England!

Well I flew out of Amsterdam and into manchester. where i caught a train back to sils. it was good to get back to a familiar place.
so i didnt do much when i got to sils. i arrived just one day before laura and anna were to come. although louise was there. so the next day i planned to go meet the girls in manchester. trouble was that they're train was late. so i waited for the expected time... they didnt show up, and i got worried that i might have missed them. so i quickly got on a train and headed back to sils. when they arrived we just hung out that night. didnt do much.

we had a few days together. we went to lvierpool for a day. that was nice. saw the beatles place, where they played. lots of old buildings. and a nice harbour.

we were also planning on going to york, but decided to go to ireland instead.

we did go into manchester alot. the girls speant their fair share of money. lol. bought truckloads of goods. i bought some shoes. and some other things.

so our ireland trip. we made the decision to go to ireland just because we thought we could afford it, plus the accomodation was very inexpensive. so the night before we left we had a chance to book a ferry ride costing 70 odd quid. we thought it was good. so we got up real early (5.30am) got a train to Liverpool. once there (around 9am) we begun our mission to find the ferry dock. so we walked to what looked like the most obvious place a ferry could be. turned out to be wrong. then we asked a guy who told us that its just around the corner. about half a mile walk. simple we thought. 30mins later we find the boat, but have no idea how to get on it. so we stand there watching it... we then ask another guy where we go to buy tickets. 'oh just around the corner' everyone said. so we finally find it. its in a place much like port kembla, absolutel no where. so we walk in with 10mins to spare. and ask to buy 3 tickets to ireland. ha ha ha . . .

turns out you have to be there 1 hour before it departs. so we never could have gotten it. and the next ferry was 12 hours later. so we were pretty devo. then the lady behind the desk, who i thought at first was very rude, decided to help us out. so she looked up another ferry company, rang them, found out train times, connections and how much it would cost... then called a taxi for us to get back to the station.

very nice. once at the station we figured out that it would cost us 26 quid to get all the way to dublin. one of the main reasons we needed to get to dublin that day was because we already payed and booked the accomodation. but it turned out that 26 quid got us all the way to dublin. that was about 3 train rides too. and the ferry was quicker then the original ferry ride. 3 hours oppesed to 7 hours. awesome.

so once in dublin we ate out, drunk some beer, and did a tour of the bottom half of ireland. it was awesome. one thing about dublin, was that it was very very expensive. you forget that its in euros, so you have to double everything. and one beer was 5 euro. thats 10 bucks a beer.

okay enough blogging for me right now...

im currentlly in birmingham. having an awesome time here. everyones beens o friendly. stayed with jason one night. now im at rhonas house. she's living in a student house. so everyone is cool, young and knows how to party. wooo! haha

anywho...

venice and amsterdam so far!

Okay so i have no idea where i last left off...its been so long since i've blogged.

but, right now im sitting in roberts apartment in amsterdam. robert is a cool married man who has kindly offered us his house. just to let you know us is not me, us is me plus 3 others. 2 americans and 1 australian(not including me).

so right now im sitting, just finished a croisant for breakfast, watching the misreable rain drisling from the sky ruining our plans for the day. so we are replanning.

our plan is to see the van gough museum, and to do a tour a of a beer factory.

im sleeping on a self inflatable mattress with my sleeping bag. its quite comfortable actually.

now ben gillard is singing avril!

Venice was nice. we had a hotel in Lido, which was in expensive courtesy to our cool methods of sneaking me into the hotel. which worked quite well. first night we went on a hunt to find a nice cheap restaurant in the jewish ghetto, which is apparantlly the largest jewish collection of people in western europe.

we found the nice restaurant and had some good food. then we wondered around venice a bit, finding our way back to the hotel.

the ferry was good. we probably used it about 10 times and only payed once. they never checked our ticket, so we just kept using the same one.

the next day we went on a gondala ride...which was very nice. but expensive.

we wanderd around venice for a time, eating lots of gelato and taking in the sights.

venice is a very magestic city. i wonder how they built an entire city virtually on water...the ends of buildings literally stop at the water. its amazing.

venice was good. we saved money by going to a supermarket and buying groceries to last us for lunch (nutella and bread), and for breakfast we had a fridge in the room...

anyway i should go, im getting lots of stares by the travellers i am travelling with... :P

hopefully next time i can blog some more.

oh i saw the red light district last night...in amsterdam. very very unique. nothing like it. i'll try explain later.

jack.

Luzern and Labri

So i just finished my time at labri.

it was an awesome time. i learnt so much, just by talking with people, and everyone challanging principles i've assumed were fact my whole life. anyway thats just the short of it. i will be going back there.

but i stayed with Peter and Margot for one night, possibbly the best night of my life. i had all meals provided. everything i needed. washed and ironed clothes. if anyone had a shred of hope to be good at hospitality, they should model it off of them. they cooked marvolous meals, bought me a train ticket, soap, shaving cream andfood for the train trip. plus some extra money for singapore. oh my goodness...

anyway, labri was good. i got my trains there good, then the bus dropped me in the middle of a village in the swiss alps. i had no idea where it was. so i just started walking...eventually i came across this one person who asked me if i was for labri? john. it was just by sheer chance that i saw him though. so he took me in.

once there i settled in to my basement room. i stayed there a total of 9 nghts.

the food there is amazing. they pump you full of good quality food. i suppose it was an ideal of shaffer to have good hospitality. i like seeing that flourish onto the existing labris today. also the sense of community at first can be overwhelming just because everyone knows each other, but after a while you find your niche and just set it there. i spoke aot to a women named robbyn. we spoke over a lot of issues and she challanged me heaps. it was really good. just about feminisim, etc etc...

so an average day is waking up at 8am, having breakfast, then cleaning up, then going to either study or work. study is whatever you want to do in farrel house. studying a book, listening to a tape. work was good also. you can do anything from chopping up wood, or just sweeping.

then theres the lectures. which are either the most boring thing in the entire world, or fascinating. depends who does it.

i fell down pretty sick at labri with a fever. we hitchiked down to aigle to use the internet, then on the way back it took us so long to get a hitch i just got sick from standing in the rain for so long.

after the sickness, i was good to hang out with people. it sucked that it was on my first few nights there. oh well...

anyway...it was good.

now im stuck in luzern with no place to stay and no contact for tiffany...fun fun fun...i just hope it doesnt get too late or im gonna start getting a bit cold ya know...

peace.x

Oktoberfest.

oktoberfest was the best thing i have ever been to in my life...probably.

now im off to labri.

i wish i could be bothered blgoging it all down. because i had an amazing time...i'll be breif huh

met 3 english dudes. lived right around from sil. plan to meet up. they were funny.

first night came in late from train. girls said "meet us at the beer halls" little did they know that the beer halls are about the size of a football field. and theres about 6 of them. so i had no hope of finding them.

so i hung out the english lads. we finally got into the beer hall...courtesy of a nice dish pig who likes australia. then once we were in we squeezed our way onto a table. where after a beer or two, we met some amazing germans. nices people ever. we drank beer. partyed. sang. dances. stood on the tables. it was amazing.

then they asked us if we would like to go to the after party with them. of course.

so we then walked with them to the after party. although i did lose the 3 english guys. found them again later.

so once at the club, it cost 10 euro. thats like 20 bucks. buuut because one of the germans dad was a football referee he had connections. so we all got VIP. how good. so we got in for free with no queue.

after many visits to the toilet we danced on the dance floor. sang along to the classics. met new people. amazing.

so then i just realised my situation. i was on my own. have no idea where the hostelwas. with the englishmen gone...

i then got offered a place to crash at one of the germans house. yeah-haa!! so then i just crashed at their house. it was great.

that was one amazing night out of 3...haha

okay i gotta got o bed cause i told peter and margot that i was tired. which i am. i just didnt realise i needed to sue the computer for so much stuff...lol

aight i will update everyone else later. im on my way to labri atm.

yew!!!

I LOVE GERMANYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Shroom Hunting, City walking and Beer drinking...

Aight...today was a great day. actually these past few days have been amazing. Right now im sitting upstairs in Phil's room typing this, while everyone is all downstairs talking about the difference between North Braveria and South Braveria.

I'm listening to amazing music...warm...and full!

So first of all I left Magdeburg, said goodbye to Leah and got on my train. It was a RE train so i had 2 connections...which is no problem for €36. SO I listened to music, read some of my book in preperation for Labri...So once i arrived i met Phil.

Phil is alices friend from Brayil. He's living in Marburg, Germany training to become a doctor. He goes to the Uni here, Phillips University (from memory). A bit about where he lives and why he lives there.

He lives in a massive, massive house. Its owned by about 100 different people and goes by the name 'TH'. It is a club. A fraternity club for students studying at the uni. All marburg has to offer is history and a university. so theres lots of these clubs everywhere.

he pays $60 a week which gets him his own room, electricity, gas, water, internet, cleaner, chef (all lunches and one dinner). the house is massive. theres a dining hall with the club sign engraved into the chairs. theres foxes everywhere because like fish, they call the new club members fox's. theres a table tennis table. a massive party room. a fridge full of beer (costs €1 per half litre of beer...just so you know how cheap that is, its equivilent to 2AUS dollars, also at oktoberfest they charge €8 per litre beer. very cheap.) its 3 stories. there are 8 rooms for 8 students to live permanetely. on the third story theres a movie theartre room, drying room, toilet, bathroom, two spare bedrooms with linen and beds. the 2nd floor hosts the 8 rooms for the students, a tv room plus 2 showers and 2 toilets. the 1st floor has the party room, 6 toilets, massive industrial kitchen and the dining hall...

and im staying here all for free. phil is an amazing host. every morning he has bought breakfast for me. chocolate musili with banana. croisants. lunch time we walk to the student hosue where we phil gets student discount, so he's bought my meals both days, and we eat the lunch served there. its fair average but its only €3.

when i got there it was phils birthday. so there was a party for him. everyone was very friendly. i got talking to two germans about oktoberfest. very friendly. they offered me lots of advice.

first day. phil took me around marburg and showed me the castle (Schloß) and the university and a music shop. then that night we had another party saying goodbye to a friend of theres. about 20 people were there. i was talking to James and thomas about the german language. they wrote down the numbers 1-10 and told me key phrases for oktoberfest ie. cheers, thanks, this rounds on me...(dunno if thats a good one??? lol)

then today i woke up had breaky, went to the student house for lunch, then helped round the house cleaning the yard. we then drove out to the bush to go mushie hunting. i found 2...that may seem fair...but compared to christian who got 2 bucket loads, it was pitiful. lol.

we left at 3 and got home at around 8. it was intense. lol. so why did we bother going into the bushland to pick wild and possibly dangerous and poisenous mushrooms???

well to make a stu of course...Christians mum cleaned them, chopped them up, mixed them with butter, cream, herbs, salt and pepper, bacon and onions...then served it with spaghetti...

it was to die for. amazing. whole thing probably cost about 10 bucks and it served about 12 people. with heaps of left overs. there were two 1 1\2 foot long pans filled with it.

there are small things that are making my stay here awesome.

phil plays guitar and has two...we jam all the time. we share music. its awesome

today phil left me his keys cause he was leaving to go to the uni for some work.

he bought cookies

everyone speaks german, but for me they speak in english. everyone is very very nice.

so yeah...my time here is aming...tommorrow we're going bowling. it just keeps getting better. lol

anyway...enjoy.

Prost!

Magdeburg

ya...so right now im in germany.

stupid keyboards.

so for the past few days ive been staying with leah...its been real good...checking out magdeburg...i went to the zoo today. it was fun.

yesty we hung out with all of leahs dancing freinds. they just came over and we chilled. they're really nice.

so tommorrow im seeing leah dance which should be good.

and i've almost eaten an entire bag of gummie cherries...so i kinda feel sick now.

but im sleeping on leahs floor, with a the aid of an air bed matress....

i generally have been waking up late...going down to german town and trying to learn german. im not very good. i dont want to seem arrogant for not learning it. but i just don't speak german sorry. lol

i bought my ticket for marburg today. so i just have to make sure that phil is still cool with me staying...

and thats it really...oh and ryanair are averge.

A Week With Sil

So right now I'm in the UK. Manchester to be in fact. it is the last day of my UK stopover for now, before i fly out to germany tonight.

So what have i been doing since i arrived here a week ago??

well not much really.

the first day i got here i just slept, cause i was so tired from the flight. which was very good. we arrived ahead of scheduale, then it was empty aswell so i just slept across three seats.
my first impression of manchester was of how cold it was. man it was chilly. i was shaking when i got there. i really had to do some shopping ya know. i only had two jumpers. and not really any winter gear. so the following day i went into manchester with sil. we caught the train in and she took me to her work. which is at the court house.

so i walked all around manchester that day. went to a couple of music chops. clothing stores. i walked away with a beanie, sweatband, leather *fake* jacket, cardigan and 4 t shirts. don't ask how much it cost. it had to be done.

i had a packed lunch courtesy of sil. thankyou sil.

the next day i woke up incredably late. i've been sleeping on a really really comfory mattress in the tv room. with an amazing feather pillow and a doona to diea for. so i did a lot of sleeping this week.

the next two days i just slept in late. watched some scrubs, top gear and crazy english television. went for a walk around hazel grove (where she lives in manchester) then the day after i went into work with sil to see her in action.

so i saw 3 guys go to jail. they stole something like 6000 punds worth of stuff, so they got 2 years. some had drug problems, some where just fools and thought what they were doing was gardening (drug farming)...haha

so now that i was turned off drugs i went to a free science and technology museum which was just like the science centre. that was fun walking around manchester seeing all the planes.

i tried to model a plane jet engine on a computer while i was there. my plane flew for 5 metres before plummetting to the ground. obviously the is no sciecne gene in my blood...thats okay. i can still watch mythbusters and watch them blow stuff up.


so i've been listening to this band called The Thrills. they're amazing. i encourage you all to listen to them. everyone would like them.

on the weekend we went to blackpool. some crazy combination of south beach, las vegas, time zone and kings cross. there were lights up everywhere like vegas, then there was no actual casinos, actually just one, but time zone machines. it was all on a beach strip. then next to those was night clubs...so what happens i guess is that a family comes to black pool, drops the kids off at the arcade games, then go next door clubbing...then they all meet up afterwards...haha...maybe not.

but lots of hen parties, dudes dressed up like girls, girls looking manly, and bucks parties.

so tonight i'm sleeping in an airport ebcause my flights from london at 6.30am. so i need to be there early. and screw paying for accomodation. so yeah...thats me.

we had a baked dinner alst night. best meal by far since leaving aus.

so now im pottering around doing bits and pieces getting ready to leave.

aight....i might blog again in germany. actually i will.

sorry about the long delay in blogging. after a while you get over it.

but im doing it to remember stuff..

aight...peace.x