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This place was everything we expected, and more. Australians were (as usual) bloody everywhere, but we managed to – for the most part – avoid them and party with the other tourists.

This place was everything we expected, and more. Australians were (as usual) bloody everywhere, but we managed to – for the most part – avoid them and party with the other tourists.

Our hostel had an interesting deal with the pub across the street, being that for every beer you bought, you got a free shot. Definitely made it easy to get a good buzz going.

Unfortunately, it appears that it pushed our roomates over the edge, and the one sleeping in the bunk above Steve felt the urge to vomit spectacularly off the edge of the bunk….all over poor Steve. Once the management kicked them out however, we scored some pretty chill roomates which made the remaining stay much more enjoyable.

San Sebastian sits on the north coast of Spain, and as such is close to Bilbao, Bakio and Zarautz – the latter two being fairly famous surf locations. Bilbao of course is home to the Guggenheim, an architectural masterpiece. Now, normally I’d never really go out of my way to see this. Thankfully, my architect friend Mr Young had the urge to go, so I tagged along.

I had the time of my life.

Never have I enjoyed a museum more than the Guggenheim. From the crazy structure of the Guggenheim itself to the layout of the exhibition rooms to the exhibitions themselves! All of it intrigued and held my attention for a good 3 hours, a feat indeed for something that can be described as Art.

The major exhibition being displayed was the work of one Cai Guo-Qiang, a Chinese gunpowder and explosions specialist. The other works were a recreation of a car crash and a collection of fluid shapes formed out of 20mm think steel and 8 meters high. One of the first places where I enjoyed pretty much every exhibition.

After our Arty stint we took a bus to Bakio, surf capital of Europe. Unfortunately, the surf was atrocious. Staggeringly bad. Still, we jumped in and spent a couple of hours cooling off before heading back to San Sebastian and a topping off the day with a 5 Euro all you can drink sangria evening.

The following days continued in the same vein, surfing (locally in San Sebastian) with some light revelry in the evening.

The exception to this was our last night, which got rather….big. Mr Merrett passed out in the toilets at our hostel, locking himself in on the 3rd story. Mr Young started hard and finished harder, falling comatose after abusing the dance floor, dress code, wall and toilet bowl – not necessarily in that order.

I, on the other hand, spent the entire night going hard at various pubs and clubs (and at one point the beach), powering through the night to chivvy my travelling companions awake at 6am. Our bus to Barcelona was a 7am connection, and I lead the way drunkenly on our mad dash to get there on time. Once we made it however, I literally passed out on the floor of the bus, spending the next several hours in peaceful oblivion.

San Sebastian Pictures
Bilbao Pictures

On first impression, Bordeaux was a very pretty city, pretty much in keeping with France so far. My companions had a different view, seeing piles and piles of dog droppings without any apparent dogs. Nevertheless, Bordeaux was just what we needed, a quiet break before the mayhem that would be San Sebastian.

Our days there consisted of wandering through the town, have coffees and croissants, playing some hackey in the park – only our last night was at all big, playing some inebriated soccer at midnight with some locals. Sadly, we lost. Even more sadly, there were 2 of them. Most sad, they were 5. Oh, and I was wearing the Australian flag as a cape, so everyone knew we were Aussies.

Still, while we enjoyed our break from the hectic life of partying that is our Eurotrip, we were anxious to hit San Sebastian and more importantly the coast, so after 2 days we bid Bordeaux farewell and continued our journey.

Bordeaux Pictures

Ahh Paris. The Eiffel Tower. Moulin Rouge. The Louvre. City of love (please god excuse the terrible pun in the title), and love it I did.

We kicked off our stay with a visit to the Sacre Coeur, conveniently close to our accommodation. Dozing on the steps in the sunshine pretty much set the tone for our 4 days there, relaxing amidst the sights and sounds of Paris.

Another day we spent wandering from the Moulin Rouge to the Academy of Music, swinging by the Place da la Concord and admiring the Obelisk before stopping for a feed and a lie down at the Arc de Triomphe. The Notre Dame, Luxembourge Park, Eiffel Tower and the Louvre all featured in the days to come, but it wasn’t the sights that made Paris for me, it was the general atmosphere.

From chilling in Luxembourge Park playing hackey with a bunch of Americans to hitting the clubs with a mixed group of Danish, German and Polish backpackers, everything we did was made better by the fact that we were in Paris. The food, the drink, the surrounds, everything contributed.

Although it must be said that being backpackers, we didn’t quite indulge in the food as much as we might have – homemade sandwiches being marvellous for staying within budget. In fact, my first crepe was bought for me by a relative stranger, who beyond playing Hackey with us had no real form of communicating, as my French is lacking.

Paris is definitely a city I will return to, next time with some more spending money to truly enjoy the lifestyle a bit more. While the sights were nice, what really impressed is Paris as a whole rather than any specific thing.

Paris Pictures

Well, the backlog of posts didn’t get updated…oops. Partying too hard, what can I say.

In any case, I’ve since done Interlaken, Lyon, Paris, Bordeaux, San Sebastian, Barcelona and La Tomatina. Unfortunately, details will have to wait as I’m heading to Morocco for the next 10 days or so and blogging will be difficult.

Till Portugal, when I should have net again.

After our fairly active time in Interlaken, we decided to head to France. James headed up to Strasbourg to try out some of the wines, so Dave Steve and I headed to Lyon to try some of the culinary delights that France is famous for.

On first impressions, Lyon was…meh. Admittedly, we arrived on a gray, overcast day and were situated in the Turkish part of the city – not the most beautiful part. To add to that, it started to piss down as soon as we got off the train and didn’t let up till the next day. Nevertheless, we were determined to make the most of the 2 days we had there and explored the East side of the city, doing some shopping and looking for places to get some good food. Unfortunately, a) everything was closed, because we arrived in August (when apparently everything is closed…circular logic I know, but I have no idea WHY it was all closed), and b) we headed East, further into the Turkish part.

The next day however, things started looking up. A sunny, hot day, we headed West and crossed over the Rhone into the central part of Lyon, where everything is happening. Cafes and Culture everywhere, couldn’t get away from it. From the Basilica on the mountain to the Basilica in the town, to the Basilica at the other end of town…they really love their Basilicas over here. Still, while exploring the Roman Theater and Basilica St Jean (the one on the hill), we took a slight detour and found some wild blackberries, which made for a nice treat.

Wanting a more substantial feed though, we went hunting for somewhere to indulge. A restaurant called the Arcade, situated on Louis Pradel Place, was our reward. One incredible meal later (some sort of home made sausage larger than both my fists together), we lazed around on the grass nearby and enjoyed the sunshine.

Good thing we did, for as it turned out Louis Pradel Place goes off in the afternoon. Skateboarders and BMXers doing tricks and jumps, couple of breakdancing shows, even some guys doing Parkour. That aroused my interest enough that I joined in, and spent a couple of hours learning how to do backflips from a black French guy with Jamaican heritage called Dmitry…now that was a man with character.

Later that evening I wandered out to the Rhone, ambling along enjoying the view. Spying a game of soccer, I joined in and played for a while. Once the game finished, they invited me to have some beers and shoot the shit – although not phrased that way. Something more along the lines of – you want drink? *beckoning motion*. Gotta love working around the language barrier.

Once the sun finally DID set (9:30 seems absurdly late for there still to be full light) at around 10ish, we parted ways and I headed back down the river. What I found there made me realise how lacking Australia is in public facilities.

There was a fully fledged gymnastics ground set up, with bars of various height and orientations, rings, horses and other unidentifiable apparatus. Using all this equipment was roughly 50-60 people all working out, and these guys were fit – and I’m talking incredibly fit. I joined in with a bunch of guys doing body weight exercises, and for the next hour got myself smashed like I’ve never been. Whilst cooling down I tried to discern why they do all this training, if it was for a sport or any specific purpose. The reason given: to win fights. This raises some interesting questions: how is being able to do a backflip from parallel bar to parallel bar going to be used in a fight, and can I watch?

In any case, we were leaving the next morn, so I headed home and crashed out in preparation for Paris.

No pictures as of yet, will update once pictures are up

Lyon Pictures

We enjoyed Switzerland so much the first time that we decided to go back for some more. This time however, we’d decided to go somewhere more…adventurous. Interlaken to be exact.

Interlaken boasts many attractions, mainly the opportunity to do extreme sports – sky diving, paragliding, hangliding, canyoning and more. We decided to give canyoning a shot, and at 8am on Friday the 7th we dragged ourselves out of bed and made our way to the extreme sports base camp.

For those of you who don’t know what canyoning really is, imagine this. Kit yourself out in a wetsuit of your choice. Strap yourself into a climbing harness. Buckle on a life jacket and get a helmet on your head. Then jump down a waterfall. 5 hours of jumping, sliding, falling, spinning, flipping and swimming. That’s canyoning.

However, that was only one day of our stint in Interlaken. We also hiked Lauterbrunnental, which translates to ‘many springs valley’ – mainly cause there is lots and lots of springs. Went partway into a mountain to see the Trummelbach waterfalls, the only glacial waterfall inside a mountain in Europe. 2 degree water roaring down tunnels and passageways inside an Alp…truly amazing. Top it off with a beer in Murren, a town overlooking the entire valley, and it’s about everything you’d ever need to enjoy a day.

Hooray! Our hotel has free, working wifi – first time in weeks this has been the case! Means I should be able to catch up on the remaining backlog of blogs I have, or at least that’s the plan.

Of course, idle hands are the devils playthings, and while Steve slept we maybe, kinda…shaved his chest…just a little bit. And recorded it on video. The only way he found out about it actually was from that video, when we posted it on facebook

We’d learnt from our last ferry ride, and this time booked a cabin for the trip back to Italy. A sound nights sleep made a huge difference, and our arrival in Ancona at 7am was quite bearable. Full of energy, and well, hungry, I wandered through the markets as they set up, and was able to score some freshly baked bread with condiments for quite cheap.

Once James’ ferry landed and we’d met up, we headed to the train station and headed to Modena, our next port of call.

Modena is a quite little town, the major attraction being the presence of the Ferrari factory and museum nearby. Spending half a day looking at shiny Ferrari’s and the other half exploring Modena, it was a pleasant change from the party atmosphere of the last 2 weeks or more.

Of course, idle hands are the devils playthings, and while Steve slept we maybe, kinda…shaved his chest…just a little bit. And recorded it on video. The only way he found out about it actually was from that video, when we posted it on facebook

Our last evening in Modena, and Italy, we went out at my at my insistence searching for a proper, thin crust Italian pizza. To date all we’d had were westernised versions of pizza, and I was desperate to have a proper Italian pizza before I left. Thankfully, we were in luck. (PICTURE OF PIZZA FROM IPHONE).

A couple of hours and a hospital later, we brought Steve back to the boat and put him to bed with a concussion and several square centimeters of skin missing. I went back to the Police station to deal with some of the paperwork – as Steve was being done for jaywalking… – while I was there, I accidently said the forbidden word (LINK TO POST), and did 10 pressups in the middle of a police station. The translator had a fun time explaining that to the cops

Split was…big. Not the town itself, but the events that occurred there.

Firstly we continued the usual theme of pre-drinks on the boat before grabbing a bite to eat in town. At some point in the night we started the souvenir game, a game where you ’souvenir’ things from the places you go. This was probably the tamest part of the evening.

From Sally jumping on the back of a moving moped and trying to convince the driver thereof to let her stay on, to Dave and I having a model off with girls handbags in a club, the night steadily built momentum into being a massive, massive night.

Then Steve got hit by a bus.

A couple of hours and a hospital later, we brought Steve back to the boat and put him to bed with a concussion and several square centimeters of skin missing. I went back to the Police station to deal with some of the paperwork – as Steve was being done for jaywalking… – while I was there, I accidently said the forbidden word, and did 10 pressups in the middle of a police station. The translator had a fun time explaining that to the cops

Once back on the ship, Dave and I stayed up the night keeping an eye on Steve, amusing ourselves by watching Flight of the Conchords. The next day the cruise ended officially, and we moved into our hostel and all crashed out, recovering from the events of last night.

Omis is home to a true Pirate Castle, situated on top of a rather large mountain overlooking the docks and town proper. A rather hefty climb, 550m up, it boasts an impressive view. Steve and I weren’t satisfied however, and decided to clamber up the neighbouring mountain, an extra 300m. Now that was a view.

That night we had a party on the boat, with an interesting twist – a pirate theme. Scrounging through the towns market, combined with much eyeliner stolen from the girls onboard, we’d all managed to assemble some sort of pirate costume to partake in the revelry.