Planning for the future!!

Well after spending close to a month in the Blackforest, munching on cake, brezels, botwursts etc etc, I have flown back to London where I will spend a month. I have to say that Germany is a nice place and that it treated me well, with good food, wine and beer. Now that I am back in London I am planning the next league of my journey. I am currently undergoing an application to the Canadian consulate in New Zealand so that I can obtain a working holiday visa that will let me live in Canada for up to one year, working where I feel like it. At the moment I have booked a ticket back to New Zealand with the plan that if I do get accepted for the visa then I will cancel it and get refunded. If I mange to get the visa then I plan to work for 6 months and then travel for six months within Canada....maybe pouring beers on the road. If I fail to get the visa then I will be heading back to New Zealand on October the 19th. Either way I will be a happy chappy, for living in Canada would be cool and going home is also a nice idea......the fate is in the hands of the consulate. For now I will sit back, drink some pints, catch up with friends and explore the numerous corridors of the British Museum until I have seen every little thing that they have! Life is good!

Das ist sehr gut!

Five days ago I jumped on a train in Geneva and four hours later and two train changes later I arrived in a little station in Germany called Triberg. I walked outside and their waiting for me was my Grandmother. Since this point I have been working hard, eating hard and sleeping hard at my Grandparents bed and breakfast which is in the Blackforest (Schwarzwald) in a little hollow known as SchÖnwald. I have been mowing lawns the size of parks and doing bits and pieces around the establishment in exchange for free food, bedding and swimming in the indoor swimming pool. Right now I am deciding on my next destination, although I have no plans to move on from SchÖnwald too soon....afterall Grandparents are awesome and they feed me lots.

Geneva= good times!

I arrived in Geneva at around 10:30pm and progressed through security and into the street. I walked around the streets for a while to try and get my bearings before finally stumbling across a street that was shown on the map that I had with me. With this newly found information I finally made it to my hostel and checked in for the night. It cost me 58 swiss francs for the first night of accomodation as I had to rent my own little apartment as the dorm was full. The next day though I managed to squeeze into a dorm which was nice. The next day I awoke after a night of discovering that the zone where I was staying in was actually known by the locals as the 'red light district', which explains the whore houses everywhere, and I headed down to Lake Geneva with a baguette/tomato/cheese and salami to have as breakfast. After this scrumptous delight I jumped on the metro and glided smoothly across the tarmac until I was at my destination, the United Nations. I took a 10 swiss franc tour of the United Nations buildings which I personally think was well worth while. You get to see the discussion rooms where the big decisions are made and you get to learn a little about the history of the UN and when it began etc etc. Some people I talked to thought it was lame and a waste of cash, but I think it is a worthy donation. During the rest of the day I ate baguettes and lazily walked the shore of Lake Geneva, which is a beautiful lake. That night I headed into a bar for a beer and got talking to a bar waitress. She was studying in Geneva and working in the bar for extra cash. She informed me that down on the shore there was a huge festival kicking off with free live music and tents celebrating different cultures from around the world. On hearing this I polished off my beer and hit the roads with a new plan in mind....party time. I found the area and was immediately surrounded by people dancing and it was then that I realised that I had walked into the middle of the dance floor (sweet). The dancing began, and it went and went and went until finally my legs felt like they were going to fall off. I grabbed another beer and walked/stumbled back along the shore. On the way I met a Jamaican man playing guitar for cash. I asked if I could play and he said " ya man, I need to sleep, make me some money!". With this he lay down, smoked a joint and went to sleep. I grabbed the guitar and started playing and singing. I did this for half an hour and I made him 5 euro. Sweet. I woke him up and told him the news and he was stoked. He packed up his stuff, hugged me and walked away into the distance. I was stoked too for having played for cash and with a grin on my face I stumbled onwards until finally I made it to the red light district, aka, my home.

Money for nothing and chix for free!!!

Well the I awoke yesterday in the early morning and had my free breakfast at the hostel which consisted of toast and cereal and juice that was apparantly the miricle elixir for curing hangovers. I had a few glasses of juice during which I met a nice 18 year old Swedish girl named Anna. She had plans to go to Monaco for the day so I asked if I could join her. With a "yes" for an answer we jumped onto the next train and headed towards the Money. On arriving and departing the train station we were immediatly met with super yachts that seemed to stretch the entire length of the horizon, yeap they were massive. We kept walking and walking and basically were staggered by the amount of Lamborghinis, Bentleys, Ferraris, Porches , Jaguars and Chargers passing us. WOW this town is for rich people......we later confirmed this theory when I purchased a 1L bottle of water for 3.5 euro (sting). We spent the day wandering the streets and pondering just where did all this money come from. We later agreed that it must be the fruits of prostitution, drugs, rock and roll and possibly intelligence but judging by their arrogance maybe the later could be excluded. We returned to Nice after exploring Monaco and Montecarlo and I found out that I had forgotten to book that nights accomodation....good times. I ended up staying up most of the night before sneaking into the hostel and sleeping in the foyer...sweet. Today I caught the bus back to Marseille from Nice for 18 euro and I then booked a ticket to Geneva in Switzerland in the hopes of progressing upwards to see my Grandparents who have recently purchased a " Bed and Breakfast" style accomodation within the blackforest. So here I am at 4pm waiting for the 7pm train to Geneva. I am quite excited for I think I may get to glimpse the alps as the sun sets....wish me luck!

Nice is nice; death by sunset!

On arriving in Nice I found myself in a neat little city that had similar designed streets to the ones found in Paris. I went to the nearest hostel called, Aubergie de Jeunesse, and booked two nights accomodation. I had to check in at 3 pm, so I went down to the beach after purchasing some bait from the local fish market and fished the morning into oblivion. I was not at all surprised when I looked in the mirror that night and found myself burnt to a crisp from the powerful sun. That night I went along the beach to catch the sunset. On walking along and meeting numerous Koreans and other travellers I stumbled onto a scene where an old lady had fallen on the pavement. She lay there and I heard a lot of French being said and saw numerous people talking on their phones in grave tones. Suddenly an ambulance busted onto the pavement with sirens blaring and the paremedics jumped out and immediately started doing CPR. It was then that I realised that the old woman was not just hurt, she was dieing. While I watched, people stopped and gathered in a crowd to watch the excitement. Feeling sickened by the spectacle I decided to head away from the scene to let the lady die in peace. I peeked back once in instinctual curiosity to see the policemen drape a white sheet over her body and to hear someone say " oh my gosh, how terrible!". After hearing this I replied without thinking " I couldn't think of a nicer time to die" and I pointed to the sunset. The tourists gave me a weird look before returning there gaze to the white sheet. I turned and walked away feeling a way that I had never felt before; for she was the first human being that had died in front of me.

Around the mediterranean in 2 days!!!!

I had a look at my account balance the other day and I was very shocked to discover the speed at which my funds are disappearing. After acknowledging this I decided to step up the ante and get along the coast of France. I spent a night in Barcelona and then I hit the road on a 3 hour bus ride to Montpellier which is a nice little coastal French village positioned near to the coast. I said goodby e to speaking Spanish and welcomed in the French. I arrived in Montpellier at around three in the afternoon and I set about finding a hostel. After numerous sweaty hours of searching and obtaining zero results, I headed out to the beach to check it out and see if it was possible to sleep on it. I got to the coast and my eyes where met with thousands of tourists clinging to the shore and riding the waves... so much for sleeping on the beach. I came to the conclusion that I'd rather sleep in a different city away from the tourists and so after meeting a buisness man and chatting with him in line, I boarded a train to Marseille. On arriving in Marseille it was 11pm and Marseille has a reputation for hostility towards foreigners in the muggin kind of way so I decided to sleep in the train station. My plan was going well untill a security officer announced to me that they closed the station at 1am and that I should not be lying inside, rather lying in the street. Luckily I met three 20 year old English lads and three 18 year old American girls who told me that a cleaner had told them to walk up the "H" train platform and sleep up there. So we toddled up the platform and to my surprise the security didn't find us and we slept well. The next day I jumped on the train at 6am qnd headed towards Nice.