WE WILL SEE THE WORLD

first job completed successfully

2009-08-14T10:48:00.005+01:00

apricot photo from here (source)

Sorry I haven't updated this blog in so long but apricot picking really makes you tired after a long 10 hour day. I finished working at Pitlou Fruits yesterday and I guess I should start off explaining exactly how it works.

every morning I would get up around 5.30am, prepare some lunch maybe some pasta, bbq chicken, sandwiches or just bread and cheese, not forgetting to pack a litre and a half of water.

at 6.30 I was picked up in a small minibus from the train station with a crazy bizzaro mix of people who had managed to score the same job as me. The language of choice was Portugese, not good for me, especially after hoping I would get some time to practice my french. Among the crowd of fools were Polacks, Moldovians, African political refugees and the odd french or german dude.

It was ten 15 or 16 people to a 13 person minibus winding up the mountainside to the depot where we would split up and assinged a patch for the day, after that its just lots of picking using a basket with a hook to hang it on the trees.

There was ridiculous views of the mountain and sion airport where I would watch planes cruise into the blue sky, plenty of birdsong, awesome banquets for lunch and even the odd garbled french conversation. Sometimes I was lucky to be paired with an English speaker which is probably the only thing that stopped me from getting brain damaged from lack of conversation. I met some awesome guys from Normandy, one with a outrageous understanding of international slapstick humor, making me laugh without speaking a word of any language and another who spoke amazing English who really helped me with my french!

Anyway im tanned, happy, have a little money and I'm waiting to start work at somewhere that turns fruit into something useful... Alcohol! Next I'll be working at the famous Morand Distillery in Martigny, Switzerland

helping to make this

anyway enough about work, now lets talk about play...

I've had so much fun and awesome adventures, most recently at the weekend it was my friends Pablo & Julies birthday party held 1299 metres up on the north face of mount-che, the views were breathtaking, we had bbq's and beer and raclette and french boules with finnish cyclists and lost scouts, I have too much to write and none of the motivation to do so, there are a lot of pictures I will upload too when I get the cable to get them off my camera. In the meantime heres a photo of looking confused with a giant beer in my favourite bistro in sion, La Grenette.

and one or two from when we climed Mount Noble

my friend Steffan showing me where all the cool places are including a fascicst village :O
At the top
map at the top showing us all of the mountains in site! including Mont-Blanc!

Steffan and Bastien enjoying a well deserved sit down and coffee afterwards in a small stereotypical wooden swiss village.

Stay Safe
Sam x

holed up in sion, waiting for the apricots to ripen

2009-07-20T21:03:00.008+01:00

where im sat right now, Bastiens appartment, a beautiful place to be imprisoned.

The problem with fruit picking is its so dependant on the weather, I've been holed up in Sion for 2 weeks now waiting for work and whilst its been quite incredible, I've at least tripled my vocabulary of french and met some beautiful girls. I've finally run out of money. I don't mean that in a 'no money for luxuries' kind of way, I literally have £4 in my bank account and 70cents on the window sill.

vineyards stretch up the hills near sion, nearby to the orchards I soon hope to employed by

Fortunately my friend Bastien (a true Gentleman) isn't asking for any rent but i'm still in a pretty dire situation, with no money for a flight home & a maxed out overdraft I'm playing the waiting game for work. Some people in a situation like this would accept defeat but I'm no quitter.

So far I've busked in Sion on market day making about 15francs an hour and yesterday me and some friends cleaned the bar we frequent for a bottle of gin & a magnificent meal of canard, champignon, pomme de terre and ratatouille cooked by the owner who grew up in southern france explaining his cooking prowess.

The difference between the UK and Switzerland is its so much easier to have fun without spending money, I've been hiking in the mountains, swimming in freshwater lakes and enjoying live music almost every night.

2000 metres or so up with my Valaisian friends, Elda, Frederic, Yan and Oila

This weekend an incredibly talented Parisien musician and his girlfriend Stephan Lipiansky AKA Lafayette Young stayed with us for 3 nights at Bastiens appartment on Friday playing a night of amazing music a La Grenette (the aforementioned bar, the only one I know with a lobster on the ceiling and an owner who serves me suze in pint glasses) I had a great time speaking with them and I urge you to check out the music on his myspace. deep brooding voice, beautiful lyrics and a distinct guitar style that make me want to give up playing myself and cut off my hands. The one song he performed with his girl fired synapses wildly in my brain as the harmonies cut through the night air and the sound of falling rain.

The same night I enjoyed the music and company of Pierre & Marie a musical & romantic duo who play Belle and Sebastien-esque (hate grouping people together, they have their own sound but you get the gist) folk pop which I fell in love almost immediately.
Pierre started finger picking, tapping his converse and Marie acommpanied him with a cornucopia of wind instruments and occasionally a tambourine and cutesy dance. taking everybody on the bar on a sorrowful ecstatic adventure through life.
The next day Me and Bastien spent the day with the two parisian couples walking, drinking wine and eating some traditional swiss food (a beef cottage pie style dish & of course... fondue.) I've developed quite a passion for good fondue accompanied with white wine and the second best I've tasted was that day at Cafe des Chateuax in the old town district of Sion. The best continues to be served at Cafe Du Midi (Martigny, Valais)

crazy cacti spring up in the swiss mountains and wilt in the blazing sun

As always I've got so much to write but my attention span has already left me bored of what I have already spilled out of my brain so before I delete everything I'm going to post this entry and try to write another soon, remember open your eyes and look around you.
Stay Safe
Sam

Back In Switzerland For The Apricots

2009-07-12T10:18:00.005+01:00

I couldn't stay away forever but obviously being the ridiculously skint student that I am, I had to get a job in Switzerland to visit again.

The problem with working en suisse is the outrageous language barrier. My french vocabulaire is limited mostly to fruits, stationary, shop names and numbers (everything I learnt in school) this left me pretty stumped last night when I tried to have a conversation about gallerie du rhone with a dude in a bar especially when it turned out he was Italian.

Fortunately in summer Switzerland has a ton of jobs involving menial labour without much french necessary. My friend Bastien who I am staying with called up a few places and asked around to see if anyone needed a skinny english kid to help them pick fruit.

It turns out they were happy to take me, surprisingly most people don't want to spend 10 hours a day in the blistering sun picking fruit from row after row of trees. Personally I couldn't see it being worse than being stuck in a stuffy office filing mounds of meaningless paperwork (my only alternative job offer in England)

Anyway to cut a long boring story short. I got the job, booked a flight, caught a plane to Geneva and hopped a train to Sion (Capital of the Swiss state of Valais, a popular tourist destination with a thriving cafe culture) and thats where I am right now, sunk into a leather sofa drinking coffee and listening to church bells ring out from the 3 churches nearby. Its a hard life riding the wave of my youth pushing my luck to the last minute.

I should have started work on the 8th but apparently the apricots that im going to be picking won't be ripe enough until the 15th so until then im trying to conserve my last 40 francs (difficult when a beer is 5.80 and you can't get a coffee for under 4, necessities you understand.)

uh oh

2008-04-29T22:41:00.001+01:00

Cow Fight!

2008-04-29T21:43:00.004+01:00

sorry I haven't made a post in a while, I've been busy adjusting to being back home!

anyway on the 13th of April....

we started the day at Bastiens mothers house for pancakes and coffee, i also tried every single jam under the sun from hazelnut to kiwi all really great and all homemade by Bastiens mum! I even got given a jar of Quince jam home with me!

we piled into two cars (Me, Bastien, Julie, Nadia, Pablo & Bastiens Mother) and set off down the straight road through the centre of the valley to a small village near sion for an afternoon of cow fighting & raclette. Both of these I knew very little about!

the place was packed with excited specatators, proud owners and of course the cows themselves, I was suprised bulls weren't the ones fighting but the local herens breed of cow is used and apparently the cows fight naturally in the mountains to establish hierarchy
in the herd. hence the name of the sport 'combats de reines' (combat of the queens)
the prizes are shiny new bells!

its traditional for people to drink white wine and eat the mysterious local delicacy 'raclette'
i had heard so much about whilst watching the cows fight, so we headed straight over to the food and drink tent! If i haven't mentioned already, swiss white wine is great, really fresh lots of peach and pear notes, not too dry and a great length.
They don't have much room to grow the wine though so not much gets exported, they just drink it all! Raclette turned out to be anothe cheese based meal, basically the raclette cheese is put under a heater until the top layer starts melting, this is then scraped off with a knife onto a plate, the melted cheese is served with a gherkin, some pickles and a potato. you don't need any salt but i found black pepper went down a treat! Raclette is even more localised than fondue, being a completely Valaisian tradition (Valais, the region of switzerland i spent most of my time in!)

this is pablo eating raclette!

Then it was up to the arena where we found some wooden supports on a hill to sit on giving us a great view of the action, behind us two cow fight enthusiasts talked excitedly, Bastien found out what we had missed and which cows we should look out for! then it began! its a lot like arm wrestling really except instead of them just using their arm they use their whole humongous body to try and push their opponent to the point of giving up! its quite exciting, especially when the dust is flying and the crowd is cheering! everyone reassured me that its rare for a cow to get more than a chipped horn in combat, which made the animal activist part of me feel alot better however in the similar japanese sport 'Tōgyū' they apparently sharpen the horns!

after a few hours of watching cows tussle in the beautiful sunshine , drinking white wine I felt i had absorbed enough swiss tradition for the entire trip but the day (my last day) wasn't over yet! so we hitched a ride down to Sion, one of my favourite places in switzerlan and went to went o one of my favourite bars of the trip, La Grenette! owned by a crazy bearded dude, this tiny place is overflowing with characters, traditional swiss wood layouts and probably just about enough room to swing un petit chat! cheap beer and everybody smillng! we met up with Bastiens friends (and now mine I guess) Christian, Eilda & Frederic who had come straight from a birthday party and we spent the majority of the evening with them talking and laughing before catching a train to sion, grabbing a great pizza and chilling at the appartment.

it was my last night and I thanked Bastien for the amazing hospitality he had shown me, it was great to hang out with someone so far from home who was exactly the kind of person i would hang out with now im back here! Can't wait for him to come to manchester in a few months and i can buy him a beer!

The next day i caught a train through the longest tunnel in switzerland to the german speaking city of Basel where i caught a flight to Liverpool airport, I've been back for a week or so now and although its great to see some familiar faces, i'd love to get away again! I've got the bug!

Stay Safe
Sam x

Venice Is Sinking!

2008-04-11T12:06:00.004+01:00

hi I just spent a night and two days in venice it was really magnificent i couldnt really fully imagine it until i saw it, there are NO roads! all canals and they still use them for transporting building materials getting rid of rubbish and as floating shops, it was really cool, I went St Marcos square and got lost in the maze of streets thousands of times it was crazy

canalzzzzzzzzzzzzz
this is my `help im lost in venice face`
GONDOLAZ
if you want masks you go to venice, this is the shop where Stanley Kubrick got his masks for the Movie èyes wide shut`

so the weather wasnt sunny but rain in venice is pretty magical everywhere you go you can hear a thousand raindrops hitting water and a million little splashes appearing all over the canals!

anyway im back in switzerland today we`re making music and sushi and on sunday I get to see some legendary swiss COW FIGHTS!!!

stay safe
Sam

more photos from switzerland

2008-04-08T15:18:00.005+01:00

hey guys thought id let you know i`ve booked a train to venice tommorow morning where I will be staying for one night before returning to martigny until my flight home on the 14th!
ok heres some more photos from switzerland its a really beautiful place but very expensive!

learnt how to cook tomato fondue at Bastiens mothers house, it turned out super super tasty!
fork in the lake outside the food mueseum in Vevey

we will see the world!

2008-04-06T22:39:00.003+01:00

Better Late Than Never!

2008-04-04T09:34:00.007+01:00

Oops I just realised I never posted much of a blog about amsterdam or the hague, i was seriously just trying to cram so much in I never had much time!

this is a bunch of bikes, they are everywhere in the Netherlands , dean is probably the only person without one! apparently when they dredge the canals in amsterdam they just pull out tons and tons of bikes and have to put more water in because so many bikes have been removed haha.

ok so on the Monday before I left Holland i met up with this really nice lady called Lies who I had met when I was barcelona, she lives in The Hague and agreed to take me around the sights and then eat somewhere awesome.

we had a guided tour of the dutch parliament buildings and heres some photos of me looking peevish next to the queens throne
we also visited the second chamber where they do a lot of arguing but because of that crazy dutch guy who's in the news at the moment for making some offensive cartoon to muslims (when will they ever learn) they didn`t allow any cameras in, anyway it was really fancy and green and i sat at a press desk.
for lunch I ate traditional dutch meatballs with mustard which was so so yummy and also a croquette (traditional dutch one) stuffed with a mix of wheat and veal , I ate it but it wasn't as good as the meatball haha the texture was just bizzare and pulpy

then we walked around the Hagues older part and I learnt some History and saw the queens palace (flags up that means she was at home!)

down by one of the upmarket canals was Lies nephews restaurant (bottom right of this photo you can see the boat beergarden) and this is where we ate amazing food a perfect chicken sate with a peanut butter dip , a awesome side salad and chips it was so so so yummy one of the best meals on the trip so far
now im in switzerland though im eating so well all of the time trying tons of new things and rediscovering old things (espressos, for instance are amazing here!) the dav I arrived Bastien just baked us a pie from scratch for lunch, everyone here knows how eat and drink well!
ok its time to leave the house I guess, so much to see and the sun is shining!
speak to you guys soon!
sam x

ps. hey grandma did you get my postcard yet??

les jour du tshirt rouge en martigny!

2008-04-04T00:30:00.006+01:00

yes today was red tshirt day but everyone here is french so im kindof forgetting how to speak anglais haha anyway martigny is amazing and beautiful, today we climbed a mountain, walked through the apricot orchards and then ate traditional swiss fondue.

the fonduewas actually really nice! then we played some babyfoot (table football) in some traditional swiss bar with some reallyy nice french and english speaking people from france, russia, australia and obviously switzerland. anyway im having an awesome time been so busy so theres been no time for blogs but hopefully tommorow morning ill post a full update of whats going on! tommorow evening we are going to a recording studio in the mountains near montreaux to record some music and hopefully i can upload that here too!
also my french is improving!
aussi mon francais s'améliore!

staying safe
sam x

Switzerlannddd

2008-04-02T00:35:00.004+01:00

my flight was delayed by agesss but ive arrived in Martigny Switzerland now and its amazing! tonight me and bastien watched the roma vs manchester united match in some crazy bar full of rock formations but mainly my day was travelling! tommorow we will see the world!

Rotterdam!

2008-03-30T19:49:00.005+01:00

hey cool today I caught the train down from Leiden to Rotterdam it was awesome! loads of stuff got destroyed in the war and these crazy dutch redesigned and rebuilt some crazy stuff, one of my favourites was the cube houses!

and then I saw the mind blowing walk of fame containing the hand prints of all the most amazing celebrities

I got buffered by the wind a bit at the crazy Erasmus bridge , saw some cool war monument and a lot of flags, tonight its pizza and movie night! crazy Spanish horror films yeah!
Dean stayed at home today and watched Everton play Liverpool, they lost so he had turned it off by the time i got back ahaha

ps. the weather looks bad today but yesterday it was actually pretty warm and sunny!

Laundry In Leiden

2008-03-29T14:20:00.001Z

Godzilla Attacks!?!

2008-03-28T20:42:00.003Z

hey guys so I caught the train down to Leiden today and met up with dean and moved into his spare room! then we went down to the Hague and tore up Madoradamm which was basically a 1:25 replica of Holland and the amount of detail was hilarious

amstel damm

2008-03-27T09:57:00.002Z

hello guys im in amsterdam at the moment! its really cold and snowed quite a bit, the day I arrived after 'sleeping' in milan airport i was so tired, i basically wandered around the streets and did some shopping, cooked up some food and fell asleep at like 7pm haha then I only woke up at about 10.45 ran down to the free tour place and learnt a ton about where amsterdam came from basically its just because they built a dam called the amstell dam next to where they founded the town so they put the words together or something haha last night me and some cool dudes from Reading wandered around china town and the red light district its so so bizzare ALSO they have these burger vending machine places called 'FEBO' and you put your money in and then open a door and grab a burger its so so bizzare haha today im going to try and check out the van gogh mueseum and try and find somewhere to upload pictures of snow covered houses and canals and funky statues, no hookers though they dont like having their photos taken

staying safe

Sam x

street art update

2008-03-24T15:50:00.002Z

ok heres a bit more street art i've seen recently on the tripbehind la boqueria , barcelona
the gothic quarter barcelona
nearby segrada familia, Barcelona
unknown, Milan
down by the canals, Milan

Postcards from Italy

2008-03-24T15:00:00.004Z

leanardo da vince statue, one of milans most famous residents, he suggested they should build canals to move the marble to the centre of town to build the duomo (below) and thats exactly what milan did, Da Vinca totally redesigned the way locks and stuff worked to move the marble uphill it was pretty cool.
yeah this is the Duomo it doesnt look so good on film but in real life its mind blowing, the pink and white marble absorbs the sun and it shines so bright and its jut mindblowingly big and a good example of newer gothic architecture (lots of spires and points!)
its like a tradidtion to grind you shoe on the testicles of this bull whenever you walk past and here a lady is making her baby do it, apparently you get good luck and maybe its true because today when i checked out of the hotel they didnt charge me for any of my phonecalls only 2€ for the can of coke i had out of the minibar!
the duomo again looking majestic, this is when I was deciding to pay €7 euros to take the lift or €5 for the stairs to the top
i chose the stairs, here is me looking exhausted

heres the park i spent the morning chilling in with some stolen croissants and baked delights from the hotel , I also played the Ukelele

this is a big castel and the defences were designed by Da Vinci, it didn't stop the spanish but they probably got really burnt by the burning tar holes and stuff

these guys played the theme tune to the antique roadshow

the most mind blowing pizza Al Tonno I have ever had serious, it was amazing

this coffee was from a really expensive restauraunt inside the big shopping hall next to the duomo which has like the Prada shop in and stuff, theres classic music in the centre and mindblowing coffee, other than the bulls testicles being replaced a few times and some glass that got destroyed in WW2 this place has been the same for hundreds of years and is still a hub of world fashion

Barcelona Photo Album

2008-03-24T14:27:00.004Z

ok so I finally caved today and bought a SD card reader for 9 euros in Milan so now I should have no problem uploading photographs, seeing as you guys haven't seen any of barcelona yet Ill start there...

amazing church gaudi designed I went here and to the park he built and lived in with this ace couple from Minnesota who were studying spanish near madrid and they could both speak really great spanish so we bought a whole fish at the market and made a gourmet meal for about 3€ each haha
all the streets were so narrow and getting lost in them was so amazing because there were non stop shops everywhere all really unique and bizzare
some dude drawing a cityscape on the stairs up to the olympic stadium
flower
Las Ramblas is so crazy its full of hookers and pickpockets and people pretending to be statues and flower stalls and musicians and magicians and animals no kidding I could spend a good two hours strolling down at a leisurely pace watching everythings go on, in fact on my last day I sat at one of the cafes at the side and ordered a coffee just so I could people watch without getting disturbed

my room, it had an awesome balcony
fake armani sunglasses €3 haha best price ever
buena vista social club jamming out
just off la ramblas is the craziest market ever you could buy actually any food items you wanted including like cow brains and big squids
the beach where I tanned up it was really good weather and very hot! I had to pay a ridiculous price for sun cream though!

ok this internet cafe is full of people shouting im going to move haha

longg time since we spoke

2008-03-21T09:56:00.002Z

hey blog I didn´t forget about you but ive been busy and there is NOWHERE in barcelona to use the internet or upload photos =( anyway its my last day today im going to go to the beach and paddle and sleep and smile and have some fun! I also bought a Ukelele (?) for ten euros yesterday! such a bargain! I´ve been everywhere in Barcelona worth going , did a tour of the gothic district and went to the olympic stadium, swam in the medditerenean, celebrated st patricks day , saw a lot of Gaudis work everywhere including the park he built and lived in it was so good!

the weather has been awesome too I have tan lines

yo

2008-03-16T10:14:00.004Z

hi guys im just letting you know im still alive and im having a wild time in barcelona and saw some touristy stuff yesterday im going to the beach today! ill find somewhere i can post some pictures and stuff

talk soon
Sam

dark clouds over berlin

2008-03-13T09:59:00.012Z

hi! today is my last day in berlin and the heavens have opened up :O so im chilling in possibly the cheapest internet cafe in the universe with a coca cola

been doing lots of stuff since I last typed so ill give you a rundown

on the 12th I bought like this Berliner Mueseum Pass it was like 9.50 euros for students and got you entry to most of the mueseums in Berlin for 3 days! Alot of the main muesuems are really close together on mueseum island in the centre of the city so I tried to get round a few!

I started at the national gallery and saw some fine arts nowhere near as impressive as the collections in Paris but still some stars.

then to the Pergamon mueseum which really is like a definite place to visit if you guys ever go to berlin, it houses loads of ancient monuments and stuff that have been excavated and rebuilt in this massive mueseum one of the highlights is definitely the pergamon gate you got a free audio guide thing too to guide you around the whole mueseum so I learnt a ton about ancient history! it really is unlike any other mueseum ive been to!

just round the corner was the egyptian mueseum which has one of the best collections of egyptian sculptures in the world i got a free audio guide there too and it rocked out some really cool information about Egypt that night me, Jane & Kate (from australia) and Erin (from montreal, canada) ate at this really cool restaurant underneath one of the train stations it had big high brick ceilings and awesome columns and paintings on the wall and every time a train went over the whole place would rumble it was really cool and had a great atmosphere even though they didn't like giving us tap water, i had like the biggest burger in the world !
yesterday I saw THE TOPOGRAPHY OF TERROR an exhibition about the SS and Gestapo in the excavated remains of their secret HQs basement where they used to intensively interrogate innocent dudes it was very shocking and interesting and well presented, eavesdropping on the tour guide next to me was good too!

after a coffee and cake break we went down to the Mueseum of Jewish History and learnt all about jews and jewish stuff it was in this crazy building designed by a dude called Daniel Libeskind with like these big weird empty voids and disorientating gardens it definitely was moving and informative and not the big dusty boring mueseum i was expecting

after a pretty heavy day of history we thought we would treat ourselves and indulge in some german delicacies at the massive food floors of Ka De We (the german equivalent of selfridges)

we sampled the finest saurkraut ,currywurst (region of berlin speciality basicallz a sausage covered in spicy tomato sauce and curry powder) and rostbratwurst it was super tasty!

then we went to an irish pub drank far too much berlin style beer and rocked out some oasis covers it was fun!
now im checked out of the hostel, my bags are in the luggage store and im ready for my flight to Barcelona at 5 this morning where im meeting this australian girl, Ellen who I met in paris, shes been there for a few days now so hopefully ill get a tour

australian girls love me!

speak soon

sam x

where theres a will theres a whalebone

2008-03-11T10:29:00.013Z

hooray! I borrowed a SD card reader from one of the nice australians so I can show you guys some ace pictures of berlin!heres a picture of me all on my own in the airport at approximately 3am it was completely abandoned and creepy i just sat around alot and read some really bad book that I bought from an english bookshop in paris full of french authors work translated badly into English so I didn´t really get it all and in the end just went through adding full stops and apostrophes with my pen.

heres is the Brandenburg gate with our mosher tour guide haha he was seriously really good though and I learnt a load about the history of Berlin that I didn´t have a clue about before. We went around most major landmarks and at one point we were standing above the point of Hitlers bunker, theres absolutely no trace or memorial to prevent any glorification of hitler and as the guide put it ´the communists turned this land into a parking lot where the residents take their dogs to shit´

this is that weird deathstar-esque TV tower thing in Alexanderplatz it has a rotating restaurant at the top and is the second largest structure in Europe. Its funny because the Germans started to build it after the war to show the world they still had advanced technology and engineering skills but half way through they realised that the tower was sinking because they were building on a swamp and had to smuggle in some swedish engineers to help them finish it off! some journalists found out about it and it was in the papers and everyone laughed.

this is a part of the East Side Gallery, the longest remaining stretch of berlin wall which in 1990 was turned into a open air art gallery , theres some really good work there but unfortunately even though it was restored in 2000 so many tourists have decided to leave their own ´tag´ that the whole thing is covered in permanent marker saying like "STEVE WAS ERE"

I took this in the park in Kreuzburg district , often called the Little Istanbul of Berlin it has streets and streets of doner shops , turkish delicassens and shisha bars, its a really nice area and not too busy either.

the awesome thing about berlin is the amount of street art, it is everywhere, there isn´t a street in the entire city that doesn't have a work of art on the wall, that does mean there are a lot of horrible talentless tags everywhere but it evens out by all the funny, beautiful and though provoking work you see round every corner.
seriously I could post pictures all day of nothing but amazing street art and my memory card would be full if I hadn't been resisting photographing it all.
Last night I went here on the S-Bahn to see Band Of Horses play, it was a wild show and the support band 'cave singers' and 'tyler ramsey(?) also made awesome music unfortunately I couldn't have anything to drink because even a glass of water was 3euros! so I survived until I got out again then caught another S-Bahn back to near the hostel arriving back at about 12.50 the german public transport system is weird, theres are no gates or ticket guys they just trust your honesty to buy a ticket but all the machines for tickets don't work or theres a big queue so I couldnt get a ticket anyway!

today I think im going to go down to Potsdamm Platz and see some architecture and eat some schnitzel

see you guys later!

in a dunkin donuts overlooking the tv tower

2008-03-10T14:09:00.002Z

sup guys im in another internet cafe above the dunkin donuts in berlin but theres no card slot for my camera here either! A lot of fun stuff has been happening !

after i posted my last blog I decided to have a wander around the city before I could check in and sleep. On the streets near KunstHaus Tacheles (this awesome alternative art and culture centre with some mad cafes and a beer garten full of bizzare sculptures and almost the whole building is covered in the best graffitti) I met this dude called Sidney from Los Angeles he´s actually one of the team working for Paul McCarthy setting up his exhibitions and installations in countries everywhere , definitely a cool job! so we wandered aimlessly together he bought me a beer and i went back to the hostel , stormed into my room and just fell asleep from about 4pm to 8am the following day hahah

Breakfast is so much better at this hostel its a big buffet of eggs and toast and salami and cheeses and teas (grüne tea being the best) and cereals and fresh fruit so I been gorging out on all that and its been good!

yesterday I took a free walking tour of berlin which left from the hostel and was like 4 hours long and I got to see so many amazing sights in Berlin (book burning memorial, brandenburg gate, memorial to the dead jews, berlin wall, reichstag, memorial to war and tyranny and of course that hotel michael jackson shook his baby out the window of haha)

heres a picture from their webpage, I look ridiculous see if you can spot me haha

the bearded floating head on the left of mine is Jeremy Parks from london he´s in an awesome band and was staying at the hostel too until this morning when he left , hes also on his gap year and travelling the globe mainly eastern europe, russia and china! anyway we hung out on the tour and then that evening I met his room mates , two nice australians and then we all went down to the koncert haüs realised we were under dressed and settled on going for a beer then climbing the glass dome on top of the reichstag which is open til midnight! we got really awesome views of the entire city at night! wish I could post the photos!

today I walked all the way down the river spree to the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall which is now the East Side Gallery a long stretch of murals and graffitti art, unfortunately so manz tourists have decided they had to leave their own graffitti on the wall and its covered and spoilt a lot of the murals, the walk itself and the amazing graffitti on the way was much better, then I went and lay on the grass near the reichstag and ate a fine lunch of bread and bannas and ice tea!

tonight Im going to see Band Of Horses play at the columbia club which i think is near the hostel theyre this american indie rock band and are pretty good! im excited!

stay safe
sam x

Gutenmörgen Berlin

2008-03-08T10:59:00.002Z

I am so tired sitting around an empty airport from 11pm until check-in at 4am really wore me out, I grabbed an hour or so sleep on the plane but now im in the hostel and I can only get in my room at 2pm wahhh!

also the tube dudes are on strike so theres like no public transport running in berlin until like the day I leave which means im going to be doing a TON of walking around

first impressions are good though its such a contrast to paris not only in architecture but on the fact everything is so much cheaper, where I´d be paying about 8 euros for coffee and cake in paris its like 2.50 here! i´ve strolled around the neigbourhood and theres is street art everywhere I´ve already seen a space invader! ate breakfast in some little cafe and now im back in the hostel, german keyboards are weird the x and z keys are swapped around and you can type these ßßßßß things which are like a sss sound

theres no plugs for my camera at the hostel internet cafe though so to post pictures ill have to go further afield I think

anyway i think im going to pass out in a chair, talk to you guys ßoon!
sam x

last day in paris

2008-03-07T09:11:00.008Z

ill let you guys know what goes down in berlin soon!

k bye!

sam

whatzzzz goinnnn onnnnn

2008-03-06T18:20:00.014Z

space invader at montremarte (http://www.space-invaders.com/) I've seen a ton around paris where he's from and they're all so good!

hey guys! long time no blog, I've been really busy but also the internet at the place has been busted and everywhere else is riduculously priced, I dont have time to tell you everything I've been doing but ill post some photos and tell you about them! k?

ok so on the 4th I went to Musee D'Orsay (the one that is a converted railway station with the big clock (above)) and saw a lot more influential art including a whole room full of Monets impressionism work which he did in Giverny, repainting the same scene in a range of seasons observing how they had changed, next to that was a room full of van goghs (that mental dude who sent an ear to a prostitute as a sign of his love)

monets bridge in his garden at Givernyone of my fav van goghs

then at night I ate at this really nice french bistro on the corner of rue de la roquette I had roast chicken with a creamed mushroom sauce a dressed salad and roast potatos it was yummy then I think I fell asleep really early because I had walked so far during the day.

on the 5th I caught the metro as far as I could out of central paris to Porte Dauphine and spent the morning reading , strolling and picnicking in Bois de Boulogne (this big park kinda thing) it was sunny and good to be able to breathe some air that didn't smell like perfume, car exhaust or urine.

in the afternoon I checked out the opera house at the bastille and then walked down promenade plantee an old 4.5km stretch of raised metro line converted into a garden giving awesome views of all the streets below and all the stuff going on it was pretty epic and relaxing even though my feet were sore at the end of it!

that evening was the night opening of the pompidou centre which houses the modern art mueseum and is a building with no exterior skin, its all glass and the cables which are usually inside the building all run along the outside meaning that riding the elevators up to the gallery gives you amazing views of the city!

inside the mueseum I joined a big group of american art school students for their tour I even got a green sticker off one of the american guys to show I was an official member of the tour group I got told about all the periods of art with plenty of great examples, I saw some amazing picassos and some of his cubist stuff which I didn't dig as much as his earlier stuff anyway so it was quite late by the time the tour was over (it was led by this well spoken eccentric english guy who was mental) I got back to the hostel on some busy metros and helped like some chinese dude get off at the right stop!

then today (6th March) I tried to hunt down a market or two, had a coffee in the cafe which amelie was filmed, bought some provisions in a supermarche and walked all the way from the bastille to my hostel (thats quite a long way) but it started to rain so this afternoon i've been relaxing in the hostel reading up on my next destination and napping about on the sofas its a really good relaxed place and everyone is really friendly, I would definitely stay here again when im next in paris! maybe you guys should all come down and we could have a ball!

tommorow im going to breakfast with the californians , meet my new room mates (i just went in and they were all asleep so i think they are more jetlagged americans haha) check out and stow my bags in a locker and then probably have quite a chilled day, maybe get a coffee by the canal , ride the metro around and then ill have to get to the airport and nap around until about 4am when I can check in for my flight to Berlin!

stay safe

Sam x

tu es beautiful

2008-03-03T20:42:00.006Z

hey guyz today I had another ace day but I only have 20 minutes to tell you about it! haha ok it started off quite cloudy so I chilled in the hostel until about 10.30 and then it started to clear up and I caught a metro to Chatelet , walked around some of the big department stores and les halles (this big underground shopping centre thing) by then it was really sunny again, I called in at the pompidou centre but theres an evening opening on wednesday from 6pm and its free for 18-25 year olds :)

I bought some fresh spiced olives and a big baguette for lunch and walked all the way through paris from the seine all the way up to montemarte stopping to soak up some rays along the way.

montemarte is like a village which slowly got consumed by an ever expanding paris, its where all the starving artists like picasso and da vinci used to squat and exchange paintings for food, it also houses the last vineyard in paris

I climbed the steps of the sacre couer first of all and from the top was some amazing views of paris then I wandered around the upmost part of montremarte where all the artists paint your portrait and sell their art, theres also a ton of traditional french cafe's all packed with tourists.

after a long time wandering the sun was starting to set and I walked back to the steps of the sacre couer that I started on where some cool dudes were now performing for the crowd on their guitars playing mostly reggae , alot of marley but then also an actually good rendition of that bad james blunt song haha I put a euro or two in their guitar case and walked back down to boulevard rochquart toward the moulin rouge and the red light district.

some horrible woman tried to drag me into the most appalling brothel in the world no joke! its so terrifying having a super skinny woman in too much make up grab your hand and try and lead you somewhere that looks super gross haha I then got to the free night tours start point outside moulin rouge and went on a awesome tour of montremarte and the red light district by the crazy mexican new yorker , it was all english and everyone was really nice and welcoming and I didn't get robbed! the tour was 2 hours altogether and really informative and ace

ok I've got to go now i have one minute left on the timer!

speak soon

sam

after

2008-03-03T07:58:00.002Z

after posting that last blog I had a drink with some really cool texan called matt who is studying in france and has been doing some travelling himself, he reccomended a few places to go and see while im here and also some stuff to do in milan then i got to talk on the phone to my bestest buddy for a bit before passing out in my warm bed :)

its actually quite cloudy this morning so i might leave the bike hire to another day and just mooch around the big shopping centres and maybe see a movie in an independent cinema.

overdosed on fine arts

2008-03-02T19:42:00.014Z

The end of my second day in paris im copying this from my journal that I wrote with a beer at the hotel bar like an hour ago.

Its been another action packed day at Chateau Golden! Today was the first sunday of the month and aswell as being mothers day (hi mum love you!) a ton of the mueseums where gratuit (free!) meaning that I had to visit as many as possible! I started the day really early before my crazy dutch room mates woke upand went down for breakfast. Taking advantage of the buffet style dining I consumed copious amounts of orange juice and coco pops, I also stowed a baguette and a sachet of honey for my lunch (saving precious €€€'s!) first of all I wandered through a little street market to as metro station catching a metro straight to the Louvre. Arriving early meant I avoided a load of the tourists and therfore queues , I got x-ray'd and stumbled into the gigantic foyer, grabbed an english version of the map and set off to the denon wing which houses italian sculptures and paintings including the Mona Lisa and Venus De Milo two things I knew I definitely wanted to check out!

Arriving at the room displaying the Mona Lisa there was already quite a crowd and to be honest im not that sure why. Basically imagine a badly aged, pretty small painting of a average looking brown haired girl with a bit of a omniscient look

on her face and thats all it is.

No painter has ever dared to restore the classic painting and so even behind it brightened colour enhancing, bullet proof glass its still only a small warping portrait of a mystery lady and not to disimilar to many other portraits of the era. I guess its just the recurring reproduction of Mona Lisas' Smile which helped her gain the popularity, along with the wild myths surrounding it, including one explaining how the image could be a self portrait of Da Vinci himsel in drag from there I perusd the awesome and collection of egyptian artefacts which was much cooler and exciting, they also drew some pretty funny paintings of guys riding camels.

The Venus De Milo is pretty hot for a armless model and I completely loved all the japanese dudes pulling wild poses next to her whilst their disgruntled wives took their photo, my favourite was the guy proudly posing next to her builders bum, The sculpture also has a pretty interesting history too but im too busy to drawl on about it so check it out on wikipedia or something!

After snacking down on a cheese sandwich leftover from the day before, I moved to the exhibition underneath the louvre which explored the galleris history along sections of the restored and excavated original walls, I looked around the dungeon a bit too and it was really dark so I left heading along the bank of the seine to the palais toykyo which houses the mueseum of modern art.

The exterior was a bombshell, a homeless guy in a monks cowl pushing a trolley full of crap harrassed me for change, the walls were covered with graffitti and broken wine bottles littered the ground, I paused considering whether I should even bother going up the stairs to the entrance but scared of walking past the monk dude again I marched onward through the sliding door and its so luck I did. the place is amazing, housing some of frances most beautiful works of art including Dufy's humongous mural 'le fee electricite' (the elecrticity fairy) which tells the story of electricity from aristotle to the power station in beautiful bright colours covering an entire exhibition room it was magnificent!

There was a intruguing exhibition downstairs containing a room full of old childrens clothes and telephone directorys from all around the world lining the walls, static memories of thousands of people in the world gathering dust in a basement gallery of a dilapadated mueseum.

Dufys 'le fee electricite'

Next to that was a instalation of hundreds of TVs running different films immersing the visitor in a minefield of sounds and images conveying thousands of feelings and mentally making your brain work in overdrive trying to figure out what the heck is going on. I want to upload all my photos here but its so tricky so you'll have to wait til im home and I can flickr them all

my lunch break consisted of an apple my honey baguette and a glass of hot red wine from the mueseum cafe, in the building next door was a boutuqye of local artists work on sale ranging from 100 euros to 1000+ for pieces ranging from skeleton necklaces to rubiks cube coffee tables somewhere I would definitely return to if I ever make some money.

behind the mueseum is replica of the statue of libertys torch put there in 1987 symbolising the franco american relationship, freedom and liberty however the site is now remembered for something much darker, below the torch is the underpass in which princess diana was killed.

from here I headed back along the seine to the petit palais containing the mueseum des beuaux arts encompassing pieces from every period of art from the ranaissance to the 1920s including monets ' sunset at lavacourt' the central quad also had a nice garden I sat in for a while.

I did a ton more stuff today like exploring the bastille one of paris' biggest nightspots and home of some upcoming artists and their galleries/workshops but my time on this coin operated internet machine has nearly expired so ill let you know about it sometime soon, I also ate pizza from the home of the METRE LONG PIZZA lolol it was epic, so yeah ill leave you with some photos because happy hour at belushis started 30 minutes ago (glass of wine 1.80!! buy one get one free on beerz!!) so ill speak soon!

tommorow im hiring un velo (a bike)!!!!

stay safe

Sam x

view from my window tonight

Riding The Parisian Metro Is Like Going To The Theatre

2008-03-01T18:34:00.006Z

so far i've had hip hoppers, accordion players, a ventriloquist and some dude who made some dumb duck noise with his mouth harrassing me whilst riding the metro but I think that just makes it even more awesome, you just cruise over and under the ground passing loads of awesome graffitti and seeing a ton of interesting stuff! I'm trying to be economical though so i've been walking as much as possible, I still need to go out and grab a bite to eat later but my legs don't want to function anymore!

As you might have guessed i made it to paris in once piece and im in my awesome hostel just got back from trekking, going to shower and go hunt down nutrition :)

It was only when I arrived in Paris Charles De Gaulles this morning that it hit me I was actually there, its so surreal but totally liberating. Knowing nothing and nobody is definitely daunting but fourtunately i've already made some friends , Pat Cartwright from liverpool talked to me all the way on the plane, looking forward to her birthday meal in the eifel tower shes probably enjoying some snails right about now and then when I got off the train i met this cool couple from huddersfield Nick & Rachel, in their twentys they were definitely much more in my age group than Pat (she was 50+ im betting lolol) and we chilled then adventure through the airport together , collected our luggage, found the train station (eventually!) and chatted the 45 minute ride to the city centre away in no time before going our seperate ways at the metro link.

TODAY i've done a load of stuff and its been so good, the sun has been shining, theres very little wind and its was warm enough for me to wear just my polo shirt until six!

I would like to type about everything I saw but I already want to go out there adventuring again but after the 4am start this morning I think i need an early night
so instead of typing loads of noodles about what I did today ill post some captioned pictures

chilling at the Arc de Triomphe before heading down Champs-Élysées to look at all the posh shops it really is the most beautiful street ever all the buildings are flawless and all the specialist independent cinemas rock out some cool movies.

Eifel Tower! some mental chinese lady insisted she took 5876786 photos of me standing in front of the tower pulling stupid poses after I took a picture of her and her family, I loved it haha

st martins canal just nearby the hostel, this place is lined with boats with opera singers on that double up as bars, I think i might check them out tonight ha! the weather was so perfect today :)

oh and finally I witnessed an illegal breakdancing contest in front of the eifel tower it was totally rad the burly black guy was the best because he danced like a russian

7 Days Until I Go, Things To Do List

2008-02-21T21:49:00.003Z

- ~~apply for holiday pay at oddbins~~
- make travel mix for mp3 player
- wash clothes to take
- ~~get a haircut~~ it still looks the same
- buy some travel shampoo n stuff
- find some accomodation in amsterdam (everyone isn't coming now they let me down :( Boo)
- ~~book flight to geneva~~
- ~~sort out bank account and travellers cheques~~
- exchange a bit of cash to take with me

of mice and men

2008-02-10T22:28:00.000Z

Im going to be staying with my friend bastien in switzerland arriving in martigny on the 1st of april a day before my birthday, theres an ampitheatre and apricot orchards

In London, Where The Sirens Yelp

2008-01-28T10:25:00.000Z

http://www.samgolden.co.uk/tripleyes.jpg

Travel Guides

2008-01-09T14:24:00.000Z

I've never been any of these places before.
Obviously i've been bombarded with pictures through the media representations of them, but im not sure if thats really enough, of course I do want to see the eifel tower but I also want to experience stuff that hasn't been plastered all over every travel show ever.

So being really uneducated on most of the places I've chosen to visit I thought it would be a good idea to purchase a travel guide of each of the locations I've chosen, so thats what I did, I logged on to amazon and got a selection of the best rated travel guides for under £20 (including delivery!) it was a total bargain. I've flicked through all of them and they are all really spectacular in their own right, The Barcelona one (centre) is by far the most beautiful with each page being another artistic scrapbook masterpiece and it tells you about the places you really want to know about, the hidden places where you can escape the bustle, the best places to go at night whether it be an abandoned pier or a drum and bass dungeon and importantly it tells you the places to avoid, all about the she-male hookers, the dodgy strip joints and the most rundown neighbourhoods. seriously its a beautiful book and if you ever think about going to barcelona you need to check it out. 5/5

The Paris book is also really informative without being boring it has great maps and totally helped me to touch up my french, now I remember how to ask where things are, how to get there and how much they cost! the rest of the books have a few phrases in but I think without previous knowledge of the language they aren't a whole lot of use. On downside is that theres loads of maps of different sections of the city but they're all crammed together with loads of names and places almost overlapping, making it difficult to find out where the hell anything is. all in all though a pretty thourough guide covering loads of what paris has to offer 3.5/5

The Berlin book is part of the lonely planet series which get great reviews everywhere and it is really well written with price guides directions and itenaries as well as how much you can expect to pay for a beer (ESSENTIAL FACT.)
Theres a big pull out map in the back but once its removed you just have to hope it doesn't get lost. Also I just noticed that the Tv show accompaniement for this book 'Destination Berlin' is showing next monday on channel five. 4/5

The 'Best Of Milan' book is also part of the lonely planet series of books and at first glance Ithought it was a bit shit, just a big long listing of all the bars, shops, cafes and hotels but infact, nestled in the centre is a massive section on culture and society and also a awesome 3 day itenary of stuff to see and do all planned out perfectly for you.. 3/5

Finding a good guide to Amsterdam was difficult.
I wanted something that told me about the culture, the architecture and the food without just being a big long listing. On the other hand, I tried to steer clear of all the dodgy "HOW TO GET TOTALLY WASTED IN AMSTERDAM" books
because they might be really good if you're going on a stag do but otherwise I don't think they're the best guide to a city
In the end I settled on an "Inside Out Guide To Amsterdam" which is really cool, it has popout maps that kinda burst out when you open the page, a compass and a pen built into the spine! it might seem pointless but the big maps are so much easier to follow especially with the compass and a pen to mark where you're staying in case you get lost. 3/5

ok that was boring, like a big long book review post or something, basically im just bored sitting in my boxers drinking coffee and I thought I'd write about books, I promise that my actual travel posts will be much more interesting

Euro Trip

2008-01-09T13:10:00.000Z

On the 1st January 2008 I sat down with a beer and my journal, wrote down the places I wanted to go, checked out some prices of flights and accocomodation and then just booked the flights before thinking about all the things that could go wrong.

Paris 1st March - 8th March
Berlin 8th - 14th March
Barcelona 14th - 21st March
Milan 21st - 25th March
Amsterdam 25th - whenever I run out of money, theres even scope to possibly fly somewhere else after amsterdam but I've not booked any more flights so I can check out my financial situation at this point.

oh man this is going to be exciting and scary and fun and daunting and hilarious and lonely and terrible all at the same time!