New York Trip....

This is just a quick update and I'll post the New York photos when I can. As mentioned in my last blog on Sunday we headed up to New York, the only difference was that I ended up driving up to and also through New York on the Sunday evening. To cut a long story short I ended up leaving Fairfax (just outside DC) at 1pm and we got up into Morristown, New Jersey where we were staying around 7.00pm. An hour later after a quick bite (and a lovely bite it was!) we left Morristown and had to go across to JFK airport to pick up Joel’s relatives. The way we went took us through the Lincoln tunnel, then through the middle of New York City on 42nd Street and then under the Queens Midtown Tunnel!

What made this trip all the more interesting was that I was driving a 15 Seater Chevy Express... a massive van! Sure it was fun at first but if going through the tight Lincoln tunnel wasn't enough of a challenge going through 42nd street was! I would have to say that driving through there was the most scariest and challenging experience of my 18 years of driving... if not driving through what seemed like peak traffic wasn't bad enough then having 3 Fire Trucks come from behind and the need to squash up made things more scary. I ended up laughing at the experience while shaking very much (and in the need of a stiff drink… that I never got come to think of it!)

Joel said that he couldn't wait to see "how you post this in your blog"... It is so hard to put the experience into words that I have uploaded a small video for you to give you an idea… but anyone that has been in NY on a Sunday night at 8.45pm may understand my concern!

After getting through 42nd and onto 3rd Ave we went through another tight tunnel, the Queens Midtown and then arrived at JFK around 9.30pm. Unfortunately we didn't leave until around midnight (another long story) so I was getting very tired. Driving the Van was a tiring job as I needed to think a bit harder than I normally would... plus the fact I was driving "on the wrong side of the road!"

To make another long story short we didn’t get home until 3.30am… Anyone that has travelled in the USA would know that if you miss a turnoff you can end up adding a lot of time and miles onto your trip. We missed 3 turnoffs that night due to us being tired… I would love to know how we would have gone if we had have left at 10pm as intended.

The travelling for that day was around 440miles, that’s around 717km's and over the 3 days I did just over 1300km.

As you can imagine I have 101 photos from NYC but I unfortunately don’t know when I will have time to put them up… the Wedding is this coming weekend and there are a lot of preparations (and a bucks night) beforehand…

I’ll try to post a couple of quick pics from NY and the wedding before I head off to Las Vegas.

Ciao

DC Part 2...

Just a quick post tonight to show a few pictures. Tommorow we are heading off to New York and plan to be back late tuesday night. You may be asking who "We" are... well "We" are made up of a group of around 12 Australians that have come over for Joels wedding. Can you imagine 12 Australians in DC? It has been interesting and funny at times!

I've been out driving again today... although not that far! I somehow got onto Route 66 but only for a few miles as I looked for the first available exit so I didn't leave the state! This afternoon the Aussies went to a park at the end of Regan National Airports main runway. As you would all know by now I am an airplane buff and thought this was heaven... being able to look straight down the runway as the planes flew just a few metres overhead...

Well anyway... here are some pictures from the air and space museum, the old post office in Washington and also the park near the airport.

Standing infront of such an aircraft was an expirience that is hard to explain. The "Enola Gay" shown in this picture was the actual plane that droped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima!

This is the engine from a Boeing 777. To give you an idea of the size I could stand infront of the blades and raise my hand and I would just touch the top.... it was massive!

A picture from the "Great Falls Park"

A picture of the Capitol building from the Old Post office Tower

A 737 coming in low and slow right above our heads!

Well my bed is calling me... I'll try to post another entry sometime next week!

Ciao

DC Part 1...

I have finally made some time to get onto the computer to do a Blog Entry... we have been really busy over the last week and I end up too tired to write (and I don't want to get the spelling wrong do I!)

Sunday and Monday were put aside for trips into Washington DC... it was so surreal just standing there looking at the monuments that I had only ever seen in the movies or pictures of. I now realise that I didn't take that many pictures on those days... I think I am starting to get sick of using my camera after carrying it around for the last 4 weeks!

We get to see so much of the city and then on Sunday night we went to eat an Italian restaurant which was amazing... I left so full!! Monday night after our sight seeing we went to Johnny Rockets in Georgetown. It brought back memories of the "good old days" with Darren K down out Adelaide’s version of the store on Rundle Street.

Joel and Myself in front of the White House.

Vietnam War Memorial

Looking down the Reflection Pool from the Lincoln Memorial

Joels Piano... another artistic shot while waiting for him to have a shower!

I'm off to DC again tomorrow so I'm sure I will be taking a lot more pictures. Today I went for my first drive in the USA on what to me is the wrong side of the road. It didn't take long to get use to the driving but there are a few interesting road rules that I am still to get use to... like the four way stop signs where first in gets through first and another one is the ability to turn right on the red light.

The reason for my driving was to go out to the National Air and Space Museum near Dulles airport. I'll write more about that later but for those that know me anything to do with planes will bring a smile to my face!

I'll try to post again soon but this Sunday afternoon we are heading up to New York for a few days so if you don't see a post for a week I am most probably ok... just having a great holiday.

Ciao...

I'm here....

You would think by now that I would be use to travelling long distances and not suffer jet lag after trips but no... after being awake for nearly 22 hours I could only sleep for 5 hours on my first night in USA! Even though it was 6am and dark I couldn't sleep! Berlin is 6 hours different in time from Washington DC so my body was saying I should be awake! The trip over was great except I had to line up in Berlin Tegel Airport for 1 hour to check in... It was frustrating seeing such a long line and the clock counting down for departure... I was still able to get an emergency exit seat though and the flight was quick. Because of the late departure I didn't have to kill as much time in Heathrow airport which was good... after the line up for security checks in the transit section I then made my way over to Terminal 4 and waited for my flight.

I was expecting the security to get onto the plane in Heathrow would be quite strict and hard.... but no... basically we were just asked if we had liquids and some had a random search of their bags. As I got onto the plane I asked the hostess if my request for an emergency seat had been put through... she asked for my ticket and said she would get back to me. Just before pushback she came up to me and said I could take a seat in the World Traveller Plus section... basically an upgrade. The seats are a lot wider but more importantly for me, there is more leg room!

My experience with American Immigration and Customs was disappointingly easy... I had been prepared for all sorts of questions but neither the guy at Immigration or at Customs said a word to me! Not one word!!! Oh well... I got through Immigration really quickly but of course, my bags were last off!

I'm staying with friends of Joel’s, Roy & Tracy in their lovely home... I have only just been able to publish this post after 3 days of being in DC.... Yesterday we went to DC for the afternoon and looked at the monuments and memorials and will be going to the White House today and another lot of monuments etc. I'll post more about that in the next few days...

I trust everyone is well...

Ciao for now.

Germany...

In just under 12 hours I head off to Tegel airport with mixed emotions... 17 hours later I will be arriving in Washington DC.

I have really enjoyed my time in Germany and have seen a lot more than I ever expected. Firstly there was Hamburg as previously mentioned... then Dresden and Cottbus last weekend. Berlin seems a lot cleaner than I remember from my previous trip in 1999. Back then there was a lot of work going on with buildings going up everywhere... there still is a lot of buildings going up but its not as obvious as before. If ever there was an opportunity I think I could live here although I would most probably get homesick after a while and want to return home. I saw the cutest little kitten tonight which reminded me of Charlie which in turn made me home sick. Oh well..

Back to the story at hand... I have been on lots of walks while in Berlin rather than the usual tours. I have been able to see so much more of the city plus get some exercise and loose some weight before my trip to USA (where I fear I will put it back on!).

Above is the Brandenburg gate, one of the most famous spots in Berlin and most probably Germany. You see the gates a lot in relation to "The Wall" plus also if you look at historical footage from WW2. Brandenburg gate was actually on the wall border. Below is the Reichstag, it was severely damaged in WW2 but in 1999 restorations were completed and it became home of Germany's Parliament. In my travels over the last 2 weeks I have seen a lot of restoration of buildings damaged during the war, something that didn't happen until after the wall came down mostly but it was interesting to still see some buildings left as they were after the war as a monument.

One such building in Berlin is the Memorial Church (Gedachtniskirche) although part was reconstructed as to act as a museum (shown below under the Reichstag). Berlin has so much history and many museums that it would take weeks to go through them all. I did want to go to the SS museum and also a few other war time museums but unfortunately time didn't permit this time around... maybe next time when I want to look at more of Europe.

When we went out I wasn't able to always take part in conversations (as I don't speak German) so I started to take "artistic" photos of whatever was around.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to visit Dresden with Anja and her brother. We stayed at her cousins and Karson (I hope I spelt your name right) was a great host and tour guide (and no Karson, I didn't get bored of walking around... how could I with so many beautiful buildings!).

It was in Dresden that I also experienced my first all blue sky's since the start of my trip as can be seen in the pictures below. Over the previous 3 weeks there had always been at 50% cloud in the sky!

A recently restored Church... I can't remember its name however it is very famous and I think it cost nearly 1 billion euros to restore! The darker bricks in the picture above were the original bricks before the building was bombed just days before the end of WW2.

Inside the above church... The detail in the building was just amazing... there are no words or pictures that could truly explain the inside of this building... it was just amazing!

Inside one of the former Kings residences... he had quite a few places he lived in... all were amazing buildings.

Yet another spectaular building in Dresden. The older part of the city has so much history (I think it was 800 years) and it was just amazing to walk through. It was also interesting to see how high the water came up in the during the floods that affected so many buildings in Dresden back in 2002. I don't know any statistics but I would hate to think how much water flowed through the city.

In Dresden our main mode of transport was Trams... it was interesting to see that they are the same ones that are now in use in my hometown of Adelaide. Considering its size (about 500 000 people) Dresden had an amazing up to date public transport system...

Another "Artistic" shot while in a cafe... I really wanted to bring this teapot home...

Yes another picture of a toilet... but this one is a bit different! While at Peters place (a friend of Anja) I noticed this lamp shade and couldn't stop laughing. Basically someone had converted a kids porta potty! Now you parents know what you can do with some old unused equipment!

Well as mentioned before it is with sadness that I say goodbye to Germany, Anja and also her Parents. I have really appreciated and enjoyed my time here and while its sad to leave I am also looking forward to the next part of my trip (and the reason why I originaly started this trip... the wedding!).

Again I'm not sure of how much internet access I will have in the USA but as always I will do my best to keep my blog up to date. I 'm not sure how many people are reading it but its good for my own memories... the first few weeks of my trip are already a blur!

Until next time.... ciao

Day 24 of 49...

I'm currently at the halfway mark of my trip... and the first part is such a blur and feels like it was a long time ago. I have just got back from a 4 day trip to Dresden and Cottbus... I'll write more about that tomorrow with some pics... but one thing I will say... Dresden is a beautiful city!
I was thinking on the trip (we caught the train so there was plenty of time to think) of how many cultures I have experienced in the last 24 days and the extreme contrasts. I'm looking forward to the next part of my "Adventure" that begins on Friday... America. I have the feeling of yet another major culture change!

Will write more soon...

al :-)

Its a boy...

Congratulations to Les & Mel on the arrival of their baby boy... Brother to Z & J... Its great news and I'm glad all are well, will try to call you again soon...

It hit home on Monday how far away I was from home... with the arrival of my friends baby boy and the death of Steve Irwin I started to miss "Australia". So many people mentioned to me about Steve Irwins death here, and as all I can watch in English on TV is CNN it was the main story for most of Monday! I'm not yet half way through my trip as yet... still another week before that happens... but already I am thinking back to when I first started my holiday and it feels like a distant memory. I watched part of my Hong Kong video earlier this week and it brought back good memories. The adventure continues though and I'm still having a great time. Feel free to send through updates of how you are all going or leave comments, it will give me something to read on the plane to USA :-). I'm checking both of my email accounts so just send an email as you normaly would.

I spent my first few days here in Berlin relaxing and not doing too much... it was great. Unfortunately my friend Anja, who I was catching up with in Berlin had to go to France for a few days but I was more than looked after buy her brother and parents. Germans, like the Thai's are really giving. I went for a few walks through Berlin and noticed a big change from when I was here 7 years ago. It seems to be much cleaner.
Berlin has an amazing train network... its so easy to use... and the stations are so big. This particular one has a shopping centre underneath it.... no need to go outside into the weather, just get of the train, go down the escalators and you're in your shopping centre!

A memorial to the "Berlin Wall" lining the actual location in Potsdam Platz

An Australian Shop in Berlin selling "Australian" foods... none I recognised or had ever heard off (Except maybe coke!). There was another shop that did sell Ozzie foods like Roo steak!

Now you may be wondering why I am showing you a picture of a toilet... but this is something I am coming to terms with about Europe (well Germany and Finland).... you have to pay to go to the toilet. Rates vary between .50 Euro and .80 Euro... I must admit though, they are the cleanest public toilets I have ever seen (NB you pay everywhere including Macas!)

I have spent the last couple of days heading to and from Hamburg. Anja's brother had to go to Hamburg so he asked if I wanted to come along, while its only just over 2 hours away we diverted to Hohenvolkfien and stayed with some friends of Anja's brother. Where is that I hear you asking... well I'm still asking the same question so Google it and you will know more than me!

Wednesday we headed on into Hamburg and for lunch I had the most amazing fish, I have no idea what type of fish as we haven't been able to translate it into English... but it was good. Unlike Berlin Hamburg is on the sea so has a large variety of fish to choose from and also large fish markets. I didn't really do any sight seeing as such in Hamburg so no photos... we had very little time but from those parts I did see it was very much like parts of Berlin... apart from the massive ship building industry!

It was a real eye opener being in a car on the Auto Bahn.... we were doing around 140km/h and to have cars flying past you is an experience. Apparently Hamburg is full of millionaires so they tend to be the ones doing the speeding... although the fine is big... 10% of your salary! I'm still coming to terms with being a passenger in a car on the wrong side of the road... and so to crossing the road. Hong Kong and Thailand drive on the same side (mostly!) as we do in OZ but I've had to be careful in Finland and Germany.

Its going to be a busy week ahead and I don't know when I will be blogging again.... I just found out I'm off to Dresden for the weekend followed by Cottbus and then back here to Berlin on Wednesday. I then fly off to America on Friday so its going to be busy week and a bit (I know Joel has a full agenda for us (me and some fellow Aussies) for when we are in Washington... I'm really looking forward to it.

Until next time...

Tschuss

PS... Apparently I need to apologise for my spelling in my last blog, I normally check my spelling in word first but haven't had much time... and have been really tired. My spelling isn't that good at the best of times so with little sleep and jetlag... well...

How did I go this time "Miss H" ;-)

Some random thoughts... and also some pics from my recent trip

Well today I'm sitting in Anja's lounge room watching CNN and just relaxing after a great 10 hours of much needed sleep... hopefully there will be another 10 hours tommorow but I doubt it!

My brain is a bit of a mis mash at the moment so I thought that there is no reason why my blog can't be.... So here are a few random ramblings...

The above photo is of a supermarket that I went to on a regular basis while in Phuket... right behind me is a road and then Patong Beach. After shoping a few times at the shop I was told that there were a lot of people that died in there during the tsunami. Unfortunately people went in looking for shelter but with only two ways out, both blocked my water most of them died and it took days to recover them. I do remember a story about it on TV going back. I didn't ask any more details about it ie how many died etc... but on my next visit I could only just imagine what it would have been like... Its one thing that really affects you when you just sit back and think of how the tsunami affected this community.

I don't know why but I only found out about this market in the above pic a few days before I left Phuket... and it was right outside my hotels driveway on the opposite side of the road! You can buy all sorts in this market... from bags to shoes, t-shirts to shorts, suits and internet time or just good old food!

I went into this market the night before I left and with the help of Jacinta was able to barter down a store owner to 500baht for 3 surf t-shirts... thats about $16 - $17 aussie in total for 3 t-shirts. I later felt bad as she seemed upset at the price but looked like she needed the sale (her shopfront was right at the back where not as many people would walk past) so I went back later that night to gave her another 100baht. For me that was just a few dollars... but for her it was a lot more and the smile on her face was worth it... It took her a little while though to realise why I was giving it back to her.

For me the reality was that the T-Shirts were really good quality with good printing (I work in the clothing industry so I checked them out) and in Australia I would have paid around $40 for just one top (which probably came from the same place!)... I really felt for her and some of the other stall owners and what they would have struggled with over the years with the bomb threats back in 2000, the bird flu outbreaks, the SARS thing and of course the tsunami. Thai's don't get much in the way of social security... so they have to work hard or go without so any slight problem affecting tourism hits hard.

I went back to the store the next day a hour before I left for the airport to get one more t-shirt (I had realised that I posted back more t-shirts than I should have back to Oz and would be short of a weeks worth ie 7). It was the same lady there at the shop and she was just opening up (it was 11am). I asked her what hours did she work... she replied from 11am till 10pm every day of the week. Here I am making comments when I work 60hours a week on the odd occassion... she is working 77 per week, week in week out just to live. I paid a little more (although still cheap) for that t-shirt and with a big smile on her face she waved the money over her stall "for good luck for the rest of the day".

I've said it many times already but I really like the thai's (well the ones in phuket... I'm not sure about the rest of Thailand). I tent to try and have a smile on my face as often as I can... its something they seem to do as well. The ones I met and talked to through out my stay were all interesting and lovely people and I will miss them (and of course the lovely weather and beaches!)

Goodbye Thailand... hello Europe

Now to change pace of this blog a bit above is a picture of Phuket Airports departures area.... it was sad to see it... but good too as it was time to move onto my next adventure. I was able to get on an earlier flight than I had booked so it should have only been 10min waiting time then I was to be off... but the plane was 30min late... I had a great seat... no seats in front of me so I was able to streach out for the 70min flight.

Bangkoks departure hall was quite a lot bigger... and what you see above is only 1/3 of it! Because I arrived 5 hours before my flight was to leave I was able to get another good seat (or at least at the time I though it was). I walked around the airport for a while and then jumped online (and posted the earlier blog) and chatted to some friends on the internet. Waiting in the airport when you can't see the planes can be a little boring.

After a delay in getting going we finaly left.... again there were no seats in front of me but the vacant area later turned out to be a kids playing area. The row in front of me was filled with a mother and her 4 kids traveling back home to Finland. She did a great job in looking after them but kids will be kids... I tried to sleep with my headphones on but I kept on getting my legs bumped by the kids and one time by the food cart.

After I don't know how many hours of being on the go I was in Finland for a while... and rather than sit in the airport I jumped on the bus and went into Helsinki for a few hours. I walked around the streets not really knowing what I as looking at... but if it looked imprssive like the building below I took a picture!

I'm sure there is some story to this building.... and maybe one day I will find out. I was really tired but just wanted to streach my legs.

I had to laugh when I came across this place.... an Aussie bar in Helsinki! It was closed so I didn't get to see how real it was but still... it was a bit of a surprise!

After walking the streets of Helsinki for a few hours I went back to the airport and paid $12.00 (Ausralian) for a shower... now I know that is expensive but when you have been traveling for so long and you smell so bad a 30min shower is worth anything. After feeling much better I went through the security screenings and found an internet cafe. For those that I talked to and said I was sitting in an egg... this is the egg... it was so comfortable and if it wasn't for the fact I had limited time purchased I could have fallen asleep.

I had yet another great seat (that stayed a great seat) for my trip to Berlin, back in 1999 when I traveled to Berlin via london I had a business class seat in economy (basically all the room, but cheap food) it was great... well it happened again, the trip from Helsinki to Berlin was in a Business class seat in the economy section. It was so comfortable compared to the previous few seats (a bit wider). As always the views up there were amazing as you can see below.

Its now nearly 4pm here so I'm going to have a bit of a snooze before we head out to a party.

Take Care everyone...

yet another long trip....

Hi everyone....

Just a quick note to let you all know that I made it to Berlin safely... after now nearly being awake for 46 hours exept some broken sleep on the plane (thanks to the screaming kids!) I am about to put my head down to sleep.

Its been a long trip but I´m glad to be here in Germany. I was in Finland this morning walking around Helsinki and now I´m in Berlin... when I say that it sounds like a bit trip... but reality is that there isn´t much difference between Sydney and Adelaide distance wise...

On thing I noticed when I went for a walk around Helsinki... how clean it was and the fact there were no hawkers on the streets.... the other thing... everything was so expensive compared to Thailand and Hong Kong! Oh well...

Well I´m off to bed...

Ciao

.... umm.... bored in bangkok airport?

Hi there...

I'm currently sitting in Bangkok airport a bit bored so I though I might post a blog... I'm really tired at the moment so its probably just going to be some ramblings! I am about to jump on flight AY0098 with Finair from Bangkok to Helsinki.... a 10 and a half hour flight.... I then have 12 hours before my flight to Berlin leaves so if I get a bitg of sleep on the plane I will head into Helsinki for a few hours and have a look around.

I was happy to see that Bangkok International Airport is going to move soon... The state of this airport is quite run down. It will be interesting to see if the size of the new airport matches Hong Kongs! Appartently Bangkok services 2million more people per year than it was designed to do!

Anyway thats a bit about nothing.... I'll write some more later...

Goodnight from a tired traveler....