Paris, Italy and a great train ride. Part two.

So I was headed to paris, on Ryan air for a whopping 39 euro... plus taxes so it ended up being about 50... not bad. Only hang up was that the plane lands 80kms out of the city at the cheap airport. But considering airberlin was charging 200euro at it's cheapest flight, it was a no brainier. So I sat next to this french guy who was well - a rude prick. The girl and guy next to me across the aisle were far from rude, even though I couldn't speak french, they chatted to me and the guy - "max" helped me find the bus, buy a ticket in the subway, and also laughed with me about the sardine like fashion that we were in with the Paris metro. So after some directions on how to get to the station that I was going to, we parted ways and I found it quite easy to get to the station I was trying to get to and try and meet up with the traf high kids :-). One of the things that it is hard to get used to with the Paris metro, is trying to get orientated with where the heck you are, and where you have to go. A little look on google maps does a massive difference we found out. Anyway, so walking through paris with the odd phone call from robbo telling me where to go, and I found myself in the middle of an intersection with nat and robbo waving crazily at me saying hello. It was cool to meet them, albeit the crazy looks we were getting in the middle of a busy road. haha. So we were meeting the rest of the students at a bar called "the australian"  Initially I thought that it wouldn't be such a bad place, but in hindsight, it was just a bad australian bar located in Paris. But the time went well there, and it was good to see some familiar faces, other then the funk and tarkmister. After we left the pub/bar we walked back to the hotel, I checked in for 3 nights @ 59 euro and came back down to see the students and chat a bit more. It was a late night. So that ended a day that I thought was clearly headed for disaster, but ended up fine. Oh - and a joke that typifies the jokes that were openly given by the english skipper "Why are there so many poles in Australia" - " Because they need things to hold their power lines up...." haha - bad, but he always had jokes for us.

Day 2 in paris was a trip to the war fields... One of the best/moving days that I have had so far. Mainly due to the fact that Australia was so prevalent in history in the towns that we went to. The museum that we went to only contained australian things, with the state flags, and there is two pictures that I wanted to share with you. the first made me so proud to be australian, the second sent a shiver down my spine. See below.

This picture is depicting the move of "Australians" that went to war in WW1, in their droves, and without thinking about their own demise.

This was on the assembly area of a primary school opposite the museum. I can't describe the feeling that I felt when I saw it, so much so I haven't told the guys here about it - I will take them to it for them to see for themselves.

Anyway, we then went to the big war cemetery that was huge, but contained only australians in it. The amount of money and the size of the area was mammoth. We had a few other stops along the way, the windmill site - where a small mound of dirt that we saw was the site of 60,000 casualties in one battle alone.. Hard to fathom really. So we had an interesting moment with our bus driver. Apparently it is common place to give a schoo group a driver who has absolutely no idea where he or she is going. Luckily for us Colin had brought his GPS so we could find our way. We headed back to our hotel, with the bus driver falling asleep, and veering into lanes, but only 2 of us saw it because everyone else was asleep - maybe he was just trying to fit in haha. - I thought that only south east Asia had bad drivers.. But all in all, a good day. We got home to our hotel, pretty stuffed, had a bit of a chat around and then I had a look with colin on the internet for a 'last night' restaurant with frogs legs and snails - the latter we found, but not on the internet. We also found out the the Eiffel tower is booked solid for months in advance and that we would have to queue up for it. This changed the plans for the next day a little, and had to get there 1 hour at least before it opened. Which turned out to be a master stroke of forward planning.

Anyway - I must go again. Part three will be tomorrow probably. Stay tuned - I know I am currently 5 days behind, but there hasn't been much going on since I got back, so it's a good thing :-)


Nanti..

Paris, Italy and a great train ride.

Well well well, What a week I have had. Still, when travelling you sort of have to accept the good with the bad, and the bad with the good, and this week had been no exception. And I still stand to my theory of it’s all about experiences. So I will start at where I left off last week. I had just finished sailing and I hoped for the weather to be a bit rougher. It was rough - but nothing like the bashing wind loving waves we had experienced the day before, this was slow moving big swell. Now I understand how people get sea sick, I was a long way from getting sea sick, and reading 300 pages of a book didn't help, but didn't feel too great. So we got back that night, watched woodstock live in concert, and then went to sleep. THe next day we slept in till 9-10 and we got a car to drive us around the island, there is not much really to see where we were, but we had a nice lunch made by Gale and ate it on a beach and saw a few things - bought my train ticket to Cagliari the next day in preparation for my flight to paris.

All's well that ends well.

Today - started out according to plan. Got up, breakfast, checked out the french metro on my computer, got driven near the station - short walk ( fine) about an hour till my train left, sat down at the right platform and listened to my ipod for 50 minutes.... That's when my day was thrown completely upside down, arriving at the train I was meant to board that would take me down the wobbly track to Caliari I was rudely stopped from getting on the train, without missing a step, I produced a valid ticket to with which I still received the same response.. No train... - well, I could clearly see that there was a train right in front of me, and it was going to the place that I needed to get to, so after receiving another barrage of Italian, I looked around for support, and there was plenty of it. 20ish people were trying to get on the train also.... So... I eventually heard the word "strike" and it turned out that the trains were on strike, so to my disamy, the train that was to take me on my journey 350kms, rolled out of the station minus about 40 angry potential passengers. So being unfazed at this point, with my patience still in full check, I rolled back to the ticket office to get my money back. As I watched the people before me present their ticket and receieve their money, I followed, only to be put to the side and made to wait for a HUGGGEEE amount of time. 36 minutes I was standing not being able to communicate with the ticket office people ( who didn't speak english at all...) and then after being requested to show my passport and my drivers license,(WHY!!) I got no money.... So I left the station with a mixture of emotions... "stupid Italians.. ",and  one with a little bit of "How the hell am I going to get to my flight, which is the best part of 400kms away" - which as I thought about it more, was the main thought going through my head. So I headed up the hill, down the hill, lugging my overweight bag to the tourist information office, which by luck was opening just as I arrived. So after a nice english speaking italian told me that I should have got my money, and that THE STRIKE HAD BEEN PLANNED FOR WEEKS!!!!! - so they knew that they shouldn't have been selling tickets!!! GRRRRRR. So she called the call center of the trains, and got the 'official info' and wrote me a note in italian demanding my money back. So from happy to my initial horror of hearing "there is no way of getting there today" as an afterthought - there is plane leaving soon, - to which I replied (forgetting my fondness of planes) "done" so I was off to catch another plane, with a quick stopover at the train station to give them my note - and to my almost anger they gave my money back IMMEDIATELY... *Sigh* and it was off to find the bus stop... So I found the right bus, but I got on on the end of a loop, so I had to ride the bus for a long long time before it arrived at the airport. Along with a awkward discussion with the bus driver, him talking and me not understanding, I arrived at the airport, perfectly rolled through local customs, and sat down for my 3 hour wait. To my dismay, and to people who have been to indonesia would know, the jets that take off with a thick layer of smoke or fumes coming from the engines were here in force in italy. These were the planes that I was watching from the boat the day before, thanking myself that I was going on the train. The flight was rough. Enough said. So an arrival at the airport, everything back on track, and I had shaken the feeling that I was going to miss meeting everyone in France. The day had to get better - and thankfully it did. I have to go now but I will update this tomorrow night. Tomorrow night - the first french meeting, the war pictures, and of course the Eiffel tower.

I will leave you with this picture.

The streets of Sardinia

This is a night sailing picture of the approach to sardinia.

Youtube

So I have dusted off my old youtube account, and posted 1 - (there will be more) video with us sailing today. See link.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRF2-PK9BeY

France, Italy language and sailing.

Currently I am sitting in the harbor of Madalena - on the island of sardinia italy. Very nice place really. but... no rehash.

We left early in the morning to go to germany (the airport there is closer and cheaper than the Amsterdam airport. We got up at 4:30 to leave at 7:00 and rolled through the check in process quite easy. I accidentally left my wallet in the car after we couldn't read the signs at the airport and bailed early, so after a quick phone call, funky dropped it off, and all was good. So quick and smooth flight by ryan

Air and getting off the plane in Italy we realised that we knew none – or very little Italian – not even how to ask if they spoke English… which was very awkward. So we somehow found the bus station, the bus driver didn’t speak English and just waved us onto the bus. So free bus ride for us.. We got off and then went searching for the train station, asking a few people for directions by just saying “station” “train” cursing our ignorance of not at least getting the basics before we left. But we found it easy enough, and got a ticket easy enough, and boarded our train to olbia. (the north eastern side of Sardinia)kept falling asleep on the train due to our early morning and countless restless nights. We got a message from Tim to meet us at the docks which was a short walk from the station. So getting onto the boat – and I would be lying if I wasn’t disappointed that the yacht wasn’t bigger – but it has turned out to be fine. Anyway, we motored(term for using the motor – not going fast) to the marina, had a shower at the marina in the dark lol and then went to sleep. The area down below in the yacht is almost like a caravan, small, compact but still fine. The next few days had been – well – sailing. Learning boat terms, talking at night to Gale(another person that is on the boat) and Tim (the owner – 67 years old) which has been a load of fun. We followed the east coast under very little wind which made the progress very slow, but spending time in the nice sun was excellent, especially after the time we have had in cold Holland. We arrived in Port Madalena  latish, docked and showered in the boat – very very small shower – but hot water and soap makes a shower doesn’t it – and both of those items got ticks. The next day we were hoping for wind – but got none. So we lazed it on the boat – I found a book that I started reading and spent a nice afternoon soaking up some relaxation tickets. We anchored that night next to this little island, the blue water that I know that you know the colour, and rowed ashore in a kayak and had a little explore.
We had tea anchored off this little island(see left) and watched an amazing sunset with clear blue water with a glasslike surface (not river glasslike, but still pretty good). Alas, in the morning we were rudely awoken to a ‘bang, bang, bang on the hull…. Almost sounded like we had run aground, I could only stand it for a few seconds so I quickly donned a jacket and climbed the rickety stairs – the ones that creak and goan if you put too much weight on one foot when you climb up it) and stepped out on deck. The sky was still dark but there was enough light from the moon to make out that we had been banging against a bouy… the boat had swung around the anchor and reached the bouy which we thought that we were far enough away from. Anyway – long story short, we left straight away for the port of corcica. (france) Corcia is flooded with history. I am running out of time while I write this, but on the way into the harbour – there was barricades and major entrenchments, huge walls and cliffs that would make anyone think twice about attacking it. They still did though. If you care about history – go read about it, very interesting. – Let’s not forget Napoleon ;-) Anyway, we toured/walked around the town and saw really cool tourist stuff… lol I’m being serious, it was very cool, huge barricades, massive cliffs, fench food – my year 8 french lessons have proved invaluable. We learnt a little more on the boat to help us out with ordering. Not going to make the same mistake twice J So I bought a few souvenirs and went back to the boat – going on the internet I found out that the baw baw guys had won(yay) which is great news, also the boxmeer guys had won, and also that my suspension was indeed 2 games. Which I think is the biggest crock of all time, and also, the communication channels here are just pitiful. (there is more to this, but I needn’t go into it.) So I left to go back to the boat, not feeling in the best spirits. We were scheduled to leave to go for a night sail. From france back to Italy. We got back here at about 12:20 – 4 hours of night sailing. We all took 30 min watches (for steering). Night sailing is so much harder then day sailing. That is all. Anyway, we slept in, and for the next day (today) we had strong winds in the bay, basically we just did 4 hours around the islands and then back here.
The wind was hooking, so the boat lent over, we got wet, but it was so much fun. Sun was out, wind was strong, and we were thoroughly enjoying it. Have a few videos that I can put onto someone’s webspace if they can email with a password or something. (Julie – your internet, how big is the webspace?) iinet is too small. Anyway, we have arrived back after our rough but fun day and everyone is pretty stuffed. Tomorrow we go back to Olbia, probably going out to celebrate tarks’s birthday (which is friday) and then we will split up. I am going to France, and mark is going back to Holland to play hockey on Saturday. Dunno where I am staying yet though. I am meeting up with the Traf High guys and I am excited about seeing Nat and Laura. Oh – and the students…. Lol.   Things are nice and peaceful at the moment, and I’m not really looking at going back to Boxmeer. Don’t know if I would like to live on a boat for an indefinite amount of time, but certainly I could do it for a little bit. Anyway, I will post some photos later of the boating. Very fun.  Hope everyone is doing well,

xx

Pictures from Sardinia and Corsica

Tarks with the entrance to the bay in the background. Note the fortifications that are in the bottom - major battle went on here..

Grave... Dad - this was for you to see if they do it different - if you don't find it interesting, I will take it down...

Dr Stranglove anyone?

Looking back to the Marina

Off the bow of the Lady H - An island that we docked off. 

So much can change in a week

Well - the last time I wrote I had job prospects, was a bit sick, and looking forward to playing hockey.
Let me skim through what happened Friday and Saturday. Friday we had a day in - a bit of shopping, but a try and get better day. Saturday we went up to hockey after our meeting and got invited to go to belgium for a day to look at the coaching that they have there... So I umpired a game of hockey in the afternoon, then went home early to play. Not feeling the best and after 2 sleepness nights, we got to hockey on time - then preceded to wait for aggggeeeesssss.. almost 40 minutes before we left to go to the ground. Well.... I don't want to talk about the game too much, but I got sent off... again, this time a red card. (lets just say that I retaliated against someone that hit me, and he acted like a soccer player... anyway - so 1,2 or 3 weeks suspension for me without even having a someone reviewing it was the catalyst for my trip to italy. Me and mark are going sailing tomorrow. Have I been sailing before? no, have I been on a boat longer then about 10 hours... no. but hey - this will be a week... hmmm. but I want to go, so we will see what happens. Looking forward to it. Oh yeah - worked tuesday,wednesday painted all day.  Today we went to rotterdam - good day. we saw the biggest harbour in the world (in 2003) and lots of interesting ship facts as well as the dykes and how they are stopping the sea from invading holland! quite a feat of engineering I must say. Anyway, I am skimming cause I have to be up early 5am to go to italy. I will talk to you all soon if we have internet before/around the boat.

Later later

Car, sickness and a bottle of juice

Wednsday night training was good, funky decided that he was too sick to train, or he couldn't be bothered and tarks came later but wasn't training cause he hurt his ankle last sunday at the game. A common theme - doesn't matter where you go - people's priorities don't seem to change.. anyway.. that evening was not a good night... I woke up with the fire throat that people would be so familiar with, so thursday wasn't such a good day - we painted again, still a bit to do at this other house before we start on ours. Which will be good cause we are getting our hours up, so when we go away on holidays, we will be able to have our house still. So been a bit sick, but not fully flu sick, just enough to make life miserable, but not to keep you bed ridden. I haven't picked up the bad cough yet (hoping that I won't). Thursday night Koen(bongo) drove into town and took us to the car dealership to get the car. finally... So we now have a car, good news, petrol is quite expensive, but there is 3 of us so it is split into 3.  Hoping that now we can see some of the country. I got a few pending interviews for potential jobs. One is a coaching job with a firm in belgium (just across the border - meeting on saturday) the other is a teaching job (teaching subjects in english) about 10kms from the next town. It is exciting, but I'm not too worried about if I get it or not. I have my job next year, and a lifegaurd job when I get back if I need it. But - money is money, and experience teaching dutch kids would/could be a good thing. Thursday night after the car - I went straight to bed - even though it was only 7.30  - I'd had enough. Sleep for me came quickly - after a movie and a midnight wake up and another movie saw me through until 7am..

Not much has happened today, went to wouters to do some washing, use the internet and I bought some medicine(and a 2 liter bottle of orange juice, that I fully intend on drinking all of it) to help make me feel better. Lemon warm tea is the drink on the go atm. This afternoon will be spent drinking a combination of "get me better" foods and watching movies.

 But I agree with Tuscani, being sick whilst being away just makes you want to be home, curled up feeling sorry for yourself in your own bed. Here's me hoping it doesn't last too long.

Tot zeins.