travelog

Denmark

2007-10-15T17:26:27Z

After an uneventful train trip from Stockholm to Copenhagen, we headed North to Hillerod- the small town just outside of Copenhagen where my Danish relatives live. Due to our family being scattered across the world, I had only met my aunt Liz and uncle Frits once before when I was younger, and I had never met either of my two grown-up cousins, or their partners, or their children!

So it was very exciting to stay a week in Copenhagen, get to spend some time with everybody and to see the places where they grew up and where they live now. We spent the first day exploring their part of Denmark, including a breathtaking lake and castle right on their doorstep- a past home of the royal family. We walked through the gardens of Fredensborg (home to Frederick and Mary and the kids) and spent a few hours at Louisiana; an amazing art centre where the grounds and view of the coast are as spectacular as the art galleries inside. We finished with a drive up the coast and ice-cream on the beach- it seems like we had brought the good weather with us.

We met my eldest cousin Ingelise and her husband Andreas, along with their kids Marcus and Emilia. It was both thrilling and awkward meeting the kids since neither of them spoke or understood english and were therefore a bit shy around us strange unintelligable new folk. They are both so cute, and Emilia is so funny- despite being only 3, she is boisterous and tries her best to boss everyone around It was so nice to finally catch up with Ingelise and Andreas- you think you have a sense of a person from seeing photos of them growing up- but you realise just how much is unknown when you meet them in person. In was great to share stories of growing up and just talk and really get to know each other better.

We were treated to a tasty traditional Danish meal cooked up by Frits- he really went out of his way to feed us as many different Danish delicacies as possible during our time there. Being retired, he has spent a lot of time honing his skills in the kitchen- the quality of his cooking shows it- and the food was definitely a factor in us considering moving to
Copenhagen to work for a while

Another alluring factor was the wonder of Danish design... It's one thing to have modern architectural wonders sitting shoulder to shoulder with historic buildings in central Copenhagen, but it goes so much deeper. Studying design in Perth we got used to learning about design classics but rarely laying eyes on them- unless it was in a museum or the foyer of an office tower on The Terrace. Sometimes it seems like it's only people involved in the design industry who even know these famous furniture pieces even exist! Maybe it's because Denmark has produced so many design talents or that it's embedded in their history, but this is a country where everyone knows and appreciates good design.
Every house we entered had beautiful modern lamps, chairs, and furniture. Famous designers are household names and everyone is knowledgeable of the iconic pieces of Danish design, since they are surrounded by them as they grow up. It's this appreciation of design on a societal level that really gives Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia such a unique feel- good design resonates through daily life, just like it is supposed to do!

We set out to research jobs and accomodation while we were there, spending a morning at a centre especially set up to help non-Danish speakers to find places to stay and give advice on work. We found a bunch of local design firms and sent out CVs and folios, while trying to get a feel for the different areas of the city in terms of living. It was quite hard to cram so much into our week there- work stuff, sightseeing, time for family, shopping... and as a result we were quite exhausted.

A great lead came our way when my cousin Torben got us interviews at the large shipping company he works for. The jobs were just administration assistant positions- nothing really creative- but the office was close to the city centre and the jobs would give decent pay. We quickly warmed to the idea of spending a few months working in Copenhagen before heading to the UK- we would have a bit more time to relax and research firms in London, a bit more time to explore the city and spend time with my cousins, we could start to learn a new language, and we could ride bicycles everywhere! We set up interviews at the end of the week and then tried to cram in as much time as possible to soak up the city.

We spent a day exploring on bicycles, swam in the harbour baths, visited the military barracks-turned-hippie town Christiania, visited galleries, museums and design stores and saw plenty of modern architecture dotted around the city. We went out one night, hitting a few bars and wandering the streets, window shopping at the cool design, clothing and bicycle stores. We had another day of being driven around the countryside, this time to visit a couple of iconic churches- each one of them so stunning and so different from one another.

At the end of the working week, we went and interviewed for those admin jobs- the first time either of us had done 'proper' interviews with logic and personality tests. I never knew someone could tell me so much about myself based on a squiggle on a page!Knowing that we were only in town for a few days, they moved us straight onto the second interview, and we even met the heads of the department we would be working for and discussed the work environment and tasks in more depth. We left feeling very confident and excited about the opportunity, expecting them to make us an offer within a week or so.

Another exciting event was that we were in town for the christening of Torben and his wife Susanne's first child, 5-month-old Emma. We sat through a church service in Danish, and were singing along by the end of it- nothing beats a couple of hours of talking and singing to help you get hang of the pronunciation of a new language! We went back to Torben and Susanne's house near the beach, and proceeded to eat buffet food and drink all afternoon, meeting extended family and friends. The kids were much more animated this time around, and would often approach us with gifts of sweets and questions we couldn't understand. Sonia very quickly learned to communicate in tickles, while I was still resorting to grins. We ended the day with a walk down to their shared private beach- the weather hadn't turned out quite as good as expected, so only one brave soul went swimming while the rest of us were content to wet our feet in the shallows, pick berries and skim rocks along the shore. The little ones gradually shed their clothes and were soon shouting, splashing around in the freezing water and running up and down the small jetty

So we said our goodbyes to our newfound family and jumped on a train heading into mainland Europe. We embarked on our last leg of travel knowing that we knew we would be back in Denmark in four weeks time- either for another week's holiday, or perhaps to live for a while longer.

-Liam and Sonia

Denmark remains copyright of the author legham, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We interrupt this broadcast...

2007-10-15T17:27:13Z

Hey everyone, just a quick update to let you all know where we're at now that we've finished our travels. I'd initially intended to finish all the remaining blog entries and post them in one hit... but it's taken three weeks to get one of them done, so that idea has been abandoned

We got to London three weeks ago and on our first day there Sonia got a call back from an architecture firm in Copenhagen that she had visited. The director wanted a proper interview with her, so we organised to head back to Denmark, since the firm was so prestigious and awesome we thought it would be worth the extra expense and hassle to go back. The firm is also just starting up a product design department so I also had a chance of meeting them as well.

As a result, we were kind of stuck in limbo- looking for jobs and houses but unable to commit to anything because of going back to Denmark and possibly being offered work there. It was so strange to decide on London and get our headspace ready for that, only to know we might go back to Denmark for a while!

So we both worked hard on sending out CVs and folios, and chasing up different job leads. After a couple of weeks it became clear that all the great firms that I had contacted just weren't interested in hiring anyone at the moment, so I got in touch with a couple of recruitment agencies. Sonia had already contacted recruiters first, and has had a couple of promising job interviews and second interviews.

We flew to Denmark on Monday morning and interviewed with the architecture firm here. It went well for both of us and it was great to meet the director there, but it seems like he was just interested in meeting us in person, since he has some future projects that he has us in mind for. So we're heading back to London to throw ourselves back into the job and house hunt, knowing that we might have an opportunity back here in a few months time.

Househunting is another drama- we've looked at about a million ads, phoned about 30 people, and actually viewed only 6 places in the last week. 2 were indescribably bad, 2 were ok, one was just crazy, and one was absolutely amazing- and all of them were around the same price!
So we've got a couple of hopeful leads and a few more places to look at later in the week. It's actually a relief that Denmark won't be happening immediately, so we can just get a place and finally have a bed and a cupboard and a room to ourselves again. Travelling for so long is so very tiring.

The flickr page is up-to-date as far as travel photos go- http://www.flickr.com/photos/legham/collections/72157600237293485/ and we promise that the blog entires will get finished, once we have a computer of our own and some spare time
I've also just updated the travel map, so you can get a better idea of where and when we actually wandered around Europe.

Hope you're all keeping well, drop us a line anytime

-Liam and Sonia

We interrupt this broadcast... remains copyright of the author legham, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Sunny Summery Scandinavia

2007-10-15T17:27:39Z

After spending so many hours in the air over the first half of our trip, we were dying to crack open our Eurail pass... however to get to Norway we had to catch one last flight. We decided to forego the usual arrive-two-hours-before-and-rush-to-boarding-gate routine, in favour of getting there an hour before boarding, taking our sweet time wandering around the airport, and waiting until most of the flight had boarded before we stood up to join the boarding queue. I tell you what, it makes the biggest difference to just take your time- it's not like the flight's going anywhere without you once you're checked in, and no one's going to steal your seat. I sat there watching all the suckers lining up before the boarding gate was even open, like they were going to get extra gold stars if they were lining up to get into the classroom before the teacher arrived! Now, if only something could be done about getting OUT of the plane without queueing...

We arrived in Oslo and met our hosts at the train station: ex-Perthian Shannon, her Norweigan boyfriend Eystein and our good friend from home Ciara had just spent a week holidaying in Croatia, and they were just getting back into town themselves. We spent a couple of days just relaxing, catching up on Perth gossip and exploring Oslo. I can't stress just how relaxing it was to lounge around a nice spacious apartment, drink bucketloads of tea, cook up a storm and compare travel photos and stories with such great company

After a drama-filled morning concerning a flat car battery, we then headed up to Eys' family cabin at a lake in the mountains. Many families in Norway have both a winter cabin and a summer cabin- we went to the winter cabin in the summer, which was a first for Eys. It was quite funny to see him spinning out over the luscious green foliage on the trip up, since he's only ever done the trip when the landscape is covered in snow! We spent another couple of days lounging around, eating, drinking, breakdancing (just Shann and Ciara!), reading and rowing on the beautiful lake at our doorstep. I baked a batch of the classic O'Brien "World Famous Texas Brownies" which were devoured by the end of the day, and had a go at this great Norweigan activity called Slakkline- like tightrope walking for fun!

We then spent another day on the road, with Eys pulling off a marathon driving session of 6 or 7 hours to get us down to the south coast. A friend of theirs was having a party at their summer cabin, which just happened to be on a small private island off the coast! A short boat-ride away was a cosy little hideaway complete with 3 cabins, private jetty, miniature beach and badminton court. There was also no running water or electricity, although a generator kept the fridge cold and the music cranking all night. We met heaps of new folk, and sat by the fire drinking until the sun came up. The next morning a couple of brave/crazy people even went swimming in the freezing water

We then dropped Ciara off at the airport and had one last night in Oslo before farewelling our dear Norweigan friends and jumping on a train heading North. We did the famous Oslo-Bergen rail trip- supposedly one of the most picturesque train rides in Europe. We spent one night in Bergen, then took a daytrip through the fjords, consisting of a magnificent winding railway through the mountains, a ferry trip along the fjord, and then a winding busride through some more mountains.

We had booked tickets on the midnight train- our first sleeper cab experience- so we had about 7 hours to kill in a tiny
town. After spending a couple of hours browsing the local library (sonia looking at a book on the history of hair-do's), another hour eating dinner and wandering the streets, we settled in at the train station for the final leg. I managed to devour a short novel before the train arrived, despite a family with screeching kids running around the small waiting area. The sleeper cab was great fun, but we only managed about 5 hours sleep before the train arrived at our destination. We grabbed a train station breakfast, using up the last of our Norweigan Kroner, and then jumped onto another train headed to Stockholm.

We were unsure of what the city would be like, since we haven't actually come across many people who have spent time there to offer us advice, but it turned out to be such a great week. I guess we lucked out with the weather- it was all sunny skies and t-shirt weather for the first couple of days. Stockholm is beautiful. Pretty leafy streets, really awesome train station wall mosaics (check the photos... some of them were way crazee!), just lots of art and culture everywhere, and pretty lookin' to boot.

We spent a lot of time roaming the different areas, including a cool shopping and nightlife area called Sodermalm- checking out awesome stores and spending way too much money on clothes for a traveller's budget :P (check the store Weekdays, Cheap monday jeans etc).
We also randomly ended up drinking with Australian singer/songwriter Darren Hanlon after spotting his name on a gig-guide, and got to meet some great Swedish friends of his who gave us lots of tips on where to go and what to see for the rest of our time there.
The rest of the week's weather turned patchy and overcast, but we still roamed around looking at museums, galleries, shops and bars. We caught the Gay Pride Parade, which was huge and fun.
Our hostel was actually a school, which was turned into a hostel during the summer months. This meant that we were in bunks in a classroom, complete with locked cupboards, class photos, lockers in the hall, and showers in the gym! We saw so many people come and go during our week there, including obnoxious french drunken teenage boys and a gaggle of moody emo drunken teenage lesbians. Fun times!

On our final day there the sun came out, so we finally got to do what we had been dying to do all week- wear shorts and ride bicycles! Another interesting thing about Stockholm is that the city is spread out over a bunch of different islands: you have Gamla-stan the old-town touristy island, Skeppsholmen the museum island, Sodermalm the trendy downtown shopping and nightlife island, and the best of all; Djurgarden the park island. It's sort of like a flat King's Park- really close to the city centre, but mainly automobile-free and with great cycle paths. There are beaches, ponds, meadows, open fields, museums, canals, an amusement park, and the closest thing to paradise that we've seen- Rosendahl's garden cafe.

This place was stunning on such a nice summer's day- they create salads, cakes and pastries using mainly ingredients grown onsite in the organic gardens and greenhouses. It's quite something to wander the flower gardens and rows of vegetables knowing that the meal you're about to eat was in the ground only days before. The best part was the atmosphere- after picking a selection of things to eat and drink you could wander down through the outdoor terraced area to an apple orchard- where families and picnickers were sprawled amongt the shady trees. It was like an image of heaven....sunny, grassy, apple trees, beautiful Swede families everywhere. Of course the food was amazing, but it was just the way that everything came together- the food, setting and atmosphere- to form such an unforgettable experience.

It was also so much fun to get back on bicycles- after seeing how well integrated cycling is in so many European cities, we are well and truly bitten by the cycle bug, especially the retro-stylings and classic designs of the bikes available in Scandinavia. We were still finding our latent bike riding skills, seeing that Sonn took a tumble after getting a bit adventurous going down hill on a gravel path - ouchy! Not to let a graze spoil our fun, we rode around all afternoon (at some points Sonn just did winding bog laps up and down the path - she felt like a happy little kid again, scrapes and all!!) until we had to drop the bikes back at sunset and get ready for the next day's train journey to Denmark.

-Liam and Sonia

Sunny Summery Scandinavia remains copyright of the author legham, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Iceland

2007-10-15T17:28:16Z

Before heading to Iceland, Liam and i dropped into the UK - London was mostly catching up with friends from Perth - followed by a whirlwind peep into Glasgow and Edinburgh. We were both surprised at how small both these towns were - egad, even smaller then Perth maybe? Not that they lacked in character by any means, we are just slowly coming to realise that other towns are just as small as Perth; it's just that more people have heard of them. We had initially thought that Scotland might be an alternative to London for a place to live and work in the UK, but we decided we need a big city for better job prospects. So begrudgingly we have accepted that London is where we are probably going to settle down and look for work. Now on to Iceland...

Ah Iceland. Where to start with beautiful Iceland? Let's see... upon touching down, we were greeted by a beautiful, clean and well designed airport, it had a high level of material finishes and well considered detailing; it was essentially a sophisticated little pod in the middle of nowhere. This really summarises Iceland quite succinctly. The place is bloody perfect and so are its people. In fact we continued to encounter various forms of Icelandic perfection on our 8 day drive-a-thon around the small island.

The road from Keflavik airport to Reykjavik gave us just a taste of the landscape that we would uncover over the next 8 days. Li and i were mostly silent for the 40 minute drive, just quietly observing this new landscape in front of our eyes. Initially Iceland strikes you as so... 'removed', you really feel very very far away. The land looks so fresh and feels a little bit strange too. Kind of new and prehistoric at the same time. The colours are really crisp; acid green mosses, bright blue water and black black black rocky outcrops. The best way to describe it is like looking at the world through high definition, and i hope that our photos convey that.

We arrived at Reykjavik city hostel, (another snazzy piece of architecture) checked in and picked up our cute lil hire car - a volkswagon polo. The VW made Li feel a little bit at home atleast! Funny thing when we hopped in the car, all confident with our driving-on-the-right-hand-side skills after america, we expected an automatic only to discover it was a manual. Eek. We weren't so confident anymore - it's a whole other ball game driving on the other side of the road AND having to change gears. My left arm kept bashing into the door everytime i needed to change gears! But we adjusted quite quickly and with no collisions. Phewf.

So - we had tackled the driving situation, next was food. We expected Iceland to be expensive. We knew this fact well in advance, but our shopping trip to stock up on food at Reykjavik's biggest shopping centre soon pummelled that fact home. A McDonalds value meal costs AUS$16. AUS$16!!! Even the fast food is expensive! We soon realised that we would be self catering every meal for the next 8 days. We are now masters at buying exact amounts of food to portion out correctly for the exact number of meals required for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Yes, yes, very anal and nerdy.

Walking through the shops, we also realised how good looking everyone was. And i mean EVERYONE. They were all perfect Scando specimens...pert little noses, high cheekbones, every girl with an outrageously cute fringe...it was like they were humanoid robots or something. It felt like we were in Gattaca. This land was proving to be more and more perfect by the minute!

There wasn't too much time left in the day so we headed straight for the Blue Lagoon, which is a naturally heated lagoon of baby blue opaque water. It cost an arm and a leg to get in but was well worth it. This building too was another beautiful piece of architecture. (What i can't understand is that Iceland, (pop. 300, 000) can provide unique high quality architecture at every turn, and Perth (pop. 2 million) seems to poo-poo anything that resembles good taste. Anyway...back to the lagoon!) The water was as described, baby blue and obscured your hand if you held it 20cm under water. Check out Liam's photos on Flickr to get a real picture of it. Soaking in the warm water amongst the surrounding black lava field rocks with white silicon mud slathered all over your face was a surreal experience. Gah - More perfection!

So after the shopping and nature stuff we were pretty tuckered out after all that perfection envy, so we only took a casual stroll down the main street in town and then went off to bed with the sun just dipping below the horizon at 12 midnight and never really setting (this is known as the midnight sun).

The next morning we had our maps in hand and were ready to hit the road! We got off to a tricky start, getting a bit tangled in highway exits, but eventually we hit highway 1 - the ring road. What followed was 8 days of waking, eating, driving, drooling over the beautiful landscape passing by the window, arriving at the next hostel, eating, sleeping - that was our routine everyday. But it was far from tiring or tedious. Iceland is pretty small so 6-7 hours was probably the longest amount of time that we drove (usually 4-5hrs), and the midnight sun conveniently extended our sightseeing time too.

We saw alot of amazing natural sights. What blows me away about iceland is how varied the landscape is. Water falls, lava fields, geysirs, glaciers and glacial lagoons, craters, geothermal bubbling pools of sulphur stenchy mud, desert like sandy mountainous dunes, crazy black beaches with caves made of hexagonal columns of basalt (apparently lava that errupted from under ground volcanoes and then crystallised when meeting the extremely cold temperatures above ground)...were just some of the things we saw. Like i mentioned earlier, there were also suprisingly many encouters with beautiful architecture around the whole island. For example, we found a small but amazing concrete church reminiscent of Ghery´s Bilbao Guggenheim in a town population 300 or something. Cra-zee!

My favourite moment was coming across a church (eerily similar to the house in Beetlejuice) that was holding a small concert. As I sat down inside, a 20th century string trio had just begun playing as i looked around the amazing interior of the church - a typical example of Scando modernism, restrained but still warm with a massive avante garde mosaic of jesus behind the alter. I just cant explain it really, but it just felt so otherwordly, it was like the abstract aural beauty of the music matched the churches avante gard aesthetic - every perfect, precise, atonal pluck and moan of the string instruments united perfectly with the interior. A bit wanky, sorry, but that´s just how it felt!

So, in a nutshell my initial self-conscious fears of Iceland being a nerd holiday "are we just going to be looking at moss and rocks?" were absolutely forgotten about after our 8 days driving around that small but totally unique country. It was just what i was hoping it would be, I´ve seen nothing like it before and I loved it! I think you should all go and see it one day if you get the chance.

Iceland remains copyright of the author legham, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Giant Robots

2007-10-15T17:28:36Z

Sitting in a 7-11 in Stockholm, looking back at my diary- I realise it's been 5 weeks since Botcon finished. On one hand it it's hard to believe it's been that long, since the memories are so fresh- and on the other hand it really does seem like it was a whole world away... which of course it was. Well, half a world

I should preface the coming ramble with a disclaimer- I've been to my fair share of toy fairs, read reports from previous transformers conventions, and seen tv shows about other fandom conventions. To be honest I was expecting a lot of socially retarded geeks. You know the type- like the comic book guy from the simpsons- large, loud, smelly and hopelessly opinionated.
While there were a few choice specimens encountered over the 5 days I spent at Botcon, I was pleasantly surprised to find that everyone I met and spoke to over the weekend were really decent, down-to-earth and friendly folk. I kinda feel a bit stupid for thinking I was in the minority as a socially-adjusted obsessive geek :P

So I rolled into Rhode Island off the bus from NYC, sweaty and tired since it was a scorching 30+ degree day in both places. I met up with the two other Australian fans I had made contact with before leaving- Matthew (aka griffin) and Ian (along with his wife Caroline), and griffin lugged his growing piles of shopping bags into our shared hotel room. They'd already taken advantage of being in town early by hitting the local Wal-mart and raiding the shelves before the convention had begun.
And after our tiny NYC hostel, this hotel room felt like a palace

We checked out the centre of town (consisting of a busport, convention centre, giant mall and about 10 hotels) and made friends with a few other fans who were milling around.

The next morning Ian and Caroline were busy with an organised tour and we didn't need to be back for official registration until later in the afternoon, so griffin and I made it our mission to hit up more department stores, as well as stocking up on groceries and finding somewhere to clear our camera memory cards onto CD. We navigated the bus system, walked a few miles, and ended up on a highway with strip malls in the next state (not hard considering the size of RI).

We managed to tick every box on the list of things to do, and I bought a bunch of movie toys (which weren't out on the shelves when I left home) just because of how cheap they were in the US. Loaded up with bags, we got back into the city and hit the convention centre to register. I was also surprised to recognise a few people in line from various US messageboards that I visit all the time for TF (that's TransFormers) info: I hadn't expected it to be so easy to come across people that I've often had conversation with online.

After half an hour in line for registration packs, we lined up again for the opportunity to buy more exclusive mechandise. We dropped off our piles of toys to the hotel, and got ready to head out again, this time for the exclusive preview screening of the TF movie. While it was a week early for the US, it was actually around the same time as the Australian release, so some of you may have even seen it before me. The screening was great- there's nothing better than a bunch of fans watching something that they love, everyone was laughing, cheering and clapping throughout- and it didn't get out of hand, so it was still easy to focus on the movie. Needless to say I loved it- as long as you go in expecting a big funny action movie and don't think about the details too much, you'll have a good time.

The next big event was the Hasbro tour the next morning, which I had been hanging out for as much as the movie. Finally, a chance to see TF HQ, to see the engineering department, to meet the designers, and to hound them with employment questions I chatted to the design team guys a lot, and then some more that afternoon back at the convention. I ended up meeting the TF head honcho and getting his business card to pass on my folio- I'm not really that hopeful, but it will be nice to get some feedback.

The next couple of days were a blur- consisting of wandering around the dealer room (tables upon tables of toys for sale), dropping off stuff at the hotel, eating and drinking with new friends, lining up for autographs, and sitting in on question-and-answer panels with various creative people involved in all aspects of the TF world. Voice actors, designers, comic and computer game artists, the works. I got to see designs and prototypes for the next year's worth of TF toys, get a movie Optimus Prime toy signed by THE voice of Optimus Prime (a very charming and humble man), buy more toys that I hadn't planned on buying, and spend time with some great people.

I barely made it to the busport (posting a 7kg box of stuff back to Oz took a little longer than expected) but stumbled onto the bus to NYC exhausted and satisfied. I'd never been able to justify the expense of Botcon, and made it to this one due to pure synchronicity with our travels- I hope the same thing happens again in a few years time, maybe when they release the TF movie sequel?

Will post again soon with more stories, we've got a lot of countries to make up for!
Been thinking about Perth and all our friends and family very fondlyrecently, so lots of love!

-Liam

Giant Robots remains copyright of the author legham, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I heart NY

2007-10-15T17:29:02Z

Li and I departed Las Vegas with a lot of expectations of what New York city would bring. We had our fair share of California deserts, San Fran hippies, LA traffic, Vegas trash and were ready to see what the other side had to offer.

I guess I should make it clear from the start. We absolutely LOVE New York City. But, before I launch into a full blown love-rant, I'll give you a little run down of what we actually saw and did.

We arrived on a drizzly but sunny afternoon, sharing a shuttle bus with a local New York family and various other visitors. Our path into the city (i think) took us through the borders of the bronx then onto manhattan island, through harlem, uptown, along central park until we reached the east village where our hostel was. It seems silly to say this, but New York immediately looked like New York. Lots of tall brick apartment blocks, the afternoon sun casting long abstract shadows through the iron fire escapes and lighting up the tree lined streets, like green glowing lanterns.....pretty!

Now, our hostel. We had stayed in our fair share of hostels by this point and had some really great experiences. This particular hostel was not one of them. The rooms were tiny, there was no kitchen, it was stinky, old, dirty and the staff were absolutely useless and obviously didn't give a shit. Also, there were rats. It was my pleasure to discover this little fact. As i went to eat my daily banana i noticed the bottom had been bitten into and hollowed out from inside. We didnt keep food in the room again after that. I'm sure many of you have stayed in hostels much worse than this, but when you are staying in a place for 12 days and the humidity is like one billion percent, a bed that doesn't emit a roaring crinkling noise whenever you turnover would have been nice. (The mattresses were made of a similar material to tarpaulin - lovely).

Anyway enough bitching, more loving!

Li and i spent the first couple of days before the others arrived on one of those idiot tour buses. Yes, yes i know - it was the first time we did something so blatantly touristy but it was actually a really good way to see a lot of the city in a short amount of time and get our bearings. We drove around manhattan and did a quick trip through brooklyn (which is to the east of manhattan island). We then marked off places that caught our attention and proceeded to explore on foot and were soon joined by our fellow travellers from California and some new arrivals from Oz - Keegan and Willow.

Basically there was a lot of wide-eyed slack jawed staring, walking, eating, shopping, eating, looking, eating, drooling and coveting all the things we could not take home with us.

Despite our hostel being such a hole, it was very well located and we explored the east village, lower west side and surrounding areas quite a lot. New York is just jam packed with an amazing selection of restaurants, shops, bars, vintage boutiques, cheap cheap quirky eateries, just so much fun stuff i cant list them off. We would start every day off with a bagel from David's Bagels, just around the corner from our hostel. one buck and ten cents for a massive bagel with an array of fillings. I was never game enough to try chopped liver, so i stuck to my cream cheese and chives! We ate at a new place everyday for dinner, every place as fun and affordable as the last. We checked out all the sights and galleries. Usually the touristy things are just stuff you have to get out of the way before you get to the cool stuff, but in New York, ALL the stuff is cool - touristy or not! Its just such a beautiful, cultured and exciting city, parks everywhere, lots of fresh fruit sellers on street corners, the galleries were the best ive been to, places like the empire state building, chrysler building, times square, statue of liberty, brooklyn bridge....they are all such icons it makes you feel like you are walking around in a postcard\movie.

I could go on and on (i think i already have) but basically, New York is heaven for all the things we like. It has an awesome relaxed vibe, in contrast to what i was expecting. Now we just need to find a way to get back there!

I am writing this blog from Norway, and of all the places we have been to so far (besides Iceland) New York is at the top of the list.

Much love to you all my friends. Next installment is Liam's entry from his Transformer convention in Rhode Island (nerd!) and i will tell you all about the wonder that is Iceland.

ps. there are heaps of new photos on the flickr page- we may not have kept up to date with the blog entries, but the photos are there! More to come as we slow down over the next 5 weeks, and expect a whole lot more when we've stopped travelling altogether

I heart NY remains copyright of the author legham, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Hot Hot Heat

2007-10-15T17:30:29Z

Hello everybody!

When I last left you I was getting my bearings in LA, and after reading back over my last post, it seems my opinion of that city has not changed one bit. A bit bright exciting place with a million things to do... if you have endless patience and all the time in the world.
Highlights include: a terrible faux Japanese restaurant that did everything wrong- especially the food. This scarring experience was followed up by one of the best Thai meals Ive ever eaten, at a place right next door to the hostel.
We also had a great night out at a nearby bar- a free gig by California hip-hop maestro Peanut Butter Wolf. After seeing him play a couple of times in Perth, it was great to check him out on his home turf, at a genuinely cool venue.
Also, the quality of light in LA is stunning- you can really understand why it became the world epicentre of film-making...

We bailed on LA a day early feeling mangled- both of us exhausted and with sore throats which quickly evolved into full-blown coughing fits. We quickly made our way to beautiful Palm Springs, a true desert oasis- where we proceeded to sleep, eat, lay by in the pool soaking up sun, and do as little as possible.
We managed to fit in a couple more architecture tours- one a day trip down to San Diego and another day of driving around Palm Springs itself- a haven for Desert Modern houses built in the 50s and 60s. Take a look at the photo set- living in Palm Springs is kind of like living in the Flinstones cartoon, with loads of retro style and palm trees lining every street.

We left Palm Springs much healthier and in higher spirits- the extremely warm weather helped out a lot in that regard. We drove through Joshua Tree National Park and also through the Mojave National Reserve on our way to Las Vegas- both extremely arid yet very beautiful places to visit. What has amazed me about our whirlwind tour of different national parks is how each one really has a unique look, feel and atmosphere to it.
After a couple of wrong turns and a false alarm (where I thought we were WAY off course, but we ended up being on an even better road closer to our destination) we made our way into Las Vegas, once again meeting up with our merry band of travellers who had booked in earlier that day.

Las Vegas is different to what I has in mind. At once much bigger and broader than I had expected, it is also much more disney-fied... Everything is so clean and polished and... constructed... and yet there is less outright sleaze than I had expected. The strip really is like a giant amusement park: where there are always interesting characters wandering the streets, people walk in public drinking beers and giant margaritas at all times of the day and night, and there is always someone trying to sell you overpriced merchandise.
Our first attempt at wandering the strip during the daytime was quickly cut short due to the ridiculous heat- we ended laying by the pool at another hotel until the late afternoon.
A couple of big nights and a lot of neon later, we were again ready to move on to some rest and quiet. We managed to squeeze in a day trip to Death Valley (one of the driest and hottest places on the planet) and also out to Hoover Dam- which surprised me with its beautiful art deco architectural stylings.

We are now staying in Flagstaff near the Grand Canyon, and have spent the day exploring the South Rim. Flagstaff is another lovely small university town, where I would love to spend a week exploring the town and meeting some locals... but we are heading back to Vegas in the morning, and then catching a plane to New York City!
We are in NYC for almost two weeks, and it will be so nice to relax and have a stable home for a while- to be able to explore at a better pace and try to take in every aspect of such a massive city.
Its also just over a week until I head to Rhode Island for the transformers convention... Weve been so busy travelling Ive forgotten to get excited about that bit

Please take some time to check out the photos on my flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/legham/ I haven't had the chance to put many descriptions yet, but they say a picture is worth a thousand words...

-Liam

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California

2007-10-15T17:29:27Z

On Monday morning we packed up our ever-increasing bags of gear, left our 5 person hostel room (which was beginning to smell quite ripe due to miminal ventilation over 4 days and many different room-mates) and picked up our hire car. Luckily navigating back to our hostel was easy, and I was familiar with the streets we had to take- although I was pleasantly surprised that driving on the right wasn't so difficult after all. Here we are almost a week later and it feels as natural as driving on the left

We headed out of San Francisco over the Golden Gate bridge, stopping to take photos and walk out a short way. Our friends Mel and Fi rode over on bicycles, so we met them at the other side, chauffering our still-recovering resident cripples Caz and Layla to meet them on the other side in beautiful Sausalito. It's amazing how such an idyllic small town place like Sausalito can exist so close to a big dirty urban centre like San Franciso, it was like a little hideaway...

After saying goodbye to our fellow travellers (who were staying on an extra day and driving down the coast) we headed inland to Yosemite. One thing I've really come to appreciate while travelling are recommendations... whether it's food, shopping, or things to see- every place that we've checked out on a personal recommendation has blown us away. Well, it's mainly the food actually- after a day of walking around and building an appetite, there's nothing better than getting enormous servings of extremely tasty local fare at excellent prices. San Fran was almost exclusively a 2-meal-a-day stay, since we'd eat such huge lunches, or save ourselves for huge dinners.

Anyway, our Yosemite accomodation was no exception to the recommendation rule; the beautiful Yosemite Bug hostel located about an hours drive outside the park. Thanks Brie! We took the opportunity to stock up at a local grocery store and make ourselves a massive homecooked meal consisting of 2-inch thick steaks, grilled vegies and a giant salad. Going a week without a homecooked meal really makes you appreciate fresh food We've done really well in terms of food so far, probably eating more fresh vegetables and fruit than I would at home.

Unfortunately for us, the one day we had in Yosemite was miserable, against all weather forecasts. Our intended drive to the very top of the mountain was interrupted by the clouds clinging to the peak- driving became near impossible. We went back down into the valley and settled for some short walks. The next day as we were leaving the hostel, the sun was shining and the sky was clear

The next couple of days were a blur of driving and delirium- Sonia had managed to get sick again, and spent a few hours in Santa Cruz holed up in the hostel with a fever while I wandered the town in search of ginger and lemon to cook up some sore-throat remedy.
Santa Cruz had a great laid-back vibe, and another brilliant hostel. Hostelling International is truly a great organisation, and all the hostels have a very welcoming and homely atmosphere.
The next day we drove Highway 1 down Big Sur and for the first time i felt really homesick for the landscape of Australia. The winding coastal drives reminded me so much of the southwest and the natural beauty of Oz.
After 4-5 hours of winding roads, the effect of the constant turning and change of speed was having an affect on both of our stomachs, heads and temperaments. Luckily the highway eventually levelled out into a coastal plain, making the drive into San Luis Obispo much more bearable.

SLO was another area small town, and we rocked up just in time for the weekly Farmers Market, which turns the main street into a street party with market fresh fruit and veg, live local bands, tasty local food stalls and lots of fun things to look at. Since we were both feeling quite retched by this stage, we cooked up some more ginger tea for the next days' drive and had an early night.
We set off at 6am the next morning for the trip into Los Angeles- we were told that the trip could blow out to 4-5 hours, and we had to meet our friends at lunchtime for an architectural tour of LA by another friend's mother who lives in the area. We made great time, and the edge-of-seat freeway driving I'd heard about turned out to be true, but we managed to scrape through.

LA definitely has a lot of character, but in many ways it's an urban nightmare. It's jut so spread out over such a massive area, and traffic is horrendous. It's like what I imagine Perth could slowly turn into if they just keep building low-density housing and more freeways, pushing everything out further and further. We did a great architectural tour; visiting the Eames case study house, Eames office and Edgemar arts centre in Venice, then onto the Getty Centre- taking in a drive down Sunset strip through Hollywood and Beverly Hills on the way. But to spent almost 4 hours driving to get to all these places wore me out to a point of sleep-deprived exhaustion, especially when so much of it was spent stuck in freeway traffic and trying desperately to stay behind our guiding car when other drivers (mainly in the car by themselves chatting away on cellphones) insisted on cutting in.

We crashed early while the other girls headed out for the night, and managed to sleep through the loud music and all-night shenanigans happening at this hip hostel in Hollywood.

I'm struggling to upload photos at the moment- the computers alternate between being CD-less and USB-less- but will try and get some more up ASAP.

Have been thinking of you all fondly! Lots of love.
-Liam

California remains copyright of the author legham, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Air Travel sucks

2007-06-09T20:54:33Z

So many things accomplished, so little time to type it all out!

After our marathon flight across 3 continents we arrived in Vancouver and piled into the hire van as planned. I was surprised at the lack of jet lag, but we did well to eat and sleep at the right times, and we had plenty of opportunity for daytime naps over the weekend.

Sasquatch was quite amazing- the photos on flickr show what a stunning setting the venue was. Saw some great music, watched some crazy characters, ate dodgy american festival food and drank nice american beer.
Was great to have a practice run at a US road trip and sort of get my head around the driving-on-the-right thing, since I'll be doing most of the driving over the next few weeks.

Once we were back in Van we tried to figure out just what to do in the very limited time we had left. We settled for one day checking out beautiful Lynn Canyon on the outskirts of the city and downtown Vancouver itself. We had a great dinner at the Foundation where Conor worked while he was living here, and spent the next day exploring Main St shops and roaming the classy neighborhood of Mount Pleasant with it's big beautiful 3-story wooden houses. Our last night in town turned into a snowball of people saying goodbye to our Vancouver-Perth friends, and we managed to catch up with Luan, Gemma and Brendan Tapley all in one night!

We got 3 hours sleep, jumped on a plane which was delayed, made a really tight transfer only to find out our luggage was not so fortunate. After hanging around for a couple of hours as SF airport our bags turned up and we made the train ride into the city to meet our other friends who had arrived at the hostel some hours earlier.

We've just spent the day roaming western SF on foot, checking out lots of great design and clothing stores, and some galleries and cafes to boot. SF is not as beautiful as Vancouver, and seems to lack that *something*... that character.

Lots more stories to come, we start our road trip on Monday and will hopefully have a bit more downtime to connect

-Liam

Air Travel sucks remains copyright of the author legham, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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One more sleep!

2007-05-24T05:07:54Z

Just a quick update this time- have managed to grab a spare hour at an internet cafe to upload photos and check in.

Sydney is beautiful, we walked into the city and did all the touristy things yesterday, since it's my first time in the city. I love the buildings, especially all the little townhouses and steep streets in Surry Hills where we're staying with Adele.

Sonia is feeling pretty lousy, she's come down with a cold and sore throat. I think the last week or two before we left must have worn her down, combined with the big night we had on Sunday in Melbourne. So while she rests up at home, I've been exploring Sydney some more on my own today- she's seen it all before a couple of times :P

We fly out early tomorrow morning and spend over 20 hours in the air- we gain an extra 12 hours crossing the international date line, and then bundle straight into a waiting hire van to drive south to a music festival for the weekend. Will be pretty much uncontactable until Monday, but will no doubt have a stack of photos and stories to share once we've back in Vancouver.

-Liam

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Holidays sweet holidays

2007-05-21T03:56:03Z

Ah how sweet it is... to drink beer all afternoon with good friends on a Sunday, go see some live music and wind up eating chocolate on the couch in front of a cheesy movie before crawling off to bed.

After a hectic last couple of days in Perth which consisted of late nights finishing folios and last-minute packing and list-checking, it feels nice to have a few days off to sleep in and relax.

Melbourne had been great so far, I can really see myself coming back to live here somewhere down the track. The buildings and streets just have so much more history and atmosphere than Perth- I think I'm going to flip out in Europe :P

It was great catching up with all our ex-Perth friends last night in Fitzroy- our original choice of cafe was full so we became like a snowball rolling around the backstreets, picking up people one-by-one until we ended up rolling right back into the same cafe half an hour later to find a table empty and waiting.

After getting in a few jugs of beer, lots of conversation and a bang-up pub meal round the corner, we bit the bullet and went along to a live performance from the one and only Peter Combe. For those of you who are struggling to recognise where you know this name, cast your mind back 15-20 years... to a time before "wiggles" where all you needed to entertain kids was an acoustic guitar, bad hair and a bright waistcoat.

It was a surreal experience- to walk into a packed (and probably sold out) venue, filling with 20something hipsters alternately singing along at the top of their lungs and falling into giggling fits at the sheer hilarious experience of it all. There were so many songs that I thought I'd long forgotten, only to find myself singing along after the first few words... and the between-song banter was dynamite, with Peter exclaiming how much we'd all grown in the last 20 years :D
They played all the classics- Toffee Apple, Newspaper Mama, Spaghetti Bolognese, Mr Clickety Clane; as well as a few of the more obscure hits like Bag Dad and Blowflies.

After the first encore, the audience refused to let Peter (and trusty piano wizard Phil) away so easily, so they came back to pronounce that they had played their entire reportoire and would have to play Newspaper Mama one more time.

We staggered away emotionally drained and yet spiritually nourished, feeling a warm connection with each other having experienced such a mind blowing performance, and some of us even have the signed cd boxsets to prove it

-Liam

Holidays sweet holidays remains copyright of the author legham, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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3 days and counting...

2007-05-21T03:59:14Z

The last few weeks have been a blur- so many things to sort out, so few hours in the day...
But here we are, only a few days away from the start of our 3 month round-the-world trip, and the anticipation is starting to build. It's going to be so much fun to see so many new places that I've only dreamed about visiting... so great to catch up with friends who escaped from Perth long ago... and so exciting to head out into the world without a solid plan of where we'll end up

This will be our main point of contact with you all while we're away. You can use the menu on the right to subscribe to this blog (so you receive emails when it's updated) and to search through our ramblings once we have actually posted some :p

There will be a few select photos posted here, you can see all my other photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/legham/

See the itinerary of this trip, and details about each destination.

I've started to update our travel info in order to keep you all up to date with where we're going and when- this map is interactive, you can zoom around and follow our trail around the world. It's pretty vague for the Europe rail leg, but that's because we're still deciding exactly where to go and how long to stay for

-Liam

3 days and counting... remains copyright of the author legham, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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