Update

Nick has also created a blog, this one just for photos. Some will be the same as here but many more, and since I'm pretty slack with loading all my photos onto my photo site some of you may like checking it out.
http://iwashere2008.blogspot.com/

Barcelona, Spain, Sat 11 Oct 08

We had an afternoon flight out and with our airport being an hour out of Barcelona we only had the morning. We wondered around our hostel's area for a little while and although there wasn't too much to see we did find a crazy little kids park with wacky trees, plants and play areas.

We walked on to a large inner city park which had beautiful fountains and ponds and made for a great walk. Just outside we spotted a gropu led by some musical drummers & dancers. They were awesome, they had a great beat and were so energetic. We watched them for ages. We left the park and spotted Barcelona's Arc de Triomph which was a beautiful peach colour.

We finally made our way to the bus station to catch the bus back out to the Girona airport where we had a rather annoying time. Our plane was delayed by 2 hours, we had multiple gate changes (causing many annoying walks through the airport) and we got stuck on a stairwell in limbo for 45 mins! They had sent us passed the boarding gates but the door to the tarmac wasn't open so we were stuck on a stairwell. We couldn't go anywhere because they'd already taken our tickets. So weird and frustrating. Not a pleasant journey back at all.

Barcelona, Spain, Fri 10 Oct 08

In the morning we went to Parc Guell, a park up on a hill on the opposite side of Barcelona from the beach, designed by Gaudi. To get there we had to make our way up a very steep street. It was so steep they had escalators in the toughest parts. An escalator in the middle of a street is a weird site.

Once up in the park we found a lookout post. It was a stone mound with crosses on the top. It had fantastic views over Barcelona. Nick and I sat up there for ages. Walking down into the main entrance of the park (we'd come from the side) we saw the famous ginger bread houses that flanked the main gate. They looked crazy with their white mallowpuff roof and lollipop chimney.

We wondered around the front terrace which had incredibly beautiful mosaic detailing and huge columns. At the front stairs there was a mosaic lizard which is one of Barcelona's famous symbols, trying to navigate the people taking photos was the interesting part.

The architecture in the park is like nothing you've seen before. In fact it's like no park I've ever seen. Nick thinks Gaudi was a little nuts, I'm inclined to agree, either way he had one incredible imagination. The park had so many different areas to explore we could have spent hours there but we were getting hungry so we headed out in source of sustenance.

We found a little cafe and sat down to a fantastic spanish meal. Nick had paella for the first time and thought it was tasty! We were stoked to find such a good place for lunch. After our feed, we took the Metro down to the waterfront and walked down to the beach. Being such a beautiful day it was the perfect afternoon to spend lying in the sun.

The sand was pretty gritty/dusty but not bad for a city beach, if you can get past the hawkers selling massages and sunglasses. We walked the length of the beach and found the other end a lot quieter so chilled there for the rest of the afternoon. I loved being at the beach again. On our way back we stopped at a beach side cafe for coffee (I told you I'm addicted to Spanish coffee) and some more paella before heading back to the hostel.

We spent the rest of the night on the hostel terrace chatting to random people and enjoying the cheap hostel drinks. You could buy a very large Sangria or Beer for about 3 euros. Unfortunately the Sangria was rather potent which made for an interesting night!

Barcelona, Spain, Thurs 09 Oct 08

We misheard the reception guy last night and managed to miss breakfast. So we found a little cafe for a much needed coffee and some food. Great coffee in Spain! We were heading to La Sagrada Familia for our first visit, the church that has been under construction for over 100 years. It was started by Barcelona's famous architect Gaudi in the late 1800s and was never finished. Now they're building it to his exact specs (so it's taking awhile).

I have to admit I was impressed. It was one of the most unique buildings I have ever seen. The outside has three major facades which are all very different from each other. I liked the Passion with it's bold sculptures. Out of the facades are cone towers, there will be 12 in total to represent the Apostles. There is symbolism and stories everywhere in the building and carvings and statues. You could spend hours trying to interpret it all.

The inside was just as beautiful. A lot of work was going on in the center clove where they were finishing the ceiling high pillars and stonework. The pillars are designed to look like trees which branch at the top and the stonework on the ceiling is carved to look like flowers and trees to feel like a forest canopy. Very beautiful. It was really interesting to watch the workers too, they must get so frustrated with all the people watching them but I guess they'd get used to it eventually.

There were two elevators up to the towers on each side, we picked the one with the smallest line. They were a bit cheeky and charged another 2.50 for the 30sec ride up. But I'm glad we did it because once up there you were let out into a maze of stairs circling through the towers. We had so much fun wondering around, finding new paths to take. You sometimes popped out onto ledges where you could look down onto the crowd and get mega vertigo because they jut out so far it's really freaky when looking down.

Coming down we ended up on an insane circular stairwell. It was designed so you could look down the centre and see all the way to the bottom (which is a long way!) and to me it seemed like the stairs were designed to look like a sea shell.

Down in the crypt they had all the miniture models and original drawings of the church so you could see what it was eventually going to look like. The church is going to be incredible when finished.

After leaving we took the Metro down to La Rambla, the main centre of Barcelona. We got out at Place Catalunya which was a large square at the top of La Rambla and was full of pigeons! Nick pretended to feed them so he could try and catch one but they were too smart for him... :)

We walked down the length of La Rambla to the pier, it's a very wide pedestrian street but it was packed. So many people, mainly tourists, wondering up and down it. Even on a Thursday it was hard to manoeuver through everyone. There were lots of street performers, including a very strange guy sitting on a toilet, I kid you not!

La Rambla was littered with stalls selling souvenirs, art and sadly animals (birds, rabbits etc). We found out later they just close the stall up like a box with the animals inside for the night, it just didn't seem right. We also found a cool fresh food market down a side alley which had the most fantastic selection of fresh fruits and seafood.

At the bottom you reach the wharf which is quite a fancy upmarket area with lots of walkways and restaurants. We were pretty hungry so we made the mistake of stopping into a tapas bar for a drink and nibbles. A jug of sangria, a selection of meats (think salami), some olive oil bread and 35euro later we were feeling pretty ripped off. We learned our lesson on that one.

It was starting to get pretty chilly with the wind off the water so we left the wharf and headed into the old Gothic Quarter. Wow what a cool area. Tiny narrow streets, wicked spanish style terraces and lots of tiny cafes and shops. We had a lot of fun wondering around the streets and just exploring. It was like a maze and at each junction we'd just pick an alleyway that looked interesting. Somehow we managed to come out where we started, we'd gone in a full circle and no idea how it happened.

We found a small bar off La Rambla for some more Sangria (I was loving the stuff!) and beer. It had a great view over La Rambla so made for fantastic people watching. We spent a lot of the night there, had dinner in the old quarter before heading back to the hostel for a night cap on the hostel terrace.

Barcelona, Spain, Wed 08 Oct 08

Through a fantastic deal we managed to get cheap flights to Barcelona for a few days, only downside was we were flying out of Luton and into Girona. Bit of a mission really, all up it took us 7 hours in transit. Here's a bit of a rundown on that evening so you can try and get a feel for the pain we went through;

leave house, walk to train station, train into london, change to underground to cross london, change to train to head out north to Luton, bus link from train to airport, nice long wait at airport, two hour flight to Barcelona, 1 hour bus from airport to city, metro from bus station, walk to hostel.

So... walk, train, tube, train, bus, plane, bus, metro, walk... what a mission!

As you can imagine we simply crashed that night so not much to talk about sorry, except that our hostel was a cool tall skinny building and we were up on the tenth floor. Made for some good views.

And very close to our hostel was a tall office building (sorry no idea what it was called) but it was lit up really pretty at night. This was a photo from our hostel window! It's not as pretty during the day.

New Forest, England, Sun 05 Oct 08

After a pleasant sleep in and a huge cooked breakie we said goodbye to our pub and drove down into the New Forest.

It was a beautiful area, lots of orange thanks to Autumn and animals everywhere! Ponies, donkeys, cows and pigs all dotting the landscape (and deer too apparently but we didn't spot any). Many of them hang out on the road so you have to be careful driving through. It's an incredible area and really unique.

We stopped at a little carpark and wondered through the park, coming very close to a few ponies and finding some cool gnarly trees. It had been raining all morning so there was water everywhere and small running streams where they wouldn't normally be, but the weather added to the beauty of the area.

We also stopped further into the forest at a camping ground (which was no longer in use because of the season) because I had spotted some huge pigs from the road. There were quite a few people around who used the area for hikes and biking and we went for a long walk around too. I loved the pigs, they were so big and cute.

We drove all the way through to the south and a town called Lymington where we had English cream tea (tea with scones, jam & clotted cream - yum!) for afternoon tea, before driving back through the forest on our way back to London. It was such a great day and I would love to head back again for a camping trip.

Stone Circles, England, Sat 04 Oct 08

Road Trip! Yay, gotta love a road trip. Early morning to go pick up our rental car, a cute little Renault Cleo hatch, perfect for zooming around the little english streets. Trying to get outta London was the trickiest part especially since we didn't have a map. I did my best with my awesome navigational skills and with a bit of sheer luck we found our way out to the M25 (the big ring road that circles London). From there it was easy.

We arrived at Stonehenge pretty quickly really and it was kinda weird because it's just sitting there right next to the road. Nick spotted it first and said 'Is that it?' and it took me a bit to realise the small collection of stones right next to the main highway we were driving on was Stonehenge. Strange.

We parked up and threw our jackets on because it was a bit chilly outside, paid, and headed through a tunnel under the road to the field. Trouble was the wind was a lot more fierce over the other side and it was downright freezing! My teeth were chattering.

You don't get very close to Stonehenge, there's a barrier you walk around and in parts the stones are quite far away. But nonetheless the stones are impressive, they're huge and the arrangement is weird. You just don't get the mystical feeling you might hope for at a stone circle. A few photos later and we were back at the car trying to warm up.

We had been told about another stone circle in Avebury which you could walk amongst so we decided to head up there. Unfortunately we didn't quite know where 'there' was. The lonely planet had a VERY rough estimate (i.e it was somewhere between Reading and Bath which were also on the england high level map) but our more detailed road map we'd borrowed off our flatmate didn't feature it. So we headed in the general direction to a place called Marlborough and hoped we'd see some signs.

No signs but an arrow to an info centre meant we stopped in at Marlborough for some directions. They had a carnival on in their main street which made it a fun stop in the end. We found Avebury, a tiny little town only about 10 mins on, and spotted the stones straight away, they were everywhere. They encircled the whole town.

I enjoyed wondering through the fields, touching the massive stones and saying hi to the sheep :) We were a little smarter this time and bundled up a bit more against the cold, problem was it was even colder here! I couldn't believe how freezing it was. I have no idea how I'm going to survive winter here. The wind was fierce too, a few times it almost knocked me over.

After leaving Avebury we drove down to Salisbury. The original plan was to have a walk around but by the time we got there the rain had set in and the car was just too nice and warm so we simply had a drive through the town and then headed onto Wilton (just out of Salisbury) where our accomodation was.

We had booked into a small pub called the Wheatsheaf for the night. It was a random find on the internet, but it turned out to be fantastic. It was our first time staying in a pub and I've gotta say I like it! You spend your night with a bottle of wine and a good meal and then you simply head up the steps to crash. What more could you ask for?! The pub was small and cosy, a short low roof and wonky floors, and our room was gorgous and cosy.

The pub was really quiet and in fact by about 9pm we were the only ones in there with the owners, but it made for a great chilled out night on a leather couch chatting to the owners and watching tv with them while enoying a bottle of red. Dinner at the pub was tasty, possibly the best pub meal I've had in England yet; steak & ale pie with chunky steak & vegies. So good on a cold night.

We're definitely going to stay in a pub again.

Toast NZ & St James Park, London, Sat/Sun 27/28 Sept 08

Saturday was Toast NZ, a New Zealand music, wine and food festival. It ran from midday till about 8pm and we were going with my workmate Bevan and his friends (although we pretty much lost them the moment we entered!). It was held in a large indoor arena because the London weather is very unpredictable but it was a gorgeous day so it would have been cooler outside.

There were all sorts of stalls selling everything you could possibly want, from candy stalls selling twisties, buzz bars and l&p to kiwiana stalls selling greenstone and t-shirts. The best stall by far was Kai catering which were selling the best Steak and Cheese pies ever. I had 2! And at £4 a pop they aint cheap but so worth it. I miss NZ pies! There were also places selling lamb burgers and kebabs and the like, but I was too hooked on the pies :)

One of the wine stalls was selling Aussie wine for Toast Aussie the day before at half the price as the NZ wines. Nick and I weren't fussy and actually prefer some Aussie reds so we stuck with that most of the night :) Needless to say it was a very messy day.

They had various bands playing throughout the day but the highlights were opshop and Supergroove. I had missed Supergroove in NZ so was stoked to catch them in London. The acoustics were sadly terrible so you had to be right in front of the stage to hear anything decent so I headed into the mess of people and enjoyed a Supergroove set with all the old favs.

I have to say one of the most interesting parts of the day was navigating the London underground at 8pm on a Saturday when you are a little imparied :)

On Sunday we were in need of a quiet day so headed to St James Park for a picnic and chill day. Took Nick past Buckingham Palace and he was as under-enthused as the rest of us. St James Park is always a bit of fun with the squirrels though.

London, Friday 26 Sept 08

The weather was gorgeous today, the most sun we'd seen in weeks (Nick must have bought it over from NZ) so we decided to explore a bit of London.

We ended up at the London Eye, where we took a ride up the ferris wheel. It was the perfect day to go up and the views were incredible. It takes about half an hour to do a full circle and the pods are actually huge, they fit about 15 people in each one. It was cool watching all the mechanics.

After the London Eye we headed across the bridge to check out Westminster and Big Ben, even now I'm still awed by Big Ben. We kept heading along the River Thames on the South Bank walk. There were some pretty cool things along the South Bank, crazy street performers, lots of human statues, musicians and a nutty guy in a box making bird sounds and jumping out at people.

We saw a cool skate park filled with awesome graffiti (which I hear may be removed, sad), and giant lounge furniture made out of astro-turf! We walked over the Millennium Bridge (a foot bridge over the river that was closed soon after it first opened because it wobbled too much, they've fixed that problem thankfully!) and found ourselves in front of St Pauls Cathedral.

We headed into the Cathedral and all I can say is Wow! It was breathtakingly beautiful. The art work, gold trimmings and ceiling was spectacular. After admiring the main area and ceiling for awhile we took the first 200ish stairs to the Whispering Gallery. The whispering gallery is the dome part of the church, called so because you can whisper on one side and hear it on the other. It works too. It was kinda freaky, because there were so many people if you put your ear to the wall you could hear lots of voices and it felt like there were lots of ghosts in the walls. Creepy!

We climbed the next 100ish stairs and reached the top of the dome where you can look through a peephole back down to the bottom which looked very cool. Then we took the last set of stairs which were a spiral metal staircase high enough to give me a bit of vertigo (but scary in a fun way) to the top.

It was pretty crowded up there so we didn't stay up for long but the views were very good thanks to the beautiful weather. We also checked out the crypt and the famous people buried there.

That night I introduced Nick to the Putney pub scene with some drinks with the flatties :)

Nicks Arrival, London, Thurs 25 Sept 08

Nick arrived in London at 6:30am. Yay! It was so incredible seeing him after so long. Even the 4:30am wake up call didn't faze me, or missing the night bus.

I have to say Nick feared pretty well considering his very long flight with no sleep and the fact that it is was the middle of the night in NZ. We headed back to Putney and he got to experience the packed tube for the first time, always fun ;) Thursday was a pretty quiet day since he was pretty shattered. To help him stay awake and to get his bearings we had a wonder through Putney and along the river front for awhile.

I cooked him and my flatties a big roast lamb dinner as a welcome to London and the flat and then he completely crashed out for like 12+ hours.

Glasgow & Loch Lommond, Scotland, Fri 19 - Sun 21 Sept 08

Interesting experience arriving into Glasgow late on a Friday night.. there were definitely some 'different' characters around :) Took me awhile to find the hostel after navigating the buses and the maze of streets where the hostel was located, but it was a pretty cool one with a great view back over the city and a good lounge to chill out in. Duncan & Claire, if you read this you'll be happy to hear I enjoyed a good dose of Iron Bru while I was there too :)

Saturday morning was an early wake up call to head down to the centre of town to catch my day tour bus. I had booked in for a day trip with a local scottish small tour group into the countryside. Our first stop was Sterling Castle, a cool castle with heaps of nooks and crannies to explore. You could even go into the guards towers and look down into the underground prison. Sadly I didn't get to find out much history about the castle, the audio guide and booklets really didn't give much info about any interesting events or battles which I'm sure would have occurred there. The castle was up on a hill though which great spectacular views back over the valley.

We headed on towards Loch Lommond and stopped at a little road side cafe where a local friendly Highland cow called Hamish hung out. Hamish was gorgeous! Massive horns and a big shaggy coat, he was so tame I got to pat him, and oh so cute!

Our driver was really friendly and gave us a great rundown of Scottish history, plus he had the coolest accent! We drove up into the Trossachs National Park and wow Scotland is beautiful! This was the Scotland I'd been imagining; beautiful lakes and forests with mountains dotting the horizon.

We stopped at a little village called Aberfoyle for lunch. I headed for the pub of course and enjoyed a nice glass of wine with some pub grub. I then strolled along the river walk to check out the cute local sheep :) felt like home!

After lunch we headed to Loch Lommond (Loch means Lake). It was a huge lake surrounded by mountains and was the perfect place for a walk. I took off from the group and found a path that led around the lake to a bay. It was a stunning view and the perfect quiet spot for some chill time. It was so peaceful I could have stayed there all afternoon.

The last stop on our tour was the Glengoyne Whiskey distillery. Yay! Whiskey tasting ;)
We got to sample a dram of the 10yr on arrival before taking a tour. It was really interesting seeing how whiskey is made and the smell was fantastic. At the end of the tour we were treated to a dram of the 17yr. Too good. Sadly due to the airport liquid restrictions I couldn't get a bottle (I was on hand luggage only) so I settle for a miniature bottle of the 17yr.

On Sunday I had planned to have a bit of a sleep in but in a hostel that's not the easiest of tasks. Thankfully earplugs help. After breaky I headed into town for a look around Glasgow. It looked a lot nicer during the day and it seemed like a great town for some shopping but again sadly I had no room in my hand luggage for that. So I simply headed down for a walk along the river. I made my way along to a park where there was a 'viewing platform', I walked onto it and found myself staring at a factory.. hmm interesting... not my choice for a viewing platform... hehe.. finally figured it must have been used to watch rowers or similar on the river.

In the park I found a lovely garden cafe inside a large greenhouse where I enjoyed a rest and a coffee, then headed up the hill to the cathedral and Necropolis. The Necropolis was beautiful. Lots of old gravestones, shrines and tombs dating back to the early 1800s up on a hill overlooking the city. I wondered through for ages reading all the inscriptions.

Across a bridge was the Cathedral which I popped into for a sec but didn't stay long as it wasn't technically open for visitors, they'd just finished a service. Beautiful gothic style church. Not too much more to see in Glasgow so I hung out in the park opposite the hostel till it was time to catch my plane home.