This won't be a long one, nor a particularly relevant one, as I have had a few Guinness' tonight.
I have been thinking for the past few weeks about the concept of home and what it means to me.
When it comes to the concept of 'home', what comes to mind? To me, it's feeling like you belong in a place and you are comfortable waking up ten thousand kilometers from your family and the house you grew up in, and forgetting that you are somewhere else instead of in your bed back in the country you were born and the city you have spent all your life in.
Lately I have been forgetting that I am in fact in a room with 18 other people and in a strange bed where hundreds of others have slept before (unlike my mattress back home, where all I had to do to be sure of it's 'purity' was to turn it over before I started sleeping on it) and feeling as if I am in 'my own' bed and not being mindful of my surroundings.
Now that may sound very irresponsible and stupid but it's not in the way that I leave my wallet out on my bed or anything, it's more like I identify my little space as 'my space' and have decorated it as such and am as possessive of it as I would be my own room back home. Meanwhile my room back home doesn't have the same feeling of 'my space' as it normally would because someone else is inhabiting it. So without my secure refuge back in Sydney, I feel like the little space I have here is so precious.
I have always been one of those people who would never call a sleeping-place 'home' unless it was literally the place that I grew up in. This is a bit of a narrow-minded view though because think of all the people who have moved house extensively over their years...how can they pick one place to call home?
Home is where you make it, not necessarily 'where the heart is' as the saying goes-although I am open to that possibility as I am realising where closest friends I have are and where I have ties to...
Some of the others call the hostel 'home' or even places where they are staying one night...maybe home is just a place to rest your head and have some privacy. Maybe it's deeper than that and you need to have emotional ties to it and some sort of personal history behind it.
See, to me, Riverstone will always be my home. But on the odd occasion I might let it slip that I am going 'home' when I am really going back to the hostel. I suppose in a way the hostel is home to me (at least while I am living here) because my closest friends (here) are and where I am tied to at the moment...
But enough of that. I'm not good at being philosophical or profound. It was just something that has been on my mind lately.
I hate Dublin and would never want to live here for good-so that's probably why it's been on the top of my head lately...
Take care everyone and HAPPY BLOOMSDAY! (google it if you don't know what it is)
Monday, 16 June 2008
Monday, 2 June 2008
Long overdue!
Soooooo let me tell you, my valued readers, about Turkey!
It won't be as detailed as before because a) I've left it like, a month too long to write! and b) long posts get a bit boring, don't you think? This will still be a long post, but not mind-numbingly long like it would have been before.
First thing's first...I saved my bum off to get to Turkey and even though it seriously wiped out all my hard-earned savings I am so glad I did it and wouldn't have done it any differently had I another chance. In the weeks before I went, we were short a girl at work because Katie quit (and now we know she was lying about her reasons for abruptly quitting...way to go dignity!) and I was pulling 15hr shifts and saving about €400 each week. Now that we have another girl on staff and I'm down to 5 days again I'm lucky if I get that in my pay packet each week. Although I did get a €5 per shift payrise. That still puts me at about €10 below minimum wage, I reckon :-P
So yeah, Darren and I headed off firstly for London where we were to stay for a meagre 24hrs then off to Istanbul. My first impressions of England were it was nice and very much like the charming countryside I see in those pommie shows Mum watches on UKTV about property development and all that. We even saw the canals with the canal boats in them that people live in! It was all very quaint and all that...bunnies running through fields and all that. Mind you, we were on the train coming into the city from Stansted so we were about 2hrs out of town.
To be honest, when I got into London city proper my first impression was that it was big, and grey, and dreary (was raining) and very very busy. We went on the bus from Liverpool St station through to Piccadilly so we got to see all the landmarks along the way.
The hostel we were at was massive...6 floors and wouldn't you know it, we were on the 5th floor. The lift was broken! A bit of exercise never hurt anyone (did it?) and it's not like there is a lift at Paddys...
We went out and saw Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square, then went to the Slug & Lettuce ( a chain pub that is all over London...we don't really have pub 'chains' back home like they do over here) and saw SoHo and West End and all that area. It was so crowded...
Me outside the gates of Buckingham Palace. Didn't take notice of whether the flag was flying or not...apparently if the flag is flying over Buckingham then it means the Queen is there at that moment.
Westminster Abbey-very impressive!
Not quite sure what this is...haha
Didn't go on it-it was like £20 or something crazy like that! You can see what a dreary day it was though.
Earlier that day we went up to St James Gate station or something like that and it just so happens that Abbey Road is right around the corner-I had to get the obligatory photo!
It's blurry cos Darren was trying to take it in the gap in traffic, before the bus came down the road!
That area of London is quite nice, actually, and is Lord's Cricket ground is around there so we went for the tour. We were with a group of Indians who knew alllll the facts and it was fun to see them interact with the tour guide (a very proper english chap-stereotypical-who knew alot about cricket too).
Here's the members stand. Apparently Sir Paul McCartney owns one of the houses really close to here...I wonder if Mucca got it in the divorce settlement?
So after a full day of sightseeing we headed back to the hostel for some sleep. Only to be woken up at 3am by the sounds of one of the guys in our room vomiting all over the floor. Charming. He didn't even make an effort to get out of bed, he just leant his head over and chundered...alot. The other room guests have him hell for it the next morning, and rightly so! In all my time working at Paddy's I am so glad that I have never had to deal with something like that!!! (touch wood) *although* we did have a group of drunken scotsmen (in kilts!) over one of the rubgy weekends and one of them thought it would be a good idea to do a poo on the internal stairs...
So, the next morning we high-tailed it out of the vomit-room and went to see if Harrod's was open. It wasn't, as it doesn't open til noon on Sundays. oh well...looking at the windows it looks like a very classy and out of my price range shop! Darren had been there before and said it's amazing inside. Really wish I got to see it!
We were going to see the Tower of London but it was 3pm and our flight was at....6 or 7pm so we decided to cut it short and head off early. WELL since the tube was being stupid that day and not all lines were open and it took so long to get to Heathrow we missed our flight by like, 5minutes. Not happy. So we found somewhere to stay nearby and got to the airport at 4.30am the next morning to try for standby on the 7am flight. Well, after so much mucking around (nobody there knew anything...their excuse: 'oh it's still new here') and being passed from desk to desk, we didn't make the 7am flight. The next one was at 10.30am. So we waited and waited for that and finally got told we could go but it would be leaving soon. We rushed to the departure gate only to be told there was a problem with the fuel line or something and the flight would be delayed until noon. Noon rolls around and we get told they can't fix the plane and we're getting a new one that will leave at 2pm. We were very unhappy chappies...think about it-we had been at the airport for close to 10hrs already. It also meant that we would miss out on the Bosphorus cruise that night, and that was one of the things we really wanted to do. Worse still, talking to a girl on our tour group who was ON the 7am flight...she said that there were STACKS of seats still available!
So we finally got to Istanbul and even though it was late we went out and had a look about town. None of it made any sense to me because I was in a place that was so different to anywhere I had been before. It wasn't dirty like some places in Asia, it wasn't scary like some places in India, and it wasn't as 'comfortable' feeling as some places in Europe. It was a weird mix of all three. 97% of Turkey is classified as 'Asia' and the other 3% is 'Europe'. It shares borders with Greece, Iraq, Iran, etc and it's about the same length as NSW (probably a little longer).
It was surprisingly clean, and European feeling, but then every so often the Mosques would start their prayers and the loudspeakers would blare out prayers and chants in an indecipherable language (to me).
I wish I had gotten more photos of Istanbul but I was either not carrying my camera or it was out of batteries. Shame, really.
We joined our tour the next morning and we set off for the western part of Turkey, namely, the Gallipoli peninsula.
The Turkish name for Gallipoli is Gelibolu, and along the way our tour guide told us important facts about Turkey and about the war. This was good for me, because I didn't really know all the nitty gritty about the First World War. I have been involved in ANZAC day marches and ceremonies and all that, but it annoyed me that I didn't know more. I'm glad that I actually went out and experienced the landscape and culture first hand, instead of just Googling it.
We saw the small fishing village of Galebolu proper, before heading onto Carnakkale and other nice Western-Turkish towns. I could look up my itinerary what exactly they were but it's a bit late at night for that sort of effort.
Galebolu fishing village
It was national childrens day around the time we were there so there were Turkish flags absolutely everywhere! Pretty much every single building had at least one flying and many of them had pictures of their beloved first president Ataturk on them. It was so patriotic-not even on Australia Day does home get so festooned and adorned with our ensign!
We saw the believed site of Troy, saw Pergamon (Bergama) and a lot of other nice places but Anzac cove was by far the most beautiful and also meaningful place for me.
The little stretch of beach just behind me and to the right, is the actual beach where the ANZAC troops landed. It's high tide and also much eroded since 1915 but to think that these poor guys turned up in their boats, being watched from the hills by the Turks and having to climb up into the hills covered in scrub under heavy gunfire-it was unbelievable. Very sobering thought! Especially when it came to be around 4.30am, the time they landed, and we felt how bitterly cold and windy it was. I have so much respect and admiration for the ANZACS now, not that I didn't before but I think I understand better now.
I don't want to harp on about it but the campaign served no purpose except to get over 60,000 Turkish soliders killed and over 16,000 ANZAC troops being killed. Killed for no good reason, other than some high-ups wanted to try and get a better strategic foothold. Makes me sick to think about it.
We saw the gravestones at a few of the several grave sites that are scattered over the hills. Most of the ages of the men killed were between 18 and 25yrs...
Ari Burnu (spelling?) cemetery, where the ANZAC service used to be held until attendance grew too large.
We all started filing into the service site at 4pm...the day before ANZAC day. At first I thought it was too early but as the night went on and people just kept coming in and coming in, I realise that unless they staggered the entrances then it would be a madhouse. The backpackers got in first because we are the most hardy and willing to sit about for 13hrs in the cold and wind.
You can see the hills behind the beach...so steep in places that the diggers had to stab their bayonets into the sandy soil just to get a hold of something to drag themselves up the hill with. There ended up being over 10,000 people attending the dawn service. All night they played historical documentaries and clips about the Gallipoli landing, and Jennifer Byrne from ABC was doing interviews with historians and the like. It kept us awake and interested until 5.30am when the service started. It was also good to see clips of what the services back home were like and also the messages from Turkish, New Zealand, and Australian heads of state were something I was particularly looking forward to (Kevin Rudd!!!).
That fool Warren Brown (who does the cartoon on the letters page in the Daily Telegraph) was the MC and he told us off for doing the Mexican Wave. Get about ten thousand backpackers who have been sitting about in the cold for several hours and in a big stadium/area together and you are bound to get a wave or two. I'm so glad that alcohol was prohibited though because it would have wrecked the whole thing.
The Dawn Service was solemn, and I'm very glad I could be there for it. It was very well done, I think.
But it was SO COLD...I don't think I have been that cold since I was in Alaska...it was just freezing and the wind was blowing and in our little plastic seats it was impossible to get comfortable or get any sleep. The british couple next to us tried to sleep on the floor at the feet of the seats (crazy) and it put me off a bit because they didn't seem to care about any of the other stuff that went along with ANZAC day, they just wanted to wake up and see the Dawn Service and get on with it. How could they appreciate what the diggers went through if they just laid down and slept while we were all up experiencing the same sort of conditions the diggers were? Except at least we had blankets and gloves and coats and we didn't have to jump into chest deep water and then run for our lives into incoming machine-gun fire.
After the service, we all filed out and made the trek up into the hills to get to the Lone Pine cemetery for the Australian service. I liked the Australian service better than the Dawn service-maybe because it was during daylight hours and not so cold, but mostly because it was more specific and there were a few less people there. Ironically, after the extreme cold of the night before I ended up getting a sunburnt face at the Australian service. So I went from being freezing cold to burning up within 12 hours.
We sat on the grass under the shade of the Pine and watched the Kiwi service on the big screen. It was the best service out of them all-they had a magnificent orator (Winston Peters?) who said the best speech I have heard about ANZAC day yet! It was fantastic. He makes reference to the amount of people in the Kiwi service (about 4000) and how that was about how many ANZAC soldiers died on this day, back in 1915. Very sombre and it really hits you in the guts when you think of it in that way. He said a part like, 'take a look at the person on your left, and the person on your right. If you were soldiers here on ANZAC day, these people would have either be injured or killed on the day of landing'.
That's not the speech I meant but it's still a cracking speech.
yes, THE lone pine (replaced for the original one I think, though)
There are something like 600 (6000?) soldiers buried here but they only have graves for less than half of them. Alot of the graves say 'believed to be buried here' because they're not even sure if the soldiers remains are there or not.
It makes me angry...the Allied troops INVADED Turkey and the vast majority of deaths were Turkish. They were just trying to defend their land and they paid dearly for it. Meanwhile mothers of ANZAC soldiers lost their sons, wives lost their husbands and children lost their fathers, for a futile campaign.
I am proud of the ANZAC troops and I am proud to be Australian. I hate the idea of the war and the fact that it was so damaging to all involved...
Inside the war memorial was a visitors book so I signed it, as did several hundred other people. Who knows-go to Lone Pine one day and you might be able to see where I left my mark.
It was also Darren's birthday on ANZAC day (along with a few other people there-as we heard Happy Birthday being sung somewhere in the crowd just after midnight) so I hope he had a nice day for it :-)
*yawn* It's 2am now so I had better leave it here for the night and update it tomorrow or whenever I next get the chance...
Next update will include our last day in Istanbul and also Frankfurt.
I know there are a lot of little things that happened that I have left out but they might come back to me...I put all the most important things in for now, I reckon.
Time to get to bed now!
I'll write more soon-including CHEESE ROLLING and a general post about how things are going over here. Got some news, too!!! So stay tuned. LEAVE A COMMENT ALREADY! I don't like having to beg, you know. I don't think anybody reads this thing anymore...
slain go foill!
-lisha
It won't be as detailed as before because a) I've left it like, a month too long to write! and b) long posts get a bit boring, don't you think? This will still be a long post, but not mind-numbingly long like it would have been before.
First thing's first...I saved my bum off to get to Turkey and even though it seriously wiped out all my hard-earned savings I am so glad I did it and wouldn't have done it any differently had I another chance. In the weeks before I went, we were short a girl at work because Katie quit (and now we know she was lying about her reasons for abruptly quitting...way to go dignity!) and I was pulling 15hr shifts and saving about €400 each week. Now that we have another girl on staff and I'm down to 5 days again I'm lucky if I get that in my pay packet each week. Although I did get a €5 per shift payrise. That still puts me at about €10 below minimum wage, I reckon :-P
So yeah, Darren and I headed off firstly for London where we were to stay for a meagre 24hrs then off to Istanbul. My first impressions of England were it was nice and very much like the charming countryside I see in those pommie shows Mum watches on UKTV about property development and all that. We even saw the canals with the canal boats in them that people live in! It was all very quaint and all that...bunnies running through fields and all that. Mind you, we were on the train coming into the city from Stansted so we were about 2hrs out of town.
To be honest, when I got into London city proper my first impression was that it was big, and grey, and dreary (was raining) and very very busy. We went on the bus from Liverpool St station through to Piccadilly so we got to see all the landmarks along the way.
The hostel we were at was massive...6 floors and wouldn't you know it, we were on the 5th floor. The lift was broken! A bit of exercise never hurt anyone (did it?) and it's not like there is a lift at Paddys...
We went out and saw Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square, then went to the Slug & Lettuce ( a chain pub that is all over London...we don't really have pub 'chains' back home like they do over here) and saw SoHo and West End and all that area. It was so crowded...
Me outside the gates of Buckingham Palace. Didn't take notice of whether the flag was flying or not...apparently if the flag is flying over Buckingham then it means the Queen is there at that moment.
Westminster Abbey-very impressive!
Not quite sure what this is...haha
Didn't go on it-it was like £20 or something crazy like that! You can see what a dreary day it was though.
Earlier that day we went up to St James Gate station or something like that and it just so happens that Abbey Road is right around the corner-I had to get the obligatory photo!
It's blurry cos Darren was trying to take it in the gap in traffic, before the bus came down the road!
That area of London is quite nice, actually, and is Lord's Cricket ground is around there so we went for the tour. We were with a group of Indians who knew alllll the facts and it was fun to see them interact with the tour guide (a very proper english chap-stereotypical-who knew alot about cricket too).
Here's the members stand. Apparently Sir Paul McCartney owns one of the houses really close to here...I wonder if Mucca got it in the divorce settlement?
So after a full day of sightseeing we headed back to the hostel for some sleep. Only to be woken up at 3am by the sounds of one of the guys in our room vomiting all over the floor. Charming. He didn't even make an effort to get out of bed, he just leant his head over and chundered...alot. The other room guests have him hell for it the next morning, and rightly so! In all my time working at Paddy's I am so glad that I have never had to deal with something like that!!! (touch wood) *although* we did have a group of drunken scotsmen (in kilts!) over one of the rubgy weekends and one of them thought it would be a good idea to do a poo on the internal stairs...
So, the next morning we high-tailed it out of the vomit-room and went to see if Harrod's was open. It wasn't, as it doesn't open til noon on Sundays. oh well...looking at the windows it looks like a very classy and out of my price range shop! Darren had been there before and said it's amazing inside. Really wish I got to see it!
We were going to see the Tower of London but it was 3pm and our flight was at....6 or 7pm so we decided to cut it short and head off early. WELL since the tube was being stupid that day and not all lines were open and it took so long to get to Heathrow we missed our flight by like, 5minutes. Not happy. So we found somewhere to stay nearby and got to the airport at 4.30am the next morning to try for standby on the 7am flight. Well, after so much mucking around (nobody there knew anything...their excuse: 'oh it's still new here') and being passed from desk to desk, we didn't make the 7am flight. The next one was at 10.30am. So we waited and waited for that and finally got told we could go but it would be leaving soon. We rushed to the departure gate only to be told there was a problem with the fuel line or something and the flight would be delayed until noon. Noon rolls around and we get told they can't fix the plane and we're getting a new one that will leave at 2pm. We were very unhappy chappies...think about it-we had been at the airport for close to 10hrs already. It also meant that we would miss out on the Bosphorus cruise that night, and that was one of the things we really wanted to do. Worse still, talking to a girl on our tour group who was ON the 7am flight...she said that there were STACKS of seats still available!
So we finally got to Istanbul and even though it was late we went out and had a look about town. None of it made any sense to me because I was in a place that was so different to anywhere I had been before. It wasn't dirty like some places in Asia, it wasn't scary like some places in India, and it wasn't as 'comfortable' feeling as some places in Europe. It was a weird mix of all three. 97% of Turkey is classified as 'Asia' and the other 3% is 'Europe'. It shares borders with Greece, Iraq, Iran, etc and it's about the same length as NSW (probably a little longer).
It was surprisingly clean, and European feeling, but then every so often the Mosques would start their prayers and the loudspeakers would blare out prayers and chants in an indecipherable language (to me).
I wish I had gotten more photos of Istanbul but I was either not carrying my camera or it was out of batteries. Shame, really.
We joined our tour the next morning and we set off for the western part of Turkey, namely, the Gallipoli peninsula.
The Turkish name for Gallipoli is Gelibolu, and along the way our tour guide told us important facts about Turkey and about the war. This was good for me, because I didn't really know all the nitty gritty about the First World War. I have been involved in ANZAC day marches and ceremonies and all that, but it annoyed me that I didn't know more. I'm glad that I actually went out and experienced the landscape and culture first hand, instead of just Googling it.
We saw the small fishing village of Galebolu proper, before heading onto Carnakkale and other nice Western-Turkish towns. I could look up my itinerary what exactly they were but it's a bit late at night for that sort of effort.
Galebolu fishing village
It was national childrens day around the time we were there so there were Turkish flags absolutely everywhere! Pretty much every single building had at least one flying and many of them had pictures of their beloved first president Ataturk on them. It was so patriotic-not even on Australia Day does home get so festooned and adorned with our ensign!
We saw the believed site of Troy, saw Pergamon (Bergama) and a lot of other nice places but Anzac cove was by far the most beautiful and also meaningful place for me.
The little stretch of beach just behind me and to the right, is the actual beach where the ANZAC troops landed. It's high tide and also much eroded since 1915 but to think that these poor guys turned up in their boats, being watched from the hills by the Turks and having to climb up into the hills covered in scrub under heavy gunfire-it was unbelievable. Very sobering thought! Especially when it came to be around 4.30am, the time they landed, and we felt how bitterly cold and windy it was. I have so much respect and admiration for the ANZACS now, not that I didn't before but I think I understand better now.
I don't want to harp on about it but the campaign served no purpose except to get over 60,000 Turkish soliders killed and over 16,000 ANZAC troops being killed. Killed for no good reason, other than some high-ups wanted to try and get a better strategic foothold. Makes me sick to think about it.
We saw the gravestones at a few of the several grave sites that are scattered over the hills. Most of the ages of the men killed were between 18 and 25yrs...
Ari Burnu (spelling?) cemetery, where the ANZAC service used to be held until attendance grew too large.
We all started filing into the service site at 4pm...the day before ANZAC day. At first I thought it was too early but as the night went on and people just kept coming in and coming in, I realise that unless they staggered the entrances then it would be a madhouse. The backpackers got in first because we are the most hardy and willing to sit about for 13hrs in the cold and wind.
You can see the hills behind the beach...so steep in places that the diggers had to stab their bayonets into the sandy soil just to get a hold of something to drag themselves up the hill with. There ended up being over 10,000 people attending the dawn service. All night they played historical documentaries and clips about the Gallipoli landing, and Jennifer Byrne from ABC was doing interviews with historians and the like. It kept us awake and interested until 5.30am when the service started. It was also good to see clips of what the services back home were like and also the messages from Turkish, New Zealand, and Australian heads of state were something I was particularly looking forward to (Kevin Rudd!!!).
That fool Warren Brown (who does the cartoon on the letters page in the Daily Telegraph) was the MC and he told us off for doing the Mexican Wave. Get about ten thousand backpackers who have been sitting about in the cold for several hours and in a big stadium/area together and you are bound to get a wave or two. I'm so glad that alcohol was prohibited though because it would have wrecked the whole thing.
The Dawn Service was solemn, and I'm very glad I could be there for it. It was very well done, I think.
But it was SO COLD...I don't think I have been that cold since I was in Alaska...it was just freezing and the wind was blowing and in our little plastic seats it was impossible to get comfortable or get any sleep. The british couple next to us tried to sleep on the floor at the feet of the seats (crazy) and it put me off a bit because they didn't seem to care about any of the other stuff that went along with ANZAC day, they just wanted to wake up and see the Dawn Service and get on with it. How could they appreciate what the diggers went through if they just laid down and slept while we were all up experiencing the same sort of conditions the diggers were? Except at least we had blankets and gloves and coats and we didn't have to jump into chest deep water and then run for our lives into incoming machine-gun fire.
After the service, we all filed out and made the trek up into the hills to get to the Lone Pine cemetery for the Australian service. I liked the Australian service better than the Dawn service-maybe because it was during daylight hours and not so cold, but mostly because it was more specific and there were a few less people there. Ironically, after the extreme cold of the night before I ended up getting a sunburnt face at the Australian service. So I went from being freezing cold to burning up within 12 hours.
We sat on the grass under the shade of the Pine and watched the Kiwi service on the big screen. It was the best service out of them all-they had a magnificent orator (Winston Peters?) who said the best speech I have heard about ANZAC day yet! It was fantastic. He makes reference to the amount of people in the Kiwi service (about 4000) and how that was about how many ANZAC soldiers died on this day, back in 1915. Very sombre and it really hits you in the guts when you think of it in that way. He said a part like, 'take a look at the person on your left, and the person on your right. If you were soldiers here on ANZAC day, these people would have either be injured or killed on the day of landing'.
That's not the speech I meant but it's still a cracking speech.
yes, THE lone pine (replaced for the original one I think, though)
There are something like 600 (6000?) soldiers buried here but they only have graves for less than half of them. Alot of the graves say 'believed to be buried here' because they're not even sure if the soldiers remains are there or not.
It makes me angry...the Allied troops INVADED Turkey and the vast majority of deaths were Turkish. They were just trying to defend their land and they paid dearly for it. Meanwhile mothers of ANZAC soldiers lost their sons, wives lost their husbands and children lost their fathers, for a futile campaign.
I am proud of the ANZAC troops and I am proud to be Australian. I hate the idea of the war and the fact that it was so damaging to all involved...
Inside the war memorial was a visitors book so I signed it, as did several hundred other people. Who knows-go to Lone Pine one day and you might be able to see where I left my mark.
It was also Darren's birthday on ANZAC day (along with a few other people there-as we heard Happy Birthday being sung somewhere in the crowd just after midnight) so I hope he had a nice day for it :-)
*yawn* It's 2am now so I had better leave it here for the night and update it tomorrow or whenever I next get the chance...
Next update will include our last day in Istanbul and also Frankfurt.
I know there are a lot of little things that happened that I have left out but they might come back to me...I put all the most important things in for now, I reckon.
Time to get to bed now!
I'll write more soon-including CHEESE ROLLING and a general post about how things are going over here. Got some news, too!!! So stay tuned. LEAVE A COMMENT ALREADY! I don't like having to beg, you know. I don't think anybody reads this thing anymore...
slain go foill!
-lisha
Wednesday, 28 May 2008
Cheese Rolling!
I know I owe a post or three about Turkey and all that has happened since-it's in the works...just need to find some time to sit down and write it all down and put the pictures on.
ANYWAY-Cheese Rolling was awesome, I almost got hypothermia but it was so worth it. I didn't run, because it was way too cold and wet and I didn't bring a spare pair of clothes/shoes. I'll put my video and pics up soon but here is one from YouTube:
The guy in the pig suit was actually on our tour bus!
Had a nice time in London, too...which was different from last time I was there. It's such a trip being able to buy a ticket to London and back for like, €30 and getting there in less than 2hrs!
Things are going well with Darren :-) he's just changed jobs (good for him, the job he had before was shit) so hopefully he will enjoy working at the new place more than at Paddys.
I need to catch up with emails and phone calls-I'm half lazy and twice busy so it's not a winning combination...
Basically the plan is to stay until August where there are some interesting things on around my birthday and then go over and see a bit of Scotland, do an Ireland tour (finally) and then bugger off back home. Darren said he wants to go back to Aus the same time as me so I just hope that I'm not going to regret coming back early...there is still so much I want to see! But money is rather tight now that there are 3 girls working in the office again so there are less shifts to go around.
This was only supposed to be a short update so I don't want to go on too long. Work is crappy as always, the girls are good here still, the boss is still a raving idiot, but at least the weather has been beautiful...
Drop me a line encouraging me to hurry up and write my next post! I have a feeling nobody reads this anymore because I've been so neglectful of it.
sloan go foill!
xxx lisha
ANYWAY-Cheese Rolling was awesome, I almost got hypothermia but it was so worth it. I didn't run, because it was way too cold and wet and I didn't bring a spare pair of clothes/shoes. I'll put my video and pics up soon but here is one from YouTube:
The guy in the pig suit was actually on our tour bus!
Had a nice time in London, too...which was different from last time I was there. It's such a trip being able to buy a ticket to London and back for like, €30 and getting there in less than 2hrs!
Things are going well with Darren :-) he's just changed jobs (good for him, the job he had before was shit) so hopefully he will enjoy working at the new place more than at Paddys.
I need to catch up with emails and phone calls-I'm half lazy and twice busy so it's not a winning combination...
Basically the plan is to stay until August where there are some interesting things on around my birthday and then go over and see a bit of Scotland, do an Ireland tour (finally) and then bugger off back home. Darren said he wants to go back to Aus the same time as me so I just hope that I'm not going to regret coming back early...there is still so much I want to see! But money is rather tight now that there are 3 girls working in the office again so there are less shifts to go around.
This was only supposed to be a short update so I don't want to go on too long. Work is crappy as always, the girls are good here still, the boss is still a raving idiot, but at least the weather has been beautiful...
Drop me a line encouraging me to hurry up and write my next post! I have a feeling nobody reads this anymore because I've been so neglectful of it.
sloan go foill!
xxx lisha
Thursday, 1 May 2008
Wow...
Before I add the pics and write the posts up-see what was on BBC news today!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7378124.stm
:-O
I've put most of the pictures either on my facebook or my flickr-you should still all have the links so they're up there to have a squizz at.
Will write soon.
xxx lisha
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7378124.stm
:-O
I've put most of the pictures either on my facebook or my flickr-you should still all have the links so they're up there to have a squizz at.
Will write soon.
xxx lisha
Saturday, 19 April 2008
Friday, 18 April 2008
Going away!
WoooooOOOoooo today's my last day at work until the 29th!!!
Going away to Turkey for an ANZAC Day tour. Nobody here (apart from the Aussies/Kiwis) understands or appreciates what ANZAC Day is about so when I tell them I'm going over to Turkey for it they sort of just look at me with a blank expression.
Oh well-I'm excited and looking forward to it nonetheless!
London tomorrow afternoon for a stopover and staying the night, then Istanbul the day after that. I have no idea what to expect, really...been trying to learn some basic words of Turkish but it's pretty hard! I think I know just the bare minimum in German for when we stop in Frankfurt...but we'll soon see. It's so sad, the German phrase I remember that stands out the most is 'dein mutti ist ein dopplebett'. It's nonsense, I know, and as such is completely useless to me. Unless I want to make a bunch of German people laugh at me, and possibly beat me up.
Will be taking stacks of pictures and sending postcards (if I get the chance) so keep an eye out!!!
Had better get back to work now (at least the boss isn't in today).
Hope everyone has a meaningful ANZAC Day on the 25th.
Happy Birthday Shane for the 26th! Or is it the 24th? I can't remember :-P
xxx leash
Going away to Turkey for an ANZAC Day tour. Nobody here (apart from the Aussies/Kiwis) understands or appreciates what ANZAC Day is about so when I tell them I'm going over to Turkey for it they sort of just look at me with a blank expression.
Oh well-I'm excited and looking forward to it nonetheless!
London tomorrow afternoon for a stopover and staying the night, then Istanbul the day after that. I have no idea what to expect, really...been trying to learn some basic words of Turkish but it's pretty hard! I think I know just the bare minimum in German for when we stop in Frankfurt...but we'll soon see. It's so sad, the German phrase I remember that stands out the most is 'dein mutti ist ein dopplebett'. It's nonsense, I know, and as such is completely useless to me. Unless I want to make a bunch of German people laugh at me, and possibly beat me up.
Will be taking stacks of pictures and sending postcards (if I get the chance) so keep an eye out!!!
Had better get back to work now (at least the boss isn't in today).
Hope everyone has a meaningful ANZAC Day on the 25th.
Happy Birthday Shane for the 26th! Or is it the 24th? I can't remember :-P
xxx leash
Wednesday, 9 April 2008
low points
I suppose it had to happen sooner or later. Feeling a bit low and wondering just how long I want to stay here-or overseas, even.
Just a cumulation of shitty things happening in the last 48 hours that are getting to me.
The other day I realised one of my bags was stolen. It's annoying and makes you hate scumbag theives but the fact that it was an innocuous looking calico bag with a few of my other ones (untouched) and contained my snow boots and a whole stack of momentos/presents to take home that really angered me. I'm still hoping that it's just misplaced but I know deep down in my heart that I'll never see it (or it's contents) again.
Katie from work quit today. A close friend (and former boyfriend) of hers back in Australia has just been diagnosed with HIV. She is understandably distressed and I don't blame her at all for not wanting to waste her time working in a crappy job when she has much bigger things to worry about. She's waiting for her nursing registration to come through, too...so it's not like she was going to be here for a long time. This is a blow to the company, and me, because not only was she a decent worker but she was also a really fun person who I enjoyed working with.
I forgot it was my day off today and turned up to work to hear that Katie wasn't coming in (good thing I came in to work then) and later on that day she called to say she wasn't coming back ever.
Peta at work today had a horrible day full of arrogant backpackers who really tested her limits. I suppose her limits have been worn down a bit lately because she's going to give her notice tomorrow. What little patience we have had lately has been worn down by this bunch of Uruguayan (spelling?) blokes who have been doing nothing but making a mess, hanging about on the couches (theres like 8 of them), being rude to us and making way too much noise when we are trying to work. Seriously, I don't know why there are here for the week or why they don't have anywhere else to go but they shouldn't hang around here making so much noise and not cleaning up after themselves. Go out and see the city, get a job, do whatever just do it AWAY from here! They have really been wearing our patience down.
I'm also getting worried about my VISA situation. I will need to go on Friday before my hostel shift at night and get something sorted. Worst case scenario is that I get in trouble for not having a stamp but I'm sure my last stamp gave me until the end of April! Don't know if I should apply for a UK or Irish visa...or if I should just keep jetting off every 2 or 3 months and getting a new stamp. Don't think they'll let me do that though. I wanted to go back to Alaska for summer and work there, too. It's worrying about working illegally and then worrying about how we are going to get enough staff to even run this place that is doing my head in. I know it's not my problem but like everything around here, it's not my problem but I am the one who has to deal with the consequences. I might ask for a raise. Don't want to speak too soon but I think I'm back in the good books with the boss. Would rather be in no books because they expect more of you and get really disappointed in you when you make a mistake. On the flipside I really don't want to be in the bad books either.
Oh well. Who knows how long I'll be hanging around here. If my pay goes up to €425 (like it is supposed to) then I will stick around but it's getting to be not worth it for €350 a week. I've saved almost €1000 but that's taken over a month!
Ryanair keeps having £10 sales, so I did end up booking the Cheese Rolling festival.
Lucinda really wants to go to Oktoberfest (I want to go too!) and she wants someone to go with, but it's the 19th to the 24th of September and honestly can't say where in the world I'll be by then. If I'm still going to be here/in Europe then it would be worth it but who knows...I could be home by then or I could be back in the US.
Need to call my airline and see if I can still use my return flight home, even though it was supposed to be in February...
Too much to think about just now. I think I'm getting grey hairs from the stress. This job is retarded for €350 a week. And when there is so much negativity and complaining by dickhead backpackers going on around you it really breaks your spirit.
And to think I was doing do well up til now.
Just a cumulation of shitty things happening in the last 48 hours that are getting to me.
The other day I realised one of my bags was stolen. It's annoying and makes you hate scumbag theives but the fact that it was an innocuous looking calico bag with a few of my other ones (untouched) and contained my snow boots and a whole stack of momentos/presents to take home that really angered me. I'm still hoping that it's just misplaced but I know deep down in my heart that I'll never see it (or it's contents) again.
Katie from work quit today. A close friend (and former boyfriend) of hers back in Australia has just been diagnosed with HIV. She is understandably distressed and I don't blame her at all for not wanting to waste her time working in a crappy job when she has much bigger things to worry about. She's waiting for her nursing registration to come through, too...so it's not like she was going to be here for a long time. This is a blow to the company, and me, because not only was she a decent worker but she was also a really fun person who I enjoyed working with.
I forgot it was my day off today and turned up to work to hear that Katie wasn't coming in (good thing I came in to work then) and later on that day she called to say she wasn't coming back ever.
Peta at work today had a horrible day full of arrogant backpackers who really tested her limits. I suppose her limits have been worn down a bit lately because she's going to give her notice tomorrow. What little patience we have had lately has been worn down by this bunch of Uruguayan (spelling?) blokes who have been doing nothing but making a mess, hanging about on the couches (theres like 8 of them), being rude to us and making way too much noise when we are trying to work. Seriously, I don't know why there are here for the week or why they don't have anywhere else to go but they shouldn't hang around here making so much noise and not cleaning up after themselves. Go out and see the city, get a job, do whatever just do it AWAY from here! They have really been wearing our patience down.
I'm also getting worried about my VISA situation. I will need to go on Friday before my hostel shift at night and get something sorted. Worst case scenario is that I get in trouble for not having a stamp but I'm sure my last stamp gave me until the end of April! Don't know if I should apply for a UK or Irish visa...or if I should just keep jetting off every 2 or 3 months and getting a new stamp. Don't think they'll let me do that though. I wanted to go back to Alaska for summer and work there, too. It's worrying about working illegally and then worrying about how we are going to get enough staff to even run this place that is doing my head in. I know it's not my problem but like everything around here, it's not my problem but I am the one who has to deal with the consequences. I might ask for a raise. Don't want to speak too soon but I think I'm back in the good books with the boss. Would rather be in no books because they expect more of you and get really disappointed in you when you make a mistake. On the flipside I really don't want to be in the bad books either.
Oh well. Who knows how long I'll be hanging around here. If my pay goes up to €425 (like it is supposed to) then I will stick around but it's getting to be not worth it for €350 a week. I've saved almost €1000 but that's taken over a month!
Ryanair keeps having £10 sales, so I did end up booking the Cheese Rolling festival.
Lucinda really wants to go to Oktoberfest (I want to go too!) and she wants someone to go with, but it's the 19th to the 24th of September and honestly can't say where in the world I'll be by then. If I'm still going to be here/in Europe then it would be worth it but who knows...I could be home by then or I could be back in the US.
Need to call my airline and see if I can still use my return flight home, even though it was supposed to be in February...
Too much to think about just now. I think I'm getting grey hairs from the stress. This job is retarded for €350 a week. And when there is so much negativity and complaining by dickhead backpackers going on around you it really breaks your spirit.
And to think I was doing do well up til now.
Monday, 7 April 2008
MONEY
I kind of hate the Euro currency...not just because it's stronger than the Aussie dollar but also because it looks like Monopoly money. And it's made out of paper.
But given all that, it looks pretty cool all together:
I've seen all of them bar the €500 note. I have almost €1000 in savings in the safe here (all in 50s) so I'm thinking about going into the bank and getting it changed to a €500 and two €200 notes...
The denominations I am more familiar with are the coins:
Ireland's Euro coins have the picture of the harp on the back of them, like so:
Each EU nation has it's own picture on the back of their coins. It's funny because we are used to a 'heads' and a 'tails' side on our coins, but because they don't have a unified head of state they don't really have any heads on their coins. Some countries love their royalty so much they will still put their heads on their coins, e.g. Belgium, Luxemburg, Monaco, Netherlands, Spain, and the Vatican.
Here is a sweet site where you can see pretty much all of them and what image they have on the 'reverse' side of their coins.
http://www.eurocoins.co.uk/images1euros.html
For some reason you can buy a British Euro (MADNESS), but I don't know why you'd waste your money on it because it's not legal tender.
On another note, I am about to book a day tour and flights to Gloucestershire to go to the CHEESE-ROLLING FESTIVAL!!!
Cheese Rolling tour
Official Cheese Rolling Website
Seriously.
£45 for the tour, and then €45 for the return flights to London/Dublin.
Just imagine, this could be ME chasing an 8lb cheese down the hill!
HAPPY DAYS!!!
Gotta get back to work-break time is over.
xxx leash
But given all that, it looks pretty cool all together:
I've seen all of them bar the €500 note. I have almost €1000 in savings in the safe here (all in 50s) so I'm thinking about going into the bank and getting it changed to a €500 and two €200 notes...
The denominations I am more familiar with are the coins:
Ireland's Euro coins have the picture of the harp on the back of them, like so:
Each EU nation has it's own picture on the back of their coins. It's funny because we are used to a 'heads' and a 'tails' side on our coins, but because they don't have a unified head of state they don't really have any heads on their coins. Some countries love their royalty so much they will still put their heads on their coins, e.g. Belgium, Luxemburg, Monaco, Netherlands, Spain, and the Vatican.
Here is a sweet site where you can see pretty much all of them and what image they have on the 'reverse' side of their coins.
http://www.eurocoins.co.uk/images1euros.html
For some reason you can buy a British Euro (MADNESS), but I don't know why you'd waste your money on it because it's not legal tender.
On another note, I am about to book a day tour and flights to Gloucestershire to go to the CHEESE-ROLLING FESTIVAL!!!
Cheese Rolling tour
Official Cheese Rolling Website
Seriously.
£45 for the tour, and then €45 for the return flights to London/Dublin.
Just imagine, this could be ME chasing an 8lb cheese down the hill!
HAPPY DAYS!!!
Gotta get back to work-break time is over.
xxx leash
Sunday, 6 April 2008
Snow!
More pics coming soon :-)
*edit* ok here are some pics:
Preserved meatstuffs at the Derry Guildhall open air market.
These flowers are everywhere...but I can't find them in Dublin otherwise I'd put them into all the hanging pots/windowboxes here!
Looking out over the Bogside district of Derry from the city walls.
Story is, these walls have been around since the 1600's and enclose the middle of the city and are about 1.5km around. Up to 8m tall in some places, they are really solid and have cannons and watchtowers around on them. Pretty cool. When all the Northern Ireland tension stuff started (even way back in the day) Catholics weren't allowed within the walls-into the inner city part. The part that I'm looking out onto, the Bogside, is called that because Derry used to be an 'island' ie surrounded by a river that went all around it but over the years it dried out and turned into marsh/bog and then eventually into land that was suitable to build on. The government/city/Queen/whoever controls that sort of stuff made sure that only the poorest people (ie Catholics in those days) lived in the crappy Bogside area and this is where the Bloody Sunday Massacre happened. We went into the Bloody Sunday museum and the man working there on that day was the brother of one of the 13 shot dead by paramilitary soldiers on Bloody Sunday. It was so moving-handwritten letters/accounts of people seeing their children getting shot and then going to help them, 'his eyes were wide open but I knew he was dead'. Horrible, horrible stuff. Pictures of 10yr kids in gasmasks throwing petrol bombs...videos of the march with the soldiers all lined up with their riot gear and hoards of people hurling stones and throwing stuff at them. It was pretty disturbing. Makes you wonder if the UK will ever give up Northern Ireland or if people will still fight to get their freedom and independance from the UK...
I already had a picture of the Free Derry sign but I like this one better because you can see the mural in the background.
Ok that's about all for now. Gotta really get up off my bumbum and post some postcards and parcels back home but the first day off isn't until Wednesday. Not long now til we go to Turkey!!! Getting excited. I think we are stopping over in Frankfurt for a night on the way back-it's near impossible to get cheap flights out of Istanbul. Would have gotten the train to Athens (about 20hrs) and then flown back from Athens but it would have cost an extra £200! That's almost as much as the whole tour through Turkey cost! So yeah, have to save it for another time I suppose.
Back to work for me-for a Sunday morning we are quite busy...
Hope everyone is doing well back home or wherever they are in the world, if anybody wants to come over to go to the Tomato throwing festival, or the running of the bulls in Pamplona, or my birthday in August, or to Oktoberfest (in late September) let me know and I'll come too!
xxx lisha
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