Hey everyone! It's pretty much November now. You do know what that means right? Yes, i'm departing at the end of the month.
FINALLY.
Okay. Before I ramble on about stuff, I think I should clear up something first. Just thought i'd offer some explanation on why I haven't been posting here at all. I have been around and like you, keeping up-to-date with Chris's adventures. To be perfectly honest, there hasn't been much I could update you with. Not much is happening here in Sydney. For me, it's the same routine day-to-day, a mix between sleeping, uni, work, going out and studying. I've just been SUPER busy. Uni has literally been owning me this semester, pretty much the toughest semester i've ever had, and now with exams looming over my head, all I can think about is the Eurotrip. I don't think i'll be able to concentrate at all during exams and i'm still wondering how exactly Chris managed this (got any tips for me mate?). That being said, i've got the most SCREWED up exam timetable ever (basically, 4 exams in 4 days straight), but I can't complain, at least my exams end before I need to depart.
Now for some good news. I managed to reach my savings target some time ago and now should have enough money saved up to fund the trip. If it wasn't for the silly financial crisis that we're currently in, we'd technically have a lot more saved up. The exchange rate has dropped drastically over the past few months, which basically sucks. The timing of it is bad, especially since Europe is so damn expensive in the first place. We're going to have to budget even more than we initially planned. Relax guys, i'm not talking about starving and sleeping out on the streets with our sleeping bags (at least, I hope not).
My last work shift for the pots and pans place was on Sunday. That's right, as of this moment, I have no job and will be focusing on the exams ahead (or trying to, procrastination is sort-of getting in the way at the moment). Believe it or not, I worked there for over 2 years and can't believe how fast it's gone. 180 days ago, I was sitting here wondering how i'm ever going to be able to save for this trip, it feels great to know that you now have enough money and all that's left standing in your way now are the number of days until departure. Okay, so like I said, i've completed saving up and have quit work so that I can focus on studying. Sorry for all you people that were hoping for some discount on pots and pans (lol).
Some more news on the trip; I went to STA travel last week and purchased Eurail passes for both me and Chris. For those of you who forgot and for those who simply had no clue, a Eurail pass is an inter-rail pass which allows us to travel to 20 different countries in Europe for 15 days/uses within a 2 month period. It's basically a prepaid travel ticket and it's a cost-effective way of travelling through Europe. Works out a lot cheaper than buying each ticket individually, not to mention how convenient it is not to worry about planning and such. These tickets don't come cheap, but work out better overall. I picked them up today and they give you a whole rail map of Europe (it's huge) and also a timetable book which i'm sure will be handy. We were going to buy our passes separately, but STA travel has them a lot cheaper than buying them online, so we thought we'd save some money and i'll purchase the tickets from here. Ofcourse, we're "winging" the entire trip, so basically have little or no idea when and where we're going. As you know, we've got a tentative plan, but the Eurail pass offers us the flexibility we need. Chris will be booking our Eurostar tickets from London (that's to go from London to Paris, Eurail passes don't cover this). Only other thing left is the hostel booking in Paris, but that should be easy.
In terms of planning for the trip ahead, there's not much left for me to buy. I still need to get my full driving license. It's almost expired I think. I had planned to get it like what, 5 months ago. Haha, talk about laziness. Anyways, my exams finish on the 19th of November and I fly out on the 29th. I still have a 10 day period in which I can finish planning/packing which is PLENTY of time (I hope?). Oh, and i've made some changes to the blog. Our route through Europe map can now be accessible on the right-side of the page.
Again, i'd like to apologize for my lack of posts here, but i'll be updating more frequently now since my departure date looks a lot more realistic.
Stay tuned. Cheers.
Rishi
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Barcelona: City of Gaudi
I KNOW I KNOW! I havent posted anything in a good long while. There are no excuses. I got lazy. However, now at least I have something to write about! The last couple of weeks have been a hive of activity from my end, contrasting heavily with the previous months of relatively no travel. A couple of weeks ago I decided to take a much needed holiday from work and Milton Keynes in general. I took off to Barcelona, Spain.
This trip had actually been planned ever since I had left Sydney. Kezia was going to be stopping in Spain for a couple of weeks after her trip around Europe, and we decided it would be very poor form indeed not to meet in Barcelona considering it is only an hour and a half flight from London. Quite conveniently, this trip fell almost exactly at the halfway point in my work here in England, so served as a nice break. Needless to say, getting on the road again was fantastic, and really revitalised me.
The story actually starts the night before my departure for Barcelona. I had booked a flight which took off at 5am in the morning, as this was a much cheaper option than a departure in more sane hours of the day (and for good reason!). Ben, one of my very good mates over here, offered to drive me to Luton Airport in the morning, but the problem was that we were working that night and would only finish at 11-12ish. As completely responsible adults, we decided that it was futile to try go to sleep for such a short period of time, so proceeded to juice ourselves up on 'Monster' energy drinks and push through the night. Needless to say, we had some good fun and quite surprisingly made it through the night and to the airport on time and without serious injury.
Upon my arrival in Barcelona, Kezia greated me at the door and we had a very happy reunion. Bubbling with stories from both of our trips, we decided to go set me up at the hostel first and then go do some site seeing around the city. I had heard a lot about Barcelona's Barri Gotic Cathedral so wanted to go find this first. With a rough idea of where it was, we set off down the famous 'La Rambla' street, a pedestrian boulevard that is world famous as being choked full of life, cafes, stalls, artists, buskers and human statues. It really is a blur of activity, and proved a perfect introduction to the delights of Barcelona. We didnt find the Cathedral straight away, but explored around the side streets and just absorbed the charm and relaxed, yet extremely bustling feel of the city. We eventually found the Cathedral, but it was late on a sunday so it was closed to tourists. Unfortunately, most of the facade was covered by construction material as they are trying to restore it so it was not as impressive as it otherwise would have been. What was visible looked quite special. We checked out the Picasso museum, which houses 4000 works of the artist. We were.....educated and enlightened. Maybe? We arent sure yet.
We then made our way down to the beach to relax, soak up the sun (OH HOW I MISSED THEE!) and munch on ice-cream. The plan of action was then to head into the city again and check out 'La Sagrada Familia', apparently another church/temple/cathedral that I had heard mutterings about. How under-rated it was. This building was the most impressive piece of architecture I have ever seen, AND I HAVE SEEN A LOT OF ARCHITECTURE! It was gigantic, rising up above everything else in the city. It was designed by the famous architect, Gaudi, whose works are dotted all through Barcelona.
Construction started in 1882, and will only be completed in around 2020. There will eventually be 18 towers all over 100m high, representing the 12 Apostles, 4 Evangelists, Mary, and the the tallest tower (170m) will represent Jesus Christ. ALthough it is a construction site, you are still able to tour around parts of the impressive temple. We were unable to go inside on this occasion, as we had just missed closing time, but the facade on the northeast and northwestern side of the building are extremely detailed, and we had a great time picking out the different scenes depicted.
This trip had actually been planned ever since I had left Sydney. Kezia was going to be stopping in Spain for a couple of weeks after her trip around Europe, and we decided it would be very poor form indeed not to meet in Barcelona considering it is only an hour and a half flight from London. Quite conveniently, this trip fell almost exactly at the halfway point in my work here in England, so served as a nice break. Needless to say, getting on the road again was fantastic, and really revitalised me.
The story actually starts the night before my departure for Barcelona. I had booked a flight which took off at 5am in the morning, as this was a much cheaper option than a departure in more sane hours of the day (and for good reason!). Ben, one of my very good mates over here, offered to drive me to Luton Airport in the morning, but the problem was that we were working that night and would only finish at 11-12ish. As completely responsible adults, we decided that it was futile to try go to sleep for such a short period of time, so proceeded to juice ourselves up on 'Monster' energy drinks and push through the night. Needless to say, we had some good fun and quite surprisingly made it through the night and to the airport on time and without serious injury.
Upon my arrival in Barcelona, Kezia greated me at the door and we had a very happy reunion. Bubbling with stories from both of our trips, we decided to go set me up at the hostel first and then go do some site seeing around the city. I had heard a lot about Barcelona's Barri Gotic Cathedral so wanted to go find this first. With a rough idea of where it was, we set off down the famous 'La Rambla' street, a pedestrian boulevard that is world famous as being choked full of life, cafes, stalls, artists, buskers and human statues. It really is a blur of activity, and proved a perfect introduction to the delights of Barcelona. We didnt find the Cathedral straight away, but explored around the side streets and just absorbed the charm and relaxed, yet extremely bustling feel of the city. We eventually found the Cathedral, but it was late on a sunday so it was closed to tourists. Unfortunately, most of the facade was covered by construction material as they are trying to restore it so it was not as impressive as it otherwise would have been. What was visible looked quite special. We checked out the Picasso museum, which houses 4000 works of the artist. We were.....educated and enlightened. Maybe? We arent sure yet.
We then made our way down to the beach to relax, soak up the sun (OH HOW I MISSED THEE!) and munch on ice-cream. The plan of action was then to head into the city again and check out 'La Sagrada Familia', apparently another church/temple/cathedral that I had heard mutterings about. How under-rated it was. This building was the most impressive piece of architecture I have ever seen, AND I HAVE SEEN A LOT OF ARCHITECTURE! It was gigantic, rising up above everything else in the city. It was designed by the famous architect, Gaudi, whose works are dotted all through Barcelona.
Construction started in 1882, and will only be completed in around 2020. There will eventually be 18 towers all over 100m high, representing the 12 Apostles, 4 Evangelists, Mary, and the the tallest tower (170m) will represent Jesus Christ. ALthough it is a construction site, you are still able to tour around parts of the impressive temple. We were unable to go inside on this occasion, as we had just missed closing time, but the facade on the northeast and northwestern side of the building are extremely detailed, and we had a great time picking out the different scenes depicted. 
Our next stop was Parc Guell, and the house of Gaudi. This place has been converted into a public park, but its landscaping is clearly dotted with Gaudi's influence. It was a very interesting place to walk through and observe the experimentation he implemented in his own backyard. We had a great time strolling, and then climbed to the top of the hill and looked over the city towards the sea for the sunset (which set BEHIND US kezia. BEHIND US!) before making our way back to the hostel, including the interesting experience of sleeping through your train stop on the Spanish rail service. 
The next day consisted of us walking all around Barcelona in a never ending tour. We tried to get into both the Cathedrals again, but for one reason or another this didnt happen. We saw a large monument to Christopher Columbus and his discovery of America, climbed up the Central Park called 'Montjuic' and made it to the castle at the top, which had spectacular views of all sides of Barcelona. We then had dinner on La Rambla, which wasnt as amazing as it should have been. After going out for a couple of drinks, we decided to call it a day. Finally we managed to get inside the Cathedrals the next day, but only after having the best bagel of my life. They were equally impressive inside as out. LaSagrada Famila in particular really needs to be seen to be believed. It really takes your breath away. It is SO big, but seemingly so light. The roof should not be staying up. There is so much empty space inside, and this jsut adds to its magnificence. The Barri Gotic was also impressive, but in a different way. Big and imposing, it had a sort of grace and beauty on the inside, which I assume is what the architect was aiming for. Needless to say, both these places would be amazing to go to church in. The girls then wanted to do bunch of shopping, so we went exploring in all these chic, classy and fashionable clothes stores. I bought nothing :D.
Our last day in Barcelona was really just a kind of limbo. With the prospect of us leaving hanging over us, we really couldnt do very much. We wondered around La Rambla again, stopping to take in a rather skillfill Michael Jakson/robot statue man. After strolling a bit, we had some more ice cream, and then decided it was time to depart. We went to the tube station, where we were to part ways again and had a very teary farewell. It was very difficult to say goodbye, as we had had such a fantastic time, and would have to wait anohter 4 months to do it again. All in all, it was a very healthy experience for me. I returned revitalised and recharged, ready to take on work and England again. Needless to say, I was once again shocked out of lethargy and bitten by the travel bug. This led directly to my next extremely random, but equally exciting adventure......
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