Welcome To Daves Travel Page

After visiting Dublin for a few times last year, I decided it would be nice to venture to some of the other cities in Ireland and find out how they compare and relate to their capital city. I was in search of some real Irish culture which I didn’t discover in its capital and managed to find a flight to Cork the second largest city in Ireland.

I was looking forward to the visit as a lot of people have told me how amazing and lovely it is to visit so I decided to go there myself.

It’s all ways best to get to the airport really early so you make sure you beat any morning traffic and it’s also great to chill out and spend some time in the airport so as my flight was going around 5:00pm I made sure I was up and early and in town ready to get the shuttle bus to the airport. That day I and my friend meet up for Brunch to have a little chit chat over a brew while I waited for my bus and then on I jumped. I prefer the bus the rather than the train as it’s a third of the price and the journey is much more enjoyable as well.

So I arrived at Stansted airport, I have to say Stansted is my most favorite out of the 5 London airports as it has that nice smooth laid back feel and you never lose your luggage as well. I skipped through customs and went right through to the waiting lounge as I had priority boarding which I managed to brag for free .

The best bit about waiting at a airport is just chilling with a brew, reading a paper and just watching the world go by, seeing all the people with their roller bags flying away to all corners on the globe and people rushing epically to get to the boarding gate, you can’t sit and wonder what’s really out there in the big world and you envy people as you look on the screens of all the exotic locations that everyone in flying to.

As my wait come to a end I like to get to the gate 3o minutes before take off as I like to see every ones faces who have been sitting around the queue for 2 hours then I just walk along and sit at the front of the line because all the seats are taken and I’m rather happy with the floor. It’s funny as I just sit down as a herd of animals come before me and the amazing queue system arises from the deep around me, all the great British sport of queuing . first on board I jump to the first row as this means I can quickly jolt to passport control and be home free when the plane lands. The flight was great and I love the budget airlines. The liberation of sitting in the best seat even though you paid 100 times less than the person sitting next you but yet you are treated with the same service. Once landed I was amazed at the size of cork airport, I loved the design of the place and it had a lovely feel to it. Compared to some places Ryanair have dropped me off in the past this was luxury.

So after going through passport control I jumped onto the shuttle bus to the center, I could hitch hiker it but the tempting student return rate tempted me . The bus driver was a Cork local and very happy to talk to me about the history of cork and where and where not to go and what to look for, he was a very friendly guy and loved to act as a tour guide as well as a driver. To be honest I think I would of preferred him to drive the car during some close encounters with some other drivers but apart from that it was a great start to the trip and I as I only had a day the driver saved me money on a tour guide as well as discounted airport runs.

I thanked him for his local knowledge and headed to St Patrick’s bridge were I arranged to meet my host. I prefer to stay with people through hospitality websites while I’m on the road not for cost but for the learning about different cultures side to it. Rather than staying in a hotel with that barrier with the locals I like to be chucked into culture and really experience it.

My host Franzi was from Berlin in Germany and had lived in the local area for a while for work and had kindly put me up for the night. It was great talking to her and about her journeys to cork and why she loves it so much and why life is better here and why she likes the life style. It was great talking to her as even though she was German she was so positive about cork and the locals it was really nice. We then headed back to hers for some dinner which she kindly made me , lovely pasta and sauce, it was lovely! At this stage she called a local Irish man to come along with us on a little tour of cork and the night life. There wasn’t much to do but check out the local pubs as it was so late at night.

The first place we visited was a really traditional Irish pub and it was so small! Like a whole in the wall with no electricity and just candle lights for vision. It was great I loved it, it had that real hearty feel to the place and you could see all the Irish just chatting away and laughing and drinking the black stuff, it was a very enjoyable experience. I tried a pint of McCarthy’s which is the local Cork Brew and It was very enjoyable it was the same color as Guinness buy the hops had a much more bitter taste to it which made it a much more enjoyable pint.

From here we headed to the student bar which was in Gallic and translated to the shoe, I didn’t know if it was because it smelled of fellow students but that’s my guess: D. it was a lovely venue and every one chilling out after their lectures and it had a great vibe to it. As it was getting dark and my new friends from cork had work in the morning I figured it would be best and be polite to head home and call it an early night.

On the way back we stubble upon a chicken shop called hill Billy’s which is this amazing chicken shop like KFC but much better and its famous to cork and there are only two in the world which are both funny enough in Cork . The gravy and chicken was to die for and I highly recommend it when you pay Cork a visit.

As we headed back to my hosts house I said good bye to my new Irish friend and headed for the Bunks to rest my sleepy head for another day in the lovely city of cork

Porto Portugal

 

For a while Portugal has been on my to do list, it’s always been a destination that I have wanted to visit as its a located on the corner of Europe and boasts to be the oldest country in Europe as well as its boarder is the oldest and has never changed for many years. I was delighted when I found a really cheap flight to the second largest city in Portugal, Porto.

 

I have always said that because I am from London I really don’t normally travel to the capitals first as I fill that if you travel around the rest of the country you generally get a better vibe of the country and people have more time for you. I found this to be rather true in Porto and I really received a warm welcome.

 

My ryanair flight was 1p there and 1p back (£21.01with tax and credit card charges) so I was delighted to pick up a great bargain on my behalf.  Porto airport is lovely, ryanair have always seemed to pushed people to the end of their temper with the locations of the airport they use and the state of the airport they choose. I’m not bothered by this as I understand that it reflects in the price but wow! Porto airport is amazing! Aeroporto International Dr. Francisco Sá Carneiro(metro stop porto airport) is named after a Politian who died in a plane crash there (little daunting) and is a lovely refurbished airport which has been giving a lovely new modern face lift and is really amazing to look at.

 

The connections to the centre of Porto centre is really good as they have installed a new metro system which I loved. Compared to my London underground it’s lovely and clean with easy to understand maps, but why 4 metros go along the same track but have a different colour route I have no idea and found that even locals seemed to find it weird. It’s very easy to work as well. You pay a one of fee of around a euro for a non-disposable ticket rather the same as an oyster and then you touch on and touch off at each stop, a single journey can range from 70 cent to 2 Euros depending on where you want to go. If your there for much longer you can get a weekly and monthly pass from a ticket office for long term stays.

 

I found it very tricky though to find an all day pass to use the card constantly but didn’t know how to go about doing this and I think that they might not even have such a scheme set up and so I paid individually for my journey every time I used it. I found I didn’t use it that often any way so individually was probably the best idea to go along with any way. Places are easy to access by foot.

 

My first night thank you to ryanair was short lived as I arrived at 10pm so I didn’t have much to do but go straight to the hostel. My first night I stayed at a lovely new hostel called black and white, it has been open since august and it was really nice to see a hostel at the start of its life. The whole hostel was in a lovely Portuguese apartment and everything was either black or white. I have to say in all honesty, it was the second best hostel I have ever been to, the only done side was the location, which was easy to access on the metro and to walk to from the centre it was just a little out and the directions were hard to follow that were given to me and alls the size as it was rather small but homely. But it was a really nice hostel with a lovely comfy bed, a nice hot shower which was really nice it was very relaxing and a nice hearty breakfast with great coffee.  I found the staff to be very friendly as they were a family running the business, they didn’t speak English but what I found un like the French they really want to learn with you and want to understand what you’re saying which I found very nice and kind and this was generally what it was like around all of Portugal.  I found it to be really modern with great facilities for its size and I would defiantly recommend staying there if you’re ever in Porto it is really nice!

 

I met a group of Germans there who live close to Hamburg and I was chatting to them about their stay and I was amazed to hear that there is a beach in porto and that they had been going there every day to get a tan, I didn’t think of porto as a beach resort and I was thinking it was more along the lines of a harbour. They were very friendly and we drunk some beer till the early morning.

 

The next day when I woke up I had my lovely breakfast which was very European continental style with the cheese and meat which I love! And said good bye to the lovely hostel owners who were very friendly and kind enough to give me a map. I meet an English man that morning and he told me about how easy it was to walk to the centre so I decided to tag along with him to the centre. He was teaching English to Portugal people for a fee and he was doing this for some travel funding money. He said it was going well and he liked Porto in general. I said good bye to him and wished him luck and I decided to explore the place.

 

I had a day to kill as I was meeting my couch surfing host in the evening so I decided to have a walk around. I had a little grand tour of Porto and just looked at the really old historical buildings there which are just lovely. Walking along the harbour is really nice when the sun shines on the water.

I then went to get something to eat for lunch and went to a Portuguese

Later I went to meet my host who were from Poland who are doing a EU resumes exchange program in porto with porto university, it’s a scheme run by the EU were you can live in another university in another country and study like you would back home, I’m exchange you get to see what another culture is like and pick up a language. I think it’s great! I can’t wait to do it myself. My hosts were very kind enough to look after me during the rest of my stay in Porto. They took me back to their house where I met the rest of the lodgers who were from hungry and even more from Poland. They were really lovely friendly people and we chatted for a while with some tea. They were amazed that I put milk in my tea and found me weird because I did so!

 

As everyone in the house was busy studying one of the polish girls who was free decided to take me out along the port of Porto, wow! At night it’s really stunning and the views were amazing, it was nice to walk there and just chat about life and about what it’s like living in another country. We took a drink in a side bar and I was amazed by how modern the bars on the side of the port were it looked like the whole stretch had been revamped and I liked it.

 

It’s what I loved about Porto the way they blended these lovely Mediterranean style gaffs full of history and tradition with stylish modern buildings which would shock even some of the most sophisticated of Swedish designers.

After our drink I discovered it was 12:00pm and still I hadn’t seen a rush of people arrive? My new friend informed me that Portugal as a nation don’t make a move till gone mid night as this is the time when everyone makes a move to hit the bars. I found this funny because our bars and pubs close around this time in the UK and I could not imagine tourists from abroad becoming confused by why no one was out at night drinking. I was also told that all the major night clubs need to be reached by either car or taxi as they are well out of the centre. So the night life is much different to many cities but this does make the centre seem more quiet and peaceful, a more friendly atmosphere.

 

So after a couple we decided to head to another bar on the other side of the river, we found a nice little bar full of football fans who were over for a Celtic football game, it was interesting as they were singing their songs. There was a group of students also who were doing their first year. You can tell this as they wear black cloaks to show that they are first year and they all look like Zorro: D.

 

They started drinking and the Celtic fans also started drinking and it got interesting as they were both competing with each other over their songs and who could sing it loader. I laughed as they were so drunk they started swimming in a fountain and they were in full suits with the cloaks on which was hilarious!! We then went back to the flat apartment to go to sleep.

 

Today I had the time to cruise around the area and to explore Porto furthermore, there wasn’t much to see apart from going to see Porto stadium which was contently just up the road so as I was there why not hey? It was interesting to see this stadium as it looked very new, it was a state of the art stadium build for the European cup which was in 2004. I liked the design and decided to show my support by purchasing a fridge magnet. I had some more time to kill at this stage as I promised id keep myself occupied throughout the day so my lovely host could study which I was all game for. I walked across this building after exiting the stadium and discovered it was a large shopping complex, so as I love to do a little shopping here and there decided to have butchers. Wow!! What an amazing place it looked very new and the fountains in the middle were interesting to look at. There wasn’t much in this place to suit my taste but I did find a lovely fast-food area up stairs. I say lovely as I was lost for choice!! There were around 40 fast-food joints and I spend a good few minutes cruising through the place. It’s funny as it wasn’t busy so all the fast-food cashiers were all looking at me with smile that looked like they wanted to eat me, it was rather scary but I guess its tough competition with 40 fast-food joints.

 

It was nice to see a selection of different foods and different cultural foods as well but I had my eyes set out on a very affordable kebab and decided to chow down there. I remember looking around at the other fast-food joint and they all looked disappointed chucking their hats on the floor with anger. But it was a lovely kebab and for a few Euros I was sailing.

 

So I decided to head back now as it was getting late and I wanted to find out what the evening plans are. When I got back I was invited to go with the flat mates to meet some locals and go to a shish bar which a Arabic place with a pipe and you smoke a selection of flavours while drinking some tea, I loved it! It was so social and so nice to chat to some locals about Portugal. I was telling them about how good the quality of life is there and they agreed, they said the weather is great everything is affordable and there is a lot of opportunity here. I agree and I think that a great way to explain Portugal.

 

We then after a few smokes make a move back to this guy’s house called Hugo who is such a lovely guy and kindly invited we back for a party! It was really fun and we went back to the polish girls flat to pick some drinks up as the shops. It was amazing it was like an off licence in their house! I take it they party a lot lol. We then went back to Hugo house and it was so nice there! He has such a lovely house it was amazing and I can’t belief it was all his lol!! Well we partied and I chatted and I really got no my new Portugal friends and further more with my hosts which was a really nice evening!

 

It was sad as I would be heading back home in the morning and as I woke up I had to unfortunately say good bye to my new friends and set off to the airport. I decided to have a little look around and pick up some coffee which I loved there: D. On the way to the airport I met some Brazilians who were having a mini European trip and I got chatting with them. They were really called and we exchanged emails and travel talks on the flight they were really nice guys who were staying with his brother in Wimbledon. It was sad saying good bye to the them at the Stansted airport.

 

All together Portugal was a mystery from the start and I was glad I explored it as it was a lovely place with a great laid back feel of enjoying football and coffee, 2 of my passions and it was a lovely holiday from my friendly hostel manager to the even more friendly I made at the Arabic cafe.  Defiantly travel to Portugal who won’t be disappointed

wow, i really havent updated any thing on this page for ages. the summer has begun! hardly :( the weather in england is 50/50 on if it rans or shines  and its getting annoying. i hope it all clears up by next week so we can start to enjoy life and are hardly ever appearing sunshine. well im going to post some travel photos from this year up and ill post my sweden ones up when i return so stay tuned and pray the weather gets better

 

 

regards

 

Dave

when i was traveling on the road, i did a dayly blog of my travels and talked about what i was doing. i sort of stopped doing this around april but yet i was still on the road, so i used this weekend to back track to were i started off at to finnish my european tour in the form of blogs, i hope you enjoy the read and i will from now on post all my travels in the form of blogs in the future, i hope you enjoy reading them!

 

Adiose

 

Dave  

lodz is probely unnone to the average jo and is probally only none by the people who live there, thats probally why ryanair fly there and i eneded up going there. durring the summer of 04 i meet a polish dude called bartek on a campsite i was helping out on and we became good firends. when i was telling him about my travels he didnt understand why i had never been to poland before and i guess thats what made me decide to go there. bartek lives in a city called lodz its located in the centre of poland and it is a city full of surprises. so i jumped on a flight and lodz i ended up in. as i was landing i new i was in for a surprise. as i was looking around out side my planes window i was already getting a sence of poverty, not that i mind it at its just didnt expect it to be that bad. another thing i noticed was the amount of churches, there was a church to every 3-4 blokes which surprised me. as i got off the airplane i looked around the airport to see if i could spot bartek. when i found him he kindly greeted me and took me to a bus stop. as the bus aproched me i was surprised it was still running. it was a old rust bucket on wheels but i wasnt complaining as the ride was as little as 20p per a hour. i was shocked at how cheap it was and for 20p in london that wouldnt even cover a quater of a single 1 zone tube journey. as we had some time to spare we went to a shopping mall and bartek was desprate to show me shop prices as he said if a cheap bus ticket amazed you wait till you go shopping. he was right as stuff in poland is so much cheaper than london, i was hungry so we grabbed some thing to eat, i had a large kebab for 50p and he had a cheese burger for 15p. i was starting to wounder if life in the uk was worth it. then i quickly remembered that alot of polish people do live in the uk. but if they was living so cheap out in poland they must be finding life impossible. well i wasnt going to keep on bragging about the prices as im sure he already new the big differences. we went to a supper market and the thing that amazed me so much was the amount of juice they drink there was atleast 4 rows in a huge supper market full of juice. then next to that was a complete row of vodka which again was amazing as ive never seen so much vodka down one row. then the prices, they were again shocking. you could pick up a letre of vodka for 3 quid!! well i was going to pick up about 10 bottles on the spot but i forgot i only had a weekend to drink them all :P.

 

we headed home after that to meet bateks family and to settle in my new home for the few days. bateks house was in a nice area in walking distance of the centre tram so access was easy. barteks house was lovely and reminded me of a spanish villa. barteks family didnt speak any english apart from his sister, but i wasnt bothered at all as i was in poland after all and it wasnt like every one had to speak english. it was funny though as his mother would often speak to me in polish expecting me to understand :P. i just nodded my head and smiled :D. that day we had a polish meal which was potatoes and vegitibles with white sausages. it was boiled in chicken sauce and tasted lovely. i got to try there tea for the first time which was intresting as you cant add milk to it apparantly or it would turn a funny colour. they laughed when i asked for milk as they dont normally use milk for that.

 

the next day bartek was busy at college so his sister kindly othered to show me around. we went to have some coffee and some ice creme in a kool italian bar in the shopping mall it was nice to talk about poland and her time in england as it was intresting to hear about her side of the story as its often the other way round in the papers, i was sad to hear that pub owner wasnt paying her correctly even though she was doing an amazing job. she sorted it out in the end but she didnt no if she would go back to london. bartek arranged to meet up with us after his lessons so we went to go and meet him. it was lunch time so we went to a chinese place. i ordered a large rice, big portion of chicken, lots of sweet sour sauce and a coke and to my amazement it all come to a quid!! never in london hey :P. it was alot i wasnt able to finish it some bartek helped me out, but i was amazed that you could get such a large meal for so little.

 

after that we head back to there place and had pancakes, that night we was going to watch matrix. but i forgot i was in poland and the whole film was in polish :P, it was an intresting watch and i think neo had a more butch voice.

 

the next day we explored the city for a while for a last and final shop, i was able to pick up alot of bargains for christmas presents and also treat my self on some cheap luxurys. on the way back bartek was telling me about how bad the crime level is in lodz and that i had to be careful. durring the day we went to a market, this market was like nothing else, they had live fish swimming around! and as i leaned over to look they kept picking them up going tusher tusher. wierd very ver weird! and there would be ladys standing on every coner holding gold necklaces trying to flog them off. on the way back we saw a small fiat 126 (smaller than minis) do a fat spin and park out side a off licence, the guy rolled out of the car with 2 carlsburg bottles and rolled into the drink shop saying some polish, bartek said to me that he had just stollen the car and he had gone to get some more beer, it made us both laugh. well that night i was going to experiance some polish night life. barteks friend had a summer house in the forest and he had invited me to come along. we got picked up in a girls car and given a lift to the party. well we had to pick up some booze on the way there as the polish love to drink vodka all day long so i brought along a bottle me self to experiance the culture. as we pulled out to drive away she went into a no drive zone and she had to reverse back. well she didnt get fare as she reveresed into a pole! well i laughed and off to the party we went. as we was arriving we really was in the middle of no were as the hut was in the forest some were. well we pulled up and out we got, it was freezing! extremly freezing! and i couldnt wait to get inside until i realised that was the reason we brought the vodka, because it was even more cold inside :P i will never forget the people who were trying to make a fire inside the building it was a laugh trying to warm up! well it was more of a gathering to say the truth but as the night went on more vanilla ice was being played on the cassete radio. well after the gathering we left to go back to his house and the next day i went home with many memorys of a crazy country. poland is full of surprises.

 

 

well dont you some times wounder what would actualy happen if you was to close your eyes and spin a globe and just jot your finger onto it and then randomly travel to the destination your finger tip touched. well being Dave i just did just that. board one evening with nothing to do i fancied exploring a destination i had not yet descovered and the map was just glooming at me. i decided to travel to were ever my finger landed on and to my surprise my finger landed on Graz. Graz is a small city located south side of asutria, its famouse for its football team and being the proud birth place of hollywood actor arnie swazeneger. well it sounded like a challenge i was up to and with a free weekend aproching what a better time to go. just one slight problem all travelers face, the funding. i opened my bank account with my fingers crossed and it read 50 quid. so what already being a challenge ended up becoming a mission. well with cheap airlines and students discounts flying around i didnt want to give the challenge up just get and decided to give it a run for its money. i hunted and hunted and hunted and managed to find a 30 quid return with taxes flight for a 5 day visit to graz. what a result i thought! but then i realised i had 20 quid left if i was to book the flight. as the destination was randomly come across i didnt actualy no any one in graz in fact i didnt even no any one in austria to say the truth. even with all my international relations i was stuck with not figuring out what to do. even if i was to find a cheap hostal they wouldnt be any were near 4 quid a night that would just be silly. but then i remembered, i remembered a website i had used before that offered free accomidation and food in exchange for cultural learning and kind company, i had used the website couchsurfing before in germany and norway and thought id give it ago. when i searched for graz there was hundreds of students to choose from but it was hard to find some one who wouldnt mind the 5 days. then i come across a austrian student who had a spare room to borrow and surfer looking student who had a free floor so i decided to email them both. instantly the asutrian student who had a free room sent me a mail saying she would be delighted to host me and to my amazement a trip which was in the red from the start ended u being a result. i had managed to get all the main things you need when traveling to a country for around 30 quid, result. well i packed my bags and off to austria i went. austria reminded me of germany very much but it has a mountain orentated landscape which gave it a nice touch. the girl who i was staying with was a friendly student who was living in her perants sort of secound house so she had it all to her self durring uni time which was handy for surfers as ther was always free rooms. she worked in a music store when she was free and loved to host people from all around the world. she was finishing work later so i decided to explore graz while i had some free time. as i was walking around christmas was aproching and you could see it in the atmosphere. all the austrians love to eat sausages on the road sides from venders and in christmas time they would drink gluvien a sort of hot wine. it was to sweet for my liking but it did warm you up durring the cold winters. after my exploring i decided to go and meet my new austrian friend for the first time in her music shop. instantly she greeted me and welcomed me to graz and she straight away helped me with my bags. we first of all went to her car which had a funky animal seat belt and headed back to her apartment. we talked durring the journey about are different cultures and i was asking questions about her and we really got on which was nice. when we got to her house she cooked me a lovely pasta dish and she told me that a bunch of aussies were arriving tomorrow who would also be staying. i get on with aussies so i was looking forward to it. in the morning she had to go to college so she gave me a lift to the centre and i decided to explore again. i went to a modern art gallery which was intresting it was full of wacky art like a ping pong table wrapped completly with police tape, i had alot of time on my hands so rather than looking at it with a wierd look and thinking o...k... i just went into a frame of an acceptable art critic. so i was thinking that the ping pong table was the community and that the police have stop the community from playing ping pong... yes like i said alot of time in my hands. on the top floor you can see a lovely view of the town with free tea. the tea at first was lovely but as it dragged on i wasnt sure if it was modern art hippy tripping out tea. well it made the view look nice. latter that day i meet up with my fellow austrian to go and play some football table with her mates. football table is big in austria and its one of there most popular sports. as i was welligton primarys over 7's champion for 2 executive times i thought id give erm a run for there money. it quickly ended when i realised that it isnt just getting the ball in the net there is actualy a skill to it which amazed me as i never actualy thought there was. but the austrians are well trained with there winning flicks so i handed over my trophy and called it a night. the next trip was to go and collect the aussies from the train station. i was looking forward to it as it would be nice to talk to some travelers on the road. as we picked them up we realised that the boot was full of spare tiers and there was no room for there sacks. so it ended up becoming a really crampt car which i found amusing. well the convo quickly went off into the direction of the cricket and the aussies loved to rub it in, i dont really follow it but that was probally for the best. when we got back to the flat we thought it would be a funny idea to watch some movies, well to my surprise they were all in german! i guess it added character. it was a cheesey 80's film about soilders getting attacked by zombies but to say the truth because it was in german it was heleriouse. every time they ran away when smoke come crepping up to them and they would scream bacon!! the next film was called deer woman, i dont even need to explain what they film was about but yet again it was cheese on wheels but the german dumbed made it funny. the following day we went clubbing in some student bars  and this was the first time i really had a proper chance to spend my remaining change. student bars were cheap and enjoyable but the best part of the night was the cab back home. we got picked up my this geezer who had large glasses on, very thin and funny ears with a crunched up face, he was one kool cabbie! he must of been doing 70 down a normaly street but he cranked the music up proper loud and me the aussies and the austrian were all singing along to the music :P. one cab ride to remember. well the next day was the end of my journey and i said good bye to my new mates and off back home i went.

me and my couson had decided for some wierd and strange reason to go on a holiday to guernsey for a month, why? well i dont no? i had been there previously that year already and stayed with my friend beth who i meet at  eurojam and i had pritty much done all there was to be done there but it turned out to be the location of the brett bro's crazy adventure for the summer. well it all stayed with the journey to gatwick it was a early flight so we decided to get there well in advance and it turned out we had a long time to kill so we decided to sleep. the last time i slept there i had a kick ass chair bed upstairs but they had all been taken by the wind surfers and there equipment, why there there boards needed to sleep on a bed i have no idea. but dont worry being scouts we was prepared!!! yes that right we had portable accomidation in the form of a tent and that pitched nicely above customers and opisite to duty free. we had a nanny nap and heard some wierd coments mostly laughs and one saying "the bloody french!" (haha) well we decided to call it a day and board for are flights for some reason we both for searched even though we didnt set the alarms off i think if you wear your scout uniforms in the airport you might be considered as a bomb carrier or some thing, i thought we was a peace promoting organisation (meh). well me and matt thought we would make the most of are time at the airport and refueled on free after shave and had a nice long chat with the bacardi girls for a while. well we started to board the plane and it was getting into are heads that we were going on holiday. we landed in guernsey and the sun was out to greet us. being scouts we didnt want to get the bus to town and decided to walk it. we didnt actualy have a clue were we was going and ended up walking through a corn field then through a hourse stabels and then got chased by a few horses. finally we reached a gate but was greated by the farmer :s, luckly he saw the funny side of it and pointed us in the right direction. the way we was heading would of brought us over a cliff. we under estermated the size of guernsey and thought it was a walk in the park. we finally found the camp site we would call home for are time there and we was greeted by a crockerdile dunde looking dorset trackter talker top of a bloke geezer called fred who was expecting us. we pitched are tent and decided to head for the beach. it was a lovely day and we went for a paddle until the rest of the group who was on a later flight arrived in a locals car. the local ended up being bloke called gaz who ended up being a shaperon for the duration of are stay (i think he just wanted to be around an individual member of are group who he was fond off) well he headed back to the campsite and fell alsleep. the next day we got in contact with a old friend from eurojam, big ben. big ben was the network leader and had the key to bar. we got talking to him and he aloud us to use the cooking areas and the lounge and the bar and the pool table and tv as long as we kept it clean and looking nice for the network. so we did. it ended up being a life saver as we had some were to do every thing. also we had a bar to entertain guests which was kool, also up stairs was a full functioning cinema room which ended up being a life saver doing the borring evenings. durring the week we had to do are own shopping which was a laugh as we managed to get all are food for silly money like 30 each for the rest of are stay which was just completly mad! durring the evening we decided to hit the town and explore the night life. lil o was funny through out that night one nocking over a pint another for looking to younge and not getting in the best club and 3 for porring marmite shots over a girls white top (ill explain that one later). well it was a great night and matt managed to find a builder (polish i think) which  had a huge wod of cash on him and was feeling great as he kept buying are crew (matt mostly) free drinks all night which was mad! until he got kicked out of course. this bar was called toast and it had a theme of selling drinks which you would spread on your toast. they did peanut butter and ever thing like that. lil o decided to buy us a round of marmite shots, as he was walking over he spilt it all down a girls dress and she went barmy saying who would pull me smelling like marmite (so funny had to be there) welll i jokingly said i like marite. i liked toast it played great music mostly drum and base and every one danced on the table's. the good thing about guernsey is the no tax thing so the drinks were alot cheaper than london!! after we left toast we thought it might be a good idea to hail a cab as a 4 hour walk to safe a few quid between us didnt sound to good after all the boogying. i put my thumb out and a range rover pulled over thinking i was hitch hiking. this ended up being one of the funniest journeys home of my life!  the dude thought i was hitch hiking and jumpt at the idea as he had nothing to do as he was waiting to pick his son up (bout are age he said) well he ended up bieng a diamond gezzer and driving us all the way back to are camp site, we talked about paint balling and guernsey and how he had imported his range rover on the island. we all were a little worried through out the journey as getting a lift for free didnt seem to good to be true. when he took the wronge turning i noticed matts face turn blue but when i advised him of the the wronge turning he laughed and turned around. when he dropped us off he offered him petrol money (its so cheap there any way but he kindly refused. as we waved him good bye we all turned to each offer saying what!! i guess there are still alot of good people on this planet and his kind generousity payed off as we got back to the camp site in good time to go to sleep. i on the other hand ran into a dart board and woke up the next morning. if i was going to go on about are time in guernsey i think you would need a pot of tea some im going to end it nicely with some of are high lights:

 

well me and artu meet up for a trip to helsiniki we grabbed a train and off we went. it was fun traveling with him as i hadnt actualy traveled with a friend before so it was a first. he was finnish as well so he helped with the translations. he made me laugh as he dressed up all smart with a jacket so he was all worked up for a night out. as we arrived in helsinki i was amazed by how amazing the builiding are built they are just amazing to look at. it was a photo opitunity so we got a japanese person to take a photo of me and artu behind a sign saying helsinki. i was shocked to notice that he didnt even no how to hold the camera :P, we got some dodjy photos back and smiled and thanked him never the less, i laughed as the japs take the most photos in the world and he didnt no how to take one lol! well we thought it would be good to check in to the hostel first and get are bags sorted and stuff. the hostel was the cheapest i had ever come across it was 6 quid, which is nothing for a nights sleep when you think about it. after that we acted liked tourists and went shopping and took crazy photos with all the popular places in helsinki. as we was walking around we found some kool helsinki locals who were going around drinking beer and we decided to tag along, it was a laugh and we traveled around every were with them island to island on trams just drinking beer, we had this large boom box blearing out music and the more i drunk the more funny it got. after the dude to chick number decreased we thought it would be a good idea to go clubbing to end the night in a blast. we went around but artu didnt have idea so getting into a club was ending up to be very hard. but using my swift london skills i worked my way into a club we could both get into. it ended up to be a laugh it was still pritty early but we partyed the night away and drunk this lovely vodka and lemon mix which was a euro some thing so for finlands capital this was a bargain which couldnt be missed. i introduced artu to the english meaning of rounds and he got into the full swing of it and found it enjoyable. as the club was clossing we remembered that the hostel had a lock out time so we had to quickly make a move for it for the park bench would of been are home for the week. on the way back it for heleriouse, artu was talking to finnish people in english :P and licking poles (had to be there) but it was a very enjoyable night and we got into the hostel in the nick of time. in the morning it was like waking up to a tone of bricks on your head. but it was all good and we had some time to spare before we got the train home to tampere. me and artu decided to go to subways. my favourt munchie destination and a foot long was in store for me that day. after he recharged are bellys we chilled in the park until are train was ready. as we was sitting there the most unusual busker was going around, he appeared  to have a dick on his head, like a strap on? and he played the guitar and walked along with a pot to put money in. the music was so bad and i guess he was trying to act like a dick head, well it made me laugh. so we headed home, artu to sahalati and me to london, i had a bus to catch to and artu got a lift from his dad, he didnt look to happy, i dont no if it was because he had to pick artu up or if he had pranked called him while he was drunk who knows? well i had a few hours till my plane was going to set off and a few minutes to catch my bus which was going to take me to the airport. well it was going smoothly until i was left with a shock. rather than lugging my ruck sack around helsinki i paid 3 euros to lock it up in tampere and took my day sack for helsinki but i had run it over 24 hours and it fines you around 40 euros for going over the day. well you have to remember that this was my last day, and i had around 3 euros left for the bus to the airport. my face went blue and i began to shack because if i missed this flight i would of been so stuck that i would have had no way of getting home. well there was a god that day, luckily because the finnish people are so understanding and kind they unlocked the locker for me with in minutes of me being able to catch the bus. if that was in london no way would of they had done that, i think that if all the world was like the finnish the world would be a better place. well it wasnt the end of my problems, as i got on the bus it was 3 euros 50 for a journey :S yes just as i said before i only had 3 euros yet another problem, the driver couldnt let me on because if you dont pay the correct money the poll thing doesnt move so i was stuck. but finnish people to the rescue!! a elderly lady was kind enough to give me 50. i no it was only about 24p but it saved me from missing the plane and that ment alot. so the bus toom me to the airport, the plane took me to london the train at stansted took me to totlham and the tube took me to walthamstow and the bus took me to chingford, but does it end there? well i sort of hadnt told my family i was arriving early so i went to gilwell park to camp for the night, why you ask?? because cub and beaver day was on so i thought they might need a help with things. then i went home.

durring my last visit to finland on my return flight i got talking to a lovely girl who was from tampere, ever since we had talked on msn and really got along. when i told her i was visiting again they kindly offered me a place to stay for a while. i was ever som lucky as they had like granny anex sort of like a 1 bed room house within there house so it was perfect for me to stay in for a few days. it was so nice to see her again as we didnt think we would meet up again after are last meeting and it was enjoyable staying with her. she had a lovely home and her family was very friend and i got long with her other 2 brothers as well. they all spoke perfect english which was because they used to live in canada and it was like to talk to some fluent english speakers as i hadnt bumpt into any for the whole trip. that day we went to the beach to meet some of her friends and i was quickly alearted to the fact they was in a cheer leading squad and they was all very good looking, it was ashame i had nothing to offer compared to the ice hocky players who were playing volly ball at the time :P. after that we explored tampere and looked around. i was trying to find a venue for a england match againts some latin american team but we had no luck so we decided to watch it at her house with her brothers who didnt really find football intresting. it was a good match and the finns at the end of it still didnt really see the reason why i enjoyed watching it, they ensured me that ice hockey was a better sport to watch and i said i will give it a try and watch it when it starts showing on bbc. that night she had a friend pop over and we went to grab a ice cream really late in the night, her friend was also a cheer leader and very good looking. i think i just have a soft spot for scandinavian girls to say the truth as they all look very pritty. the next day her and her brother was very kind enough to give me a cycle tour of tampere, we went to some sqaure were we had some wierd black sausage (i think it was black pudding but they claimed that the finns invented it) after that we went to some tall tower and looked at a rotating restaurant :P. when we went back her father had returned after a trip and he was nice to meet him for the first time. he made me laugh as his wife had but him on a diet but yet he always had sneaky beers and snakes durring my stay, i found him very funny and a entertaining man to be around, he kept sneaking beer into my coca cola cup when we was out in his garden talking(hehe)! after we had dinner i went to the sauna with her brother, i love the finnish sauna and its great with a beer or to. its wierd going to sauana naked but by then i had just got used to it. well i had a lovely time staying with them and it was nice to see them again after the flight were i had meet them. they kidly dropped me off and the girl who we went to grab a ice cream with went along with me to say good bye. it was nice to see her again and we swapped emails. artu heard that i had never been to helsinki the finnish capital before so he thought it would be a good idea to go there for a day before i go. i was dropped off at the transtation to grab a train to helsinki with artu who i meet at the station. i said good by to my kind finnish/canadian family and headed off to meet artu.

 

well tampere was sort of my next town, sahalati is a small area just out side were i will be going next. this was to meet up with my favourt finnish family the rantalas (i think i spelt it right :D) i stayed with them last time and they was the kind family who hosted me for christmas. they said that the summer is so much better and that i would have to come and see the difference my self. so i did. sahalati got to see dave for another week :). jenni was at church camp which most finnish teenagers go to for around 2 weeks in order to gain there confermation, so she wasnt home while i stayed this time so her brother was kind enough to look after me while she was there. it was so much different in the summer it all looked to pritty and it showed me how amazing some parts of the world can really be. that day artu told some of his mates to meet him by a bbq hut so we got on a motor bike and off we went, it was funny to see all his friends again and i was amazed that they all remembered me. we cooked sausaged on sticks with a fire we made and drunk some beer. we then went home for another day. it was weird sleeping in finland because the sun hardly never went down and sleep i was finding hard. the next day i helped to clean up there huge garden. of course i jumped to the chance of using  the sit down lawn mower as i was happy to drive that around for hours and they were pleased with the work i had done, but i could of driven that thing around for hours on end. the thing i liked about jenni and artus dad was not only how kind he was as a person but how he had built his whole house and every thing, while i was there he was busy building his summer deck on the front of his house and i was amazed at how easy he made it look, he was truley a man who had big ideas of building the perfect finnish house. i loved there house not only because it was perfectly designed to suit there lives but because i fell in love with the wooden houses ever since. well i had to move on again and meet with another family who lived in the centre of tampere.

well i was fully recovered for another day! my birthday was aproching and i was going to be turning 17. when i was thinking about this the sound of music song come to my head "i am 16 going in 17" (lol) and i thought it was time for a treat. i wasnt able to splash out as my money was strict to the tee as every penny saved every day aloud me another day traveling so i didnt like to spend alot as the more i saved the more i had for the road. but it was my birthday coming up and my clothes were getting rough and i had arranged to meet my long distant friend eve and i didnt want to meet her looking like a scruff bag ( she is very good looking and fashionable so i wanted to look my part of course) so a trip to h n m was in store. i was lucky as the world cup had past and becuase no one was from england in oulu there was alot of england gear on sale and i ended up picking up alot of bargains but yet looked affective with the ladys so it was a result of a birthday treat. i then arranged to meet eve in a coffee shop which was a student place were i have meet her before but it was raining and i got really wet so i didnt look so good in my new gear after all, it was lovely meeting her again and we went shopping and had some lunch. i then had the mission of finding a place to stay for a while. eve was bad timing as her grandma was traveling a long distance from canada to meet her and her family in tampere ( were i was heading next) and she hasnt been in finland for 9 years or something like that so eve was a no, i had fun hanging out with her but i she promised if i was to visit again we could meet up. so i had a problem as there wasnt a hostel at the time in oulu and i didnt no any one else. as i was thinking back i remember the girls house who i stayed around on new years eve and i thought id give her a shock, we hadnt talked since and it was wierd getting in contact with her again, she was delited to see me again and she loved the idea of letting me crash on her couch. so i had a place to stay, i was looking forward to seeing her again. when we meet up it was wierd because i forgotten  how good looking she was and how little english she could understand. she took me back to her flat and showed me my new home for the week. it was lovely and had every thing i could possible need. there was enougher person staying as well who was her couson, i found out that she could speak could english so she turned into my translater for the stay. there wasnt much to do on a monday but i remember her being obsesed with karioki so off to a sing along bar we went. it was a good laugh with in a nice remote bar which was very entertainning, she was a great singer and she she introduced me to some finnish drinks so it was a nice casual evening. the next day i she had to work so i explored oulu and noticed how different it was with out all the snow. ive always like oulu as i like  the remote but lively atmosphere. durring the day i went to help her brother into his new home with his girl friend. i remember them both from news years eve so it was nice to see them again. it was fun cleaning up and talking to them and her perants. i laughed as no matter what size the house is finnish people will have a sauna, the house was a lovely 2 bedroom house of course with a sauna :P. after that we went back to her flat with her cozon to get ready for the evening, every night after that we went clubbing in my  favourt night club oneila!! we went there every night from that day, even for my birthday. i got to no her mates very well and we often meet up there all the time, we went to some other clubs before we went to onlela and some times back to theres to crash for the night. i had a fun time partying with them but i had to move on as my drinking budget was decreasing by the day. on my last day i will never forget as i arranged to meet up with some more old friends. the people who i became good friends with from the night club were very friendly and offered me a lift to my old firends house. i said good bye to them and promised to call them if i returned. my old friend juha who i haddnt seen since the summer of 05 had invited me to an important finnish celebration. when you finnish school in finland you graduate and this means that you dress smart and wear this saler looking hat. and it basically shows your independance of moving in to man hood and finishing education to the perants (you also get a rose which means something as well) but to the people who pass like juha it means get dressed up and get ready to party all night long until you cant stand up :P. as we went to the centre of town to meet all the other educcation leavers we saw some funny sights like a bloke tripping over about 50 bicycles at once (lol) it was entertaining and i had a good time. it was nice catching up with juha again and also to spend time with him durring one of the biggest days of his life. but duty called and i had to move on. tampere was my next call...

so i arrived in happarada after the long journey on the train which wiized passed by talking to the crazy norwigian students. after i hopped on a bus and passed the swedish boarder into finland i was a little lost at first but a kind afganistan bloke offered me a lift to the buss station in haparanda some were. little scared hitch hiking, sitting next to a dog who stared at me like i was a yummy piece of lamb chops. he dropped me off at the bus station and i thanked him kindly for getting me out of trouble and taking me to the location to hop on my next bus. but i hit a problem, the bus wasnt about till about 6 hours, well it was 2 in the morning and i guess life cant always be on the bright side :P. so yup its late (still light of course as the artic is like a 24 7 light bulb in the summer!!) so i explored haparanda for a while, not much really to look at apart from some russian orthordox churches that looked intresting as there shapped like onions. i was playing the hard rock halaluya song by lordi at the time as finland had just won the eurovision song contest and the finns were so happy about it. i liked the song so playing it over and over again as i walked around the tiny haparanda past some time for a while (the norwigians blue thoothed it to me so fresh music on the road is like gold dust :P) well i looked at a golf course which was unique for having a golf course between 2 countrys which was intresting ( i wounder how many passport stamps you could get out of that if you was caught in a bunker). well it was bout 4 and i had seen every thing there was to see in the small town so i located my self to the nearest bench and got out my sleeping bag to call it a night. well what can i say, its not really the warmest of places up in the artic so it ended up being an extremly cold sleep on a bus stop bench but i dozzled off after some shivvers. at about 8 i was woken up my a nudge from a large guy who at the time i though it was ricky jevas in another one of my dreams but it ended up being the bus driver. i was chuffed when he speaked finnish to me as i had a sense of aceptance that the finnish people sleep in benches and its not just us silly brits abroad. at first i thought he was kicking me off the bench but when he realised i was english he quickly replyed with. are you hopping on my bus? and hop i did, still in my sleeping bag i picked up my rucksack and hopped on and fell asleep to my journey to kemi. i liked the bus driver as he speaked little english but yet he still liked to talk to me (i guess it was because we had 4 hours and i was the only passenger on board) i like him as he played elvis on stop and song along to every word. he asked my funny questions like how is the queen and if i liked finland (it was a wierd question as i had just passed the baorder with him) but i loved finland and i always will due to my last visit which was magical. he dropped me off at kemi and i thanked him for the great bus journey and off he went singing aint nothing but a hound doll. well i was only in kemi for a few hours so i used the time wisely and had a little nanny nap on the bench at the train station to recover my self for the long day. the train to oulu arrived and hopped on and had enough time to wash my socks in the train toilets sink. i was looking forward to oulu because i fell in love with it durring my last visit and i didnt no what it was going to be like when i arrived as i visited in the winter when it was covered in snow.

today ive been on a ship which is taking me to tromso. from the start ive always been out of place with my back pack as the whole ship has been full of old tourist people going oooooo aaaaa at all the views, makes me laugh every time :P. well i hadnt washed my clothes or had a shower almost since denmarrk :D. sooo as there was a sauna and a washing machine i made the most of it!! the ship was all pimped out with gold deco so i really think i jumped on the wronge boat, it cost me a massive £40!! so it was going to take a day so i went to the sauna. it was nice at first as i had a shower and no 1 was there so it was all to my self and just as i was about to relax 2 large hairy swetty germans come in :( i was like  noooo! well the sauana experance was ok for a few minutes. after i dicided to have a look around the ship and  have something to eat. the prices in norway are stupid and you never get any thing for free!! so i thought id treat my self to some sausages and chips which were only £6 :P. when i got it i recived hardly a few chips and a little cocktail sausage. so i have been finding it hard to o get by with my strict dailey budget but were else can you find food in the middle of the sea :D. we then went through a fjord which was one of the best experances of the journey. the mountains and views in norway are like non over and are just mind blowing. so i went to sleep under the grand piano with my sleeping bag as i couldnt pay for a room (the trip would of cost me an extra £60 so sleeping under a piano is a much better option). when i woke up i got a nudge from the captian asking if i wouldnt mind if he played his guitar. i couldnt say no get out of my music room cant you see im sleeping uder a piano here so i thought it would be kool to hear some norwigian battle metal. i found it funny as he was very lanky with a hunch and a mustash and looked like he would loose a against a mouse in a food fight. it was so funny to watch him play a guitar as he could play proper solo riffs and break downs and metal guitar music it was like he was a diffren  person. well it made my day. once i arrived in tromso i arranged to meet my friend stig after work in a student bar. this was a chance to try the local brew. i havent had a beer yet as its so expensive and about £8 a pint so in the student bar it was about £6 so i thought id treat my self. its wierd being in the artic drinking in a student bar looking out to antartica. once stig finnished work we had some drinks at the bar and went to the night club. he made me try some wierd spirit which is like fishermans friend blended in with vodka

>< yukkk!!!!!! never again. it was getting late but you couldnt notice it as its pitch day light 247 durring the summer the sun doesnt go down. so we went to meet his flat mate in some jazz cafe. on the way home we picked up some srimps. it was wierd eating them walking dow the street but i think stig wanted me to try some of the norwigian culture so i carried on eating lol- when we got back to his it was still day light but at 4 in the morning. its wierd to get used to. in the morning stig made me pancakes which was nice of him and we cracked on to the bus station were i had to get a bus to narvik. i said good bye to stig as it was nice of him to look after me for the night and show me some of tromsos night life. i have to get buses every were in norway in the northern part as the trains end at bodo and theres a trainstation in narvik but its not conected with bodo. so i checked the times for trains in norway to finland but there was non until tomorrow evening. so i explored narvik and found a supermarket were i got some food for dinner and pitched my tent looking out at some amazing mountains on some beach. it was a good nights sleep looking out to the norwigian land scape. when i woke up i quiclky rushed to the train station for the 11 o clock train but i missed it as it left early. so i waited till 4 till the next 1. i cooked up some lunch and meet some school group who were going to stockholm and they had recycled bottles for 2 years to fund the trip so every 1 could go. now in scandinavia you get money if you recycle bottles like 5p a bottle so to surport the funds for a class to go to stockholm for a week must of cost alot of bottles :P, they were a grooy bunch and they were all my age 16/17 so it was kool takin to them about there culture and my culture and what we do diffrently. it was nice to talk to them on the train as it killed alot of time. well i was going to lulea and the were getting on a diffrent train to stockholmso they transfered as my train carried on more east. it was sad saying good bye but it was nice to meet some students from norway. so when i got off at lulea i got on a bus to the boarder of finland. it was funnny to get to the boarder as ive never actualy had the chance to jump from one country to the other so when i was in haparanda i decided to make the most of it at the boarder control (which was clossed) and jump from left and right 47 times. there was a ikea which i was looking forward to visiting but it wasnt even built yet so that was no good :(. i then had to sleep in my tent till the morning to get to kemi. kemi is in finland and its on the trian system so thats how i manged to get yo oulu. so as you can see it was a pritty long couple of days filled with adventure. getting from tromo in the northern most of norway to oulu in centre of finland. not bad :D!

today was diffrent from the rest as it was a national holiday for norway so i had problems with palnning things to do but as im Dave ill find things to do no matter what the ocasion. well i got of the train at 6:30 ;O yes very early but i had a little kip at the station and made my way to the town centre to look for the tourist office to see whats open on a holiday, well as expected nothing but a statue. well i had about 12 hours to kill and a statue was all i could do in 12 hours acording to the tourist board :P. so i had a look and walked around all of trodhiem and the cold harbor and yes the statue!! king olve who brought cristianity to norway and opend the norwigian church in viking times might you no. yes as u can tell  i spent about a hour looking at it because its all i was recomended. so i decided to go back to the train station to see what to do there. at the station i bumpend into this 3 swizz girls who were doing the exact same route as me which was wierd. so i tagged along with them and walked around town again ( well for me ) and i took them to the statue :P. we found this church  as well and sat around for a while then went along the harbor. we was both getting on the train so with 3 hours to kill we cooked dinner and charged are phone ect. yer i light a stove and made some sausages in the transtation lol it was funny! the swizz were trying to teach me yerdling but it wasnt working so i put it  dwn on some paper for later to learn. i found out that they was all scouts which was pritty kool. so we jumped on the night trian going to bodø and i slept all the way like a baby :). when i arrived we went to arrange are ferry times as the train track in bodø ends there so its ferry and busses to get up north. we found out that we will be going no diffrent ferrys so it was the end of the swizz/brit do europe tour but it was kool to tag along with a group for a while. well we got some lunch before we head off and had like a picnic in some park. so i said good bye to the swizz and made my way to the ferry.

well i woke up ready to pick a new station at oslo. i keep going back to oslo as its the trian hub which goes every were. some parts of southern norway dont connect because the lakes and rivers and mountains are in the way so oslo acts as a turn around. so i decided to explore bergen to day which is just along the southern west coat of norway. it was going to be long but im glad i traveled durring the day as its reported that the train journey from oslo to bergen is the best in the world. and i can judge for that the stuff i saw was out of the world. high mountains well into the clouds and its was some thing ill remeber for a life time. you have to see the photos to understand how buitiful it looked. we stopped off at this station called voss for a while which was a all year round ski resort. so all the toursits were going crazy for the snow lol! we then arrived at the station so i locked my bag up and i was ready to explore bergen. i walked around the fisher man market and went to some shops. some wierd street thing was going on with kids dressed up as abreham linking walking around in a massive line, it was kinda scary. i then got some dinner and took a ski lift to the top of this mountain and explored through the forest trials. i discivered this toursit bbq which was for people to use to i thought id start a fire and cook my sausages. these sausages are like the hot dog ones, there really cheap so ive been living of them for a while. today ive descovered my first free thing! there was some ketchup for people to use. why i bring that up you wounder? well nothing in norway is free u have to pay for every thing. so it made me happy! i borrowed a ligter to start my fire but it was to wet so the norwigans let me borrow there cook stove. i would of used my one but it was locked in the trian station locker till the night trian. they seemed really nice and they made me some coffee and we talked about norway and england and about there student lifes. they were a top bunch of people and after they took me down the rocky root to get the bottom. it was wierd trying to get down as the rocks were so slippery. well they walked me to the trian station and it was just in time to jump on to my train to sleep till the moring when i get back to oslo.

well after leaving the sweds in stockholm i got on a night train to oslo, i got talking to some americans (americans will talk to any 1) and they seemed to have a spare bed in there cart so sneaked in there for the night hoping the inspecter wouldnt check up. well luckily he didnt and i got a free nights rest on a porper bed!! so when i arrived in oslo the departure board was my oyster and what ever was on the board i was going to do. well the best location was stavanger so i thought it would be nice to go there. it said it had 5 minutes till departure so i ran for it and just jumped on the trian in time, result! so id just been on a sleeper trian and i had another long trian journey ahead of me. so really i was just going around the trian trying to kill time. i managed to find a kids play room which played tom and jerry so that killed 2 hours and then i had a little nap which killed another few. ive actualy fallen in love with norways buity. every were u look is amazing. full of mountians and glaciers and lovly trees. the scenery is just mind blowing. after the long journey i found a night trian which was leaving at 10:3o which could take me back to oslo. so i planned my time till then, i didnt no what to do in stavanger so i dicided to get some thing to eat. i love my cook stove because u can just cook any thing any were. i got some pasta and some sauce cooked it and i got a really fillin meal. i got talking to some locals about there area and they seemed to go on about how lovly it and i couldnt of agreed more. i planned to meet a friend of mine who ive been talking to for a while. the funny thing is she is the only norwigian i no so i thought it would of been nice to meet her. its weird as i thought she was going to have some norwigian acent but instead she was talking american :P. she showed me round town and went to some high up place then i had to go back to the trian station. at the trian station i got talking to these 3 russian girls who were studying in norway. i didnt understand most of wht we talked about but we seemed to get on well so it killed some time before my trian arrived. once my trian hit the station i fell asleep. a new night trian a new day

last night was pritty random i was going to the top of norway to a place caled boden and planned to sleep on the train again as it was the only night train. but along the way i got talking to these 4  swedish boys who were about my age who were going to london in a few weeks. so we talked about london and sweden and about my trip. they thought i was mad going on a trian for 25 hours and one of them invited me to stay around there house for a night. i think it was great because i havent yet stayed with a swedish family before. i meet his family and they seemed very welcoming and we watched eurotrip the movie. ive watched it hundreds of times but never actualy when im doing a euro trip my self. well i slept till the late morning and woke up to ana amzing breakfast. they tried to make it very englsih which was funny :P. eggs sausages and tea, lol. then one of his mates come round from the night before and we watched some tv and had some pizza. well now im off to stockholm again to catch the night trian to oslo as its runing tonight at 10 and ill arrive in norway at 7 in the morning. well its been nice staying with this swedish family even though it was a nigt it was nice to see how the swedish live and expernace there kind genarocity. now i have to look forward to a long train journey!! :P

 

well it all started at 12 in the morning when i started my travels to stockholm. i got on a night train not booking my ticket in advance so i didnt have a reserved seat. to be onist id rather sleep on the floor than pay an extra 10 for a seat. but i managed to find a empty one next to this swedish girl. it was wierd because after we talked for like 5 minutes its like id non her all my life. welll we has having a really nice ling convo for about a hour when a arab kicked me out of my seat because thats were his seat was. its ashame because i dint see her again after that. well i slept in the carage for hours waking up when some random spanish lady kept walking her puppy up and down the thing waiting for it to deposit a load but it never did so i kept getting woken up when he kept atempting. well the journey was from 12 -7 so i got a nice sleep and i found another chair when we got to gothenburg. when i woke up i found a note with a email on it so i guess the swed still wants to keep in contact. when i reached stockholm i decided to sleep for a few hours till 10 before i hit the street for some shopping. i didnt really do any thing by the book so i just woundered around stockholm finding stuff to do. in sweden u dont get any thing for free u have to pay for every thing. and it doesnt come cheap i can tell you that. like to use a toilet it cost 70p and u have to pay for ketchup and you have to pay for your bottle that the drink is in. i no its all very crazy. well i found a great row of shows that were great fun and i tryed my first swedish kebab. nothing compared to a london kebab but it does have its own flavour. i found the stockholm north face store. its a shame they didnt have any stockholm t shirts left but hey thats life. i then bumpt into some army thing and i got to have a go in a swedish army boat which was really kool. after that i got some dinner for latter, tipical budget student food but ill get by on it so i dont care. well im off to norway tonight on another night train. im going to cross the artic circle and got the northenest point of europe which sound be fun. 24 hours on a train though!!

 

 

 

today has been a long day of traveling, its been a sad day as well as i had to say good bye to such a lovly family who hosted me over the past few weeks ill miss erm! i got up at 5 to get a train from sonderburg to copenhagen. on the way we listened to some wake up dance music. anne-mette dad seemed to love dancing to the songs :P. when we got to the station i said good bye and off i went on my journey to denmarks capital. i slept most of the way and woke up just in time to get off. copenhagen reminds me alot of germany for some reason but its still a lovly capital. they have these bikes here that u can put 2 pound in borrow it then take it back. its a great idea but i dont think it will catch on in london they all be gone in a minute, well i guess there more fun to play round with than trolleys. in denmark no 1 locks up there bikes! i cant belive it. thats another thing your never see in london :P. theres no crime here at all its amazing to see a city this big with no crime. i decided to pay a visit to the carlsburg factory to have a look what its like. it was very intresting and it was not bad value for £2.50 and u get 2 free beers at the end so u get your money back any way. it was amazing to see how they made beer in the viking times and the videos were so funny!! naked vikings running around :P. well after i visited the factory i decided to head back to town and figure out what i was goin going to do. i had covered most of it and i thought it was probaly best if i just went to sweden. so..... i did! its random i no. 1 day in denmark the next in sweden. well im happy i did. i went across europes biggest bridge between copenhagen and malmö. sweden is full of blondes its madness!! well i gotta crack on ive got a long journey ahead of me to stockholm in the morning.

 

hope every 1 is ok back home take care   Dave

today i woke up to anne-mette brother telling me " go to school Dave"!  we rushed to the bus but anne-mette being blonde spilt some kind liquid alll other the floor minutes before the bus was arriving so every 1 in the house was quicly scrubbing the floor just in time to catch the bus. we then went to school to find out that the english teacher kicked me out of the class because we she thought i was a danish person from another class. well i kicked back on the computer for a while then went back the backery as anne-mette gets free food which is a result!! when we got to class i talked to her in english and she was amazed by the standerd that i could speak but she quickly understood that i was from england and we talked about australia and stuff. then they played a pratice take, u no like the ones in french lessons thta have like 2 french people talking about stuff and u have to say what they are saying. well they had one for english and it was so funny!! like hello tom, hello malcome, spleded day today cant wait till the party!! o yes i cant wait to tom its ashame i cant take a friend as i really wanted to show of my girl friend shes really gorgouse and all the boys will be jelouse of me. :P hahaha!! love it. then we talked about the british empirior and went back to anne-mette house. we then cracked on to sonderburg to do some shopping for things. i got anne-mette family some funny gifts to thank them for having me as it was my last night.u can see the pcitures if your intrested in what i got them. so here i am kicking back watching the eurovision song contest and trying not to think about last nights game and the journy ahead of me. i will mis denmark and the lovly family i stayed with as they made my stay very enjoyable and i hope to visit them another time.

so were have i been? why havent i been talking? well ive been having alot of fun here so ive kinda had no time spare to write my blogs day to day. well since my last blog ive had alot of fun in denmark and ive been here for a week now. ive been going to crazy barn partys with the locals on several ocasions and ive been to a danish school. worked on a building site with anne-mette dad and ive even helped out in a bakery slicing bread. so pritty random i no! the barn partys were local gatherings of the locals from this small town to help raise money for the youths sports facilities so its all for a good course and for alot of people a time to get together and drink. now ive seen drinking but when u come to denmark and see how they drink be prepared to be amazed. they have this cheap beer called slots which costs around 10p a can so u can understand y they drink alot of the stuff. the next day was another barn party but for old peole but i was complaining because anne-mette was the bar man and he did a great job of giving the beer to us on the sligh :P. the next day i went to anne-mette school and talked about england and were i was from. they seemed shy so it was pritty lame but her sisters class went on for hours and enjoyed it more so i prefered her class. i went to work at the bakery were anne-mette works and it o funny dressing up in ther uniform. the customers and managers seemed to find it amusing so i weared it till the end of the shift. one day i went to work on a construction site cementing foundations of a pig barn which was funny because all the other workers didnt speak english. it was intresting to see that they had 3 beer breaks durring the day. they love there beer!  so ive had a great time in denmark and its going to be sad to leave it.