jeff.ghb.com.au

GILI GILI GILI

2008-08-19T12:15:00.002+01:00

The past 3 days have been glorious!

No more getting mauraded by locals yelling "TRANSPORT!!" and "TAXI!!" I am currently on one of the Gili Islands where no motor vehicles are allowed. IT is a tiny island where people use only bicycles and horse drawn buggies. It is littered with little cafes and restaurants all right on the beach with little cushions and tiny tables to sprawl out to.

The beach is littered with dive resorts as there are a nuber of fantastic sites around the relatively untouched islands. 4 dives in the last 2 days - have been awesome! Makes me get, once again, tempted just to stay here and dive for a while. Not a bad life!!!!!!

Anyway, one more day here and then back to Sanur to pick up my hopefully repaired kite and board - then back to the business of Kuta beach and on to Sydney.

One week today I will be back in CANADA!!!!!!

crazy.

A Sleepy, Spectacular Sunrise...on a Balinese Volcano

2008-08-16T10:18:00.003+01:00

Yesterday I arrived in the central Balinese city of Ubut. This doesn't have the surf, beach or other stereotypical "Bali" bits that most people talk about - but what it does have is pretty amazing! When I first arrived I made my way straight to the Monkey Forest - trust me... not just a clever name. There are monkeys everywhere!!! I really couldn't stop laughing... My words won't do it justice - wait for the pics and video.

That evening I went a traditional Balinese dance, under an almost full moon at am old temple. It was called the Kekak and was a drama, dance, musical performed by over 30 men and a few women. It involved some really hilarious rhythms and a lot of hands waving in the air. Again, my words probably can't do it justice.

I awoke this morning at 2:30am to a knock on my door by Kifi (sp?) - my balinese Pop at my homestay- over 4 hours - a flashlight - some sweat and a banana sandwich later... I was watching the sunrise from atop Mt Bakir... Bali's fairly active volcano. This was truly a phenomenal experience!!

While I was little grumpy getting woken up at 230am, and it took my body a while to get moving... it was quite a unique experience hiking up the side of a volcano with nothing but a flashlight a friend and a guide to help. It sorta looked like a bit of a moonscape - as it was all lava rocks and ...well.. deadness! Around, 5am we arrived at the summit - (the first to arrive - so it was especially quiet and eerie...). We had some tea, boiled bananas and a banana sandwich and then just sat back and watched the sunrise. I could def. count on one hand (maybe even one finger) the number of times I have actually sat and watched the sunrise. AMAZING!!!!!!! Especially with steam rising up from the surrounding 4 craters.

After watching the sunrise we continued our hike around the rim of the craters, which all erupted in the past 150 yrs. The most devastating one occuring in the 70's and the most recent being in 2000!

On the way home, my homestay Pop brought us straight to a Balinese coffee plantation - which was obviously very needed as we had just completed a 6+ hour hike and it wasn't even 10am yet! This gave me a little boost as we checked out some rice fields and finally made it back to the homestay around 11:30am - where I crashed pretty hard until the delightful hour of 3pm. I now find myself feeling like I am starting a new day, writing about my adventures yesterday ..er this morning....whatever.

Tonight, more traditional Bali dancing at the Lotus Pond Water Temple and tomorrow morning... off to the Gili Islands in Lombok for some serious Scuba!

Prior to arriving in Ubud, I spent a few days in Kuta (doing some surfing) and Sanur (doing some serious Kiting!). In a nutshell.... Kiting was some of the best I have ever done... I was sunburnt, learned some new tricks and was loving life. Day 2 of kiting ended with a broken fin and a whole panel getting blown out of my kite. I left my stuff in Sanur to see if they could fix it for when I loop back. Apparently, they said they could fix both for $50-60 bucks! I was ready to say goodbye to the kite... It was a serious mess. Either way... the kiting was awesome.

JIF - In bali bar/restaurants they rarely use cash registers. Everytime you order a drink or a meal the server disappears somewhere for a bit. There is normally a girl who sits in the corner with all the paper receipts sitting out in front of her and the servers just run over and give her updates on the bill. It seems to work ok... saves on buying a cash register I guess.

A Very Merry Australian, Orphan Christmas!

2008-01-14T10:04:00.000Z

Christmas can be one of the most difficult times to be away from home. 2007 is the second Christmas of 26 that I have spent away from my family. Luckily, there always seem to be others in the same boat as me, and it really can be a great time to get together and celebrate!

This year, we entititled our event an Orphan's Christmas, not because we didn't have families, but we just wouldn't be able to be with them this Christmas. We decided to have the event at our house in SYdney, in our main living area.

Now, I live in a house of mostly guys and none of us really have much of a handle on organizing the food aspect of a holiday dinner. I don't even want to begin describing to you the scene on Christmas eve when we decided it was finally time to go shopping for some food and figure out what we were going to eat. We ended up at a very, very busy shopping centre downtown Sydney walking in circles pretty much disagreeing on anything and everything and really getting nowhere. Chicken, turkey, pork?!? Too many options.

Suddently, Rowan and I were walking past the meat section and it was the first of many Holiday Miracles as we called them. Sitting all alone on the shelf, with a sliver of light shining in it - pre-seasoned, pre-stuffed - The Holiday Roast (as it was called on the label). There was only one left, it was a fair sized chicken that we picked up with achunk of ham and went on our way.

Brett cooked up the roast the next day and it really was amazing! Tender, juicy, great stuffing and superb gravy. It really was a holiday Miracle.

The day was a huge success and we had a great group of orphans who showed up:

Mark - Australian
Brett - Australian
Rowan - Australian
Teresa - Australian
Alok - Canadian
AMit - Indian
Nomi - Japanese
Leah - Japanese
Mel - The random australian neighbour
Me - Canadian

After our fantastic meal, we had a fun little gift exchange - which mostly contained random nerf-type toys and funny moustaches. It was a beautiful sunny day so we high tailed it down to the park on the corner and spent a few hours running off our big meal! Tons of fun again.

After it got dark, we returned home to enjoy Mark's Trifle in a box as we sat on the roof admiring the Sydney skyline and just chilling out.

We finished off the night with a 4 hour game of Risk. What Christmas is complete without a game of Risk? Went to bed at about 4am, ready to get up in a few hours to begin the long 1000km trek to Brisbane!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Magical Melbourne Cup

2007-11-12T11:59:00.000Z

Last weekend, I had the privilege of getting sent south to Melbourne for a work. Friday nite I got my fill of Halloween at Canadian's Halloween party... Which was great because I thought for a second I was going to miss it. Halloween - Not such a big deal in Oz.

It also just so happened to be coming up on Melbourne Cup, which is one of the biggest holidays in Victoria - Basically one horse race stops the nation. ITs actually quite cool, people get all dolled up - in old englishy kindy style and then go to the race track and eat, drink and make massive bets on the races. I was downtown Saturday afternoon in Melbourne and streaming out of the train station were hundreds of guys in nice suits and fedora-ish hats and all kinds of women super dolled up in classy dresses and massive hats and/or feather-like contraptions in their hair. Very interesting phenomenon.

And all that was just the precursor to the Melbourne Cup - -Called Darby Day. Actual Melbourne Cup was Tuesday afternoon and we got treated to lunch and drinks for the afternoon in North Sydney - Wicked. We get the afternoon off work to watch 1.5 minute horse race. I bet about 30 bucks.. didnt win anything. It was an exciting minute tho.

In other news, the kiting is getting amazing here! It is such a cool culture! Tons of people hang out at this great kiting spot near the airport called "Dolls Pt." Most days the wind comes up at about 3pm and blows at about 17-22 knots until the sun goes down. And if the wind isnt blowing, the crew just hangs out on the beach socializing having a good time, waiting for the wind to come back. Everytime I go out someone teaches me something else new about kiting - normally because they see me struggling or doing something dumb... but ya gotta learn sometime right? I am seriously excited about kiting every Saturday-Sunday that I am here! The only problem is that I would also like to take weekened trips outside of the city - but I am always looking at the wind forecast and it keeps me in the city... Ah well. Can't really complain. Whenever I am out on the water.. I seriously just start to laugh. Kiting is one of the coolest feelings ever. It really is beyond description. Wakeboarding without a boat.. and you can cruise right into the beach, step off your board, fold your kite up and put it in the back of your car. (i put a little rip in my kite the other day--- this can be an expensive sport--but nowhere near wakeboarding in the long run).

Today I played my first game of Touch Footy with some colleagues in a work league. Touch Footy refers to Rugby League (which is basically Australian Rugby - you get limited tackles and positioning is a little different). Super fun, and hopefully will play some more. Its good to get in there with everyone and do some running around!

In general, I am really enjoying Sydney! Time is flying by!It is sort of a strange feeling sometimes being here though, as it really isn't very different from Canada - so I don't feel too culture shocked, but that being said, I can't shake the fact that I am on the other side of the world and there are all these tiny differences that sorta throw me for a loop sometimes.

Starting my Sydney Life

2007-09-26T14:38:00.000+01:00

Not going to write much now, but life is great!! Started my job and Im loving it! Awesome projects, working on lots of advertising and promotions. Tons of great people in the office, playing weekly vball and doing some salsa dancing! I bought a car and am actually enjoying the commute (35 mins) listening to some good Aussie radio every morning and evening.

Anyway, check out some pics.

j.

A day of Seconds & Thirds

2007-09-13T06:43:00.000+01:00

As eluded to in my previous post, in addition to a day of Firsts, yesterday was a day of Seconds and Thirds. What do I mean by this? Allow me to outline a piece of my life in the past 3 years.

September 2005- Just moved to Shanghai. Need to furnish my new place. Go to IKEA.
September 2006 - Just moved to Hamilton. Need to furnish my new place. Go to IKEA.
September 2007 - Just moved to Sydney. Need to furnish my new place. Go to IKEA.

As I wandered around IKEA yesterday searching for standard apartment items I got a very strange feeling of familiarity. The first came from the fact that I was in IKEA. I have been to IKEAs all over the world and I can assure you that once you are inside those doors, it doesn't matter what country you are in, you just feel like you are in IKEA. I think IKEA bridges the gap between all world cultures and has created a sort of sad globalization of discount furniture. Interestingly enough, I was helping a Chinese couple shop yesterday and we were speaking Chinese in IKEA, in Sydney. Weird.

So, my yearly routine of going to IKEA doesn't stop at simply entering the building but continues on in the items I buy. For the past 3 years I have entered IKEA with the exact same intentions. To basically furnish my new apartment. I can't believe how many times I have bought the exact same products!!!

Office Waste Bin (Black Mesh) - 3 times (SH, HA, SY)
Fold out laundry bin - 3 times (SH, HA, SY)
$25 Frying Pan - 3 times (SH, HA, SY)
6 Pack of glasses - 3 times (SH, HA, SY)

Rectangular White Table - 2 times (HA, SY)
$49 Duvet cover - 2 times (SH, SY)
$25 Duck Pillow - 2 times (SH, SY)
$69 Duvet - 2 times (SH, SY)

Anyway, the list can go on. But you get the picture. You may say I am stupid for buying this stuff over and over again. I would tend to agree. Remind me to at least sell the stuff this time.

Too bad for IKEA all of their customers don't buy all their products 3x each.

A Day of Firsts... Seconds & Thirds!

2007-09-13T06:27:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was a serious day of firsts for me in Australia. Let me precursor why by saying that this week's activities have been dedicated to getting myself "settled" in Sydney, by way of finding a place to live, finding furniture, getting internet, phone, and a car. Details of the Palace that I live in (or rather the dungeon where I reside) will be captured in a separate blog entry.

Yesterday, I bought my first large item on eBay.
First No. 1 - First large purchase on eBay ($200)

I bought a used Queen Size Bed (Don't worry the pictures looked ok). Little did I know that I was required to go and pick up this bed. And it happened to be my luck that it was located in the little suburb of Heathcote which is about as far away from Sydney CBD you can be and still be in Sydney (Its in the sticks). So, how was I to get this bed? I explored multiple options including moving guys and courier. In the end I decided to rent myself a Big ol Van and do the job myself. So here were the problems, I am in a massively busy city where the traffic and the driving is crazy and I am also totally unfamiliar. I am driving a rather large vehicle that I am also unfamiliar with. I am sitting and driving on the right side of the van. I am driving on the left hand side of the road. So a whole slew of firsts.

First no. 2 - First time renting a van
First no. 3 - First time driving in Sydney
First no. 4 - First time driving a right hand drive
First no.5 - First time driving on the left hand side of the road

It is absolutely like learning to drive all over again. I was forced to ignore all driving instinct and focus real hard and really use my mirrors because I kept ignoring the whole left part of the vehicle, which normally you dont worry about because that is where you are driving. Anyway, apart from a few wide left hand turns and tight right hand turns into honking taxi cabs, and getting lost a dozen times, the trip went well and I picked up my bed and returned the truck today without incident. It was actually really fun and challenging trying to maneuver through downtown Sydney in this big old van! And after a well it does become more like second nature again. Tonight I pick up my new car! A 1991 Toyota Corolla Hatchback! The left hand fun continues!!

First no.6 - My first Car!

The Blog Continues: Australia Edition

2007-09-04T02:07:00.000+01:00

So, Since Im not in crazy censorsing China.. the blog will now be back to its old location on Blogspot. This is the third edition of my travel Escapades. The first one being England, the second being China and now Australia. I arived in Sydney early this morning and have spent the day thus far randomly touring Sydney.

Random story to start. Im in the elevator at my hotel, some girls come in and are arguing about wearing sandals or closed toed shoes. She says, "its way too cold to wear sandals! Did you know it supposed to drop down to 16 degrees today!!??!!?" ITs not cold out. Its not beach weather. But its not cold.

I will recommence my section entitled "Jeff's Interesting Facts" or JIFS. These JIFS are little tidbits of info that describe little things that are different or interesting about whatever locale that I am in. Here are a few to start already:

JIF - Burger King is called Hungry Jacks. Same symbol, it just says Hungry Jacks between the buns instead of Burger King.

JIF - Instead of saying "only in theatres" on movie posters, it says "only at the movies"

JIF - I saw a sign downtown that said "New Zebra Crossing." This seemed peculiar to me. I mean, it is nice that they are trying to be accomodating to the zebras but.. is that really necessary? I then looked down and realized its just what they call cross walks that have white stripes on the black pavement. Witty. Very witty.

Lots of news and pics to come. Stay tuned.

I moved, and so did my Blog

2005-09-10T11:39:00.000+01:00

Alright, so i guess some sorta censorship in Shanghai right now isnt letting me properly access my site, sooo i moved it. Click one of the links below..(they go to the same site, one is the address, the other is a link)

Shanghai J. : Jeff's exploration through a sea of foreign confusion

http://spaces.msn.com/members/eurojeff

Hope everyone is doing well! Keep in touch!

Announcing Mr. & Mrs. Tim & Laura Berezny!

2005-08-17T08:17:00.000+01:00

2005-08-17T08:04:00.001+01:00

Well, I came back from my travels for my bros wedding. It was a beautiful wedding! Tim (my brother) was basically allowed to make only one decision concerning the wedding, and that was what his groomsmen got to wear. Sooo.. we had a blast! All decked out with top hats, canes, white gloves and tails!!! Laura looked fantastic and im really excited to have her in the family! It was a perfect day, that ended with a cool cruise with a jazz band on Lake Nipissing. Congrats Tim & Laura!!!

IOS: its pronounced EEE-AWWS

2005-08-17T07:47:00.000+01:00

The following is an account of a few of my experiences on the Greek Island of IOS.

There are tons more.

Trust me.

Gimme a ring.

2005-08-17T07:33:00.000+01:00

Two nites ago I was in Corfu, I took an all nite ferry/slash bus to Athens. I arrived there at 4am. I had no plan, and very little money. I assumed the bus would bring me tot he city centre and I would have no problem figuring out how to get to the port so I could get to my destination Island of IOS. I wasnt so lucky.. it brough tme to some obscure bus station near a freeway. Not only that, the buses and metro was not yet open. I had my whole life on my back... I was dead tired.. felt sick.. and I walked out of the bus station.. I looked left, I looked right.. I decided to go right. I don tknow why. I walked for about an hour. it wasnt till then I asked a taxi driver where the acropolis was.. unfortunately, her was greek. Just like everyone else in this freakin city. At about 8am I arrived at the acropolis. I sat down on a park bench and made myself a PB and J sandwich. Mmmm.. I went down to the port bought myself a ticket to IOS. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. WOuld I get a job?? Or would i be back on a plane, maxing out my VISA to get back to Canada? Above: a beautiful church in IOS after an 8 hour ferry ride.

2005-08-17T07:28:00.000+01:00

Here it is... my first "Hostel" on Ios!! What?? More like a resort.. I couldnt believe it! It was called the FAR OUT CLUB. and it had two pools a waterslide, huge patio and huge parties all the time.. it was really, really nice! And all this for 5euro a nite! Mind you i was stayingin a dirty little tent.. but I was only in there to sleep.. I was so happy and relieved to be here. The first thing i did was walk down the beach and look for a job at the watersports places. I ran into some Albanian guy named freddy in front of one of the watersports shacks. He didnt speak any english, but he directed me to Maria, the wife of Panos, the owner of Mylopotas Watersports. I had an interview with him the next day and got a job right away! He said he couldnt pay me at the time because it wasnt busy enough, but he could supply me with a place to live. That was more than enough for me.. I was just happy to find something!! Especially considering I only had about 50 Euro to my name at the time. ... Unfortunately, I had to make that 50 Euro stretch about two weeks.. before I started geting paid 15Euro a day..and then a whopping 20Euro a day.. Slave labor..Canadian and Aussie Slaves.. although.. its not a bad place to hang out..

2005-08-17T07:23:00.000+01:00

This is about 10 seconds from the first house that I moved into. I loved it here. It was an amazing place to look at the stars and the windmill was pretty wild too. I sat and chilled here on many occasions, just to relax and reflect.

2005-08-17T07:18:00.000+01:00

After 4 weeks of travellin, sleeping on airport floors, train stations, planes, buses, trains, cars, dirty tents, red light district hostels.. i had my own bed... my own dirty bed.. but it least it was mine..for now. The best thing though was unpacking my bag! i could hang up my clothes.. the hangers were dirty and rusty and i probaly got tetanus from them.. but at least they could get hung up! Many good times were had in this house.. after about a week Mark (aussie) moved into the bed beside me.. a wicked guy.. and still working in Ios now.. (August 14th) a trooper.. Eventually I got kicked out of this house.. and had to move...

2005-08-17T07:14:00.000+01:00

My second room wasnt quite as classy as my first. I got kicked out of my first room because of complicated GREEK-ALBANIAN politics. Apparently, it is insulting to put a greek person in a room with an Albanian. So, I left my room and went to the Spikey Gate (which in the end was a wicked move).. but.. it meant i had to sleep in the kitchen. And it wasnt the cleanest of kithens.. Something was living in the drain, so every time you turned the water on it would smell like dirty pumpkin mixed with egg and donkey poo. Interesting thing about my bed: the matress had a huge C-Shaped groove in it. Thus, I could only sleep on my left side, because then i would be lying right in the groove.. whereas if i slept on my right, i wouldn't fit properly and it was extremely uncomfortable...ah well..eventually I clued into just flipping the matress... idiot... so it was a little better.. anyway, it was home.. a fixer upper i spose.. eventually i taped off the sink and made it off limits and the smell did go away.. a little.. That little red book on my bed... my journal.. lotsa reflecting took place when i first moved into this room. an experience..

2005-08-17T07:09:00.000+01:00

Well, at least mour bathroom was nice. A funny phenomenon in Europe was that there were rarely shower curtains.. we didnt even get a shower stall! You can see the cord for the shower head in the upper left, and yo would stand in the middle of the floor and just shower.. and the water would run into the drain in the middle of the floor. THis wasnt really a good system because it would soak everything in the bathroom! Often you would go to the toilet and there would be a soggy roll of toilet paper.. FYI. Soggy tp doesnt work well. PART 2 of out bathroom was the sink. well..it got clogged and broke.. so we tried to fix it and broke the pipe. Sooo.. we put a nice littl ebucket under the sink, so the water would run straight out of the bottom of the sink into the bucket. When the bucket was full we would pour it into the shower drain hole. Efficient system.. dirteee... At least we had a toilet seat.. that was more than could be said about the last hosue I lived in.

2005-08-17T07:05:00.000+01:00

Soooo.... this is my hut. Station 2. This pretty much sums up my average day for the first month and a bit. Thats me, with my chair and a water bottle. Some days I would see how long I could sit without getting out of the chair, or I would make sand castles with my feet. I think the record was 3 hours. It did get busy some days though. I normally taught windsurfing, 3-4 lessons a day, which was fun. I also had a chance to just go out myself fairly often and goof around on the surfer. Later on in the season I worked here with a greek guy named Babis. He taught me a little bit of greek everyday. Yasoo! Tikanis? Kala..eci? Poly Kala. Efchiristo.... which basically means... hello! How are you? Good and you? Very Good thank you. ... weeeeee.. im such a linguist. I also learned and heard the word "Malaka" a lot.. apparently it means "Jackass"

2005-08-17T07:03:00.000+01:00

Mylopotas Beach. Eventually, when it got busy, I began driving boats. This was a beautiful break from being on the beach. Why? I could be my own boss out there. If ther eis one thing I learned about Greeks (at least the ones i worked with) is they are stubborn... There are no ideas, plans, but their own. Canadian, Australian opinions do not matter. In the event that you try and voice your opinion, you will either be banished (as i once was), or heard.. but nothing will come of it. Greeks also have a funny way of treating you. They treat you like you are about 7 yrs old. They are always coming up behind you, watching you, babying you, telling you to do things and really in general never trusting you to get the job done. This was quite frustrating for everyone that worked on the beach. Even at the end of my time there (90days of doing the exact same thing) I was still gettting reminded, "Make sure the locks arent in the sand" or "The boat is ocming in !!! Go catch it! " when it was quite obviously coming in and it would probaly be another mintue before it actually reached the shore. This lack of trust shown by my greek employers and coworkers was quite frustrating. I learned something huge about trust during this job. If my employer doesnt trust me and is always watching me... I wont do a good job, or at least take much pride in my work. Ill just get the job done. This is because I know i am going to get told to do it another way, or im doing it improperly anyway. On the other hand, If im given responsibility, and trust.. the onus i son me to get the job done. As a result, i take pride in what im doing and work very hard. It wasnt until the last couple weeks of the summer that my employer even began to demonstrate an amount of trust with me when he let me drive th boats. In response to this trust, I was happy to work much harder. Anyway, that was a rant... in the end... it was difficult working for Greeks... while they were great people to hang out with, they transform when you try and work with them.. ok.. thats it.. yehah for IOS!

2005-08-17T07:00:00.000+01:00

I spent the first few days in the house by myself, but then these two aussie guys moved in. Chirs and Matt. They were pure jokes.. we always had a good time, whether it was at our place playing asshole, down at the port with 41cent Landerbraus, discussing the world map, or dancing at Superfly (above).. these guys were missed when they left halfway thru the summer... ill def. reconnect with these guys when i eventually venture to Australia. FYI. Matt (middle) missed his flight back to Australia because of a girl. (shes a wicked girl though.. )

2005-08-17T06:56:00.000+01:00

HARMONY CAFE. Almost every nite after work, it would be late and we would be too lazy to cook so we would go for our cheap, cheap Mexican burgers at Harmony. They gave us great deals because we worked on the ebach and we would put in a good word for them to the many sunbathers. It wasnt difficult to do, because it was without a doubt one of the coolest places on the island.

2005-08-17T06:54:00.000+01:00

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!! Canada Day was significantly more exciting for me in Greece than it often is in Canada. I decked myself out in some Canada gear, made a fool of myself and advertised my country while I windsurfed up and down the beach. Im an idiot... but a patriotic one.

2005-08-17T06:52:00.000+01:00

After a stressful day of doing ...well nothing.. Chris and I deserved some sleep.

2005-08-17T06:51:00.000+01:00

One of my favorite places on the Island was a Mexican Restaurant called Harmony. It was perfect. It had an amazing view, live music, hammocks, swing chairs, and above all other things... Connect 4. I dont know how many games of connect 4 I played this summer.. but.. its sad the amount of strategy i put into it now. So, If you ever wanna play connect 4... give me a call.. im in..

2005-08-17T06:49:00.000+01:00

Since I was wroking so hard.. I thought it was high time I took a day off.. sooo. I did just that. A friend of mine, Christina, and I rented a jeep and booted around the island for the day. The Jeep was in awful shape, but that was good because it meant I could boot up and down the bumpy, dirt switchbacks at wicked speeds and not worry too much about the jeep. It was an absolute blast drivin the jeep around! We had a cool day and we saw all kinds of other beaches on the island. It was nice to get away from the beach i spent all day, every day on.. i know.. my life is awful..

2005-08-17T06:45:00.000+01:00

80% of the people i hung out with.. met, talked to at any time on IOS were Aussies. They were everywhere!! I dont really understand how there can be any 20 somethings left in Australia... they are all treavellin! Anyway.. i jsut embraced it and tried to fit in. So, I wore this cheesy aussie hat all the time to pretend. There is Shan-o.. hes Aussie.. He drives boats.. hes got a rash ... and hes my friend.. One day we'll be watersports tycoons...

2005-08-17T06:42:00.000+01:00

Above are a group of aussies that really made Ios a memorable experience. They were crazy, fun, hilarious girls... this is me with em on their last nite in Ios. They taught me how to properly speak Australian...while laughing at my Canadian.

JIF - Heres the thing with Australian.. its really just sloppy english.. yes ..yes.. sure it sounds nice and musical and is very dreamy.. but it doesnt really use the English alphabet properly. One of the biggest trends i noticed was the absence of ANY soft Rs in the middle of words. For example... Mark is pronounced MAAWK, Melbourne is pronounced MELBIN, Cart is pronounced CAAWT...or something like that. I did get attached to a lot of Australian slang though.. such as.. "I reckon" instead of "I think", and the great term "full on" which means.. well.. full on.... Far oooot man...

2005-08-17T06:34:00.000+01:00

One of the most memorable nites at the Spikey Gate was with these really cool Brit Girls. Craig had the pleasure of taking these ladies on a boat cruise (thats what he did.. took lovely girls on boat cruises all day long to some seclulded beach...tough job man). This nite, a permenant marker got loose with them. They decided it would be funny to put whiskers on everybody that was there. There were probaly upwards of 30 people there that nite and they all had permenant markered whiskers on their faces....so funny.. and crazy. Ya probaly had to be there.. but anyway.... Hilarious to walk down the beach the next day and see a bunch of people with little black marks still on their faces.....stupid permenant marker. or "texter" as the aussies would say.

2005-08-17T06:30:00.000+01:00

Here is the final crew that I left. A wicked, wicked bunch of guys! Seriously made the summer an amazing experience. Of course I cant leave out Maria (or MAPIA...in greek)

2005-08-17T06:28:00.000+01:00

And here it is...The Spikey Gate itself! A place where we met countless people and countless ridiculous, stupid things happened. Spikey Gate Founders/Owners seen from front left to right. Shane, Jeff, Mark, Craig. Props to the two Arizona guys in the back who kept coming back nite after nite to the spikey gate.

2005-08-17T06:25:00.000+01:00

The Spikey Gate 2005. Represent. Unreal Guys....Absolutely Unreal.

GREEK BEACH BUM!!!!

2005-05-30T21:08:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post..as an update... more to come later. Just to let people know, Im in Greece on the Island of Ios teaching watersports for the summer.. i spend 10 hrs on the beach every day.. and it is AMAZING! i get to windsurf, kayak, tan, tube, wakeboard and play frisbee almost every day.. cool cool.

Also .. for cool pics of my mad whirlwind trip of Europe..go to

www.john.achtungdavey.ca/eurotrip

EUROTRIP.BGHB

2005-04-29T17:42:00.000+01:00

Well, we are over half way done our whirlwind tour of Europe. I dont get many chances to write online and it is tough to add pics to the blog, so click the link below to see some pics. Ill try and update as often as i can.

ENJOY.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/share/view?i=EeINGzli1auHBg&open=1&x=1&sm=1&sl=1

2005-04-15T15:10:00.000+01:00

This is it. My final post at herstmonceux castle. My taxi comes in about 5 minutes, so this is gonna be a quick one. It is sad that it is all coming to a close, in fact im a little teary just writing this, but I am so excited about what is to come. The coming 3 monthes may be the most unpredictable and interesting of my life. Im spending this coming weekend in London, then meeting my buddies John and Zac and the adventure begins. We are driving from Paris to Zurich to Milan to Florence to Rome to Venice to Munich to Berlin to Amsterdam to Brussels and back to Paris and then London again...at this point I will part company with my friends and catch a flight on my own to Brindisi (in the south of Italy). I will then get an 8hr ferry to the greek islands, where the job hun twill begin. I have budgeted for enough money to love for a week without ajob... so.. hopefully ill find one, or else I may be coming home early. ha hooo. Ok.. i really have to go. Hopefully Ill have a chance to post something along the way.. but, I really dont know where im going to be. Alright, Il be back in Canada August 1st. Later.. peace out from the Uk.

2005-04-15T15:05:00.001+01:00

SLCs. Represent. Herstmonceux Castle. 2005. What.What.

2005-04-15T15:05:00.000+01:00

Bye Bye Daffodils. Bye Bye ISC.

Austria. Amazing. Awesome. Ah yeah.

2005-04-04T01:25:00.000+01:00

Austria. An Amazing week off.

2005-04-04T01:22:00.000+01:00

AUSTRIA!!!!!!!!! YEHAH!!! I MADE IT!! Well, after an awful sleep beside random strangers in Stansted airport (London), a cramped plane ride, a really nice Coach ride, an overly priced taxi ride to the wrong hotel, a tired walk to the right hotel I found Tim at the proper Hotel In Hinterglem Austria. It was an unbelieavable day when I got there. Not a cloud in the sky and it was HOT! I was giddy with excitment. This week was gonna be goooooood.

2005-04-04T01:19:00.000+01:00

Here they are... The Jebb's (Minus Linda). I can't begin to describe how grateful I am for bringing me along as a Jebb on this trip with them. I had an absolutely fantastic time getting to know them! It's really amazing when I am so far from home to have friendly and familiar faces to take me under their wing.

2005-04-04T01:14:00.000+01:00

It was really good to spend some time with my longtime housemate and friend Timmy Jebb for the week. He has just been learning to snowboard and he learned a ton during the week and is getting pretty good! Classic Slef shot on the chair lift. Also, a good shot of my double chin and bum chin. Represent.

2005-04-04T01:12:00.000+01:00

Riding in the alps is really amazing because you really never run out of new places to go. Every day you can explore a different mountain! There were, I think about 5 resorts (vilalges) set up in a valley between probaly a dozen moutains. At each village you could go up multiple different mountains, and each village was connected by ski trails and gondolas. It was really amazig to stand on top of one peak and see 4 other peaks, all with gondola stations on top, far off in the distance. This picture shows a little bit what the valley between the mountains was like.

2005-04-04T01:09:00.000+01:00

One day Tim and I decided to treck across the map and try to reach a really good snowbaord park that wa sa few mountains away. This treck required multiple gondola rides and a litl ebit of hiking. The village below is Saalbach. It was really fun hiking through the village to get to the next gondola. We came across different signs in the vilalge that pointed to different gondolas...a really odd thing to see in the middle of a village. So fun. WE actually never ended up making it to the snowboard park. IT took us over 2 hours to get as far as we did and then over 2 to get back. UNfortunately, that day it was raining and we got absolutely, drenched. But still, it was a rockin adventure.

2005-04-04T01:05:00.000+01:00

There was quite a bit of snow on the trails and no ice at all. As you can see, the snow was really just on the trails, so there was no off-piste going on. This Hinterglem, the village we were staying in.

2005-04-04T01:03:00.000+01:00

My Snowboard. Austrian Alps. The Sky. Clouds. A Red Pole. Snow. A Rope.

2005-04-04T01:02:00.000+01:00

I thought this shot caught the moment really well as we took a break mid mountain and caught some sun. Tim is on the end, then Linda (his sister) and Stuart (Linda's Fiancee) in the Camo.

2005-04-04T01:01:00.000+01:00

There were all kinds of paragliders floatin around. Very cool.

2005-04-04T01:00:00.000+01:00

At the end of each day of riding we generally had a similar routine. We would immediately get changed out of our gear and throw on our swim shorts and go down to the spa downstairs. The pool was quite nice and had a bridge, a waterfall, lotsa jets everywhere and a little river with a current. I spent a good chunk of time there relaxing, sleeping and reading. There was also a Sauna and steam room. The first time we went in the Sauna we got a little bit confused and sketched out as multiple naked people, both male and female, came in and sat down beside us. At first I thought I must have gone into the womens change room or something, so I got up and left. I then looked on the door and noticed that there was a sign on it that said.. "No Clothes aloud". Hmmm.. that is interesting. You don't see that in Canada very often. These crazy Euros and their nakedness. At any rate, I spent most of my time in the general pool area. After our spa time we would throw some clothes on and head out to the street just in front of the hotel. There was always music going and a little Apres Ski party going on. We moved a table out in to the street (where the sun normally was) and chilled there most evenings. We met a bunch of people, some from New Zealend, Australia, and England. We later met up with them again and did some Kareoke with them. Cool guys. So there we are, from Linda's window in the hotel, sitting on the street. Fun times..

2005-04-04T00:53:00.000+01:00

The "Hotel Zur Dorfshmiede." THis is the place that we stayed for the week. It was a nice little place that had really nice pillows and I got a little chocolate on it everyday. Every night we ate dinner in the Hotel and sat at the same spot and had the same waitress (Sabina). I ate without a doubt some of the best meals of my life this week. Every meal was a multiple course meal with very cool presentation. The first nite (Sunday) was especially cool. The first course we got was literally a single crisp on a plate with a little bit of dip on the side. Well, I can tell you it certainly left me wanting more and excited about the next course. I can't remember the other specific courses that night, but , every night they were extremely good! Steak... Fish... Chicken.. all kinds of amazing stuff. All cooked to perfection. The desserts were also extremely delicious. Words cant really do the meals justice. At any rate, meals were always a really fun time where we sat for a couple hours (at least) and chatted about anything and everything. Mmmm... Thanks again Dave and Francis for those meals! THEY WERE GREAT FUN!

2005-04-04T00:45:00.000+01:00

Stuart and I preparing for another big day on the mountain. Stuart was a funny guy, and even though he is engaged, it seemed as though he was trying to pick up our waitress at the restaurant.. "Sabina". She was an Austrian girl, who spoke a littl ebit of English and always called Stuart "Mr. Stuey" ..it was pretty funny, and she will be missed.

2005-04-04T00:43:00.000+01:00

Linda and Mr. Stuey. The happy engaged couple. They get married summer 2006. They are a good jolly old time.

2005-04-04T00:41:00.000+01:00

Voila Me. I was by myself. I was tired of soley scenary shots. So. Me in the Austrian Alps. I loved it.

2005-04-04T00:39:00.000+01:00

The last day, Tim, Stuart, Linda, Mrs. Jebb (Francis...I hope i spelt that right) and I skiied together. I had a ton of fun, even though its not as fast as it is when im trying hard to keep up to my younger bro Mark. It was chill, and I enjoyed the sun and worked on switch riding and little backside 180s. Here is Linda on one of our breaks.

2005-04-04T00:36:00.000+01:00

On the final day, my BIRTHDAY!!! it was really sunny and warm out and we stopped for lunch mid mountain. I some sort of Weiners and we sat outside and caught some sun. Snowboarding is such an amazing package sport on days like today. I got to ride...which was amazing... it was great exercise... amazing... hung out with good friends...amazing... caught some sun....amazing... chilled out and ate lunch on the side of a mountain....Amazing. Snowboading is rad. Nuf said.

2005-04-04T00:30:00.000+01:00

During our lunch break, I decided I'd have some fun on the Tbar located right by the lodge. This particular Tbar was probaly one of the most fun Tbars ever (I know..hard to imagine). But anyway, it was quite a long Tbar and it had 3 or 4 really steep regions followed by very long flat regions. During these flat spots, I found it quite fun to emulate Wakeboarding, Kiteboarding etc. Poked out tailslides FS, BS 360.. whatever.. it was a blast. So there I am doing a TBar BS Noseslide. I think people at the lodge thought I was a chump and a poser... and that may be true... but it doesnt negate the fun I had. Yehah! A picture that I unfortunately Dont have here is when we later conitnued all the way up the TBar. Once I got bored with doing various Jibs and stuff, I decided I wanted to try some more Barefoot-like moves, like ...Tumble Turns. So I cut across the path and jumped and landed on my back in the snowbanks on the side of the trail. I would slide along on my back and then sorta tumble turn back up. Again.. tons o fun. It was all fun and games until i decided to try this off a part in the path that had at least a 45 degree incline. I slid half way down the deep powder on my back and was dragged along in the snow, dodging dips and trees! It was quite possibly one of the most exhausting things of my life, as I refused to let go! It went on for what felt like forever but was probaly about a minute or two, until the incline decreased and I got back on the trail and the liftee stopped the TBar. I was still unable to pull myself up because I was so exhausted, so I ended up letting go of the TBar and riding back to sit on Tims TBar with him. I was done... sheooo.. When I got to the top I got a strip torn of me by some English woman. She thought I was being reckless and dangerous... I just told her I wasn't very good at using TBars. Her son later come up to me and said..."Woah, man that was a cool trick..... Sorry about my Mom" I thought that was funny... I told him "Not to try it at home." Anyway.. it was all good fun and Im glad my lift pass didnt get cut.

2005-04-04T00:19:00.000+01:00

T-Bar FS Boardslide. Hinterglem, Austria. Represent.

2005-04-03T01:07:00.000+01:00

This week was certainly quite memorable. I left and said goodbye to the hotel at around 5 in a taxi--then a van at 6-- then a plane at 930--then a coach at 11:15--then a long walk with my pack on to Bonnie's House--until 7am--then another long walk with my pack on to Victoria Station in London-- then a train to Polegate--then a taxi to the Castle by 10:30am. Home Sweet Home...with a moat.

2005-04-03T00:50:00.000+01:00

Bright and early thismorning we got up and took 4 coaches to the wonderful city of Oxford. I didn't really know what to expect as I knew very little about the city. It was a fantastic sunny day and when we arrived we all had guided walking tours. Until going, I was unaware that Oxford is compsed of about 38 distinct colleges that students apply to all seperately. They all compete against eachother in sport and spirit, but all provide one with an Oxford degree. Each college has its own chapel (which is really more like a cathedral) as well as huge Harry Potter Dining Hall. Once a student is accepted to a college, they are basically a member for life. Often students will return to their home college chapel to get married in. Our tour guide listed off many celebs who were at Oxford including, Tolkien, CS Lewis, Hugh Grant, Bill Clinton and Mr. Bean! We saw places that inspired some of their stories,as well as their places of residence. It was a pretty cool experience walking through this city and it actually inspired me to feel like I should be studying or something....that passed quickily though. The above pic is just one of the many chapels associated with the individual colleges (I cant remember which one that is..)

2005-04-03T00:43:00.000+01:00

After the walking tour of the city, we stopped into Blackwells. Blackwells is essentially the Oxford University Campus Bookstore and is also one of the biggest bookstores in the world. It was really quite spectacular to walk around in and you could really lose track of time while in it. The above picture is in the basement of the 5 level store.

2005-04-02T23:28:00.000+01:00

After we finished strolling through the city and colleges, Netters and I had some extra rime so we went down by the river. No wonder Oxford has such a good rowing team! Prime location!!!!! Along the river, there were over a dozen different boathouses for each of the seperate rowing teams for each of the colleges at Oxford. Its insane that they have so many teams! It was quite busy down by the water with lots of tourists and students wandering, or rowing around.

2005-04-02T23:25:00.000+01:00

I became quite fascinated with this duck or goose or whatever it is... it just wouldn't move no matter how close i got. I thought he'd be a good pic.

2005-04-02T23:07:00.000+01:00

I came across these boats that reminded me quite a bit of a certain series of paintings done by Renoir and Manet of the Seine in Paris. Sooo..I took a picture. ASPO knows what im talking about. Werd.

2005-04-02T23:01:00.000+01:00

At 5pm I said farewell to the coaches and grabbed my pack and snowboard bag off of the coach. I made the short treck to the rail station and began my long treck to AUSTRIA!!!!

2005-03-22T00:44:00.000Z

WALES CREW! Yehah!!

2005-03-22T00:28:00.000Z

Amazing view outside our hostel in Wales.

2005-03-22T00:27:00.000Z

Amazing.

2005-03-22T00:24:00.000Z

ASPO. Playing games in the hostel. LOOK ANDREA AND SELENA ARE IN THIS PICTURE!!! ASPO ASPO ASPO ASPO ASPO ASPO

2005-03-22T00:10:00.000Z

The top of Mt.Snowden. There was a whole lot more Den, than Snow.

2005-03-22T00:08:00.000Z

Me. Admiring the view after the long hike.

2005-03-22T00:07:00.001Z

Amazing view from the top!

2005-03-22T00:07:00.000Z

Lake from the top of Mt.Snowden

2005-03-22T00:06:00.000Z

Lakes... and Mt. Snowden

2005-03-22T00:05:00.000Z

After the greater part of the descent, we came across a series of small lakes. It was sweaty and hot...so some of us thought it would be nice to have a little dip. These were ice last week.

2005-03-22T00:04:00.000Z

i couldnt feel my toes and the rocks were sharp. It was freezing!! But I had to go in. So, I did.

2005-03-22T00:02:00.001Z

Splash!

2005-03-22T00:02:00.000Z

I couldnt breath. I tried to talk..but it was gibberish. Brrrrrrrrrr..

2005-03-22T00:01:00.001Z

Group Blue. Rock on!

2005-03-22T00:01:00.000Z

The Lake at the finish of the hike down Mt. Snowden

2005-03-22T00:00:00.001Z

Windsor Castle

2005-03-22T00:00:00.000Z

Windsor Castle

2005-03-21T23:59:00.000Z

The Changing of the Guard. The band was very good and they played "From a Distance" Weird. Bette Midler??

2005-03-21T23:57:00.001Z

Inside Windsor Castle.

2005-03-21T23:57:00.000Z

Thats me. Thats Windsor Castle.

2005-03-21T23:56:00.000Z

Cathedral inside the walls of Windsor Castle -- Where the Queen Mom is buried.

2005-03-21T23:54:00.000Z

My Classic "Into the Sun Shot" - Windsor Castle

2005-03-17T01:22:00.000Z

Me and Mom after a great breakfast. Getting ready for a big day in London

2005-03-17T01:14:00.000Z

White Cliffs of Dover

2005-03-17T01:12:00.000Z

WWII

2005-03-17T01:10:00.001Z

Dover Castle

2005-03-17T01:10:00.000Z

Dover Castle

2005-03-17T01:09:00.000Z

Stairway leading to the roof at Dover Castle

2005-03-17T01:06:00.000Z

Picadilly Circus

2005-03-17T01:02:00.001Z

Swiss Re headquarters

2005-03-17T01:02:00.000Z

London from atop St.Pauls

2005-03-17T01:00:00.000Z

London THames at sunset

2005-03-17T00:59:00.000Z

Charing Cross Station from the London Eye

2005-03-17T00:58:00.000Z

Big Ben from on top of the London Eye

2005-03-17T00:55:00.000Z

View from the Jubilee Bridge

2005-03-17T00:53:00.000Z

The Tube

2005-03-17T00:52:00.000Z

The Crown Jewels at the Tower of London