Hard Rock Calling

This weekend in Hyde Park they have the annual Hard Rock Calling rock concert in a sectioned off area inside Hyde Park. While working yesterday I could hear the music from the jetty so after work I went to find a spot on the grass outside where I could hear the music clearly. I was getting comfortable when I overhead someone offering away a ticket. I quickly gathered my things gave this lady 20 pound and the next minute I was inside the venue.
I made it in to see the last four or five songs of The Kooks. The are an English band who reached world wide popularity with their latest album. I like the Kooks although it was The Killers who were coming up next and the band I had paid the money to see.
I went in to the concert and was standing by myself and started chatting to another guy who was standing by himself. He explained to me his dad had given him a ticket to the concert as a 21st birthday present and they had planned to watch The Killers together although they had been separated and now couldn't find him. Anyway somehow they managed to find each other in the 50,000 plus crowd and they shouted me a beer for being part of his 21st celebrations. I think his name was Jack or Jake, not sure. We pushed our way forward to get closer to the stage although in doing so I lost my new friend. I found a good spot and stayed to watch The Killers perform a great seat. The Killers are from Las Vegas and are one of the most popular bands in the world. The started with Human and concluded with Sams Town. Mr Brightside got the biggest crowd participation. It was the second time I have seen The Killers in concert, the first time being a few years ago in Melbourne. I really enjoyed the experience of being able to see a massive concert in London.
The concert continued today with Neil Young as the headline act. I was working today but at Battersea Park, not Hyde Park. Therefore I did not get to listen to the concert. Tomorrow The Dave Matthews Band and Bruce Springsteen are headlining, so I plan to hang out on the grass again.

Tower of London

On my second day off last week I caught up with a mate, Andy, from my ANZAC Day tour. He was with a couple of his mates and together we all went inside the Tower of London and checked out all the exhibitions. The most prominent being the Jewel House. This is the home of crown used during the coronation of the new king/queen. There are over 23,000 diamonds in this exhibition alone.
After spending a few hours explore the tower and all of its surrounding towers we made our way to Harrods. It was my second visit and this time I discovered the gun room and the Princess Diana memorial. We also spent a bit of time checking out the pets and the extraordinarily priced designer clothes.
After lunch I left Andy and his mates and caught up with another mate Dan who is a mate of Andys and they have been travelling together. We sank a few beers in a pub in Earls Court before saying goodbye again.

Wimbledon

Early on Wednesday morning I made my way to the fields next to the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Club to join the queue to get into the tennis. I met my friend Emily in the queue and together we waited in the for three and a half hours before entering the venue. Many spectators including my mate Ross camp out all night prior to the days play to get the best tickets.
When you join the queue you get a queue card number as well as a guide to queueing information booklet. My card told me I was number 4922 in the queue. We made it in just after eleven o'clock and made our way to court five to watch two Aussies Sam Stosur and Rennae Stubbs compete in the doubles. My mate Ross and a bunch of his mates where all watching the game as well before they left to watch the games on court one where they got tickets for their camping out efforts. The Aussie girls easily defeated their opposition.
Following the match Emily and I went for a wander around the venue. All the courts are very close together and there is limited seating so we spent much of the day after on Henman Hill or Murray Mount and watched the action on the big screen. Emily then left for work and I spent some more time wandering with some of my pedal boat mates. Before Emily left though we did manage to get some strawberries and cream as it is a big part of the Wimbledon experience. The strawberries were very tasty although the cream was so thin it was like eating milk.
It was very warm in the sun so I decided to take some time and check out the Wimbledon tennis museum. I thought the John McEnroe ghost was the best part of the museum. A holographic image of McEnroe explains what the feeling was like to win at Wimbledon.
I made my way back out to Murray Mount and found my mate Ross and all his friends. We were sitting a table and the girls next to us offered us their centre court tickets so we went inside and checked out the game going on. By this time it was getting late and I had watched enough tennis. Sitting with all the snobs didn't excite me a lot either so we did not stay long.
Instead we made our way to the exits and completed our Wimbledon experience.
It was fun day although I felt it lacked the passionate fans you see at the Aussie Open, the crowd is a lot more conservative. The security this year banned fans from wearing flags and costumes which I think is part of the reason the crowd also did not seem as patriotic as those you find at the Aussie Open.

Sun, rain and thunderstorms

I have just finished work for the day. I am still working at the pedal boats in Hyde Park. I worked 11 hours today which is about the average hours for the day. Since starting work two weeks ago I have had one day off, last Tuesday. I have worked a quite a few 11 hour days as well as one 13 hour day. The weekends are the busiest time with hundreds if not thousands of customers using the boats.
The work is not too bad although the long hours make it very exhausting. Today was payday which is always an exciting day. The pay is not great but because I have worked so many hours it all adds up. Last week I worked 59 hours and the week before 66.
Last Tuesday on my day off I went for a walk through through Tate Modern art gallery. Full of abstract modern art from artists such as Picasso and Dali as well as many lesser known artists. I also walked across the Tower Bridge. I crossed it just seconds before it lifted. The bridge can open to let through large ships as it did just after I crossed it.
After work I have been catching up with mates from home who have moved over as well as mates I have met while travelling.
I now have two days off, tomorrow I am going to the tennis in Wimbledon. I plan to get a day pass and hopefully catch some good matches. Then on Thursday I plan to do some more London sightseeing with a mate from the ANZAC Day tour.
The weather throughout the past couple of weeks in London has been rather odd. We have had a lot of sunshine as well as some rain and last week walking home from the train there was a thunderstorm and I got soaking wet.

Pedal Boats in Hyde Park

Last Thursday I had to decide where to next with my trip and after watching the bank balance quickly decreasing I figured I would see how I go finding a job.
I went into the office of IEP, the organisation I signed up with to get my UK visa, to see what jobs were available and spotted a job that intrigued me last time I was in the office. It was asking for a lifeguard to work on the pedal boats in Hyde Park, London. On the way back to my mates joint where I am currently staying I stopped at the paddle boats and after a quick chat with the manager I had a job. I thought it would be fun to work in the centre of London, outside in the warm English sun.
As I had already planned my weekend camping trip I started work yesterday. It was a very slow day as the morning rain kept the customers away, therefore we spent most of the morning cleaning duck poo off the boats. When it did stop raining we spent a few hours drying all the boats before our first customer arrived mid afternoon.
Today my second day wasn't a lot more exciting. Again it rained and again we spent hours cleaning and drying the boats. Getting to work today was a mission as staff on the London Underground went on strike causing the cancellation of many trains. I found I was already becoming a frustrated London commuter on only my second day. After much negotiation I still managed to get to work on time at 9am only to find out the rest of the staff had all been delayed too. We did not open till after 10am. Then at midday we could hear large explosions, so the manager let us all run up the hill to catch the 41 gun salute to commemorate the birthday of HRH the Duke of Edinburgh.
The staff at the boats are from all over the world which is quite interesting. So far I have met a couple of Polish, a few Aussies, a few Kiwis, a French girl, a Canadian girl, a Bulgarian and an Englishman.
A lot of the job involves cleaning but I also get to drive a little motorised boat around the Serpentine Lake, which is the lake the pedal boats are in. There are always plenty of activity around the lake so it is good for people watching.
I am currently staying with my mate Ross from the Pines swimming pool in Wimbledon. Hopefully tomorrow and the weekend will be nicer weather and we get some more customers and hopefully the train drivers will stop their strike and make it easier for me to get to work.

Caves, rocks, campfires, cheese rolling, guns and the Best Fish and Chips in the World

Last weekend I caught a bus to Leeds to meet my friend Sarah who I met on the Top Deck trip. What followed was an action packed weekend.
As well as myself two other mates from the Top Deck trip Dene and Matt (aka Theo) made the trip to Leeds for the weekend catch up. On Friday night we headed out on a miny pub crawl on a cold, wet and very quiet night out in Leeds.
Saturday morning we packed Sarah's boyfriends Dave new van full of camping gear and headed to How Stean Gorge in the Yorkshire Dales. Dave came camping as did a few of Sarah's mates from Leeds. After setting up camp we set off exploring the gorge and exploring the surrounding caves. We climbed through caves with and without torches and got back to camp filthy dirty with soaking wet feet. The communal campfire was the place to be for the night and thanks to Sarah we had plenty of games to amuse ourselves and pass the time.
Sunday morning after leaving the gorge we found ourselves at Brimham Rocks a series of rocks prefect for climbing all over with some great views over the Yorkshire Dales. Theo showed off his monkey skills, or lack therefore, very nearly causing himself permanent injuries.
On the way back to Leeds we stopped at the Harry Ramsden's Fish and Chips. They claim to be the best fish and chips in the world. The food was good although for the price I feeel I could have got a portion ten times the size at my local fish and chip store.
Arriving back in Leeds we were ready for our next challenge. Theo had been to the famous cheese rolling festival in Gloucestershire but had missed the opportunity to run therefore we set up our own reenactment for his benefit. We raced down a hill a number of times chasing a round block of cheese and had a great time fighting for the cheese. Our own reenactment was maybe not as dangerous as the more famous cheese rolling but it still left us in pain the following day.
Sunday night we headed to the pub again to see a friend of Sarah's support a local Leeds band. Both Sarahs friend and the band Hope and Social were very good. The band inolved the audience in many of their songs and even distributed small whistle type instruments, I have forgotten what they are called, to everyone to join in their last song. After I worked out how to make a noise I enjoyed playing it for the rest of the night.
On Monday morning before I left Leeds Theo and I walked through the Royal Armouries museum with a very extensive range of swords, guns, spears or basically any form of weapon you could think of.
I boarded the bus back to London and left behind Leeds and a great weekend.

20/20 cricket at Lords

Many of you will know that I am a massive sports fan, therefore last Wednesday when I read there were still tickets to see a 20/20 World Cup cricket warm up game at Lords I made my way to the ground. I arrived at 1.30pm the time the first game was supposed to start. I missed most of Sri Lanka's innings in the first game because it took me over an hour to get into the ground which was less than a quarter full. The Sri Lankan's set the South Africans a dismal target and although it took the South Africans till the last over to reach their target they never looked in doubt.
Following the South Africa versus Sri Lanka game England played the West Indies. This was the game most of the crowd had come to see although the ground was still less than half full and lacking any real atmosphere. The West Indies set the English 144 to win which they reached easily thanks to a strong opening partnership from Ravi Bopara and Luke Wright. Wrights three successive sixes on his way to an unbeaten 75 was the highlight of the evening. I was disappointed the openers did so well because I was hoping to see Kevin Petersein make some runs. In the end he faced less than an over and the English won by nine wickets.
Lords is a good cricket ground for spectators because it is quite a small venue. I could not understand though why there were not more spectators. For 20 pound it was a cheap chance to see some of the worlds best cricketers at the home of cricket.
The 20/20 World Cup is now well underway and surprisingly and disappointingly the Aussies lost their first two matches which lead to them being eliminated from the tournament. The English found their losses quite amusing. The English themselves lost to The Netherlands though, a country not well known for their cricketing talent. India has looked pretty good so far and I expect they will win the tournament.

Arhus and Copenhagen, Denmark.

I had a 12 hour layover between flights at Stansted which I decided to spend at the airport to try and save myself some money. The long stopover was made a lot less lonely after spotting Miriam and Dee, two Kiwi friends who had been on my Istanbul to London Topdeck tour. The stay did not seem that long and I said goodbye to them again and boarded the plane for Denmark.
Cyclists rule in Denmark. That is the first thing you notice when you arrive. I flew into Aarhus to meet my mate Cory from Deakin who is currently studying at the Uni there. I hired a bike by depositing a coin to unlock a chain of a city bike. They are located throughout Aarhus and Copenhagen and when you return the bike you get the coin back.
Cory showed me the sights of the city. It is a seaside city and the second largest in Denmark after Copenhagen. We took a tour through Den Gamble By, the old city set up for tourists to experience what it was like to live in a market town in the old days. On the day we went there was really not much going on so it wasn't real exciting.
After dinner and a few beers at Cory's residences we headed into town to a pub where they were serving cough medicine in test tubes and trying to pass them off as shots. What I found surprising was on our walk into town just after midnight you could still see a glimmer of daylight.
We rode the train on Friday morning to Copenhagen for a weekend trip. We visited many of the sights of the city. We climbed to the top of a church for views across the city. You can see for miles as Denmark is a very flat country. We also entered the world of Christiana. The alternative community which still has the feel of a hippy village in the 1970's. Selling drugs is somewhat illegal there but still freely available.
The city has many statues and we rode past many of them on some City Bikes including the very famous yet not all that exciting Little Mermaid statue. Drinking on the streets is legal throughout the country as it is in most European countries therefore we joined the hundreds of people on the banks of the canal in Nyhavn.
We found one of the houses of the Danish royal family. The residences of Tasmanian born Princess Mary and her husband Prince Frederick.
''Probably the best beer in the World,'' Carlsberg has a visitors centre and brewery just outside the city which Cory and I took a tour through. It is not my favourite beer. ''Probably the best...'' is the slogan they have used to promote their beer for over 30 years.
Copenhagen has many events throughout the year, especially in summer and we were in town during the Copenhagen Carnival. Thousands of people all dancing away to different music styles in big tents in one of the city parks.
Tivoli Gardens and amusement park is the main tourist attraction in the city and we could not leave without going inside. Cory and I each paid to get in and wandered around for a few hours without going on any rides as they cost more. After leaving Tivoli we boarded the train back for Aarhus. My last night in Denmark we went for a walk to the yacht club and had an ice cream as the Danish love their ice cream.
The following morning I made my way back to the airport and back to London.
I enjoyed my time in Denmark although one thing I did not like about Denmark was how expensive it was. It cost me more catch a bus from the train station to the airport than the flight itself.
One other thing about the country is they are very environmentally friendly. There are large windmills spread throughout the country and you have to pay a tax when buying bottles that you can claim back when you return the bottles. This mode of recycling leads to many poorer people walking through the cities collecting bottles.

Eating, swimming, hiking, clubbing and gliding in Slovenia

I met my mate Igor at the airport in Ljubjana and my first of many surprises in Slovenia was the heat. It was over 25 degrees celcius when I arrived and stayed that temperature throughout the week I was there.
Igor lead me on a tour through the capital city before we ate the biggest pizzas I have ever seen. Following dinner we heading out to a nightclub in a big warehouse just outside of town that Igor's flatmate knew about. I was often confused by the locals as being a Slovenian as foreigners at this club are a rarity. All the locals were very friendly and after a surprised reaction when I told them I was from Australia they were quick to demonstrate their knowledge of Aussie lingo.
For the weekend Igor took me to his family home in Bresje just outside Bled in the north of the country. After hiking up a small mountain and exploring remains of old castles we made our way to the beautiful Lake Bled where Igor, his brother and I all swam out to the church on the islet. The water was surprising warm considering some of the surrounding mountains still had snow on them.
I met Igor's girlfriend Nina after dinner and we went for a walk through Igor's village while he explained to me the significance of the church just around the corner from his house. Many thousands of people attend the church each weekend. It is an especially prominent church for Catholics as it is said miracles have taken place there. Ericted outside the Church is a statue of Pope John Paul after his visit to the church in 1997.
Sunday morning Igor and I headed out to the airport as he wished to do some flying. After a quick bit of talking he organised for me to go acrobatic gliding with one of the head pilots of the airport. Igor was wanting to fly me himself although the weather conditions and the fact the head pilot was in a bad mood stopped that. It was still amazing. I was just hanging on and trying to take it all in as we flipped upside down, span sideways and did all sorts of tricks on our way back to the ground. The flight lasted about 15 minutes including the time getting towed up.
There was still another surprise in store for the day. Igor, his older brother Ulrich and I went for a walk through a national park just near his house with some very fast flowing rivers with clear water.
On Monday Igor drove me through basically the whole west side of the country. I think he was just showing off today. Our first stop was atop a snow covered mountain before we drove down into a valley past some very light blue lakes on our way to the very squished stretch of coast on the Adriatic. The hot weather made it very inviting to swim although we were unprepared as we had just planned to visit the mountain.
Exploring the natural landscapes had been a welcome change from the city exploring I had been doing for almost a month, although it was now time to head back into Ljubjana.
Igor had to do some work so he dropped me in the city before returnig to his home in Bresje. He gave me a free day to explore the city and just by chance it was the same day that three Aussie guys I met on my ANZAC Day tour where going to be there.
So Dan, Glenn, Andrew and I along with three Canadian girls who were staying at their hostel spent the day exploring the sights of the Ljubjana. You can see all the sights in a day as it is only a small city. We bought breakfast at the local market then made our way up to the city with views overlooking the city.
We spent a few hours just eating lunch and sharing stories about our respective trips before finding the Dragon bridge. The most famous icon of the city, a bridge with Dragon statues at each end.
We ate dinner again at the Pizza restaurant Igor had shown me. It had over 80 types of Pizzas you could choose from. We then drank for a few hours on our of the many bridges across Ljubljanca, the river that runs through the city.
Then on my final day in Slovenia I explored some more before heaving rain kept me inside and I rested up before Igor drove me to the airport for my flight back to London.

Thriller, Thriller night

Anna, Andy and I got all dressed up and made our way into the West End to attend Thriller Live. None of us had done any research into the show and therefore what we got was quite different to what we expected. Thriller Live is just a performance of all of Michael Jacksons songs in chronological order of when they were released. It was an enjoyable experience singing along to all the songs but it was not the West End show we had been expecting. We were hoping for some sort of storyline as is the case in We Will Rock You or Mamma Mia.
We attended the West End Show after another long day of sightseeing through London. I made my first of what will probably be many visits to Harrods. The massive department store that claims to sell everything but elephants. Currently in stock they have a Hummer Golf Buggy and a limited edition Elton John signed red grand piano.
After saying goodbye to Anna and Andy I made my way to Stansted airport and boarded a plane bound for a country I know little about, Slovenia.