Fethiye- June 28-30 2010

The Bus journey from Pamakulle was smooth enough apart from the annoying Aussie woman winging about the heat behind me…queue ipod and a bit of Black Sabbath’s Vol 4 to drown out the pain…
Saw some amazing scenery along the way to the coast flat plains with multicoloured fields surrounded by large mountains.

When I arrived in Fethiye was again expecting touts to be waiting to offer me accommodation but there were none . Ended up lugging all my stuff for 30 mins until I found the coastline and stumbled across a restaurant on the shore offering a set 3 course meal with a pint of beer for 30 Turkish lira ( about 8 quid) . Jumped at the opportunity for a good feed and after tomato soup with garlic bread, fish and chips with salad , mixed melon desert and a pint of the local brew was feeling like a new man. I walked another 20 mins down the shore to the city centre and was surprised to see a McDonalds and Domino’s in front of some ancient hill side ruins. I was getting the impression “off the beaten trail” would have to wait until Bulgaria. Turkey so far has been the most westernised and developed country since France. ( although I haven’t been off the holiday coast yet )

After some time my shoulder was numb as Evans’ heat the morning after a night in Clwb. As I was stopping for a rest my saviour “John” the tourist tout suddenly appeared out of nowhere ( much like Gandalf appearing at bagend at the start of the hobbit ) and offered to show me a cheap room . Got a double ensuite room for about a tenner a night and then marked the halfway point of my trip by shaving my beard ( and ten years ) off my face. No mosquitoes here either so slept soundly again…seem to be enjoying sleeping more than anything else at the moment.

The next couple of days involved very little apart from eating very good cheap food , drinking the odd pint of beer and watching world cup games with the locals. It was refreshing to spend a couple of days without meeting other travellers but still being able to have a conversation. The locals are super nice and many speak good English.

After umming and ahhing for a day or two decided to splash out a little and book a 3 day boat tour down the Mediterranean coast to a hippy hang out called Olympos where I would turn inland and head to central Turkey on route to Istanbul. Having just missed the Wednesday tour booked a place on the Thursday one after arranging to stay on the boat free of charge on Wednesday night before we sailed. I headed down about 6 with my stuff and got the impression the crew weren’t to happy about be landed with a client on their night off. The cabins was supper small and stuffy and it seemed I would be sharing it with 2 other people. Dumped my bags and headed out to watch an amazing sunset on the harbour in front of layered blue mountains…

I got the impression from the booking agents that the boats passengers would be largely female hope they are up for having a laugh and wont be too put off by my 6 week pack smell.

Selcuk, Pamakalle (Turkey) 24th 27th June 2010

The morning boat from Chios to Cesme in Turkey pulled out just as another bought of extreme rain began to pour ( this had been happening in the mornings for the last 2 days).
As we moved across the straight and Turkey grew nearer I felt a bit apprehensive. Don the Ex pat Kiwi/ Greek hotel owner had been telling me what he saw as some home truths about the Turks. Once I had arrived in Cesme though, it became clear that 30 years in Greece had clouded his judgment a bit. For starters it was much nicer than anywhere I had been in Greece and also the people were super friendly. In fact I couldn’t believe how developed it was, having spent some time in Morocco I was expecting to be inundated by tourist touts offering me hotels and transport as soon as I stepped of the boat. It became obvious that Turkey is nothing like Morocco within a matter of minutes and I was amazed that I had to initiate all the conversations with the locals and nobody had tried to sell me anything afterwards.

After walking round town for some time looking for a bank, and cursing myself for bringing such a heavy pack, got on a bus to a city called Izmir where I could connect to a train to Selcuk. Selcuk was the closest town to the Roman city ruins of Ephesus. I fell asleep on the bus and when I woke everyone was being forced off on the edge of some housing area somewhere. It took me about 5 mins of dazed wandering before I realized I was in fact in Izmir rather than some random town along the way. I stopped for lunch and had the best baked potatoes I had ever had. Seriously I couldn’t imagine a baked potato being this good, basically the inside had been scooped out mixed with cheese and re inserted into the skin . It was then topped with meat, olives, cheese and salad. I think this experience must be akin to Dan’s discovery of pie minister at Glastonbury some years ago.

The staff at the potato place told me I was in fact on the edge of Izmir rather than the centre and pointed me in the direction of the bus stop to the train station . The bus was more crowded than the 86 used to be in Liverpool at 9am. After another bought of extreme rain , made it to the train station and caught the train to Selcuk without incident.

I stayed at a place on the edge of Selcuk called Attila’s getaway. Attila was a Turkish Australian who had set up a resort style hostel on his parents property. If anyone has ever seen the movie” Sexy Beast “Attila looked exactly like Ben Kinsley’s Character ( Don I think) it really was an uncanny resemblance. The place was pretty sweet half Australians and half Canadians from Alberta staying there . (Also met a cool guy from the Philippines who was living in Norway and offered to arrange some accommodation for me at the end of the trip …awesome!) Got very drunk that night and then got up early to check out the ruins at Ephesus with a stinking hang over.

Luckily I managed to arrange a lift with a couple from Calgary who had rented a car, thus avoiding the hostel shuttle bus and inevitable “ traditional carpet display and tea “after. The ruins were pretty good but I think after Rome anything I see will now be an anticlimax…this part of the world is covered in ruins and I must admit that morning I also felt ruined by the previous nights drinking. The highlight of the site for me was actually the shop outside the gates selling “ Genuine Fake Watches “ ( see photo ) hilarious!! ah well you have to respect the honesty….Spent the rest of the day recovering by the pool and then had an early night, was the only one in the dorm that evening so slept soundly.

The next day I got the bus to Pamakkule, another Roman site that was built next to a natural phenomenon . Hot springs had deposited Calcium Bicarbonate down the side of a mountain, forming natural rock pools that now surrounded the original city. I had arranged the bus there through the hostel.(something I usually wouldn’t do… but was feeling lazy and fancied being picked up direct from Attila’s rather than transferring in town ) When the bus arrived there were no seats left and the conductor passed me a sheet of news paper and motioned to the alleyway near the driver. “are you serious ?“…“yes is problem “ no shit it was a problem….3 painful hours later I finally got a seat when some other passengers got off. Upon asking for a refund I was told I could get one at the office which of course was back in Selcuk….oh well that’s what you get for booking transport through a hotel.!!

Pamakkule itself was very small but filled with hotels, I decided to stay 2 nights and negotiated a good price for a private ensuite room near the pool in a local hotel/ resort.
The room seemed fine until I got back from watching the USA v Ghana game and noticed a fair amount of Mosquitoes in the room. I did my best to swat them before going to sleep. However when I turned the lights off the low fly bys close to my ears became unbearable… after another couple of swatting session (and the hospital-green walls of my room starting to be covered with red blotches of dead bug and Scruton blood) I gave up and put my earplugs in to allow some sleep fully aware that I would take a few more bites in the night….

A few more bites ???!!! ………the next morning I counted 30 bites on my left knee and elbow alone…… let aside the rest on my legs and arms….the discovery of an inch gap between the top of the balcony door and the frame explained much ….ouch !! I remember now how annoying Canadian summers could be on account of these most loathsome of insects…(right now giving Seagulls a run to top my list of most annoying of all Gods creatures……this doesn’t include Phillips of course…he was born of hell!! )


Met a really nice Indian girl from Mumbai at breakfast the next morning ( all you can eat Turkish hotel breakfasts are awesome btw) and we went up to the terraces and ruins together…..Pamukkale is one of the coolest places I’ve been on the trip…you basically walk barefoot up a series of white rock terraces and water pools to the top of the hill overlooking town and then explore a large complex of Roman ruins at the top….after a few hours getting sunburnt had a dip in the pools on the way down and then a swim at the hotel pool before watching the farce called England FC lose against a superior German team…gutted…..headed back to the hotel too depressed to watch the second game and had an early night after a good blues session on the guitar.

Woke up the next morning feeling very refreshed and got the next bus on to Fethiye, a resort town on the Mediterranean south coast of the country, time to set up the next adventure….

Chios 21st 23rd June 2010

Managed to find a seat on a sofa in the ferry lounge that was also occupied by a local middle aged Greek man. Throughout the next 3 hours he would do his best to convince me that the sofa was no good to sit on as he obviously wanted to use the whole thing to sleep on later ….“its no good to cold to noisy it smells “etc …I was hoping that if I out waited him he might leave and I could stretch h out in peace ….in the end it was a stalemate and we both slept uncomfortably on 2 seat each …..at 4am we pulled in to Chios Harbour and I disembarked in a haze….watch the ferry sail off into the night then spent the next 2 hours sitting on a bench in the port waiting for the sun to come up. My first impressions of Chios in the dark were ‘“there’s nothing here why the hell did I come to Chios?” But as the sun rose it became apparent that there was a town here and a nice one at that. By 8am it was hot and the morning had revealed the clear blue waters of the harbour…..

After 9am I made my way to a budget hotel I found on line run by an Ex pat Kiwi called Don.. I rang the bell and was met by the antipodeans’ version of Howard marks ….think I came to the right place alright….Had to wait a couple of hours until my room was free so explored the town….It became clear after a short while I was the only ( to my knowledge) English speaking tourist in town…….just what I had been looking for ….in fact It turns out that Chios is a to9urist town for Greeks on holiday …its got its fair share of clubs and bars but people seemed to drink ice cappuccinos rather than jager bombers…

Once in the room I pretty much slept for the next 16 hours with a few breaks to eat and shower. The next day hit a small beach to the south of town where the swimming was really good….water was crystal clear and a good depth for about 400m got a bit of exercise in and then ate some much needed fruit. That evening watch Greece hold off Argentina before falling at the last hurdle…the mood in town was sombre ..congratulated myself on sticking to soft drinks and had an early night after listening to a bit of radio 6 through the bar downstairs wi-fi
Next day went to see a couple of medieval fortified villages in the south of the island on the advice of Don who had been a super cool host. Once I got there and had looked around for an hour realised I was still totally knackered despite spending most of the last 2 days sleeping….got the first bus back to town to have a nap….after sleeping looked in the mirror and realised I was starting to look and feel like Ben Gunn from treasure island ( see photo).Think it’s time to have a shave once I hit Turkey.. Watched England scrape into the last 16 in the afternoon and bought a ticket on the morning boat to Cesme in Turkey….decided to have a cheap night as I had just about blown my initial budget for 12 weeks in 5 week….....hmmm gonna have to do some re thinking hopefully things in Turkey will be cheaper….

Greece summary

A cool country but prob bottom of the fun list ….think the timing of Greece in my trip hampered my enjoyment a bit ….feeling drained + struggling to meet like minded travellers…don’t know if this is to do with chance or if I have become a bit anti-social now that the novelty of not being in work is wearing off a bit…maybe ill meet some cooler people once I’m off the beaten track……

Athens 17-20 May 2010

The ferry ride to Patras in Greece from Bari went fairly smoothly . Ran into a really nice American couple from Califonia called Chris and Marina who had been at the Aloha in Paris, so conversation was good. Got a good nights sleep despite not having a seat by crashing on a bench in the resturaunt.

The next day had 4 hours to kill in Patras before the train to Athens. First impression of Greece was " man this place is hot " . Managed to walk aroung town for about 20mins before sucumbing to the temptation of beer and football. The train ride to Athens was bizarre. After 15mins the train stopped so the staff could forcibly remove some vagrant/tourist hustler types who didnt have tickets. We then stopped randomly and transfered onto a bus. After another 25mions the bus stopped in the middle of nowhere to pick up a couple of illegal imigrants and their African smuggler. We were then dropped at another random platform to wait 20 mins for the city train that got us into Athens around 8.

Said goodby to Chris and Marina and walked to the hostel that was near the station ( a new travel tactic of mine to avaoid tiring city commutes on arrival in a new town). Was sharing a room with 4 Australians on the first night of a week long booze cruise type holiday in the islands. After being swamped by American students in Rome was a welocme change, and we ended up getting rather drunk in the in-house bar. By the end of the night though it was clear these guys had a different agenda to me in Greece. As they put it they were "here for a goodtime not a longtime" eventually the bar ( staffed by more Australians ) cut them off and we retired noisley to the room.

The next day I headed out on my own to see the acroplois and surrounding ruins. The walk up the hill to the Parthenon was hot and tiring . had to stop 3 times to rest and at the top almost snapped the arm off a local vendor who was selling extorsionatly priced slush puppies.( At the time the best 4.5 Euros id ever spent ). Once I had recoved spent the next 4 hours exploring the acropolis and surrounding greek and roman ruins. Very impressive but not as good as Rome in the end.

That evening watched the England Algeria game ( what the hell?!!!) in the hostel bar and continued drinking with the Aussies, who had to be up at 530 am the next day for a ferry . This didnt deter them and by 230 am they were all dancing on tge bar to greased lightning. This type of behaviour would have put a St mary street vally commando to shame....The next day my plan had been to do a day trip to Ancient Corinthia but a late start and tired legs convinced me to spend the afternoon chilling in the municipal gardens instead before an early night.

Athens was good but I think I was there a day too long. The first signs of travel fatigue after a month on the road didnt sit well with the hostel atmosphere of incoming and outgoing island boozers. The next day headed to the port to get a ticket on the night boat to the island of Chios. One of the quieter of the Greek islands right next to the Turkish coast. Decided to try book a single room in a quiet budget hotel for the next 3 days. Seemed to be spending the money I was saving by staying in dorm rooms on beer anyway. It was time to chill out, catch up on some sleep and pick up the guitar again......

Rome 13th- 16th May 2010

The train ride to Rome and hostel location exercise went smoothly, had a shower and chilled out for an hour in the dorm room. My room mates were a guy and girl from Minnesota called Derrick and Amanda. Really nice people and fellow Anthropologists to boot. Amanda had been studying in Rome over the last month and knew the best places to check out. Ended up hanging out with them for the evening and getting a free tour round town. ( Awesome ….my run of luck continued following Venice free dinner !!)

The first place we went to was a church with Michelangelo’s Mosses in it, pretty impressive, next stop a church called the Gesu that had an amazing frescoed ceiling and a sound and light show roman catholic style. The ornamentation here was amazing easily the best church I’d ever been to …these Italians know how to do religion.

Next we swung by the coliseum and surrounding ruins of the Roman age…even from the outside it was well impressive much more than I was expecting. We ended up watching the Germany V Australia World cup game on a big screen in the park in north of city….a great first day in a new town.

The next day I went to the coliseum and Forum and Palatine. Another top tip from Amanda saw me skipping the ticket queue at the coliseum and buying a joint ticket at the forum. The scale of the ruins was incredible easily the coolest place ive visited in my life with the coliseum after being predictably impressive also.

That evening I went to visit the Pantheon, the only complete roman age temple in the world….Pretty unbelievable when you consider that the original marble floor dating from 126 AD was still there.


The next morning I headed to the Vatican after drinking many cups of free coffee at the hostel …by the time I got to the closest tube stop I was busting for a piss and had to resort to finding the closest McDonalds or Burger king. These were unsurprising signposted all around the Vatican. This wasn’t a easy mission though, and 45mins later when I found the McDonalds realised there wasn’t a WC there ….arghhh arghhhh etc .Luckily managed to use one in the shop next door and, felling like a new man, made my way to the Vatican Museum.

The queue at the museum was light and I got inside and headed straight to the Sistine Chapel. It took about 30mins of being herded round the museum with countless other tourists like livestock to get there. Once I was inside it lived up to rep…… spent about 45mins sitting and staring in awe at the frescoes, while taking to odd cheeky non-flash photo on my phone……

Struggled to find a way out of the Museum and it was getting hot…I had no sunscreen or shades with me on advise of the eccentric Roman who worked in the hostel… Had been advised after a morning of rain that “there will be no sun in Rome today …none”.
Felt a bit like the Alhambra in Granada again as I made my way to St Peters Basilica and had to queue again in the baking sun to get in…..The scale of the place blew my socks off though…. it was huge…. an architectural marvel……..

That evening bought some cheep cans of beer and headed to the Trevi fountains …hadn’t really met any fellow minded travels since the Minnesota guys had left the day before and ended up trying to avoid the rain by leaning beer in hand against a wall near the fountains ( which were totally amazing too btw ) . With all the American students wandering the place being 10 years younger than me felt a bit like a cross between Woodersen from Dazed and Confused and Herman Hess’s Steppenwolf. With beer typically costing 6 euros a pint in the local bars this was the only way to drink though. After a few lonely cans headed to the local Irish bar to watch the Brazil v N Korea match and ran into some guys from the hostel …..After they left the place filled up with annoying students and I decided to bail …Headed to a local square and saw a cool jazz band busking who, I was informed by a likeminded local guy, were from Romania….

With the night drawing to close and no action to be had so far decided to head back to the Irish bar on the way home to see if the situation had improved. It hadn’t, opened the doors to find 3 times as many annoying students in there all singing don’t stop believing on karaoke….decided that bar is the worst Ive ever been to in my life …by far !!! and left…

The walk home was uneventful apart from what I think was either an attempted assault or mugging by an irate Roman…luckily I managed to make myself big when he grabbed me in a quiet stretch of the street. This made his friend convince him it wasn’t worth it…..I moved on swiftly …decided enough was enough and went back to a restless nights sleep in the hostel…

In terms of things to see Rome takes the biscuit as best city I’ve ever been to and I’d wholeheartedly recommend anyone who hasn’t been to go ASAP…..The near mugging and vast quantity of American students/ tourists brought the overall experience down a bit though. I must have heard the world “like “ a couple thousand times over the three days I was there…( Derrick and Amanda I don’t include you guys in here …..you were both really cool!) …..still there was a reason so many tourists were there….. the place is mind bogglingly full of history !!


Next morning got the train to Bari on the south eastern coast to wait all day for an evening ferry to Patras in Greece …had my only Italian pizza and ice cream at the “ titti twister pizzeria” ( I shit you not, ) near the ferry port and summed up Italy mentally…..Better than France, still not as quite as good as Spain, though Rome is top of cool city leader board now…..

On we go to Greece

Venice 11th 13th May 2010

The train to Venice was uncomfortable and it took me 45 mins to find the hostel as the guide book map again wasn’t accurate enough for the Venetian street layout. When I did get there found out they had messed up my reservation and instead of being in a room of three beds they put an extra bed in a 7 person dorm. However it was cheaper and was next to a nice private garden area (rare) and a basketball court ( unheard of). Headed straight to shoot some hoops and met an American guy who was on leave from the air force. He was travelling with two other guys from officer training. They seemed cool enough so said I’d tag along with them for a beer that evening.

On the way out we met 4 pretty Israeli girls staying in the dorm opposite who were also in the military. We invited them for a drink but they said the were going to ( name ) to get a free meal. Jokingly they invited us along and we called their bluff and agreed. So 30 mins later I was in a full Jewish restaurant, wearing a scull cap and trying to pass as a Jew with 3 US military men who were looking as sheepish as me and about it all. During the rabbi’s prayer it became apparent that the game was up when half of the women in there stated laughing at us. However despite this they were totally cool about us being there and gave us a 3 course meal totally free and then asked why we were leaving so early when we said thank you after staying for an hour and a half eating. Totally cool interesting culture and free food 2 of my favourite things in life. Set off with the US and Israeli military people then to find a bar. This took another hour of wandering the winding side streets. It became apparent that Venice wasn’t a party town. We did finally find an Irish bar ( theres one in every town) and got rather drunk. Surprising when we left was the most sober and assumed map duty. Strange the pacifist artist type leading 7 army types round a foreign town. I managed to get us rather lost but eventually we found our way back to the hostel. I was informed, though, by one of the girls that he friends had had a few choice words I n Hebrew to say about my orienteering skills…hmm I don’t think they would have done better as they were so drunk they could hardly walk in a straight line…..

Didn’t get a lot of sleep that night and woke up early to explore the town on my own it was really impressive. Especially the view across the bay from near saint Marco marks square. The only downside to Venice was the amount of tourists that were wandering the streets at times. Certain areas felt like a cultural Glastonbury. Once you were away from the crowds you could take in the ambience of the town a lot better pretty unique I don’t think my photos can do it justice….

BY afternoon I was flagging in the heat bought some cheap beer and food in a supermarket and went back to the hostel to chill out in the garden. Met guy from Mexico and one from England and then later a couple from America who liked football ( or socher as they call it ). We went to a local bar to watch the England USA game and met a few other brits. The TV screen was on the outside wall of the pub and we had a canal right behind where we were sitting , the strangest place I’ve watched a match by far…..the game was predictably dull as all England group games are but they did have 9% beer on tap so it wasn’t all bad.

Hooked up with the Israeli girls again later and went to bed late next day woke up with a hangover and got on train to Rome feeling like the Bad Lieutenant again

Venice was cool but I def spent to much money on beer with Rome in mind and the world cup being on it was going to be hard to buck the trend….will see what happens in Rome

Lausanne, Switzerland. June 9th - 11th 2010

After being awoken by some Frenchmen getting drunk on Chablis at 11am, passed through security at the French Swiss border and arrived at Lausanne just before noon. I got my ticket to Venice sorted and the ate my now staple fair of 2 McDonalds cheese burgers. This so far has been the most cost effective meal I’ve come across in Europe.

I found a tourist info spot and town map straight away and walked for about 45 mins down the slope of the hill the town is sat on. When I got to the campsite I was staying in the staff were super helpful and the site itself had great facilities. When I walked the 20meters or so from my tent to the shore of lake Geneva was greeted by one of the most stunning views I have seen in my life. The French alps over the lake gorgeous. Switzerland didn’t promise any of the frustrations of Paris. After having a hot shower went into the city to find an internet café and do some sight seeing. The views from the top of the hill were impressive despite the tallest building in town belonging to Zurich insurance “ see photo above”. I also found a kebab house and got a cheap falafel complete with the hottest chilli sauce ive ever come across at an eatery…took me 15mins to recover. Lausanne kebabs just knocked Barcelona off the leader board. Got back to the campsite around 6 bought some salt and vinegar crisps and a beer from the campsite shop for dinner and fell asleep in the tent.

The next morning I awoke after about 14 hours sleep..the tent had done the job an d I mentally patted my back on deciding to buy the cheapest and lightest one I could find….spent the whole day getting sunburnt and playing guitar and on the shores of the lake and swimming amongst the swans …can easily say that this town is one of the coolest ive been to in terms of location layout and safety the Swiss culture is very laid back (even the swans wern't aggressive).Every one speaks a bit of English and the buses are free for tourists..awesome!

Before I knew it the day was over had an early night writing the blog and listening to wi-fi radio in the tent.

What little I saw of Switzerland was really great would have loved to spend a whole week here but with the expiry date of my interrail ticket in mind pressed on to Venice and then Rome in Italy.

Paris June 7th -9th 2010

Paris June 7th -9th 2010

Arrived in Paris at 7 am. After the boredom of the 8 hour wait at Dax for the train the uncomfortable sleeping conditions and strange noises in the reclining seat section had almost seemed refreshing. I spent an hour or so becoming accustomed to the frustrations of the Parisian metro system then located my hostel in the south of the city and dumped my luggage. First thing I did was walk down to the Eiffel tower, which seemed to appear and disappear from behind buildings at every turn. This was causing a slight problem for me as I only had the unreliable map from the lonely planet to navigate by. According to said map there was meant to be a tourist info office ( and access to a better map ) at the tower site. Once I got there however the tourist office was nowhere to be found…..hmmm I was beginning to have major gripes with this guide book.

Despite this the tower itself was impressive and the walk to it from the hostel allowed me to take in the better aspects of Paris. The layout and architecture were better than what you would find in London without a doubt. I was feeling pretty good in spite of the lack of sleep…in fact I have come to realise that sleep deprivation gives you a mild high. I can see now why certain Cardiff based painter/decorators are inclined to stay up for 3 days on end without aid of stimulants ( Cardiff guys will get that ).

Next I walked along the banks of the Seine toward the Louvre. Again the sites were impressive and I began to realise how big the centre of Paris is compared to London . By the time I got to the Louvre I was pretty much exhausted and was contemplating putting off viewing the museum until the day after. Managed to find another wind and went in though. Saw the Mona Lisa and Venus D’milo amongst other treasures…pretty cool alright!

It was only upon leaving the museum that I saw a sign saying it would be closed on Tuesdays ( tomorrow in this case). I congratulated myself mentally on making the right choice on veiwing days. It did seem bizarre that the only place the museum had advised it would be closed Tuesdays was on a small sign that you could only see as you left the museum having already been there!!….I would find out over the next 2 days this kind of thing was common in Paris . Spent the next couple of hours trying to find a tourist office and map in vain…made it back to the hostel around 6 after sampling a Parisian Kebab on the way. ( not as good as Barcelona kebab for those who are interested)

The “aloha “ hostel did not live up to the description given to it by the guide book…what had drawn me there was the mention of “great drinks deal at the in house bar”. However when I checked in I discovered the “in house bar” consisted of a vending machine selling overpriced cans of Heineken. Also the majority of the people staying there seemed to be kids on school trips and there was a 2am curfew. My grudge against lonely planet was growing larger!!…..Decided to go up to the local supermarket and buy some cheap beer ( I say cheap relative to the hostel prices …Paris is the most expensive city I’ve ever been to).

Beer in hand I wandered the neighbourhood looking for some “action”, there didn’t seem to be much going on…After a while I spotted a guy who was staying in the same room as me doing exactly the same thing with Heineken in hand . I introduced myself turned out he was from Brazil and had an unpronounceable name. He advised me to use his nick name “mozzarella”. A cool guy we had a good chat while drinking cans outside the supermarket and taking turns to buy more…after many a can had been drunk we went back to the hostel to use the facilities and met two girls from Denmark and New York who were staying in another room. We ended up drinking together in a local bar until the 2 am curfew. Had a lot in common with the girl from New York who’s name was Amber so we made plans to hang out together and explore Paris the following day.

The next morning brought about the worst few hours of the whole trip for me so far. Had made plans to meet Amber at 11 after dropping my luggage at Gare du ’Lyon . As my train to Switzerland was leaving at 7.55 the next morning had decided before I got to Paris that I wouldn’t book a room on the second night and would stay up all night somewhere in stead. So I figured it would only take a hour or so to drop my bags at the station I would be leaving from the next day , plenty of time to get back to central Paris for 11am…how wrong I was..oh how wrong….

The situation wasn’t helped by my hangover or my choice to wake up early to get the free hostel breakfast ( the first time so far on the trip). I took me longer than I thought to get to the station and when I did get there had to walk for ages to find the luggage lockers. The signposting in the station seemed to be as well thought out as at the Louvre. I asked many times in my best French “excuse moi mouisuree..ou est le Consieeres?” By the time I asked the third member of staff I had to resist shouting at his slow and dismissive answer ” tout suit mon amie!!!…je suis tres retarde pour un rendevous avec un beaux fille!!” .

When I did find the lockers I didn’t have the 4 euros in coins I needed and the change machine didn’t take 50 Euro notes …had to spend another 20mins finding an atm machine…the closest of which was about 50m up the road…I began to curse Gare du Lyon and stated to feel like the disgusted “ late for a plane” American you often see in the London underground “God what is wrong with this country man!!!”. The situation was worsened when I got back to the lockers as the change machine was now broken meaning I had to buy a over priced Pepsi to get coins…once the stuff was in the lockers and I was on the metro back to town began to chill out a bit and laugh at myself…“Its still way more fun than credit management” I realised. Eventually got to the meeting point an hour after I was supposed to, and luckily my friend had waited and was just about to leave when I caught her.

We spent the afternoon walking towards Sacre Coeur…and saw an odd protest at the Arc de Triomphe on the way …a couple hundred hospital workers dressed in scrubs throwing firecrackers and lighting petrol fires surrounded by about 50 riot police in full gear..we waited around I the hope it would kick off but we were disappointed when the all walked off down the Champs-Elysees without a punch being thrown.

The walk up to Sacre Coeur took a couple of hours but it was worth it for the view at the top. Having decided not to go up the Eiffel tower the day before and spend the money at the museum this was my first view of all of the city and it was well impressive…definitely the coolest city ive ever been to on first impressions (despite the lack of efficient signposting). We spent the rest of the day drinking cans of beer at the gardens near the Louvre and then found a cheap bar for the evening. As amber was staying at the same hostel again that night she managed to get me inside the building even though I had checked out. Unfortunately there were no spare beds in her room so I couldn’t sneak an extra nights sleep for free. We said goodbye at around 1.30am and I sat in the communal area using the free wi-fi until 5am when I left to get the metro back to the train station.

By the time I got to the station I was hallucinating through lack of sleep…Almost had a Bad Lieutenant moment when I found out , after lugging all my stuff from the cursed locker room to the main platform, that my train would be leaving from a smaller platform right back next to the lockers…“arghhhh arghhhh what is wrong with this country man“….Eventually got on the train and fell asleep instantly….

In summary France was an interesting week and a half , one of 2 halves you might say…the lazy week in Leon sleeping in couldn’t have been more different to the all go no sleep 2 days in Paris….overall though I would say it came very close to Spain in terms of enjoyment but didn’t beat it.

Next stop Lausanne in Switzerland.

France - Narbonne, Toulouse ( almost ) and Leon 31st May- 7th June 2010

The second train from Barcelona to Toulouse made a stop at a way station of a seaside town called Narbonne. I had an hours wait here and my mood was as dark as the closing night. Having been up almost all night previously and enduring the “Estacion Franca” mess up earlier in the day I could feel my resolve fading and opted ( stupidly ) on finding a Hotel room in Narbonne for the night. This seemed a better option than carrying on to Toulouse where I had no room booked and attempting to find one after midnight . As the ticket office was closed I managed to convince myself that I would be able to exchange my Spanish bought ticket the next day ( this was delusion caused by tiredness) and found a room in the hotel opposite the station. I was told by the very French looking elderly proprietor that the only room available was a double ensuite as the rest of the hotel was full…Again my mental state allowed me to believe this without putting up a fight and I found my self in a rather spacious though untidy room over looking the street. One thing I can say about Narbonne is that ( on that night at least ) it is the windiest place I have ever been . The wind outside the window was intense and the creaking sign just outside made noises more accustomed to a boarding school junior dorm room at an unashamedly intense rate all night… Having said this I was so tired I managed to sleep through after listening to a couple of hours of Radio 6 through the free wi-fi in the hotel …..The next morning I was surprised at how empty the hotel was …. Hmmm the other residents must have checked out early for a conference or something ……said Mercy Boucoup ironically to the hotelier and was on the next train to Toulouse on the way to Dax the closest town to my destination.

In the end only had an hour or so in Toulouse due to the previous days episode …a shame as would have liked to have spent a day there checking it out….. The next leg of the train journey took me through the Pyrenees snapped a couple of photos…..looked like a nice place to spend a week but I must say I was satisfied with my decision to head to southern Spain from Madrid rather than to the northern mountains before Barcelona. I didn’t get the impression there would be many late night drinking haunts in these parts…..

My main aim for this week was to save money and get back onto budget ….I managed to navigate the French pay phone system in the next stop to arrange the pick up of the keys a family holiday home in the small coastal village of Leon. Ended up costing me 40 euros to get a cab from Dax Gare Sncf to Leon. So far not of to a good start. However once I had picked the keys up and walked the 20mins to the chalet the hassles of getting there seemed insignificant next to the luxuries of private accommodation. A bath, home cooked meal and wash load later I was feeling much refreshed. Thanks to Helen ( step mom ) for leaving food in the fridge.

The next week largely involved lounging on the sofa, trying to avoid watching the British Satellite set up and -recording new song ideas with little success. The one major incident of the week came when I decided to walk the 7km or so to the next town and beach rather than renting a bike to save money. The walk to Moilettes was easy enough although having realised that my French was on about the same level as that on a certain Flight of the Conchords episode ( ie Jacque Cousteau, Baguette, ou est la piscine….urgh no etc ) I managed to navigate on a simple tourist info map rather than sheepishly asking strangers for directions. This strategy worked fine on the way there and after about 2hours of walking I managed to get a couple of good hours in on the beech although being midweek there wasn’t much going on …On the way home I decided to take a different and shorter route based on my limited understanding of the area and the “not to scale tourist map“ never a good idea….About 1 hour later I was alone in the woods totally lost tired and desperately trying to listen out for sounds of the motorway to nav myself back….This was a result of not turning back or asking for directions at about 4 different locations where any woman would have happily and sensibly done so …..ah well I was determined now to continue going forward at all costs, although the possibility of newspaper headlined back home started to spring to mind :“ Cardiff man’s body found in woods 3 weeks after massive man hunt called off”. Luckily this wasn’t to be the case as managed to stumble onto a small road and using the sun to get my bearings ended up in a small village that turned out to be the edge of Leon. And I didn’t ask for directions once! Man-Nav 1 sensibility 0.My feet were so chewed up after this journey that I couldn’t really walk for the next day or so and resorted to using gaffer tape as makeshift plasters for my blisters.

Eventually left Leon on the only bus going to Dax on Sunday having enjoyed a quiet but cheap week. The musical inspiration didn’t really happen …got some new ideas for Scruton Show songs but nothing worthwhile for Monkey-Dolphin…this being in part due to a power problem with my guitar modulator….seems that screaming into a semi acoustic guitar and then putting it through a rotary effect and mega distortion is really draining on the batteries…..oh well will have to wait for inspiration to take hold another time.

Next stop Paris on the night train after an 8 hour wait in Gar SNCF Dax…oh well better than forking out another 40 euros for a later cab I guess.

Barcelona 26th to 30th May 2010

Barcelona

Arrived in Barcelona just before 8 and it was already getting hot....chilled out near the port for a few hours then went to check into my pension just off Las Rambles ( Barcelona’s most famous, and as I found out this trip notorious, street.) Took a wrong turn on the way and ended up in some kind of mini vice area where a riot van was watching various illegal activities going on “hamsterdam “style. Not a cool place to walk down with a backpack on, even at 10 in the morning...this didn’t fill me with confidence for late night post-festival returns....eventually found the hotel, which turned out to be really nice inside + I had a private room; a great relief after 3 days in stinky hostels. Spent the afternoon wandering round town and then went to a Prima Vera pre-show party at the Apollo club in town. Took an hour to get in and the venue was overpriced and ridiculously smoky but the live music was worth it. Caught a strong set from Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit including a Fleet Foxes cover and then a fantastic set from Los Campensinos which ended with virtually the whole band playing in the crowd. The best and loudest I’ve ever seen them play ...

Despite running into various “faces” from the Cardiff Indie scene after the gig had an early night to recharge batteries before the festival started properly.

Prima Vera Sounds...

In terms of overall festival experience probably the second best I’ve been to, in terms of musical enjoyment by far the best!!.....the first evening was better than all 3 days of atp put together. This being due largely to a far superior sound system and a lack of out of practice “curators favourite” bands from the 80’s ( anyone who was with me at the Raincoats at Pavement atp will know what I’m talking about)

Started off watching BIS who played a surprisingly rocking set though I must say they looked different to last time I remember seeing them back in the late nineties .....next up was Titus Andronicus who really got the crowd going. Then headed to see the XX at the second stage ( sponsored by Ray Ban who’s motto was “hide nothing” with a picture of someone wearing sunglasses ...hmm interesting ).

The amount of people in attendance for the XX was un-believable the band seemed a bit overwhelmed at first but by the end seemed to have found their stride....next up was Broken Social Scene on the same stage...got there early to get a 2 row back view and had to listen to annoying American students talking about shallow bullshit for 40mins, wished I’d brought my I-pod at this point so I could have been a proper miserable soupy ...however BSS put on another impressive performance though I must say they were slightly better at ATP 2 weeks earlier. This didn’t matter too much in the end as Pavement were much better than at ATP....Next up Saw Fuck Buttons playing to a massive crowd with massive sound ..awesome!...

Spent the rest of the evening ( till about 5) wandering the site trying to avoid the prospect of being mugged outside my hotel in a vain attempt to wait till light to go home. (I think I was being a bit paranoid about my street at this point, as I would later discover most of the Rambles area was like “hamsterdam” after midnight) In the end tiredness set in and I qued for a shuttle -bus for 20mins only to be told that there would be no more busses as the tickets had been sold out. Even though there were 5 or so buses waiting, we couldn’t get on as the info booth hadn’t printed enough tickets. (This is the same booth by the way who earlier sent me to the wrong gate when I arrived at the site to wait for 45mins needlessly in the unrelenting sun. They were so gormless in fact, that if Philips worked here he would be the info booth equivalent of Alan Sugar) After spending another 10 mins trying to figure out the local transport map ended up sharing a cab with a couple of music engineering students from Manchester and then hung out with them for most of the rest of the festival...other musicians to discuss technical stuff with ..nice...

Day 2 and 3 were equally as good...Les Savy Fav on day 2 were the festival highlight for me, absolute madness... the set started with front man Tim Harrington lying on the stage unknown to the audience for 15mins while the band sound-checked. Then in the first song he leapt to his feet wearing a yeti costume and proceeded to give the best front man's performance I’ve ever seen. This included various trips into the crowd, one right up into the seated area....Freddie Mercury eat your heart out. ....

LSF were followed directly by sets from Shellac and the Pixies...not a bad evening of entertainment like!!!

Day 3 started with some smaller scale sets in Parc Jean Miro on the other side of town, a very cool location. A Sunny Day in Glasgow were the pick of the bands here. Headed to the main area later on for another heart warming set from Atlas Sound before No Age and ended with sets by Lee Scratch Perry and Orbital (the latter finishing at 430 am) ...left for home strait away after this despite massive urge to stay and party into the night... err morning, as had to be up for 845am train to Toulouse in France....

Will endeavour to go to Prima Vera Sounds again next year and will be actively recommending it to other music buffs..... To sum up, if you took ATP made it bigger and hotter, with better sound and replaced all the “I Hate Daddy” middle class muso-ironi-nerds with sexy Spanish indie chicks, you would be close to Prima Vera sounds.....

Through sheer willpower alone made it to the station in time the next day only to be told that my train went from a totally different location and was then sent to the wrong platform 3 times to get a connecting train ( it’s not only the info booth where Philips could excel in this country ) ..This meant I had missed the train and had to spend the day on the beach with the liberal European bathers....oh well could be worse!!...Eventually left Barcelona and then Spain in the early evening as the next train crossed the Pyrenees into France....

In conclusion Spain one of the best 12 day periods of my life....was left sunburnt, exhausted and suffering from some kind of weird trench foot disorder....however I can say it was more than worth it even if the hedonistic lifestyle had run me over-budget...Next stop southern France and a week in the holiday house recovering and trying to write Monkey-Dolphin demos while eating cheap pasta...

France will have its work cut out to top Spain... let see how we get on.........