Combat the leaves

I finally have a job. Its not great pay but it will pay the bills. I am now a warehouse operative for Boysstuff.co.uk. An online store that sells gadgets, RC toys, etc. My job is to pack the products into boxes to be shipped off. Its not teaching but it is local. Plus I can now focus on January for a teaching post closer to home.

The last two weeks have been pretty average. Hard to get up to much with no income. I have managed to walk nearly everywhere in St Albans, so last Saturday I went for a bike ride out to Symondshyde woods. After nearly getting run over a half dozen times on the narrow roads, I wandered into the woods and sat down to have my lunch. In a break between planes flying overhead I listened for a bit and beneath the sounds of birds and insects there was a dull roar of the city six km away. So it looks like I will have to go even further for some peace and quiet.


This weekend was pretty busy for me. My flatmate's leaving party on Friday. He is in Germany for the rest of the year so I have the apartment to myself which is a mixed blessing. But I still haven't gotten into this slow drinking thing, maybe I need more practice. Saturday night I went into London to Meet up with Bob and Jodi. After spending an hour and a half playing trains (not a fun game, especially when lines are closed) I got to Putney and we went to Wagamama for dinner. Good thing I had recently read about how to eat with chopsticks. Although rice is still difficult, so I improvised and made a spoon type device with the chopsticks. Then we went to a cheap bar and had some ale with weird names. While I was playing trains to get home I got talking to two couples from New Zealand, seems we are everywhere, particularly in West London.

Combat the leaves. This was the sign at the train station. It was explaining about how the autumn causes the leaves to fall on the tracks that can cause delays are the trains slip on them and cant accelerate and break as well. However I found it hilarious how the Rail department were waging war against leaves. I was drunk at the time.

Dublin drunkenness

A drunken weekend in Dublin, how could it not be fun? My journey began Friday afternoon at Luton airport again, it took ten minutes to get from entrance to gate, then half an hour to get on the plane. Pretty uneventful flight, although it was interesting to see the difference between England and Ireland from the air. They are both patchworks of fields with hedges separating them, but Ireland is much greener and less uniform. Ireland managed to put on a great weekend for me too. Had to walk a mile to get to the terminal in Dublin though. Then I met Bob and caught the bus into Dublin City University, where he was staying in a pretty flash apartment in student accommodation. Had a reasonably quiet night as had to get up early for paintball, but we still managed to get denied entry to a pub as we were apparently too drunk. Seriously? not admitted to an Irish pub for being drunk? That's like, something you just don't expect to happen.

Saturday morning saw us travelling South to Kilruddery house near Bray to play paintball. 27 Euro for a days paintball they say. Yeah, right. More like 100. Still, 6 different arenas with full helmets, overalls, etc. Me and Bob were there with a Dublin Aussie rules team that include two Aussies, so a real UN style team. Went through several hundred rounds and wound up with a few bruises. We followed this up with a night out on the Guinness. It really does taste better in Ireland. We started off at a really tourist-oriented Irish pub called O'Donoghue's, with a fiddle band, Irish grub, even some Irish dancing. we then attempted to get into Flannery's, however the queue was around 100m long. So we went down the street to DTwo, as there was no queue. This we thought was a rather small place. Turns out it had around 7 bars, a huge covered garden, and ended up with a huge crowd. We stayed here until closing at 4am, caught a taxi back to DCU and got there at 5am.

Sunday was sightseeing day, well, half-day since I slept til noon. It was All-Ireland Gaelic Footy final day as well so town was full of red and green supporters of Kerry and Cork. Saw around five of the top 10 sights including Trinity college, Temple bar, Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin Castle, and the Guinness storehouse. Dublin doesn't have many tall buildings, from the Gravity bar at the top of the Guinness storehouse you can see from swerve of shore to bend of bay (James Joyce, was on the window). The storehouse is quite interesting, particularly the cooperage exhibit. This shows the history of cask-making in Dublin. Amazing how they make those things. We then went to a pub near the stadium and caught the end of the match. Once again, packed full of supporters. I had an early night Sunday as I had an early flight. I managed to get stuck behind Eastern Europeans who had trouble with visas for 15 mins, so wasn't exactly early to the gate. Still, got home alright. Ireland is on the list for a rerun, however I think I will see more than Dublin next time.

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The Devils hands are idle playthings

So back from holiday for nearly a month now and the weather here s definitely taking a downturn. Still, cannot be too upset, had a fantastic summer after all.

Unemployment kinda sucks. I mean sure, I have a lot of time on my hands, but how much time to I really need? Even when I was working I managed to get idle and watch reruns and documentary's about things I had no interest in. Still, I haven't been entirely idle. Signed up to 2 employment agencies and another teacher recruitment agency. Even joined some of those paid survey websites to try and make a few extra bucks. The extra free time has also given me a chance to really explore St Albans. You see quite a lot going for a walk on a week day morning. I have even done some long circuits, 12km the other week.

Off to Dublin this weekend to see Bob. Yeah I know, shouldn't be spending money when I don't have any coming in but how often do I get to see one of the crew from home? Not enough these days it seems anyway. It should be a lot of fun, and hopefully I will have some work to come back to. The teaching vacancies have been increasing daily it seems.

Chilling in the city of love

I managed to make it all the way on regional trains to Lyon. When I got here I found a TGV going direct, but it had no Interrail places left, so I paid the 45 Euro to get to Paris that night rather than waiting until morning. I got in around 1am, struggled with the bus system to end up in Montparnasse station. I then took a taxi to the hostel. Saw the Eiffel tower for the first time but was not impressed, it only had 4 lights on. I arrived at around 0230 and there were still people drinking, a good sign. A guy at the bar said I could crash in a room for free but in the morning I should pretend I was just then checking in. So I got a few hours sleep, walked around the block, then checked back in. This hostel is another good one, although the shower in the room was another push button jobby. Also they had one key per room which was left at reception when no one was in.

I went out and found the meeting point for the Sandemans NewParis tour. Was shown around the city by a Canadian girl and meet 3 Kiwi girls and an Aussie girl on the tour. I heard about how the Romans slaughtered the original Parisii tribe, how the Romans tried to stop the Vikings with chains across the river, how the faces on the new bridge were drunk guests of Henry 4, how a Templar grandmaster cursed the king and pope for betraying him, how Henry 4s assassin missed his heart on his first stab and Henry told him he could do better, about revolutions, an idea to move the Louvre, how the German commander refused to destroy the city so just blew up the outer suburbs and the roof from the Grand Palais, saw the bridge and the M from Bourne Identity, Notre Dame, the new bridge, the Louvre, Cleopatra's Needle, the Arc De Triomphe, Champs Elysees, Eiffel Tower, Grand Palias, Invalides, lots of statues.

Later that night I on went on the Montmartre tour, saw Moulin Rouge, Van Gogh's apartment, Picasso's apartment, the last remaining windmill, a city vineyard, Sacre Cour Basilica, the view of the city, Amelies cafe, the headless Saint Denis statue, the Agile Lapin cafe were Picasso swapped paintings for food. After this I went on the pub crawl. Drinks in Paris are damn expensive. still, for every one you bought you got one or two vodka orange shots from the crawl crew. I met mainly Americans here, a guy and girl from California, a Marine Cobra pilot, can not really remember the rest. went to a Irish pub and another bar, then ended up walking back to the hostel with the American girl.

Slept in the next day, then had a picnic on the banks of the seine, thought about climbing the tower and the arc but the queues were too long. I ended up doing a big long walk trying to find a supermarket. Then finally had a few drinks with a girl from Melbourne. On my last day I got up early to go out to the Normandy beaches, but didn't actually make it. I got to Bayeux and went to the museum there, but by the time I had finished I had ran out of time. The beaches are something that require a decent amount of time I think. I got back to the hostel and had some drinks with some Kiwi and English guys, went to a few bars were we met a French girl, then hung out with a girl from Brazil before calling it a night.

I just about missed the train to Calais as I had neglected to buy a souvenir before now.

Bumbling around Barcelona

Finally got to Barcelona after many small train journeys. It was very hot here and given that it was the first Saturday of the European holidays, very busy. I got in around 9pm and went straight to the hostel to wash. Then went out for some food and drink. Even though it was around 11 at night the place was still busy, although I only managed to find 2 actual pubs where I could get a drink. At the first, an Australian pub, I asked for a whiskey and coke and got a Carlsberg instead. go figure. I ended up deciding to call it an early night as I only had a few hours the next morning before I would have to catch my train. It was a shame as I think this place doesn't really get started until after midnight. Not that I was in any shape to go clubbing, what with having no shoes and all.

The next morning I had a free hostel breakfast and probably my first real breakfast of my trip. Then I spent 2 hours cramming in the sights of Barcelona before heading for the train station. The girl at the ticket office had lied to me. I spent an hour waiting for the first train to France. Now I am in the middle of the ordeal of making it to Paris when all of the direct and overnight trains are full.

Naughtiness in Nice

I didn't see much of Nice. I got in around 8 at night, found the hostel and cleaned up, then went into town for a much-needed drink. I saw a group of people heading somewhere so thought I would tag along, Turns out it was a Topdeck tour group, comprised mainly of Aussies and kiwis. I went into the bar with them and listened to a Dutch band play English and American music, hung out with a school teacher from England, and thats about all I remember. I somehow ended up further down the coast without shoes or keys, God knows what happened to them. I made my way back to the hostel but couldn't get into my room so I lay down to rest with a half-bag of cement mix for a pillow. Eventually got into the room when the manager found me. I spent the next day walking around re-hydrating, trying to find first my keys and then something to get me into my backpack. I finally found a $2 shop and got some pliers and new padlocks. I got into my bags and then started the journey to Barcelona. Or so I thought.

It had been confusing me as to why I had to go back East to Italy to go West to Spain, but there appeared to be no alternative. I tried to reserve a bed on the train from Turin to Barcelona but was told I had to do that in Turin. So I caught several trains and arrived in Turin around 9pm. Only to be told the train was full and the next one wasn't until Sunday! Met up with some girls from Iceland who were in the same predicament so we discovered there was a train to Barcelona at 8 the next morning. So I spent an uncomfortable night at the station with the two girls before catching the onwards train. But it wasn't one train, no that would be too simple. We pretty much had to change at every station we got to.

Visiting Venice

Venice was kind of disappointing. sure it had the canals, the gondolas, the old buildings, etc. But it felt like it was nothing new, having seen it all on movies. Besides, Venice is a city of romance and since I was on my own that aspect was wasted on me. Also, I have seen lots of grafitti around Europe, but I never thought I would see it on the actual islands of Venice, thats like tagging a monument or memorial. An interesting aside, bus tickets are valid on the boats, as the the only way to get around the city of Venice. I didn't end up going out in Venice for 2 reasons. A, I was damn tired and B, I could find anywhere to go! The part of town where I was staying was basically dead.