on our way to a party. The guy we ran with the bulls with (Louis) has a sister who is in Sydney and who invited us over to meet some of he friends. It was a stressful time- we were lost, comppletely unable to find the apartment and just then the phone started ringing. We pulled over and I pled my case LIVE on the air. My heart was beating out of my chest. I told them about our love of the Killers and living out of a van witha single cassette, which got a laught. The female DJ was reluctant, saying that she wanted to give the tickets to an Australian because the show would be on Australia Day. I told her that Australians are known the world over for their generocity and hospitality and this would be a great way to show their true colours. I told them we wanted to see our favourite band in our favourite country. I think I did all I could.

So we drove around for another half hour trying to find this apartment and listening to the radio as other people made their case. Even though it was night time, I swear the temperature rose to above 40 degreees. We were so nervous. But sadly we were let down. The fact that we were foreign was too much of an obstacle to overcome. They gave the tickets to some guy who said he looked like Jesus (that is funnier if you have heard their songs). We were so dejected. But we finally ended up finding this partment and had a really nice time with Emile and her 3 friends. They are all from Quebec and were very nice...though the whole night would have been made a lot sweeter if we had been going to a Killers concert the next day.

But it was cool being on the radio! And at least we gave it a try.

Happy Australia Day everyone! We are off to a BBQ and then to a party at night. I don't know how we made so many friends down here, but we are just going to go and have a good time! And as an Australia Day gift to all of you I have put up some pictures on my last post and added a story about an emu. G'Day All!

First week with the Aussies

Sorry for the lack of posts after the race. It is a lot harder to do blog posts when living out of a van. Yes, my life as a wander hobo has begun. It has been a little difficult to get used to having the van. So far in this trip I have gone mostly by rail, which is sometimes a pain, but has the advantage that you don't have to pay to park your train. On Monday morning Dzido and I were trying to find a place to watch football (good old times difference meant the NFL playoffs were in at 10am Monday morning) when we found a place downtown, bu realized that we needed somewhere to park. The best we could do was metered parking, which costs 8 dollars for 2 hours. But the game was good, though the Pats lost, so it was worth the money.

This Picture if from our trip to the zoo. It is a beautiful zoo. It has one of the nicest views of Sydney. It also has something called the Australian Walk About where you can actually walk through the cages with the animals. We were walking across a path when we got cut off by an emu!! I real emu! Those things are big and rather scary, so rather than force the right of way, I just let him go ahead of me.

More proof that the world is extremely small- Dzido and I went to a campsite north of Sydney for a day just to get near a beach. We went to buy some groceries, when who did I see in the store? The woman that I shared a hotel room with in Hawii. She was staying with some friends near by until she headed north to meet up with her husbands family. Apparenly she got on the next flight. Sydney has 4 million people in it but we ran into each other. Crazy.

The last two days Dzido and I have been up in the Blue Mountains that are west of Sydney. This is where the camper van and the freedom that it provides, has been very helpful. We drove up through some beautiful rolling hills. They are called the Blue Mountains because they acually do appear blue. The oil produced by the millions of eucalyptus trees reacts with sunlight and makes everything seen at a distance appear blue.

Unfortunately we got a bit of rain while we were in the montains. It was interesting because you could look into the valleys and actually see the clouds coming towards you. I am sure you are wondering- what do you do when you are in a camper and its raining? Well mostly we just drove around. The real challenge came when we wanted to cook and couldn't open the windows. We have a little gas stove in the camper, so when we were making breakfast (eggs of course) it got very hot very quickly.

Today we are back in Sydney since it is raining and we can't go to the beach. Tomorrow is Australia Day and we wanted to be in Sydney for that, so we should have a good time there. Sydney is an amazin city. There are parks and trees everywhere and the streets are so clean.

The streets are wide and the buildings are beautifully designed. With a few exceptions they seemed to have skipped tha bad design phase of the 70s and 80s and went straight to nice big glass structures. The Aussie people are also so nice, I am started to wonder why Canadians have the reputaion for being nice. We could learn a thing or two from these Aussies!

Here is something interesting- I found a website where you can list all of the countries you have been to and it tells you how much of the world you have visited. This is my map. After almost 8 months I have only visited 11% of the world! This calls for more travels...

And just so you are not wondering- my supply of clean underwear is dwindling- will have to do laundry soon.

Post-Race Press Conference

Oh man, I think I am in love with Australia already.

First of all, I didn't realize it was summer here! I mean I knew it was in my head, but I didn't appreciate what exactly that entailed. It is nice and warm (but not too hot, yet), everyone is dressed in summer clothes and looks tanned. But most importantly- there is sunlight until like 8pm. That is one thing that was driving me nuts being up north in Eruope- the fact that the sun started to set at 3:30pm. But last night that beautiful sun just did not go down.


I finally met up with the champion and we went down to the harbour to have our celebratory beers. Sat on a nice patio with a view of the Operahouse. I really couldn't get over the fact that I am actually here! Even just sitting there, I felt as though I was looking at a huge TV screen or something. Sydney is a beautiful city and it's going to be a lot of fun to explore it over the next few days. It's 7:10am here and my internal clock is a bit scrambled to say the least, so I am fully awake while sleeping beauty is resting at the hostel.

And just so that you are not longer in suspense- my bag did make it and I am wearing underwear that are a fresh as daisies!



Today we get pick up our home for the next 6 weeks- our camper (which will aquire a name soon). Here is a picture from the website we rented it from. Beautiful isn't she? Unfortunately for us they ran out of vans with air-conditioning, but we can just roll down the windows on this baby. Not the attractive rock screen that is included in the price as well. Talk about style AND fuctionality. (invented word? maybe) We have the camper for 42 days and it will be our transport, accomodation and soul mate for each and every one of those days.

Second Place is the First Loser

Does anyone really lose when you race to Australia? The answer is yes. Yes they do. And that person is me.

I made it on the 10am flight out of Hawaii as the last standby passanger. After me, they told everyone else it was full, which stranded the lady I was staying with and her baby in Hawaii. But no Karma-gathering this time, I was on that flight! And what a dodgy flight it was. Further delays leaving etc then when we went to land it took 2 tries to hit the runway. It was so windy when we finally hit the tarmac that the plane nearly tipped over. I fly a lot (19 times in the last 7 months) and even I was scared.

But I made it and what a race it was. 3 continets, 71 hours of travel, 2 hotel rooms, 3 flights all leaving me ABSOLUTELY EXHUSTED. I am off to get a beer and some food and hopefully find the victor. Thanks to all who followed so closely.

Inching Closer

Oh me oh my- I can feel this race slipping away.

I am now stuck in Hawaii. I made it on the flight to Hawaii, which was a stroke of luck because there were 23 people on standby and I was low on the list. But I did get on and since I was exhusted slept the entire way. Drinking Tim Hortons and staying in nice hotels is harder than you think. Once we landed in Hawaii we were supposed to all have to get off the plane and then I would be on standby again for the flight to Sydney. But that isn't what happen- apparently one of the pilots who was supposed to fly us there has a case of food poisioning and cannot fly. The result is that the flight that was supposed to take off at 11:55pm (Hawaii time) is now scheduled for 10am tomorrow. BAH!!! Now I know it wasn't right for me to arrange to have that person killed to delay Dzido's flight. I know it was wrong and I admit that. But I am going to have ask him how he was able to poision my pilot from so far away on such short notice. geez this race is cut throat!

So everyone who had a confirmed seat was shuttled to a hotel, given a free night and food. And what happens to us poor employees-related people? We get dumped. Luckily I was not the only one and I met up with a woman named Kelly who was with her baby Holly and in the same situation that I am in. So we decided to split the cost of a hotel room tonight. I can't sleep since I have no idea what time zone I am in. I think I am on London time, which is 10 hours off of where I am, but I really don't know anymore. Also- I still don't have a bag. It was apparently sent through to Syndey so no baggage for me and still no new underwear. I am going to have to burn the pair I have on when I finally change them. (more underwear updates soon)

What are the implications of all this for the race? Well if Dzido gets on this Bangkok-Sydney flight it will give him about 9 hours head start to the hostel. But that is only if I get on this flight, which is far from a sure thing. If I miss it, I am stuck until tomorrow night when I can try for the 11:55pm flight. So here's hoping they find the drugs that I planted in his bag and he gets taken by Thai-customs...no wait...that may be going too far.

Gooood Morning

I awake to snow and the sweet sweet smell of Canadian air. Oh what fun. This morning I had for pancakes with whip-cream and maple syrup for breakfast. I haven't had maple syrup in so long that I almost forgot just how good it was. I should have sat in the corner of the restaurant far from other people with the noises that I was making. Afterwards I strolled over to Tim Horton and bought my first Tim Horton's coffee in a long time. And now here I sit- looking at flights, sipping a Timmy Ho's and wondering to myself "Do I really want to leave this place?"

Actually I do and here is the plan- I have a decent chance of getting to Honalulu tonight on the 6pm flight, but almost no chance of getting put through to Sydney. But I can keep trying from Honolulu each day until I get it. I know- it's going to be just horrible to be stuck in Hawaii, but I will sacrific for the race.

I just hope one thing- that my bag is having a good time in Sydney without me and that I will be able to find it when I get there. Also- I could really use a change of clothes at this point.

Next update either from Vancouver again or from Hawaii.

A set back

Well, I may have levelled the playing field, or I may have handed the race to Dzido- either way I got some good karma coming my way. Though it hasn't arrived yet as the story will tell:

The flight from Vancouver goes to Honalulu first. There was 1 seat left. A mother-daughter pair had first crack at it because they had better priority than me (ie higher on the standby list) and wanted it because they were going on vaction and figured they might as well send the daughter and the mother would take the morning flight to Hawaii. Problem was, without her mother, this girl lost her priority and was below me- so the seat was mine. Now, its not very race-like but I gave up my seat. The flight would only have got me to Hawaii and then I would have been stuck there. Now I have been stuck places I dont know before and it didn't turn out so well (see my first blog from India for more details). So I figured I would rest up here in Vancouver and do the nice thing by giving the girl my seat. The lady at the gate was stunned and said she had never seen anyone do that before. Other people around me were shocked and said I would have the best Karama ever- I was a hero. But it means I have wait a full 24 hours until the next flight I can try.

Now I guess karma didn't get the message about my good deed yet because although I didn't go the Sydney my luggage did. Thats right. No room for my tiny little butt on the plane, but room for my big backpack. Where is the justice? So I am stuck with just my carry on bag that contains the following- 4 books (I am a walking library), 1 journal, 3 pens, 1 Ipod (22 songs), 1 camera and my British cell phone. Please note the lack of tolietries, clothing and other essentials. I just hope they are meeting me in Sydney.

So that is my update. I am at least going to be fresh and rested for the next leg of the journey. Lets see how the G-man is doing.

And thanks to you all for making this interesting.

Mid Way

I hear that quite a following has developed for this race of ours. What started as a simple beer-bet has balloned into much more. I cannot see the comments unfortunately because the blogs are blocked on this computer (potentially subversive material I suppose) but I hear that there is now a pot at the end of the rainbow for the winner.

Well here is my status- I have made it to Vancouver. It was a long 10 hour flight from London with lots of kids yelling and 3 bad movies (though I admit I watched every second of them). So I sit here in the waiting area, with basically no hope of getting on this flight. Its oversold and there are standby passengers ahead of me. But I gotta try, I just gotta! They are calling names now and I keep waiting to hear mine. If I am lucky and get on this flight I will arrive with a bit of a lead on dear Dzido. If I miss it, then I am stuck in Vancouver for 24 hours and I fear that I will have no hope.

It is sooo strange to be back in Canada, though I can see snow outside, which is something I have not seen this year.

The race is heating up! I will update either in a few hours with news of my being stuck in Canada or in a day or so with news of my victory.

London Fun

London certainly has changed a lot in the 6 months since I was last here. Well, not really. But it was a lot warmer then. Temperatures were hotter in London than in Spain when we were here in July. Now it is cold and rainy. But still good! At the very least it is good to have some English beer again. Funny how I used to hate it, but now I miss it.

Speaking of beer, Dzido, Britt and I had a great little night last night. We had some Chinese food and then went to a local pub for a pint or two. While we were there we met a couple of English guys who looked as if they had been drinking for about 4 days straight, though they assured us it had only been since about 10am. At first we were a bit wary when they challenged Dzido to an arm wrestle, but once he wiped the floor with the drunker guy of the two, they bought us drinks and we all sat around having a laugh. There is one thing you cannot fault the English for- their pub generocity. They would buy anyone a drink as long as they were willing to chat for a while. Of course, because this is London, one of them turned out to have a Polish mother, so he and Dzido got to yak away in Polish. I am starting to think that Polish is spoken more widely than English these days! But it was a great night. Mostly laughing at just how incapacitated our new friend (Rich) really was. Honestly, I was impressed at his abaility to stand by the end of the night.

Great to have Britt here as well. It is very stange when someone from North America comes to visit us in Europe. It seems as though two worlds are colliding. There is the pre-trip world of university and life in Mississauga, and then there is the isolated world of Europe where the only familar face for about 4000kms is Dzido. Good to have some variety I think!

Today it is back to the difficult task of planning our Australia escape. We have decided to rent a camper van for 40 days of driving through the outback and snaking up the coast, surfing and camping as the geography dictates. I am really excited to head down under. It is going to be summer there and the latest temperatures in Sydney are around 35 degrees Celsius. Looks like I am just going to skip winter altogether this year. Although, that could be said for Toronto too from what I hear. Can't wait to hit the beach and get a nice tan. We still remember well our lessons from Spain and will be sure to apply sunscreen EVERYWHERE this time.

Best wishes to all. Next time I blog I will be about as far away from the rest of the world as you can get and in some strange time zone that lets me live a day before you even start one!

Terror Alert

To begin with a quote from Dzido: "Alright, this was funny before, but now its kinda serious"

After some soul (read: google) searching about the situation in Thailand, we have decided to drop the idea. At first it just seemed like an isolated terrorist incident and we though "no big deal." But now the Thai coup leader has gone on TV and warned of more attacks by oppostion parties and there are rumous of a counter-coup possibly taking place in the next little while. It was going to be a funny story, but now it looks like it may be serious. Government travel warnings are serious? Who knew.

So for the second time in about 2 hours (the pace is quick around here) our plans have changed, Thailand is being dropped and we are headed to Australia next week. Keep checking back since at the rate things change around here we could be headed to Yemen by tomorrow.

Yet Another Change of Plans

With all of this wandering around, do I technically qualify as a nomad?

The plan to stay in Warsaw for the week has given way to a mission of the heart. Britt the Bold (which would be a good name if she were ever Queen of England) has decided to cross the Atlantic and meet Prince Dzido of Polska in fair London town. And me? Well I just can't be left alone.

But really, I didn't feel like spending 5 days in Warsaw alone and I do miss London, so I am going to London too. Obviously I will be in a hostel far away from the long lost lovers. But I will get to enjoy all that London has to offer, hopefully as cheap as I can.

Stange coincidence- we will leave for London on the 10th of January, exactly 6 months after we left Spain for London to find jobs. In fact I plan to stay at the same hostel that we stayed at when we first went to London, half a year ago....wow...makes it sound like a long time. It seems like just yesterday that we were fresh-faced young bull runners looking for adventure in the wilds of England. Updates shall follow of my hijinx in London!

Rome and Warsaw (again)

Back to Warsaw for me. This is my 4th visit to Poland on this trip so far. I can remember a time when Dzido and I were worried that we wouldn't make it here on this trip! But I do love the city and its strange that I am starting to know it fairly well. Or at least well enough to know where the kebab shop and internet cafes are.

It was sad to leave Rome. I have been on some amazing adventures on this trip, but Rome stands out as the best, partially because of the city but mostly because of the company. Seeing Laura, Louise, Tom and my lovely Mummy made it such a special week. We had a great apartment in Rome. You would think that 6 people in an apartment would be cramped, but this place was huge. Nice big kitchen, 2 bedrooms and beds in the living room for Dzido and I. We even got to make our famous eggs/hashbrown breakfast for everyone. Here is Dzido cooking it up.


Getting to see the Vatican was pretty amazing. It was really busy by my standards, but Louise assures me that when she was there last it was even busier, so I guess we got lucky, despite the hour wait to get in. There were so many cool statues around and of course the main attractions like the Sistine Chapel and stuff. It never ceases to amaze me how artists can work on things like that for so long. My attention span doesn't last long enough to get to the end of some movies, but these guys would work for a decade in a single room painting. It just blows the mind.

New Years Eve in Rome was great too. I think that often New Years gets overhyped and you end up doing something average that seems disappointing. I thought we were in for one of those nights. The group, along with my Mum's friends from Ireland Rosemary and Deckland, set out at about 10pm on New Years Eve. Much to our suprise every restaurant was full. It was as if people had a whole year to plan this and had arranged ahead of time to be in these places. SHOCKED we were!

But we pushed on and on this case, Super Dzido saved the day. We finally found a place and Dzido sweat talked the guy into giving us a table for 8 and cutting the price in half because we got there late. We couldn't have done it without the Polish charmer. The food was...well rushed to say the least. We sat down at 11pm and I guess the staff wanted to party at midnight, so the proceeded to serve us the entire 6 course meal in under 1 hour. We all deserve awards for speed eating, though I think we all skipped at least 1 course. It was a bit insane. But the wine was free and so was the champagne, so you don't hear me complaining.

I think that the highlight of sight-seeing for me had to be Pompeii. The drive down there was a little cramped. Tom was in the front, Dzido was driving and the rest of us were shoved into the back like sardines (as the picture shows). As Dzido threw the car around the corners on the way up to Vessivious, we didn't move and inch because we were stuck so close together. We went as high as we could go on the active volcano, but because of the wind/low season, the top was close to visitors. It did give us some signs to Pompeii, which was good since we didn't have a map or a clue where we were going.

When we finally made it to Pompeii, the long drive just faded away. The city was simply amazing. You just get to walk around this Roman city, as it was in 79AD when the volcano buried it in rock and ash. There is even grafiti and advertisements preserved on some of the walls. You can walk into houses and everything. It sounds bad, but the highlight was the suprisingly well preserved brothel. Of all the things that could have been spared by the destruction, it wasn't the library or the temples or the law courts- it was the brothel. There were some ... interesting.. pictures on the walls and the beds were still in tact. There was even a street of bars that was well preserved. Here are Dzido and I using the skills we learned in England to serve this happy customer.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end and the family is back in Canada. I miss them a lot. For the first time since I started traveling I was homesick when they left. But that is ok, since there are some great adventures still to come and I know that I will see them soon. Dzido and I headed back to Poland, which took a long time given that we needed 2 flights (us in Milan pictured here), a bus, a train and a tram to get there. But we made it at last. Just over a week now until we go to Thailand. The Canadian government did just issue a travel warning after some bombings...but I am sure it will be fine. Although it does place Thailand in a group with the following countries: Chad, Ethiopia, Afganistan, Yemen, Sierre Leone, Isreal (the West Bank and Gaza), Myanmar (Burma) and Sudan, to name a few. But India is on that list too, so maybe things are getting better in all of these places.

Some Pics at Last

Hello Loyal Readers!

Finally I have found a computer to upload some of my India pictures. I know that this a bit late and I have many more stories from a great week in Rome with the family, but those will have to wait a couple of days. Here are some of my favourite pics from India:

Yes, McDonalds is even in India. I even at there. Instead of Big Macs, they have Maharaja Macs and they have chicken instead of beef (since cows are sacred and cannot be killed). They also do home delivery of McDonalds in India.
This is a bit gross. Everywhere in the hotel I stayed in while in Mumbai, they had these buckets for people to spit into and when I looked it one it was about 3/4 full. I was nearly sick and I cant get the image out of my head, so I have decided to share it with you.

A picture of Liz and I on the cramped conditions on the trains. We are playing cards on the top bunk while about 12 people shared the bench below us. One of them took this pic. We look at a little worse for wear after 23 hours on the train, but not too bad.

Me at the Taj Mahal. So awsome. The marble is so white that it hurts your eyes when the sun hits it. Though apparently pollution has dulled it somewhat. I cannot imagine what it was like before. Definitely one of the most amazing structures I have ever seen.

One of the monkeys from the Monkey Palace in Jaipur. This is a view of the city from the palace where we watched the sunset.
Another great sunset. This time from the Monsoon Palace in Udaipur (and featured in Octopussy as the home of the villan). Note the Indian-style clothing I am wearing.
This is a picture of Jodhpur, the Blue City. It is amazing how bright the blue is. It comes from the special stuff they mix into the concrete to ward off termintes. Also, blue is the colour of the brahman (or priest) caste in India.
A self-take from the camel. Quite the trek we were on.

This is my camel called Rocket. He was a grumpy guy.

Hope you enjoyed a sampling of the pictures. One day I will have to print off all of my pictures to show people and on that day I will go broke because I have so many.

Happy New Year Everyone!