Barcelona - Beach, Bars, Beer, Bloody Hot

Our longest trip yet of 11 hours and we hopped off the bus in a very sunny Barcelona. Amidst the rush it didn't take long at all for drama to follow. As I misguidedly followed other Busabouters, I turned after crossing a road to find Kat, who was nowhere to be seen. I looked around for another few minutes then tried to follow the other guys, thinking she might have been ahead of me, but couldn't find them either. Panicing just a tad I managed to find an Internet cafe after half an hour of blind wandering and got the directions to our hostel that Kat already had hold of. After a few wrongs turns I got help from some guy in the street speaking English and eventually found Kat wandering Calle Ferron just as aimlessly as myself. We found the hostel right after that so phew - crisis averted.

We'd planned to meet up with some guys from the bus - Alexis, Elijah, Bianca, Jess and Eliza. When we got there we joined a night tour that was just about to leave and headed off for some amazing tapas. We had salami, cheese, roasted baby capsicum, calamari, croquettes and my instant favourite, patatas bravas - fried potato served with a spicy sauce. It was divine. Once we were relaxed over a glass of the national drink San Gria, we headed off to see a Flamenco dance in a bar near our hostel. There was a singer, guitarist, bongo player and of course - the main attraction - two flamenco dancers in their frilly frocks. The whole show was very impressive and full on. They dance so fast with their feet, kind of like tap dancing but much more festive and everyone gets involved with the cheering and whistling.

Time for more San Gria and we headed to an Irish bar near the famous Placa St Juames. We got free drinks and Bacardi promotional pieces including the ping pong balls that were being thrown around everywhere and bouncing off of everyone just as we left to meet Vinnie, a friend of mine from Sydney.

It was good to see Vinnie again. The lucky bastard had been living in Barcelona since the start of the year as part of a one year exchange to learn more about Spain and speak the language better. He's really good at it, I was very impressed. It made me look forward to Spanish lessons in Sydney even more. He was doing well and more than happy to show Kat and I to a few clubs along with his friend "red wine" Markus and a couple of British tourists we met along the way. It was a pretty good night but it's a shame that Barcelonians are still stuck in the trashy-skanky-look phase. Oh, and the dancing and singing and jumping while hugging to the background music of Aretha Franklin and more embaressingly, "I Will Survive". Not wanting to ruin our Saturday in Barcelona, we headed home to bed at a reasonable hour. 4am.


We woke up around midday the next day, an increasingly disturbing trend. A couple of hours later we were climbing the 340 steps of La Sagrada Familia with Alexis who we'd caught up with earlier. The church was started in 1882 (I think) by the infamous architect Gaudi and still under construction. The whole place was over 100m tall and stunningly detailed, it looked kind of like one of those castles you make at the beach by dripping wet sand. Only eight of the eighteen towers had been built and experts say it won't be finished until late this century! The view as you climb the towers and cross between them is an absolute must-see, we got some great photos.



The bike tour brochure we used to find out where to go by their tour hightlights had so many places we decided to go on it the following day. We spent the rest of the Saturday relaxing on the beach. It was 6pm when we got there but the weather was still scorching hot. The sun was high in the sky and people were still sprawled out everywhere. We got a spot in front of a beach bar and worked on our tans while listening to some great dance/chillout music. Very hard work - definately something I could get used to.

The shops were still open when I left the girls on the beach but I must have been looking in the wrong place because it certainly didn't accommodate for my expensive tastes! 10 Euros for a shirt is not my style at all ;-)

Later on that evening, 10pm, we set out to find one of Spain's finer dishes, paella. The place we stumbled upon was great and full of locals. Even though the waiter didn't speak a word of English which was kind of frustrating, I had a go at the little Spanish I did know and ended up having a great night with good company, enjoyable conversation and terrific food. Since our bike tour was rather early the next morning we were all in bed by 1am.

The bike tour was so much fun. Eleven of us met up under the Christopher Columbus monument then collected our 'fat tire' bikes to use for the next four hours. We started in Placa St Juames then checked out the main cathedral where some people were doing the national Catalunya dance, technically the former country that Barcelona was the capital of. We then moved on to the square where Christopher Columbus announced the discovery of the Americas. Following that we checked out a concert hall created by Gaudi, which looked just as eccentric as him. After a huge ride we made it up to La Sagrada Familia (again) then back to the zoo and then the beach for lunch and a drink. The whole time we stopped every so often while the tour guide told us about the history and little known stories behind each stop. He was actually quite good and we all had a great and interesting time.

Once we'd returned our bikes, Kat and I met up with Vinnie and a friend of his but only for a shortwhile as we were both completely wiped out from the days riding in the sun. So we went back to the hostel for a shower and I accidentally fell asleep for half an hour, after which we met up with Alexis for some beach bar hopping with tapas and cocktails.

Vinnie and his friend caught up with us later that night after quite a bit of sex on the beach. The cocktail of course. We spent the rest of the night chatting away and having some good laughs until I got to bed at 2am, Kat 4am. For the first time we got up in time for a shower and headed off for another long haul to Madrid.

Paragliding and Stray Fireworks in Nice

Have you ever been suspended from a parachute some twenty metres in the air being towed by a speedboat on the French Riviera while being exposed, 'down there', if you get my drift? I haven't. Or at least I wish that wasn't the case but sadly this isn't so.

Nice started out terrific. We drove through a massive amount of rain from Venice but when we arrived most of the rain cloud held at bay up in the mountains for the entire evening. Kat had already booked us a hostel for the two night stay but after seeing that we'd have to catch a train every trip in and out of the city, we tried our luck with the much closer Busabout hostel and managed to get a room.

Once we'd settled in we went for a walk towards the main strip then down to the beach. Nice looks spectacular but all of the expensive casino's everywhere gave it a bit of a cheap and tacky feel to it. Down at the beach we stood in awe at the relaxed outdoor atmosphere and detailed coastline. It was just becoming dusk at the time so there were lights everywhere - Nice lights up well.

Outside the hostel later on we met up with a few of the Busabout crew and mostly other Aussie backpackers and headed down to the beach with a bottle of wine each. The beach here is not sand at all, there's pebbles everywhere which makes it a somewhat uncomfortable yet much less messy trip to the beach. We sat around for a few hours smoking cigars and drinking while soaking in the atmosphere and watching massive fireworks down the coastline towards Cannes. With only half of us left by that stage we headed to a pub close to the hostel and sat around drinking and watching a Robbie Williams concert on FHM TV with Kama Sutra tips and tricks popping up every now and then. Bizarre. An hour later we headed home to bed but not before trying a great kebab with fries in it!


Around lunch the next day we'd slept off the hangovers and headed by train to the ritzy Monaco area with not a cloud in the sky. We started high up in the hills and made our way down to the mariner taking a few amazing photos along the way.

Once there, we sat in a cafe next to one of the massive, expensive boats and munched on breakfast/lunch while sipping on a Pina Colada from a coconut. About an hour later we trekked up to the casino area and had a wander. The cars up there were insane! Most of which would have easily cost 100,000 upwards.


Back in Nice that afternoon we grabbed a straw mat to make the pebble experience slightly more comfortable and relaxed on the beach for a few hours through massive waves of nostalgia for my hometown Byron Bay, Australia. Just like most of the other things we've done, we decided on the spot to go on a tandem paraglide for only 30 Euro each. It was so much fun and such a brilliant view of the city from our harnesses. The corners were the funnest part. When the boat made a turn there was slack on the rope and we started falling but just before hitting the water the rope tightened and we were hoisted back into the air. All except for the last turn where we saw the mischievous look on the boat drivers smile and knew he was up to something. As we fell towards the water we were expecting to be pulled up again but this time we actually hit the water and got dragged through for a few seconds. Enough to expose my commando-style fashion to the French Riviera. 'Nuff said.

I swam back to the shore after the sharp fall into the water suffering from a chronic case of embarrassment. We spent the next hour passed out on the beach tanning in the 7pm sun thinking 'this is the life'.

We were lucky enough for our day in Nice to be Bastille Day, kind of like Australia Day for France. All dressed up we headed back to the main strip which was now all blocked off to traffic and full of people, entertainment, fireworks and the French flag. The vibe was intoxicating (and so were the drinks). It felt like New Years Eve with legal home fireworks going off everywhere. We ran into some people we knew and headed down to the beach where about twenty other Busabouters were sitting. Kat and I left to grab drinks and stumbled upon Old Town, a beautiful part of Nice with pedestrian only streets packed with glamorous restaurants and cute markets. One rushed tour later and we were back on the beach just in time for the spectacular fireworks shot from a brigade close to where we were sitting.

After those finished and half the crowd left, we were left sitting amongst the drunks and firework enthusiasts, most were both. My unsettled feeling that I'd had all night about the amateur fireworks proved well-founded when a precariously placed spiral firework fell over and skimmed the ground towards us. Sparks ablaze it passed between two of my friends and hit my arm, singeing a small patch of hair and burning me in a few places! I couldn't believe it, what a day. First the wardrobe malfunction and now this. Suffice to say I was too unnerved to stay and went back to the hostel to bed. Probably for the best as the next morning we got up with time to spare for the bus for the first time since we started.

Venice Romance

If travel plans can go completely wrong then of course they can go far better than expected, as was the case when we pulled into a very sunny Venice at 1pm. Six hours earlier than we had expected. We missed the first main stop in Venice because of it but didn't have to wait too long before we were at the next.

As the entire city is pretty much one huge island, there's not much room for hostels and such so we were staying at a camping ground about 15 minutes drive out of the city. Thankfully they had an hourly shuttle bus service that picked up right next to the station we were at. While we waited in the hot sun we met a couple of Irish girls, Roshine and Della, who were waiting around looking just as lost as us. When the bus did finally come 45 minutes later we headed out to the camping ground.

The moment we walked down the dirt road to our cabin I could feel just how relaxing and fun our stay would be. The place had a swimming pool, pub, restaurant, kebab shop and its own supermarket and nightclub. It was like it was a little town full of young backpackers. There were people hanging out around the pool and playing sports here and there. Being out of the city certainly had a very calm, relaxing vibe.

We dumped our stuff and caught the shuttle bus back into the city while very grateful to have the afternoon to explore. It was still very bright and shiny so we ended up walking through the quiet, less tourist-filled canalways and soaked in the calming beauty of it all. There's not much to see in Venice and it's not very big but it's a very unique city with a unique atmosphere that just has to be experienced to be believed.

Just like most other cities, we found the main attraction by accident. The Plaza San Marco was a huge square surrounded by three walls of large 30m or so high Roman buildings with columns spaced evenly around it all. On the other side, there was a very large Persian-looking cathedral and throughout the whole plaza were a lot of pigeons being fed by tourists trying to get the perfect shot. One lady was even putting pigeon feed on her childrens heads! I can't really think of how to describe the grandness of it all so take a look at the photo.

We walked around the corner to the edge of the island where all the boats and gondola's park for that one shot that defines Venice. The one you see everywhere of the 'parking lot' made of sticks protruding from the water looking out towards a couple of huge, majestical buildings on the one island of Venice unreachable by foot.


Another hour of cute alleyways and high-arching stairways across water-filled canals and we thought we'd soaked in enough for the day. We caught the ferry down the Grand Canal back to the Piazzala Roma (main transport spot). The views of Venice from the water are one of a kind. I loved seeing really old, large buildings with their main entrances on the water and stairs leading down into the water.

That night we headed to the camping ground pub for some pizza and beer. 10 Euro for 1.5L of beer is far too good to pass up so we all ended up very merry after a few hours. There was Kat, Roshine, Della and I as well as Suzanne, a Scottish girl we met and her friend. After a while hanging out there we headed on over to the nightclub for happy hour where we ran into our Busabout driver, Matt, who had driven us from Amsterdam and from Berlin. We had an absolutely awesome night! The nightclub closed at 3am but that didn't stop Kat, Matt and I as well as some other randoms sitting around until 5:30 in the morning belting out some good old classics like 'Thunderstruck' and 'What's Goin On'. "25 years and my life is still"...

Our plans for the next day involved us getting up before 9. Fat chance of that happening. We finally did stir awake around lunch and headed to the restaurant for breakfast. After which we relaxed in the pool for a while with some of the others until we felt the urge to take a bit more of a wander around Venice in the parts we'd missed the day before.

It was pretty much more of the same but still very beautiful. We found a great designer store hidden away that was having a sale so we did our first bit of European clothes shopping. I got a very European looking shirt, one with lace on the chest, and a really cool pair of jeans with random patches sewn on here and there.

We bought a nice salad and I had pizza for dinner before we caught the shuttle back out to the camping ground. The salad was very refreshing after all the junk and heavy food I'd been eating since arriving. After that we got dressed up and went back to the nightclub for another big one.

It was pretty much the same group as the night before and it was also a nice surprise to run into Amy and Lucy from Prague and catch up with them. A few memory blanks here and there and I was being woken up by Kat with 15 minutes before the bus was about to leave. For some reason I was in her bed and she was in mine but don't ask me how that happened because I couldn't tell you for the life of me. We made the bus in time and Matty had a bit of a laught at how hungover we looked before he turned the key and took us all off to Nice.

When Travel Plans Go Wrong

Our original plan for once we arrived in Vienna was to get a ticket for an overnight train to Venice then explore the city for a few hours. Now I'm definately not one who likes things to go all pear-shaped so you can guess the world of lost I was in once the overnight train was all booked out and the proverbial pear was thrown in the blender.

There were other trains the next morning but the thought of wasting a sunny day travelling instead of experiencing a new city wasn't one I was prepared to entertain. The non-English speaking information officer at the train station then sent us on a wild goose chase for a bus to Venice that didn't even exist. This was made even longer looking for a second bus station that the guy at the main bus station told us to go to, but it too also didn't exist. It must have been the stress of that day as well as almost missing the bus in the morning that erupted a huge fight between Kat and I. Finally we decided to stay in Vienna for the night and catch the next night train. Of course, that was booked out as well but by that stage the available 6am train the next morning sounded like a first class private jet.

I rung the Busabout hostel and we managed to get a night there so I guess we were lucky that wasn't another drama we needed to work out. We spent the night wandering the city alone for some much needed space after all the commotion. I didn't get to see much apart from some really old, gothic-style church before it started to rain. Oh yeah, and some weird guy from Boston who started talking to me in the street and asked if I wanted to go to a bar! Tell me again how horror tales begin?

Once the rain looked like it was settling in I grabbed some fantastic cherry gelato and headed to the hostel bar. I spent the night talking with the couple from Prague that had almost missed the bus as well, Matt and Sally, and playing pool with a few guys from Canada. I guessed I needed to get at least a few hours sleep, you hear all these scary stories about the train so I wouldn't want to sleep on that, and I headed to bed around 1am.

Not an overly exciting stay in Vienna but I do have plans to do the more eastern European countries at some stage, including Austria. Let's hope these come to fruition in any other shape than a pear.

Prague Magic

The Busabout hostel where we were picked up and dropped off was quite a fair way out of the city so we'd booked accommodation much closer to the city right near the Prague markets. As soon as we got off the bus we had to try and work out how to use the public transport system with the help of a London couple who were trying to do the same, Matt and Sally. The Prague metro would have to be, by far, the most complicated and confusing I´ve seen. There's all these rules about how many changes and what type of transport you use affecting how long the ticket is valid for... I think.

It took us about an hour to finally make it to Sir Toby's Hostel, a very cute, homely place with a basement bar - very important! After taking a moment to settle in, we caught the metro to the centre of the city and got off at the spot we thought could have been closest. I guess we got it close enough because ten minutes later we were standing near the ancient National Museum looking down Wencesles Square with a beautiful sunset backdrop, checkout the photo.

As per usual, we had no map and no plans other than to find somewhere to eat, eventually, so we wandered down the main strip into the maze-like cobble streets of The Old Town. It was definately a nice surprise when we stumbled upon the Old Town Square and the astronomical clock tower by accident just as the sun was setting. The place was indescribable. Gorgeous, majestic, magical atmosphere while horses trotted through the cobble square and people sat everywhere engrossed in their conversations. All this beneath a lit up gothic tower and bright, olden, palace-style architecture as well as a water fountain. Even though the prices inside the restaurant we ate at were up to 60% cheaper inside, we thought it very worthwhile to sit outside and soak in the overwhelming majesty of it all over a traditional Czech meal and a few local brews.

After that it was a bit more good old wandering around through the cute, warm alleyways filled with food, laughter and your occassional homeless person until we stumbled upon the tourist-filled Charles Bridge. Perfect opportunity for some photos of the Prague Castle on the hill across the river all lit up. After some potentially perfect shots of the castle that ended up suffering from horrible hand-shake, we called it a night and headed home for a sleep.

Another rainy morning in Europe sank our poor little hearts and our heads back into bed until midday. On the way into the city we stepped into a mini market to get change and pleasantly discovered how cheap Prague really is! The currency here is not the Euro, as in all the other countries in our trip, but they use the Koruna and you get around 30 for each Euro or 20 for each Australian dollar. I bought myself a Twix for 10 Kr! Everything was so cheap. Two minute noodles were only 6 Kr! Thinking back, the meal we had in Old Town Square on our first night was also extremely cheap considering where we were and what we ate.

Once we were in town we thought we'd do all the indoor touristy-type stuff given the weather. First we checked out the National Museum where the outside and inside of the building were impressive enough. Gold statues and red-carpeted stairs in the main hall, large rooms and tall ceilings. Basically much like the home I'll be living in when I become a billionaire! There were exhibitions on Taiwan, mammals full of stuffed models, precious stones in their raw and polished forms along with a few we skipped once it became too much like a school excursion.

A journey back through Old Town, over the Charles Bridge, up a few hundred stairs and getting lost a couple of times along the way led us to Prague Castle, just in time to see the changing of the guards. I've no idea how anybody can stand to attention like that for as long as they do. We checked out the main church while there was a service going on and the organs were filling the place with an eery, holy feel. It was quite an awe-inspiring experience with all the colour and detail as well as just how large it was. Kat grabbed some photos even though we weren't supposed to. The Lord shall smite thee! There's not much else to see to the castle, it's rather empty and bare yet still definately something to see and a great view of the city.

That evening we went back to Wencesles Square for dinner where we had another Czech meal over some cocktails. I had the beef sirloin with bread dumplings in a mustard sauce with cranberry jam and whipped cream. The Czech meals are far too heavy for my tastes but still enjoyable. The cranberry was a surprisingly nice addition I'd never think of.

With every intention of hitting Krumly Lane that night, Europe's biggest nightclub, we went back to the hostel to get ready but ended up all dressed, too tired to go anywhere, so we landed ourselves in the basement bar for a few drinks. It wasn't a waste of a night by any means though. We met two English girls, Lucy and Amy, a Brazilian guy Marcos and a few randoms and spent a good while having drinks and chatting about all the big things.

The sun was out when I finally got out of bed the next morning and met Kat in the basement for breakfast, which was probably why we were in such good moods. First we checked out the Prague markets but they were rather disappointing. Just a lot of junk really, much like Paddy's Markets in Sydney. We didn´t spend long in there and then got a bit lost on the trams until we got off where we thought we should have. We still had to walk around for a while looking for the carnival we read about.

When we did finally find it, we thought it a bit weird it was surrounded by forest and there were more carnies working there than there was visitors. Even though it was a bit freaky, we still jumped on the ferris wheel, rollercoaster and some spinny thing for some mad photos and videos. I was most freaked out when I found some carnie's office with the Beverly Hills 90210 logo and main characters painted on the side. That shit is whack. On the way back into the city we walked past one of the most festive, fun-looking entertainment arena's I've ever seen, here in the photo.

The Jewish Quarter was next on our to-do list but we only took a quick stroll through there since it's closed every Saturday. The Jewish cemetary was very creepy. Back in the day during the opression, the Jewish were given only a certain section of the town to live in. As more and more died, they didn´t have anywhere new to bury them so they had to be buried on top of each other. This resulted in a patch of land filled with old headstones everywhere you look.

We took a walk across the river and up the hillside to get a great view of the city in the very welcome sunlight. I was amazed at the literally hundreds of skaters in the parklands up there. This was the third city that I'd seen from an elevated view and each was as amazing as the last.

Since it was our last night in Prague we couldn't leave without going to Krumly Lane so Kat, Marcos and I headed out to see what all the fuss was about. Unfortunately, it was much ado about nothing. The whole place was very tacky and touristy and the bartenders cunningly tipped themselves by asking to keep your change! I guess with such a cheap economy you'd have to. There were five levels of R'n'B, golden oldies ("Do you come from a land down under?"... why, yes, how did you know?), trance, house and chillout but the whole place was far too touristy so we spent all night chatting away in the chillout area on the top floor. We tried to find another bar to move onto but were gravely unsuccessful and I scoffed at least three burgers and a hotdog before admitting defeat and going to bed.

On the complete other side of the city, we slept through our alarm and woke an hour and a half later with only half an hour before our bus was to leave for Vienna. I immediately went into panic mode and woke up Kat. We packed our bags at the speed of light and rushed downstairs to checkout. Once we'd done that we weren't sure to get a cab or gamble with the public transport but thankfully as we ran for a tram an empty taxi drove past. We jumped in that and told the guy to hurry, just like in the Amazing Race, but the taxi didn't seem to like that as it conked out soon after. He managed to get it started again and thankfully got us there with no time to spare. Matt and Sally followed a few minutes later after having troubles trying to find the right bus and walking around instead. We all caught up through heavy panting as we made our way out of Prague.

Terezin Camp

It might not have been the day for it after hearing little about the London explosions and being stuck on the bus all day, but we decided to go ahead with it anyway and check out a former concentration camp on our way to Prague. When we arrived it was actually quite sunny which was a welcome change as our tour guide took us through the buildings. We started in the administration area then moved on through the prisoner's quarters. I was shocked at the living conditions. Three shelves of wide, wooden planks served as beds in a filthy concrete cell holding one hundred prisoners but barely able to accommodate ten "comfortably".

We walked through the showering room which was terribly spooky, just like in the movies where prisoners showered all at once from pipes hanging overhead. As if we weren't all spooked enough, the next thing we did was walk through a 500 metre tunnel used as part of the defense system when the place was a fortress. It led to what the Germans used as the execution area, where we were shown the place where prisoners stood and where they were shot from and even the gallow where three prisoners were hanged. Just as if the weather knew exactly when we were most unsettled, it began to pour down rain so we took shelter under a small passageway. Once that lightened we were shown a video I didn't quite understand. It kept showing video of the concentration camp while a voiceover spoke statistics on transfers to prisons and how many survived. It was horrible, normally around ten surviving from a thousand prisoners. An interesting tour but boy was I glad to be out of there and back on the bus.