London Fog

Not just in the old days, the classic london fog is back with a vengeance as millions of BA customers are stranded in the airports before xmas! Just keep your fingers crossed that itll clear up so that I can get home!!

The Met Life

So quite a long time's gone by since my last entry, which I guess is a sign of how busy I've been lately!

Life is good, like before, though there're been a series of sudden changes, which are both exciting and scary. You see, I am now a fully working adult. I now work for a living, no longer the student lifestyle, mooching off people's taxes any more...

I finished my course last september which was a pretty awesome feeling, actually managed to get a bit of a holiday then came back to london to see what else could be!
So after a couple of weeks of being a total tramp, with no house, no job and diminishing resources I managed to find a) a Job! b) a house and c) good times!

I now live in east london, again a change in setting, around mile end, which is actually a pretty cool place, still in the process of discovering everything around me, i live in a pretty muslim area, tho luckily i have managed to locate various sources of booze, so it'll be fine :) im living with a couple of friends (Fede from Sardinia and Christine from Croydon, variety is the key my friends!) in a cool ex council flat which is not rowena 39, but is holding up pretty well

I worked at a drug control centre (would you beleive) for a couple of weeks, which were actually much more fun than the prospect of urine analysis suggests (very cool people involved) and now I managed to secure a job with the met police, so from now on I will only be referred to as Officer Nacho :D

So I'll be livin' it up at the Yard and various other sites, but I'm well excited and so far the job's been great (been working for less than a week and the xmas holidays are already here!) so looking forward to my trip back to madrid in a couple of days!

Real pictures as soon as I get me damn cable for the camera, D'oh!!

España

So now I'm back in my home country, touching base to take time to consider the past, the now and what's coming. My plans for the future are still shapeless misty forms that are dimly beggining to take shape, so while I make a decision I've been travelling around here.

In fact, the travels started towards the end of the interrailing. Our final week we spent travelling around Spain. We chilled out in good ol' Tres Cantos, which is my home town, just on the outskirsts of Madrid. It was good getting back home, since its been a long while since I last saw my family and friends!

Anyhow, we chilled a bit and we checked out nearby cool spots such as Toledo and El Escorial. Toledo, which is indeed pretty holy, is an awesome fortified city, which was once the administrative capital of Spain. An awesome place, which still has a middle age feeling to it.


El Escorial is a monastery towards the North of Madrid, which was the political centre of Felipe II's Empire (back in the days when we spanish were powerful... ayayay)


We checked out the local area then headed over to the north, towards Galicia, on the Spanish North west, right on top of portugal.

The landscapes are strikingly different in this part of the coutry, changing from the intense yellow of the Madrilian fields to the deep green of the Galician mountains.


In fact quite bit similar to NZ, tho the mountains are much older and hence more rounded.

So we headed over to Cangas, which is where me parent's new home is located. This is a sweet spot, located in a gulf situated between two Rias, those of Vigo and Pontevedra. The Ria de Vigo is a sweet spot, a bay shielded by the Cies Islands, which are, I swear, a little piece of heaven on earth, with ansolutely white sand that you can even swim in!!
We checked out the landscapes and some celtic ruins in some nearby mountains, tho we were not so lucky with the weather (it rains in Spain too, it seems!).

Since then I've been back to Galicia and Portugal (briefly) visiting various beaches and fortresses. It's amazing what you can discover travelling around your own country. Like discovering a gem in your own back garden, there's a feeling of reward when you go to a place has always been there. I highly recommend it!

Interrailing Adventures

Well, well, well... and here I was thinking that now that I left NZ my travels would be over! It's been an awesome couple of weeks back in the old continent and they've been pretty action packed!

The Departure and The Amsterdam Experience

We had our last days at Rowena Crescent, and sadly kissed our old house good bye and embarqued on the Eurostar and headed over to Amsterdam via Brussels! Now, Amsterdam is always a pleasure, as I'm sure most of you will know and this time was no exception! I feel that not much comments are needed, so please use your imagination here to picture what a weekend in Amsterdam would be like! Apart from the obvious, we did check out some Jazz clubs with an ol' mate from London and we checked out Boom Chicago, a local comedy show that we managed to get in for half price with a free steak dinner! ;) Some pictures for your entertainment:



Lonely P. NZ can only get you so far...

Antwerp beer extraordinaire

So the original plan had been to then head over to Luxembourg, just cos neither I nor Dru had ever been there before, but according to some amsterdammers we met, luxembourg sucks (and here I quote:) and "is full of inbred people!", so we decided we could live without that and headed over to Anterp, in Belgium which was a real nice place and the beer tasting seesion we had was even nicer!

Nice people too, we quickly made friends with the bar staff. It was here that it struck me the most just how different Europe is from NZ, just how every city has a great history and some truly magnificent buildings! Interestingly, everyone speaks dutch around here (eastern belgium) the waitress could hardly even speak french! However, and after a few beers, we had no problem comunicating :D

La Bretagne et le Granit Rose de Tregastel

We then swiftly moved on to Brittany, where we met up with Goul and Morganne!That was a truly special moment, meeting up with already old friends from the New Zealand days! And what a great time we had! We arrived in Rennes and went our for a few beers and toured the city. It's a great place with a huge student population and some awesome bars! We sampled some the highly praise french cooking (well deserved praise, that is!) and generally chilled out at all the local places like "Le Petit Vélo" and wished we were "branché" enough to go to "La Place"!



But tregastel, towards the north was more adventure packed! We headed over there and managed to nearly die both on the mountain bike and the kayaks! (Hey Goul, I still regret trashing your bike(s)!) This is as awesome place right by the coast of Brittanny with some awesome landscapes of pink granite and some cool castles overlooking the hills, which apparently you can buy! Not bad for a summer house!



This was probably the highlight of the trip for me cos it was the perfect combination of nature, city and time with good people! Goul and Morganne, I'll see you in London soon!



We then moved off to Spain for yet another week of drunk and disorderly fun! But more on that soon!

Interrail 2006

Two dudes.
Six countries.
Two short weeks...

The stage is set for Interrail Spectaculaire, the awesome adventures of Dru und Nacho, the comedy duo that brough to you such great hits as "Tossered Tuesday" and "Fear and Loathing in Las Bexley'eath", the next couple of weeks should be, to say the least, interesting.


In fact the actual reason for this trip is pretty random. Originally we were going to drive down to Spain from England for the purpose of lugging all my crap, built up to considerate porportions after five years in the U.K.. to madrid.
In the end tho, it looks as though I'll stick around enlgland a wee bit longer, so there was no need for the road trip... apart from the fact that it seemed pretty good fun.

So we're doing it anyways, by train.

Why?

... well, why not?

Lo bueno, si breve

...dos veces bueno

Good ol' Garcian, a reknown spanish poet, must have just come back from Auckland when he mused over the effect of brevity on good times. Indeed, what is good, when brief, is twice as good. And that pretty much sums it all.

I am now safely back in London, no terrorist threats, despite what the politicians would have us beleive. Just had my final exam yesterday and it actually went well, which is surprinsing considering that I arrived only the day before.


In a way, it is good to be back home, got me a jamon sandwhich curtesy of Dani, and been catching up with my old friends, in a way Auckland seems like a dream. And like a really good dream, it leaves one with the bittersweet feeling that you get the moment you wake up, because it was good, yet you know that it is over and you've got a great new day ahead of you.

So now I find myself picking up the threads of my life in the old continent, planning my next steps and definately my future travels!

...but at the same time, it seems inevitable to have a look back.

I mean, it's been four months. When you look back at your life four months often seem a pretty insignificant length of time. Either they fly by when you're an adult working away at your desk or they drag like when you were six and four months stood between now and Christmas.

Only seldom I have found that four months can actually change a person. And I do believe that that's actually what just happened to me. The New Zealand experience was defiately something else. So rarely do you get a combination of being in an awesome place and surrounded a an even more spectacular group of people.

From the first person I have met to the last, it seems like everyone's made an impression. I guess anyone willing to travel to the other side of the world must have a pretty cool personality. And if you alredy live at the other side of the world... well, you're already someone else

I won't go through the good times (I believe I've accounted for most of them throughout these posts) or the good people, to whom it would be impossible to do justice. The only thing I can say really is thanks. Never has a final year project been so great.

You all truly made work feel like a holiday.

Piha Beach

Now, the overseas people may not know this, but Piha beach is practically a pilgrimage that all visitors to New Zealand must find their way to.



So we went there after our marlborough trip, thanks to the fact that the car hire was ridiculously cheap :)

and thank goodness too, cos otherwise id have missed it! it was pretty awesome, some wicked views and decent waves (and these were small for piha, its pretty much the surfing cathedral of the auckland neibourhood!)




And i think this will actually be my final trip! Boooo! But since i am actually leaving tomorrow... itll be hard to fit anything else in... speacking of which, i better get packing!



haka-licious!!

Marlborough Country

Whilst all good things must come to an end, it’s always better to go out with a bang.


With this philosophy in mind we headed over to the Marlborough Sounds for some kayaking action as a final trip that was to be the mother of the lot. And so it was.



A team of five hardcore kayakers headed over to the north of the south island for a four day kayaking expedition around the sounds. We covered a total of one squillion kilometres and fought against wild marine life, perilous tides and gipsy witches.


Now, ill admit that this may be a slight embellishment of our actual trip, it isn’t as far from reality as you may be tempted to think. Lisa, Frankie, Halli, Math and I did actually cover a fair distance, the actual number of ks unknown (for now) and we did kayak amongst seals, dolphins, penguin skeletons and other forms of marine life! We did join a tarot reader for dinner and fire in one of our campsites and she did educate us into the world of the occult.


We also played a fair amount of Kayak ball, built up a strong smell of sausage (except Lisa, who only smelt like roses) and generally were extremely hardcore in everything that we did.


The weather was beautiful, and the sea was easy. All in all an excellent trip, so much that I’ve properly caught the kayaking bug, definitely going to take it up more seriously and try to sort out some expeditions!

With just over a week to go...

9 days to be precise, and ill be leacing the land of sheep, bungy and general mayhem.
It´s been a good deal of good times the last couple of weeks!
What´s surprising is that Ive been in Auckland for the past coupld of weeks, generally becuase of the small trifle that is finishing up a master´s project (shudder), but i´ve got to say that it wasnt as bad as i though it would be

in fact, its all been good fun, all work and all play, leaving little time for sleeping , but hey, that´s something i can catch up on later, right? perhaps my liver disagrees...

Anyhow, so the last couple of weeks, life in Auckland has been all about:

Work--> Sadly i did have to do some

Salsa --> The friday nights at the mexican cafe are always good fun



Ping Pong--> for those idle moments at the railway


Mass Movements--> it´s been great how everyone is up for everything! what a cool crowd!

The Strand--> The Ol´wednesday night classic, im surprised to say that i will miss the place. Mary Rocks!!

Tapas Thusday--> Quickly becoming the classic, turn up with a dish, a bottle of wine and the rest is just laughs


Jazz--> last night, in fact, loving old men playing jazz

Crepes--> A little tradition imported from the first semester kids


Comedy--> jokes are funnier when in kiwi accents

And general random nights, it´s become dangerous to go for dinner, since you never know what will happen to you!



And now, a bit of detox coming my way, since Im gong kayaking in the marlborough sounds! I leave tomorrow, should be good, have to wake up at 5 in the morning tho, which shouldnt be too much of a problem , as long as i skip dinner...

Note: I have become significanlty more lazy with my pictures, so all the ones from this post are all curtesy of good ol´ halli! cheers dude!