this will be a halfarsed update, because I can't be fully arsed.
Anyway, after hellfest I went to greece, met up with victoria. Athens is a shithole, I wouldn't bother staying there. Better yet, don't even go there, skip straight to the islands.
Santorini is a cool little island, spent something like 6 or so days there. Got drunk every night, fell asleep in assorted places. Met up with a couple of other aussies who're going to be at wacken open air, and who were generally cool. Anyway, zou can do an island tour thing on santorini, it's kinda worth it, but make sure you do the donkey ride bit, donkeys are awesome.
from greece went to czech republic. Prague is pretty cool, beer is cheap and food is cheap. went to masters of rock after a couple of days in prague. Was pretty awesome, lots of power metal (bleghhh) but there was also some good music as well. More importantly, there was cheap booze. Met some german dudes victoria camped with last year, got trashed with them the one night. Spent a while with them trying to convince czech people we were really french, I don't think we did a very good job though.
tents are bad because you wake up really hot stupidly early in the morning, thus ensuring you can never get any proper sleep at a fe3sival.
bathing is good because it means you don't stink, i really stank after this festival
so yeah, festivals are fun
now in vienna, haven't really done that much here, saw the movie hancock, it was awful
going back to greece (crete and naxos) tomorrow, whooo
the weather here in austria is shit
as is this update
Thursday, 17 July 2008
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
stuff and things
so anyhoo, I went to hellfest the other day. I caught the tgv over there, was pretty cool, but not really all that different from any other train to be honest. The trains aren't really set up to sleep in comfortably either. I met some random french guy on the train, and ended up pitching my tent near his. As a sidenote, I took a shit on the tgv on the way back to see how it would compare to shitting on an english train, not really much difference.
There was nothing on the first day, just the campsite opened up but a good proportion of the people who came arrived that day. I ended up drinking beer with a couple of random french dudes, before stumbling across some english people while really drunk.
Anyway, general notes on my first festival:
1. Toilets are gross. So I took anti-diarrhea pills so I wouldn't have to shit.
2. Buying food with the intention of cooking and shit is a bad idea, as I couldn't be arsed.
3. midday till 3am or so is a really long time, so pace yourself.
4. Whilst shirts make good hats, oh god, the sunburn.
5. ?
Now, boring notes on bands to follow:
The first day there wasn't much good on early, I went to see Alchemist, support the home team and all but they had technical troubles and stopped after 20 minutes, oh well. I went to see paradise lost a bit later, was pretty disappointed as they didn't play anything old. Mayhem were really fucking cool, the crowd got right into it, cos it's mayhem. Katatonia were cool, they played a bunch of newish stuff, teargas is the only song I can specifically remember, but then they played some old songs, one of which was Without God which is my favourite katatonia song ever so it was awesome. Dimmu Borgir were not all that great, In Flames put on a good show, fireworks and all sorts of shit. Baroness were absolutely amazing. Venom was pretty good, but I was too tired to really care by that point. I also saw a bunch of random hardcore bands, the pits were good fun.
Second day:
Airbourne were pretty cool, basically an ACDC clone, but they put on a good show. The singer also climbed up near the top of the scaffolding by the stage and was playing guitar from up there, was funny. Sodom were really awesome, crowd got right into it as well. I saw anathema, pretty bland to be honest. They did play a couple of older songs (including sleepless) but yeah, they don't really have it any more. Candlemass were really cool. Anaal Nathrakh put on a good show, and had an awesome pit going. Shining were intense, the singer was spitting whisky at the crowd and cutting himself with a broken bottle and a boxcutter. He threw a bloody bandage into the crowd, I was close enough to have grabbed it, but really, it's a bloody bandage, gross. The girl next to me had no such qualms and had a tug of war for it with someone for it. She was trying to break it with her teeth at one point, I mean honestly. Watain followed them, and were just as intense. No cutting or spitting, just pure black metal. Saw a bit of ministry and cavalera conspiracy after, but in general couldn't be arsed by that time of night.
Third day municipal waste played early, was a pretty awesome pit, not sure if it was the biggest of the festival, but it was pretty big. I went to see Rose Tattoo a bit later, bit of a random choice for the festival, but still great. Dilinger escape plan were pretty good, went to see primordial after them, was nuts. Kinda pissed they clashed with meshuggah, wouldn't have minded to see them. Opeth was alright, they opened with Demon of the Fall, which was a good start. My dying bride was on after, and yeah, was good. NOFX were playing after that, I really don't know whose idea they were, but ugh. I went to see Shai Hulud, because of their name. I don't even really like them (generic sorta hardcore), but still. Motorhead were great, awesome stageshow (girls in bikinis breathing fire, Hell yeah). I went to see Cult of Luna after that, I'd only really heard of them, not heard them and they were awesome. I went to see Envy over Slayer, dunno if it was a good idea but oh well. Envy were great, but still, slayer. Caught the end of the slayer set, came over just in time to see angel of death.
thus ends my boring and rather poorly described description of the bands I saw.
If you're not bored by now, you might also enjoy watching grass grow, or paint dry, or something.
There was nothing on the first day, just the campsite opened up but a good proportion of the people who came arrived that day. I ended up drinking beer with a couple of random french dudes, before stumbling across some english people while really drunk.
Anyway, general notes on my first festival:
1. Toilets are gross. So I took anti-diarrhea pills so I wouldn't have to shit.
2. Buying food with the intention of cooking and shit is a bad idea, as I couldn't be arsed.
3. midday till 3am or so is a really long time, so pace yourself.
4. Whilst shirts make good hats, oh god, the sunburn.
5. ?
Now, boring notes on bands to follow:
The first day there wasn't much good on early, I went to see Alchemist, support the home team and all but they had technical troubles and stopped after 20 minutes, oh well. I went to see paradise lost a bit later, was pretty disappointed as they didn't play anything old. Mayhem were really fucking cool, the crowd got right into it, cos it's mayhem. Katatonia were cool, they played a bunch of newish stuff, teargas is the only song I can specifically remember, but then they played some old songs, one of which was Without God which is my favourite katatonia song ever so it was awesome. Dimmu Borgir were not all that great, In Flames put on a good show, fireworks and all sorts of shit. Baroness were absolutely amazing. Venom was pretty good, but I was too tired to really care by that point. I also saw a bunch of random hardcore bands, the pits were good fun.
Second day:
Airbourne were pretty cool, basically an ACDC clone, but they put on a good show. The singer also climbed up near the top of the scaffolding by the stage and was playing guitar from up there, was funny. Sodom were really awesome, crowd got right into it as well. I saw anathema, pretty bland to be honest. They did play a couple of older songs (including sleepless) but yeah, they don't really have it any more. Candlemass were really cool. Anaal Nathrakh put on a good show, and had an awesome pit going. Shining were intense, the singer was spitting whisky at the crowd and cutting himself with a broken bottle and a boxcutter. He threw a bloody bandage into the crowd, I was close enough to have grabbed it, but really, it's a bloody bandage, gross. The girl next to me had no such qualms and had a tug of war for it with someone for it. She was trying to break it with her teeth at one point, I mean honestly. Watain followed them, and were just as intense. No cutting or spitting, just pure black metal. Saw a bit of ministry and cavalera conspiracy after, but in general couldn't be arsed by that time of night.
Third day municipal waste played early, was a pretty awesome pit, not sure if it was the biggest of the festival, but it was pretty big. I went to see Rose Tattoo a bit later, bit of a random choice for the festival, but still great. Dilinger escape plan were pretty good, went to see primordial after them, was nuts. Kinda pissed they clashed with meshuggah, wouldn't have minded to see them. Opeth was alright, they opened with Demon of the Fall, which was a good start. My dying bride was on after, and yeah, was good. NOFX were playing after that, I really don't know whose idea they were, but ugh. I went to see Shai Hulud, because of their name. I don't even really like them (generic sorta hardcore), but still. Motorhead were great, awesome stageshow (girls in bikinis breathing fire, Hell yeah). I went to see Cult of Luna after that, I'd only really heard of them, not heard them and they were awesome. I went to see Envy over Slayer, dunno if it was a good idea but oh well. Envy were great, but still, slayer. Caught the end of the slayer set, came over just in time to see angel of death.
thus ends my boring and rather poorly described description of the bands I saw.
If you're not bored by now, you might also enjoy watching grass grow, or paint dry, or something.
Sunday, 15 June 2008
well yeah
bit slow on the updates, but eh, these things happens.
Anyway, my last post was just before I went to maastricht. Maastricht was a pretty cool place, a very old town so it had lots of cobbled streets and suchlike - as a sidenote, cobbled streets are a pain to ride on, you bounce around like crazy. Anyway, I stayed the night there, didn't really get up to anything interesting.
Day after that I cycled off into belgium. This was my first day of cycling in the hills proper, and I got pretty ruined. I also discovered belgium is crap to cycle in - the roads are poorly maintained and there's hardly any signs pointing to other villages, and the bikes paths are either filled with shit or don't really go anywhere. Belgium also has a lot more of a rural feel to it than the netherlands, the villages are proper little farming places, not really a bad thing, it just felt weird. Anyway, I found some campsite in a place called Moha which I decided to head for that night, turns out it was full, so I had to crawl another 5 or 10k to another campsite in a place called oteppe. Can't really say much good about it, except that the campsite was a big place which had its own shop, so I was able to buy some crap to munch on.
Anyway, day after I headed off in the direction of charleroi. On the way I went through Namur, which seemed like a bit of a craphole so I didn't stop. I made it to charleroi at about 5pm, and was somewhat put out to discover there was no hostel in town, so I had the option of either finding a hotel, or cycling another 10 or 20 km to the nearest campsite. I opted for the nice dry hotel room, I spent too much money on it, but I appreciated being dry. I also had dinner in the restaurent there, had the most awesome steak, the soup of the day was good and cheap too.
Anyhoo, day after I cycled down towards chimay. Highlights of the cycling that day include people taking part in a triathlon flying past me, which was really quite depressing. I made it to chimay and found the cheapest campsite of the trip, 4.50 euros, it wasn't even that dodgy. I went into town and had an awful dinner, it was really quite shocking.
Anyway, On leaving chimay the next day I was heartened to see a road sign saying 215km to Paris. I got a bit of a boost from seeing this sign, and managed to push on to Laon, which seemed like a kinda interesting place. Wasn't really in the mood to check it out by the time I got there, so oh well. The campsite in town was pretty good and cheap. Highlights of the cycling on this day include the worlds biggest hill, this is only a highlight as I was going down in. It must have been a good kilometre of dead straight road at about 10% grade, was fun.
After Laon I pushed on down to Soisson, and found an internet cafe to look for a campsite that night, and to book some manner of accomodation in Paris. I managed to find a budget hotel in paris, and found out there was a campsite in a place called acy en multien, about 50 or 60km from paris. The internet cafe was pretty cool, 5 euro got me a massive sandwich, a drink and internet. Anyway, I headed down to the campsite, and was horrified to find it was 18.50 for the night. Ridiculous for a campsite in the middle of nowhere. Anyway, I didn't really have any other option, so I payed it. I then went to the local epicerie and bought myself some pasta in a can for dinner, and a 1.5L bottle of Sangria. The sangria drowned my troubles nicely, and the pasta wasn't too bad.
Anyway, next day I headed off to paris. I kept to the little rural roads on the way in, cycled pretty close to Charles de Gaulle airport, which is miles away from paris. Anyway, I managed to get lost nearish to paris, and decided to try my luck on the N3 into the city. This was a bad idea, as there was a fair bit of traffic, and it was all going rather fast. I bailed on that plan pretty quickly, and managed to find a quieter route in shortly after. After cycling for miles through the outer suburbs, I finally got to one of the Portes into paris. Once in paris proper, I then proceeded to get ridiculously lost for a couple of hours, until I got some directions from some nice french guy who spoke english. Anyway, I eventually found the budget hotel where I was staying, and budget was definately the right word. Still, it was more or less clean so I can't complain too much. There was a net cafe and a laundrette next door too, which was handy. Anyway, I didn't really do that much for the rest of the evening, not really being in the mood for it.
Next day I headed off to a hostel, which turned out to be in an interesting part of town. The metro stop is surrounded by dudes selling marlboro cigarettes imported from spain, among other things. Anyway, the hostel itself was an absolutely bizarre place. There was this old woman who stood at the side of the desk who seemed to be the manager, and she had this crazy schedule thing for all the rooms. I was apparently going to have to move every night I was in the place. Turns out I only had to move once, but still. Anyway, I headed off to the Louvre and looked at stuff for a while, and came back to the hostel for a tasty dinner of bread and vegetables and cheese from the supermarket. Anyway, I met half a dozen irish people while I was eating dinner, they were heading off on a pub crawl that night and invited me to come along. Despite not really being able to afford it, I agreed to come along. The pub crawl itself was a bit of a ripoff (essentially it was 11 euro to have someone direct you in between pubs and give you a bit of vodka and orange juice) but it was still an awesome time. I managed to get absolutely blotto (as an indication I was blind enough to call some random french woman "monseuir") and had an awesome time. Catching a taxi back was a challenge, I ended up having to hide behind a bus stop while a Canadian girl who was also staying at the hostel flagged down a cab. I then managed to pass out in her hostel room on an empty bed in there.
anyway, day after I visited a few more museums and whatnot, same ole. There's a whole lot of museums in paris, and they're all pretty cool, but they're all sorta blurring into one giant museum filled with arty stuff in my mind. This is probably bad, and indicative of how uncultured I am, but whatever. Anyway, I met a few random kiwis at the hostel, and spent the night drinking a bottle of wine in their room.
Next day I I wandered over to sacre coeur with a couple of randoms from the hostel, it is a pretty impressive place. The view of paris from up there is pretty awesome as well. I then went over to the pantheon, and had a bit of a gawk at the graves of dead famous people. Spent the evening talking in the hostel courtyard to some canadians and a few aussies, while drinking a bottle of wine. My evening entertainment is somewhat limited by my budget, talking to people while drinking a bottle of wine only costs me a euro or so, so it's not bad.
Anyway, I moved hostel yesterday, to a less dodgy place in a less dodgy area. It's kinda cool, but doesn't really have the backpacker vibe of the other place. I also managed to lose my towel and my toothbrush at my other hostel, which is a pain in the arse. I also left my bike there, for lack of anything better to do with it. I might go back in a couple of days and see if it is still there, i'm not too hopeful though. I visited the musee rodin which was cool, as well as the museum of arms and armaments at les invalides. They had an awful lot of suits of armour there, enough for a small army. I was boring and ended up falling asleep early in the evening.
So that brings me to now, it's stupidly early and I have no real idea of what to do today, so I'm thinking about wandering over the jim morrison's grave, which I have heard is pretty cool.
so yeah, if you made it to the end of this, congratulations, you win a prize! Well you would, if i could afford one.
Anyway, my last post was just before I went to maastricht. Maastricht was a pretty cool place, a very old town so it had lots of cobbled streets and suchlike - as a sidenote, cobbled streets are a pain to ride on, you bounce around like crazy. Anyway, I stayed the night there, didn't really get up to anything interesting.
Day after that I cycled off into belgium. This was my first day of cycling in the hills proper, and I got pretty ruined. I also discovered belgium is crap to cycle in - the roads are poorly maintained and there's hardly any signs pointing to other villages, and the bikes paths are either filled with shit or don't really go anywhere. Belgium also has a lot more of a rural feel to it than the netherlands, the villages are proper little farming places, not really a bad thing, it just felt weird. Anyway, I found some campsite in a place called Moha which I decided to head for that night, turns out it was full, so I had to crawl another 5 or 10k to another campsite in a place called oteppe. Can't really say much good about it, except that the campsite was a big place which had its own shop, so I was able to buy some crap to munch on.
Anyway, day after I headed off in the direction of charleroi. On the way I went through Namur, which seemed like a bit of a craphole so I didn't stop. I made it to charleroi at about 5pm, and was somewhat put out to discover there was no hostel in town, so I had the option of either finding a hotel, or cycling another 10 or 20 km to the nearest campsite. I opted for the nice dry hotel room, I spent too much money on it, but I appreciated being dry. I also had dinner in the restaurent there, had the most awesome steak, the soup of the day was good and cheap too.
Anyhoo, day after I cycled down towards chimay. Highlights of the cycling that day include people taking part in a triathlon flying past me, which was really quite depressing. I made it to chimay and found the cheapest campsite of the trip, 4.50 euros, it wasn't even that dodgy. I went into town and had an awful dinner, it was really quite shocking.
Anyway, On leaving chimay the next day I was heartened to see a road sign saying 215km to Paris. I got a bit of a boost from seeing this sign, and managed to push on to Laon, which seemed like a kinda interesting place. Wasn't really in the mood to check it out by the time I got there, so oh well. The campsite in town was pretty good and cheap. Highlights of the cycling on this day include the worlds biggest hill, this is only a highlight as I was going down in. It must have been a good kilometre of dead straight road at about 10% grade, was fun.
After Laon I pushed on down to Soisson, and found an internet cafe to look for a campsite that night, and to book some manner of accomodation in Paris. I managed to find a budget hotel in paris, and found out there was a campsite in a place called acy en multien, about 50 or 60km from paris. The internet cafe was pretty cool, 5 euro got me a massive sandwich, a drink and internet. Anyway, I headed down to the campsite, and was horrified to find it was 18.50 for the night. Ridiculous for a campsite in the middle of nowhere. Anyway, I didn't really have any other option, so I payed it. I then went to the local epicerie and bought myself some pasta in a can for dinner, and a 1.5L bottle of Sangria. The sangria drowned my troubles nicely, and the pasta wasn't too bad.
Anyway, next day I headed off to paris. I kept to the little rural roads on the way in, cycled pretty close to Charles de Gaulle airport, which is miles away from paris. Anyway, I managed to get lost nearish to paris, and decided to try my luck on the N3 into the city. This was a bad idea, as there was a fair bit of traffic, and it was all going rather fast. I bailed on that plan pretty quickly, and managed to find a quieter route in shortly after. After cycling for miles through the outer suburbs, I finally got to one of the Portes into paris. Once in paris proper, I then proceeded to get ridiculously lost for a couple of hours, until I got some directions from some nice french guy who spoke english. Anyway, I eventually found the budget hotel where I was staying, and budget was definately the right word. Still, it was more or less clean so I can't complain too much. There was a net cafe and a laundrette next door too, which was handy. Anyway, I didn't really do that much for the rest of the evening, not really being in the mood for it.
Next day I headed off to a hostel, which turned out to be in an interesting part of town. The metro stop is surrounded by dudes selling marlboro cigarettes imported from spain, among other things. Anyway, the hostel itself was an absolutely bizarre place. There was this old woman who stood at the side of the desk who seemed to be the manager, and she had this crazy schedule thing for all the rooms. I was apparently going to have to move every night I was in the place. Turns out I only had to move once, but still. Anyway, I headed off to the Louvre and looked at stuff for a while, and came back to the hostel for a tasty dinner of bread and vegetables and cheese from the supermarket. Anyway, I met half a dozen irish people while I was eating dinner, they were heading off on a pub crawl that night and invited me to come along. Despite not really being able to afford it, I agreed to come along. The pub crawl itself was a bit of a ripoff (essentially it was 11 euro to have someone direct you in between pubs and give you a bit of vodka and orange juice) but it was still an awesome time. I managed to get absolutely blotto (as an indication I was blind enough to call some random french woman "monseuir") and had an awesome time. Catching a taxi back was a challenge, I ended up having to hide behind a bus stop while a Canadian girl who was also staying at the hostel flagged down a cab. I then managed to pass out in her hostel room on an empty bed in there.
anyway, day after I visited a few more museums and whatnot, same ole. There's a whole lot of museums in paris, and they're all pretty cool, but they're all sorta blurring into one giant museum filled with arty stuff in my mind. This is probably bad, and indicative of how uncultured I am, but whatever. Anyway, I met a few random kiwis at the hostel, and spent the night drinking a bottle of wine in their room.
Next day I I wandered over to sacre coeur with a couple of randoms from the hostel, it is a pretty impressive place. The view of paris from up there is pretty awesome as well. I then went over to the pantheon, and had a bit of a gawk at the graves of dead famous people. Spent the evening talking in the hostel courtyard to some canadians and a few aussies, while drinking a bottle of wine. My evening entertainment is somewhat limited by my budget, talking to people while drinking a bottle of wine only costs me a euro or so, so it's not bad.
Anyway, I moved hostel yesterday, to a less dodgy place in a less dodgy area. It's kinda cool, but doesn't really have the backpacker vibe of the other place. I also managed to lose my towel and my toothbrush at my other hostel, which is a pain in the arse. I also left my bike there, for lack of anything better to do with it. I might go back in a couple of days and see if it is still there, i'm not too hopeful though. I visited the musee rodin which was cool, as well as the museum of arms and armaments at les invalides. They had an awful lot of suits of armour there, enough for a small army. I was boring and ended up falling asleep early in the evening.
So that brings me to now, it's stupidly early and I have no real idea of what to do today, so I'm thinking about wandering over the jim morrison's grave, which I have heard is pretty cool.
so yeah, if you made it to the end of this, congratulations, you win a prize! Well you would, if i could afford one.
Wednesday, 4 June 2008
update
I've spent my three days in Amsterdam, had a pretty good time. The museums were ok, pretty cool collections of stuff, but to be honest I'm not a huge fan of dutch painters, most of them are pretty boring. As for the city itself, it's a crazy place, I was able to navigate it a little better than London though, the canals and general city layout helps a lot. Met up with a few Aussies at the hostel I was at, pretty cool guys, sat around drinking bundy rum at the hostel with them for a bit, it tasted like home. Incidentally, the hostel I was at was total rubbish. The rooms weren't too bad, though they moved me from one room to another for no apparent reason after the first night, I'm assuming because they messed up their bookings. No microwave or washing machine was also a giant pain in the arse. The breakfast was a joke too, jam and bread, they didn't even have toasters. Anyway, hostel aside I had a good time in Amsterdam.
The day I left I went pretty early, at about 9am or so. Powered on down to Utrecht which was my intended stopping point for the day, but it only took me about two hours and I was feeling energetic so I kept going. On the way when I was looking at a sign trying to figure out which way I needed to go some old bloke came out of his house and offered me some coffee, so I drank coffee with him and ate a cake thing. He was pretty cool, and he gave me some directions to go through a different route that would be nice. Part of the route was riding on top of a dike, was neat given how flat the place is, could see over the river and all around for miles. I then had to catch a funny little boat across the river to get to the next bit (I ran into a couple of these, they varied between normal boats with car ramps, car ramp boats that pulled across the river on cables, and normal boats that only took bikes and people). Somewhere along the way I found a roadside stall at a farm selling cherries, ripest tastiest cherries I've ever eaten, 7 euros a kilo which isn't too bad I guess. Anyway, ended up in Erichem, a little village near Tiel in a fair size camping ground there. There was a german or dutch or something of the like guy there who'd also ridden his bike there - he'd come from Lelystad, a little further away than me. His english wasn't great so I didn't really talk to him much, he seemed like a bit of a gimp anyway. Went to bed early that night, and woke up at about 6 or so.
I found out the morning after that when packet pasta says to add milk, it isn't really an optional step, you just end up with pasta in cornflour goo if you skip the whole milk thing. Anyway, the next day I cycled down near Eindhoven, was a pretty good days ride. Found another camping ground (millions of caravans in this one) and set up there. Spent way too much on dinner (20 euro :/) because I couldn't be arsed cooking some horrible pasta or something. Anyway, some dutch guys about my age turned up at the campsite a little later, and immediately offered me a beer. I'm not really one to turn down a beer, so I didn't. Turns out the beer was store brand (from euroshopper) beer, but it wasn't too bad. Much better than Tesco's attempts at beer. Anyway, we went to a pool hall for a bit, awesome place actually. It was in a smallish town called Helmond (the campsite was in Mierlo), but was great. Nice tables, nice cues, pay a few euros to get a set of balls rather than having to feed a table coins all night, and it had a proper sorta atmosphere, pretty quiet though as it was a monday night. Anyway, we played some pool then went back to the campsite and drank some more beer, and started a bonfire. Getting the fire going was a bit interesting as it had rained only a few hours before, but we stole all of the toilet paper out of the toilets and used that to start it. Sat around getting drunk and stoned with them till really early in the morning.
Woke up really late the morning after, about 10 ish, with not enough sleep. Said goodbye to the dutch guys and cycled off. Fairly uneventful days cycling, but now I'm in south Limburg, about 20km east of Maastricht, in a little place called Schinnen. Pretty awesome little camping ground I'm in, it's small, there's a washing machine and dryer (though it costs like 6 euro to use both, I'll still pay it though I guess :/), there's free internet that no-one else is using as it's all old people staying right now, pretty cool really. When I arrived I was wandering around looking for the place tents are supposed to setup and a nice old couple with a caravan waved me over. They told me where tents were supposed to set up, and gave me a beer (I think I looked pretty wrecked). I had a good chat with them, their english was a little rusty but really quite good compared to most old people here. They had a cool little Daschund puppy too. Anyway, I was hoping to get to Maastricht today, but the lack of sleep last night meant I was pretty tired by the time I got down here, and it was getting to be late afternoon. There was also the fact that I came across the first lot of hills in Holland. Until a few hours ago, the only times I've had to cycle uphill was when there was a bridge, or when I was going up a dike, I seriously hadn't seen a single hill in the place till now. It was a cracker too, a good 8% or so grade at a guess, I gave up on that one and walked it. On the plus side I got to ride down the hill on my bike on the other side. Going fast with a fully loaded bike is a little interesting, not that I was game to go hugely fast, but still. I was looking for a camping ground I'd seen on my map, but lucked out and found one closer. I was planning on staying the one night here, but I'm going to stay a second because I really couldn't be arsed cycling anywhere today. Anyway, spent today wandering around a little bit, seeing what was in the area and trying to find a supermarket. Found a brewery in the area, but the next tour in english isn't for like a month or so, not really much use to me. Tomorrow I will probably head to Maastricht and spend a day there, then onto belgium for a day or two.
also, a rough map of where I have been:
Grotere kaart weergeven
The day I left I went pretty early, at about 9am or so. Powered on down to Utrecht which was my intended stopping point for the day, but it only took me about two hours and I was feeling energetic so I kept going. On the way when I was looking at a sign trying to figure out which way I needed to go some old bloke came out of his house and offered me some coffee, so I drank coffee with him and ate a cake thing. He was pretty cool, and he gave me some directions to go through a different route that would be nice. Part of the route was riding on top of a dike, was neat given how flat the place is, could see over the river and all around for miles. I then had to catch a funny little boat across the river to get to the next bit (I ran into a couple of these, they varied between normal boats with car ramps, car ramp boats that pulled across the river on cables, and normal boats that only took bikes and people). Somewhere along the way I found a roadside stall at a farm selling cherries, ripest tastiest cherries I've ever eaten, 7 euros a kilo which isn't too bad I guess. Anyway, ended up in Erichem, a little village near Tiel in a fair size camping ground there. There was a german or dutch or something of the like guy there who'd also ridden his bike there - he'd come from Lelystad, a little further away than me. His english wasn't great so I didn't really talk to him much, he seemed like a bit of a gimp anyway. Went to bed early that night, and woke up at about 6 or so.
I found out the morning after that when packet pasta says to add milk, it isn't really an optional step, you just end up with pasta in cornflour goo if you skip the whole milk thing. Anyway, the next day I cycled down near Eindhoven, was a pretty good days ride. Found another camping ground (millions of caravans in this one) and set up there. Spent way too much on dinner (20 euro :/) because I couldn't be arsed cooking some horrible pasta or something. Anyway, some dutch guys about my age turned up at the campsite a little later, and immediately offered me a beer. I'm not really one to turn down a beer, so I didn't. Turns out the beer was store brand (from euroshopper) beer, but it wasn't too bad. Much better than Tesco's attempts at beer. Anyway, we went to a pool hall for a bit, awesome place actually. It was in a smallish town called Helmond (the campsite was in Mierlo), but was great. Nice tables, nice cues, pay a few euros to get a set of balls rather than having to feed a table coins all night, and it had a proper sorta atmosphere, pretty quiet though as it was a monday night. Anyway, we played some pool then went back to the campsite and drank some more beer, and started a bonfire. Getting the fire going was a bit interesting as it had rained only a few hours before, but we stole all of the toilet paper out of the toilets and used that to start it. Sat around getting drunk and stoned with them till really early in the morning.
Woke up really late the morning after, about 10 ish, with not enough sleep. Said goodbye to the dutch guys and cycled off. Fairly uneventful days cycling, but now I'm in south Limburg, about 20km east of Maastricht, in a little place called Schinnen. Pretty awesome little camping ground I'm in, it's small, there's a washing machine and dryer (though it costs like 6 euro to use both, I'll still pay it though I guess :/), there's free internet that no-one else is using as it's all old people staying right now, pretty cool really. When I arrived I was wandering around looking for the place tents are supposed to setup and a nice old couple with a caravan waved me over. They told me where tents were supposed to set up, and gave me a beer (I think I looked pretty wrecked). I had a good chat with them, their english was a little rusty but really quite good compared to most old people here. They had a cool little Daschund puppy too. Anyway, I was hoping to get to Maastricht today, but the lack of sleep last night meant I was pretty tired by the time I got down here, and it was getting to be late afternoon. There was also the fact that I came across the first lot of hills in Holland. Until a few hours ago, the only times I've had to cycle uphill was when there was a bridge, or when I was going up a dike, I seriously hadn't seen a single hill in the place till now. It was a cracker too, a good 8% or so grade at a guess, I gave up on that one and walked it. On the plus side I got to ride down the hill on my bike on the other side. Going fast with a fully loaded bike is a little interesting, not that I was game to go hugely fast, but still. I was looking for a camping ground I'd seen on my map, but lucked out and found one closer. I was planning on staying the one night here, but I'm going to stay a second because I really couldn't be arsed cycling anywhere today. Anyway, spent today wandering around a little bit, seeing what was in the area and trying to find a supermarket. Found a brewery in the area, but the next tour in english isn't for like a month or so, not really much use to me. Tomorrow I will probably head to Maastricht and spend a day there, then onto belgium for a day or two.
also, a rough map of where I have been:
Grotere kaart weergeven
Thursday, 29 May 2008
Hamsterdam
Yohoho,
Set off this morning around ten or so, have gotten fairly used to riding a loaded up bike now, didn't fall over at all today (I think I fell over 3 or so times yesterday?). Anyway, made it to amsterdam at about 1 or so, and bumbled around for another two hours or so heading through town trying to find my hostel. Turns out it's on the smallest most inconspicuous street ever. Seems like an alright place though, facilities are however a bit light on (what kind of hostel has no washing machine or microwave?).
Anyway, today my scalp which got badly sunburnt yesterday has been oozing pus all day, it's really quite gross. Don't think I've ever had sunburn this bad before. I guess shaving my head before I left was a bad idea, oh well. I did buy some sunblock today, but I think it's a bit late.
The weather was atrocious today, rained all morning, so I ended up at my hostel half soaked, and a little on the cold side. Still, it was a good little ride, the bike paths were all clearly signed and most of them were in good repair, and a lot of the ride was through nice semi-rural countryside.
Amsterdam really seems like a chilled out version of london. It has all of the shops restaurents and general big city features, but none of the traffic, and even the foot traffic seems more relaxed. There's also millions of bikes all over the place, and trams. The trams seem really awesome, might have to catch one tomorrow. Still, haven't really seen much of the city yet, wandered over to the red light district but being still daylight, there wasn't much in the way of interesting things going on. It did only take about 30 seconds before a guy wandered over wanting to sell drugs though, that's what I call service.
Still, been too tired today to be arsed doing much, just woke up from a nap a minute ago. Might leave it to tomorrow night before I go exploring at night.
Anyway, that's all I got for now.
Set off this morning around ten or so, have gotten fairly used to riding a loaded up bike now, didn't fall over at all today (I think I fell over 3 or so times yesterday?). Anyway, made it to amsterdam at about 1 or so, and bumbled around for another two hours or so heading through town trying to find my hostel. Turns out it's on the smallest most inconspicuous street ever. Seems like an alright place though, facilities are however a bit light on (what kind of hostel has no washing machine or microwave?).
Anyway, today my scalp which got badly sunburnt yesterday has been oozing pus all day, it's really quite gross. Don't think I've ever had sunburn this bad before. I guess shaving my head before I left was a bad idea, oh well. I did buy some sunblock today, but I think it's a bit late.
The weather was atrocious today, rained all morning, so I ended up at my hostel half soaked, and a little on the cold side. Still, it was a good little ride, the bike paths were all clearly signed and most of them were in good repair, and a lot of the ride was through nice semi-rural countryside.
Amsterdam really seems like a chilled out version of london. It has all of the shops restaurents and general big city features, but none of the traffic, and even the foot traffic seems more relaxed. There's also millions of bikes all over the place, and trams. The trams seem really awesome, might have to catch one tomorrow. Still, haven't really seen much of the city yet, wandered over to the red light district but being still daylight, there wasn't much in the way of interesting things going on. It did only take about 30 seconds before a guy wandered over wanting to sell drugs though, that's what I call service.
Still, been too tired today to be arsed doing much, just woke up from a nap a minute ago. Might leave it to tomorrow night before I go exploring at night.
Anyway, that's all I got for now.
Wednesday, 28 May 2008
dutchyland day I
Right, well I left yesterday ridiculously overloaded, barely made it out of the carpark I was so loaded up (as I'm sure some of you were switched on enough to pick up) anyway, I emptied out some water and made it to basingstoke more or less ok. Caught the train to london, and managed to get lost trying to find liverpool street station. Turns out I ended up cycling around london on a ridiculously loaded bike for 2 hours or so before I found it. Got there eventually, and caught the train to harwich (turns out it is pronounced harrich, like norrich but not). Spent a while out in the cold and wet before I boarded the ferry, but when I did it was pretty awesome. 20 Pounds got me this awesome little cabin overnight, two beds, shower, it was a tops little room. Still only ended up getting like 3 1/2 hours sleep, but it wasn't so bad. Had a major repack while I was in my cabin, ditched a good couple of kilos of clothes and books and random shit. Will see how I end up going I guess.
Anyway, landed in holland at like 8:30 in the morning or something, and set off. Turns out there are cycling signs and paths everywhere, so I just jumped straight on one that was going in the right direction and set off. Visited the hague briefly, didn't really stop for anything, but I went through there. Most of the cycling path I was riding on was parallel to the beach, but protected from the wind by the sand dunes. Seems like the dunes are protected and you're not allowed to walk in there or whatever, I kept seeing signs saying not to do something or other in dutch while I was going along.
Anyway, I eventually reached Leiden, and decided to look for a hostel. Google turned up one in Nordwich, which is a pretty cool place. Met a few aussies, drunk a bunch of beer and smoked a couple of joints with them. Was on the nod till a minute ago though, not the best, apparently I have something drawn on my head already (a naked lady I hear). Anyway, my dinner tonight was a microwaved cheeseburger and a couple of these awesome microwaved indonesian bun things, they were tops. Only .35 euro as well.
Anyway, tomorrow I'm heading off to amsterdam, 35 or 40k or so, will probably swing though haarlem on the way, apparently that;s a cool place. I just hope I'm not too sore to sit down on my bike.
anyway, that's all I got for now, adios amigos
Joel.
Anyway, landed in holland at like 8:30 in the morning or something, and set off. Turns out there are cycling signs and paths everywhere, so I just jumped straight on one that was going in the right direction and set off. Visited the hague briefly, didn't really stop for anything, but I went through there. Most of the cycling path I was riding on was parallel to the beach, but protected from the wind by the sand dunes. Seems like the dunes are protected and you're not allowed to walk in there or whatever, I kept seeing signs saying not to do something or other in dutch while I was going along.
Anyway, I eventually reached Leiden, and decided to look for a hostel. Google turned up one in Nordwich, which is a pretty cool place. Met a few aussies, drunk a bunch of beer and smoked a couple of joints with them. Was on the nod till a minute ago though, not the best, apparently I have something drawn on my head already (a naked lady I hear). Anyway, my dinner tonight was a microwaved cheeseburger and a couple of these awesome microwaved indonesian bun things, they were tops. Only .35 euro as well.
Anyway, tomorrow I'm heading off to amsterdam, 35 or 40k or so, will probably swing though haarlem on the way, apparently that;s a cool place. I just hope I'm not too sore to sit down on my bike.
anyway, that's all I got for now, adios amigos
Joel.
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