Athyna, Hellas.

Well.

After an tricky flight from Malta to Athens which involved an all nighter, waiting at airports, sleeping on uncomfortable seats, and then waiting more - we finally arrived in Athens tired, sore and stinking.

We are staying at a place called Athenstyle, which is right in the middle of Monastiraki. We have a huge balcony, a breezy room with aircon, and a TV to cheer on the Aussies in the Olympics.

Last night was a typical Greek night. We started off at the rooftop bar, enjoying a few drinks during happy hour, and meeting some cool guys and girls from Canada. After a bit of a chat, we all decided to go grab some food.

Originally they wanted to go to some Western Applebees, but I steered the group to a Taverna called Thanassies. We all enjoyed some good Greek wine, but the food killed it. Fresh Greek Salad, creamy feta cheese, crisp chips, and yeeros plates. And the meat, INCREDIBLE! Oh, and Mum, I'm really sorry but the tzatziki here destroys yours. Will have to get a recipe for you.

We then kicked on to the Bouzoukia in Glyfada at a place called Frangelico. The place was awesome. We arrived at 1, and were promptly seated at a table - just as the action was starting. What can I say? Lights, singing, bouzoukia, drummers (who smoke on stage hah!), laser lights and holograms. It was great fun, we had a good international group and just had the best time (photos on FB soon enough). There was dancing on tables, I taught Lisa (a Canadian friend) how to Greek dance, and everyone had a great time, even though no one (including mje) knew what the singers were talking about.

On a weirder note, even though I've lived in Australia all my life, I feel really comfortable here. Besides the shifty bastards, everyone has been really friendly, been ultra-patient with my broken Greek, and have been incredibly helpfull all the way through. Special thanks to Sofia at Athenstyle (lol) who helped us get a table at the Bouzoukia.

Today has been a chill day - booked Mykonos tickets, had more Yeeros (breakfast AND lunch - yeah, I'm going to turn into the biggest bastard ever), and met some more people.

Tonight I think we are going back down to Glyfada to hit up some more clubs. Will report back later on. Peace!

It's Going to Happen On This Trip...

It's so frustrating sometimes.

During the day, we walk around these new and amazing cities but I'm still left with a feeling of hollow failure - a yearning to finally "get it", get "lucky" and be successful in my attempts.

I give it a shot every where - cafe's, pubs, clubs, bars - hell, even at the internet cafe right now I am giving it a go, with other people watching - but it all amounts to nothing.

It becomes especially apparent at night. My solid attempts bear no fruit, whilst Matt and Hansen succeed beyond even my wildest dreams. When we're out, they'll even just do it to piss me off - to highlight my own deficiencies as a Man.

Hell, it became even more apparent when we were rolling with Andre and Nico - who are both startling naturals at it. Why is it so normal to them yet so difficult to me.

For them I guess it just comes naturally. They both say they became pretty good at it when they were young, having peers who were able to guide them on their way - tell them where they were going wrong, and in certain situations having a "special friend" to further them along in their development.

Me? I was always socially inept, pretty dorky and was never one of the cool kids.

But that's going to change.

I am going to keep at it until I finally score that home run.

I will not surrender.

I will not fail.

I WILL FINALLY LEARN HOW TO ROLL MY R's!!!!!!!!!!

SUUUPPPEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gin, Gozo and Guidos

Hi.

I am sitting in an internet cafe in Malta. It is hot as hell outside (anywhere from about 30 to a billion degrees - conservatively speaking), and we are doing some last minute bookings for Greece, which we head to tonight on a midnight flight. From there we ship out to Mykonos on the 15th.

Our trip to Malta has been pretty random - I was originally going to leave the boys and go to Athens, but decided to keep the good times going and join them in Malta. And I'm glad I did. Malta is a great little island, populated by quiet locals, windy streets, incredible pastitzis, rocky mountains and great beaches.

We did an Island tour 2 days ago for Matt's birthday. It was nice to see the island and go to a few different beaches. Highlights - getting stung by a jellyfish, totally failing at diving into the water (although I swear I put a hole in the ocean with a great bomb I did), and getting so black that there is no way my Mum will recognise me when she see's me at the airport. At the very least Native Title is always a bonus.

Now Malta is great, but there's one thing about the place myself and the boys can't stand. Everywhere you look it assaults you, when you're trying to chill at the beach with some new friends it wafts through, it drowns the music out of your iPod, around every corner, every bend, every street, pool, pub, club, beach, hanging out windows, inside rooms, on deckchairs, under umbrellas, posing at random places (whilst wearing speedos), whistling at every girl that walks by, being loud, obnoxious, disrespectful to the ladies. They are absolutely everywhere.

Italians.

Regardless, we haven't had to deal with them too much as we have created our own little crew with a few people we have met - German, Swiss and French.

Anyways, I have a few photo libraries up which you can access via facebook -

Bangkok

Arcos, Portugal

Porto, Portugal

Bob Sinclair - Porto, Portugal

Barcelona, Spain - The Party

Peace UP, A-Town Down.

Barcelona to Paris

Barclona pretty much can be summed up in a few words.



Sun. Beach. Alcohol. Beach. Alcohol. Club. Nearly-Pick Pocketed and Dali.



We spent the last 3 days in some sort of dayze. We spent most of our days on the beach playing beach volleyball with randoms, drinking cheap beers, and just enjoying the sun. In fact, NICO EVEN GOT A TAN!!!!!! YEAHHHH MATE!

So after an evening of rocking out to some repetitive tunes at the clubs down at the Port we start to leave when a young clubbing looking dude comes up to me asking me if I like Barcelona. His apparent entheusism feeds mine and we have a bit of a chat about it. He then wants to spar dribble. Even in my exhausted state, I think this is still kind of weird - but I humor him for a moment. That is until I see him slide his hand into my pocket with my wallet. I gently push him off and he asks why I don't want to play. I tell him in my charming and most endearing way that he should go elsewhere. With such civility reminiscent of English nobles I'm sure he got the point...

Either way, with our last full day in Barcelona we get home at 7am, when I decide that this is my last chance to get to Figueres to see the Dali Museum. I walk around the city for a bit (Barcelona is an incredibly lazy city and does not wake until 9am or so). After much searching I find the train I need to be on and jump on. The ride is approximately 2 hours which is broken up by me falling in and out of consciousness.

I finally arrive at Figueres at around 11am and the two things that hit me is the stinking hot weather, and the quantness of the town. It's rather small, no buildings over 2 stories, and a relaxed vibe about it. I grab a map and head towards the Dali Museum, up winding narrow streets, passed local pubs and eventually to the big church that sits next to the Museum.

I won't talk about it too long, but the place is amazing. So much to see, but it felt like I passed it all in a daze. From surrealism to holograms, sculptures, paintings and drawings it seemed like the guy genuinely pumped out a lot of content. After a day there I took the train back to the hotel, where I promptly passed out exhausted on my bed for a few hours.

Anyways, quickly about Paris. The place seems to have a life blood of it's own. It's like even if no one lived here, Paris wouldn't give a shit. The Louvre, Effiel Tower & Champs De Elysees would still kick on anyway.

Our first night in Paris was kicked of with... yes, you guessed it - AN EVENING AT AN AUSSIE PUB!!!!

Absolutely Classic times. The Aussies who worked there were great, kept on giving us free rounds.

The following day we hit the Louvre.

Absolutely INCREDIBLE. We did some PDA guided tours. The masterpieces collection kicked ass.

My personal favourite was the Winged Victory of Samothrace. It just inspired... Victory??

Plus it was Greek, so it got extra points there. But the Mona Lisa was incredible and the Aphrodite de Milo kicked ass. Did a bit of an antiquites tour too, and got my photo with Marcus Aurelius and just spent all day walking around.

Anyway, enough of this, we are going to do a day tour of Paris. HOLLA!!!

Arrguaaa, Collaaaa, Cervecasssss

Barcelona freaking rules.

It´s hot as hell, the skies are blue, the women are gorgeous, the beaches are clean, the beers are cheap and the people are friendly.

Originally we were only going to stay 4 nights here but we have decided to extend it to 6 just because it`s such a cool city.

We have done all the super touristy things - a bus tour through the city, we saw a lot of Gaudi´s work, hit up Parc Guell, and saw a lot of the Gothic Quarter. This place has some amazingly old churces which have incredible work on them - will upload the photos soon when I can.

What really stole the show was the Sagrada Familia. It inspired a few cries of amazement as we were approachaing it where we caught glimpses of it through the tree´s, but once we hit the main strip and it was in full view everyone could do nothing but gasp in awe of the place. It is easily the coolest thing I have ever seen in my short life.

We have met a lot of people in the hostel - funnily enough most are Australian!! We have met Deep from Perth, Maria from Melbourne and a lot of Americans, some crazy Canadians who were into Animals and some other randoms.

We have spent a lot of time lazing at the beach, drinking beers ($1 AUD for a 6pack of beer. SORRI???) and getting blacker than Midnight on Broadway and Myrtle. The women on the beach are beautiful, yet slightly tricky. Yesterday a beautiful spanish thing was sunning herself when an old man walked up to her, leaning over her having a chat. She looked uncomfortable and he was staring at her boobs. As he was leering he kept on playing with the chord of his buggie smugglers and all of us were thinking this was a disgusting old man trying to sleazily pick up. So I did what any other man would do - I walked up to her, laid my towel next to her, and laid down.

Me: Hey babe, sorry I took so long.
Her: Hi...That´s OK.
Me: You know, the other day I was thinking about the amazing night we had in Madrid... (Around here I put my arm around her shoulders)
Her: Oh yeah, that was great...
Me: (Now gritting through my teeth) Now give me a kiss on the cheek to get rid of this creepy man.
Her: ... That´s my dad.

...

.....

Muerda.

All of a sudden I hear everyone we were with crack up hard. My face loses all it´s colour and I feel like the biggest toolbag on the planet.

I apologised profusely to the both of them, and then ended up having a chat with the girl (Maria) who was very nice and a nurse. We then went back to our rooms for a quick nap, before hitting a party up in some Pool centre which was pretty cool.

Anyways, time has run out, catch on the next time, hopefully I will have some pics uploaded!

Pêace in the Middle East!

Feeling the ... Generation

YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHSSSSSSSSSZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!

Well!!!!! It appears that Exagerated Speech Disorder (ESD) has finally taken hold of the group. We are talking like professsssioonnaaalllllllllllllllllllllll sports casters. Unfortunately I still cannot roll my R´s!!!!

Anyways, today is our second day in Porto, and to put it simply, this place is amazing. We went on a huge walk through the city, traversed many buildings hundreds of years old, and traversed at least one alley way that left nothing to be desired by the sense of smell.

We had a fantastic lunch on the banks of the Duoro - I had the Backalao (codfish) in a sauce with razorblade sliced potato chips, capsicum and olives. It was incredible. We then continued on our way and did a tour of of the Port places. The drinks were great, and met some cool students from all around Europe.

We capped off our afternoon with a few lazy sangria´s by the river, soaking up the sun and just relaxing.

Tonight we are off to FC Porto vs. Celtic FC at the ESTAAADDIIOOOO DA DRAGGGONNNNNN!!! It´s an incredible new stadium, and I´ve already prepped myself by buying a full FC Porto kit, with shorts, jersey, shoes and headband. HOLLA!!!

Almost forget. Last night was the most amazing night of the trip thus far. The 5 of us, including Sandra and Paulo went to a massive beach party in Porto. Entry was free and after being warmed up by a pretty good DJ for an hour, and enjoying the $5 Euro vodka redbulls (3 shots thanks mate!!) we were blown away by a set by none other than Bob Sinclair. It was incredible - every one, especially us were going mental. He played all his best songs, capped off by Love Generation. Tonight we are going to see Roger Sanchez at the same place.

Giddyup - much love, chat later.

Whirlwind TOU-EERRRRR

Hey there boys and girls!

We are sitting at an Internet cafe in Porto right now, soaking in the ancient history, amazing architecture and beautiful Portugeuese women!!!

The last few days have been action packed!! The second day in Bangkok saw Matt and I buying suits from pushy Indian taylors ($200 each suit, extra pants, waist coat and 5 shirts each). We then cruised around a bit - chilling out, drinking cheap beers, and attacking BUCKETS with a few shots of RedBull and Vodka in them (about $12 Australian with 6 shots or so). We got incredibly out of controll, enjoyed our time on KhaoSan road, and got hustled by locals.

Matt, funnily enough, got hustled by a 7 year old. The bet? 500 Baht. The challenge? Thumb wrestling. Best of 3. Who won? The little boy the first game... then a stalemate for 20 minutes which was then called a draw by both hardy competitors. The video? Comming up!!!

The next day we flew to London an caught up with EL OSSOOOOOOO Nicos!!!! Great to see him again, but it appeared that the signs of aging in London (the weather) had caught up with him. We met up with an old school friend James and hit up some pubs - how showed us professionally how to smash a pint. We kicked on until the early hours of the day in central London, getting progressively more smashed and out of controll. Luckily, none of us were arrested... or stabbed.

Funnily enough though, I was not allowed to wear my black American Apparell hoodie in London. Apparently all the Louts and Chavs wear them, and having one on is a sign of dickheadness. I promptly removed mine and gave it to Chris....

We also met up with Alex who took us to a local pub. The sheer oldness, plush chairs and cosiness of the pub (not to mention the awesome QUARRYMANS SAMMICH) blew me away!!!! I love London and will hopefully be working there sometime son!!

So after one night in London we flew to Portugal. We stayed with Andre´s amazing family (Tony and Maria). The most INCREDIBLE garden I have ever seen. Tony has a natural ever-lasting water source next to his house, and it feeds his gardens day and night, making the greens so plush that they would make Augusta curators jealous.

We ate chicken, drank Agua Dente and home made wine, we chilled in an amazing guest house and simply enjoyed the views. We capped off our second night in Porto with a death-defying ride (5 boys, 3 seats, 1 ute) from Arcos town to Andre´s House.

I think I came back with an extra few hairs on my chest.

Speaking of which, the food in Portugal is amazing. The chicken is great, the wine is simply incredible and the people are friendly as hell. Could not have asked for a better country to start our trip off in.

Now we are in Porto. The city is old as hell, and it is amazing to walk the streets with such old cobblestone buildins around me. Lame as it might sound, but it is still hard to believe I am here. It is a bit of a culture shock but feels heaps like home.

On a different note, no health scares for any of us, we are all kicking on, drinking, eating and sleeping to our hearts content. Much love to HOME, peace out, P-town DOWN.

P.S. Currently uploading the photos to Flickr now, will embed them when I get a chance. HOLLAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!