Frankfurt Main

Or actually Bornheim. This is where Svenja lives and is where I chose to spend the day.
I end up doing very little as it is so cold.
When I leave the city I buy no ticket but travel as a user. I plan to use the innocent kiwi who didn't realise technique.

"One please for the airport"
"Huh? I'm supposed to already have one?"
"Where was I supposed to buy a ticket?"

etc

When someone with a highlighet jacket gets on, i get off. But no one questions me.

We spent the night playing a board game with her friend and talking. And eating. She's cool.

Staying with Svenja

bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! I pressed the key saying 'Goldenthai' and waited for the bodiless voice to bid me welcome. Then it was in, out of the cold.

The flat was small but cosy. The flatmates super nice. Svenja, my official couch host, is moving out in 2 days to study in Madrid, she has caught a cold yesterday and she has an exam, now. Yet she welcomed me in without a pause. That's kindness that can never be bought. She also has a cool little black dog called Bandida which she picked up on her travels though Equidor and brought back with her to Germany!

We took her for a walk too that night and on the way home I stopped in at the super to grab some dinner. First thing i bought was a pretzel. Wow, are they good!

Back to pretzels!!!

Caught the tube at 9 to head to the airport. I already hasd my bus booked to get to Stansted and I had traced the route by foot the day before to make sure I made it with ease. So it was and being able to stick my backpack in the 'oversized' grouping meant it could also be overweight as they forgot to check (o:

Hitch from the Frankfurt Hann airport to Frankfurt Main? Cool. Only on my own it is just not fun and so i caught a bus. Then the metro and following Svenja's instructions I was soon buzzing her apartment to be let in out of the cold. Why is it so cold here in Germany?

On the flight here i also came to a realization. It is not that my life is going from high to high and so in need of something mundane to help me appreciate the good times once more. It is not that I need to sit and mull over all i have seen in order to make room for more. It is just that I need a friend to see it all and appreciate it all with. To constantly jump like I have been from one place to another just doesn't work. I am looking forward to seeing Jo again. Even to work. Just for the companionship it offers. Staying with friend is fun, but you need something constant too sometimes.

Also, as said, hitching. On your own it is sad. A cheap way to move. With a friend it brings laughter and smiles as you face off a chosen challenge. You laugh off the rejections, making up stories against them to pass the time. On your own the stories are old. The rejections are real.

London stuff

Imperial war museum. Good. Again. Holocaust feature got you thinking.
ipod head phones. replaced.
jesse james. learnt bout his life on day time tv. haha.
bagels. lived on these. good.
air bed for 2 nights! whooop whooop! others moved out; i moved up.

Two tourists

Another kiwi girl was crashing at Paul's while I was there as well. Having come over from Canada and feeling the jet lag, I hadn't seen too much of her but she made and appearance and so today we decided to be tourists together.

After a late breakfast at around 10:30, we headed off to watch the change of guards which we were told commences at 11:30. Heaps of time. Or was it?

We were still on a tube at 11:30 and so figured we'd missed it but would go check out Buckingham Palace anyway. Turned up around 11:50 and there were still massive crowds surrounding it. We joined the mayhem, listened to the band play a few tunes and even saw a guard inside be replaced by another. Was that it? Was that the change? Pretty dissapointing I thought. Or we both thought so really and prepared to head off to see what else was around. But before we did so I went and spoke to a local bobby to ask if all was done. Not even close he replied!

At 12am (2 mins away) was when the gates would open and the guards pour out with all the finaries. Cool. So we went to watch. As he had said, the gates opened at 12 and some guys marched out and then some others and then they were gone. Left me wondering once more what all the fuss was about. We then walked the Princess Diana Memorial walk through some Park whilst heading on to see Big Ben. Nice park, had some cool squirrels and pelicans too. After stopping to pose for a photo with one of those guards who can't talk to you (wouldn't even reply when i tried to be polite and ask if it was ok to grab a snap) we made it to Big Ben, saw it was indeed a big clock, and then headed over to Westminster Abbey next door, saw it was indeed an old church, and then the parlimentary buildings and saw they were indeed some old buildings filled with old boring men. Splitting up here as Natasha headed off for a tour of London by bus, I made me way to the Natural History museum to have a look at the big boys. Dinosaurs. And they were HUGE! I reckon it is easy to say you can imagine how big but until you actually see them, I don't think I truly did appreciate it. They were HUGE! Simply HUGE! Also on show are like 200 000 other specimens all worth a look. I even tried to help them out by telling them their Moa's stance was obsolete and that today it is widely agreed upon that they didn't stand with their neck stretched at the upright but instead it was horizontal in a sense to the ground. They asked my email and we'll see what comes of it, haha. Also stopped by the science museum next door which had a few interesting stops. Learnt my brain thinks like that of a woman according to one test I took. Oh and Natasha drove from Canada to Mexico with some friends so it can be done!

London tourist

But I am in London and so some sight seeing should probably be thrown in. There are enough sights here to last it seems as well. First stop for me was the Tate modern. This was the number one tourist attraction in London last year numbers wise. It is a modern art gallery from what I saw and contains a lot of those modern pieces of art which I would call piles of junk. Seriously. A dead bird arrowed to a wall. A blan white square with a red circle in the corner, titled "Death of artisitc freedom", a mangled rubbish bin with a newsreel pouring out of it. Let's be honest, I don't get art and neither do you. Some people just pretend to. In fact, the best piece for me, and the only exhibit I liked, was by this African guy who was really good and took the piss out of modern art. One painting showed him looking on at 'modern' pieces and he looks lost and the caption says something about him questioning what the hell it is all about. He used bright colours too. Always cool I had walked to the Tate Modern from Trafalgur Square (walking around London is like walking along the Monoploy board and had me constantly on the look out for a giant hat, ready to run me over on its way to Mayfair. Did see a red hotel too!). Anyway, the reason for being at Trafalgur was for the Chinese New Year celebrations. There was a festival on that I had chosen to go see. Caught one of the infamous brigh red double decker buses over from Chiswick where i was staying with Paul Leo and had arrived in time for a show of dancers, a selection of chinese food stalls and lanterns and flags blowing around all over the place. It is the year of the rat too and being born in 1984 makes me an honourary member (o: On my way to the tate by foot I stopped for an hour or so to watch some kids in a skate park. At times there were around 100 observers I reckon. Not that they were all that great. But I have found I love to watch them. I was at the tate till around 5pm and then I hit home, found the supermarket had shut at 5 and so ended up out for tea with Paul and Nicky to a Chinese all you can eat buffet. Fitting.

Pub crawl

Pub crawl? Doesn't that imply pubs are involved? Did make one I guess for a toilet stop. Otherwise it all seemed to go on outside.

It's the next morning now so I'm not really in the mood to write but here's a summary...

Breakfast at Paul's friend's house. Big fry up of sausages, eggs, baked beans, onions etc. This was accompanied by a litre of scrumpy, a couple of torpedo'd beers and a moko drawn on half my face with a permanent marker. Then we set off to join the crawl.

(pic of group)

We started at some mid street place. Don't know where. Will have to ask. Big crowd of kiwis all over the place. The pisser was a wall next to a florist. Some girl even tried taking money for it!

Next was somewhere else. I can't even remember. London is huge and it all looks the same. And I guess by now we were all a bit drunk.

Night ended in a club where we avoided the door charge by going in the back door. Or Paul was leading and I was following. Ahh, the blame game (o:

All in all it was another good night.

The London Pub Crawl

Based upon the celebration of Waitangi Day - For any of you non-Kiwis out there, Waitangi Day is held each year on February 6th to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand's founding document, on that date in 1840. The day the English (i think) and the Maori stopped their war - this is a pub crawl of mammoth size.

What to expect...

And so it begins! The crawl officially starts at 10am and Paddington station acts as a gathering place for people to meet up with their mates before heading off. There will be loads of Kiwis milling about so just follow the crowds and you'll be fine. Grab a bite to eat because it'll be a long day.

As only the second stop on the crawl, things should still be well under control and people will be warming up nicely. The pub at Bayswater used to be called 'The Rat and Parrot' but has changed names to 'The Bayswater Arms'. This is a good place to grab a bite if you haven't already.

People will be getting a bit merry by this point and things seem to start to kick off after this stop at Notting Hill Gate. The toilets inside the pub are to the left. The group will be growing in size and the wait for the tube on the platform will be getting really crowded and just a wee bit rowdy.

Prince of Wales is a tiny, long, narrow pub with the toilets crammed right at the back. Best bet is to stay outside the High Street Kensington Stop because it will be difficult to get a drink and almost impossible to get to the toilets. There's not alot of space in front of the pub but you can sprawl out across the road too.

Gloucester Road. There's not much around this stop really so just focus on keeping warm. Best way to do this is to keep drinking! Second best way is to start dancing around. Third best way is to pee your pants but the warmth is short lived and will make the rest of your day quite uncomfortable. Not recommended.

South Kensington. Things should be geting a bit rowdy by now with loads of people spilling out of the pub into the streets. If the cars can get by then you're not trying hard enough!

The stop at Sloane Square is crap. The old pub on the corner has closed down and the only draw is the public toilet across the road from the station. Lots of people tend to wander off in all directions looking for a pub but your best bet is to get your ass back on the tube because the outlook is bleak.

Victoria is one of the busiest stops on the route and you're sure to come across plenty of bewildered intercity travellers and matinee theatre attendees wondering what the hell is going on. There are a handful of pubs in the station but there's a better atmosphere outside across the road

This is one of the best stops, St Jame's Park - if only because you can get a group of mates together and drink right in the middle of the road on the painted roundabout circle. True, the police will chase you away, but until they do, it's pretty funny. A good photo op if nothing else.

You will probably never see so many Kiwis in one place outside of New Zealand. You will definately never see so many pasty bodies gathered in one place either! The Haka at Westminster is what it's all about and the boys get their kit off and get it going at 4pm and again at 5pm.

The Embankment is a stop often skipped as people rush on to the Temple Walkabout. If you're planning to stop in at The Queen Mary, it's probably much quicker to walk than it is to fight through the crowds to get on teh tube. Cheating... yes. But at this stage nobody's really keeping track anymore.

By this point most people will be fed up with the tube and the cold and will be eager to get to a pub and stay put. The Temple Walkabout is huge and loads of people head to it to finish off the day. Some brave souls carry on and attempt to complete the Circle Line Pub Crawl but most pack it in and call it a day at Temple.

Aaaaarrrgggh, me hearty's! Fun times ahoy!

Leaving Paradise?

 A dog rambling up and down the high tide mark keeping a watchful eye on the beautiful Irish/Russian girl seated outside the beach side shack that is surrounded with a random assortment of sea bought trinkets carefully collected over the years. A plate of fresh baked scones on the stone at her feet and there you will find me. Seated beside. With a content half smile on my face, eyes half closed, half dozing, with half a scone in my mouth and half a beer propped up next to me. Recognisable by the hair that resembles seaweed washed ashore after a big storm, eyes the colour of the deepest, clearest oceans with a stars twinkle always present, a beard that birds could roost in and skin the colour and texture of driftwood after a lifetime wandering the oceans. This is my dream life. 

To live by the beach

To have a dog

To have a long shaggy beard

To have long shaggy hair to match

To live a life free of stress

To live a life of sun

Here I am happy. Here Brighton brought me. Here I would stay... only it is way to friggin cold here in England! Nelson perhaps?

Blank??

i was leaving this blank to write stuff. Only I can't remember what? Perhaps some scribbles from my book while taking the train from Brighton to Victoria Stn London? ...

i looked out the window for much of the trip. What struck me were the rows of endless houses between the fields. Like ripples on an ocean, hundreds of English houses stretch out before me. Each as unique as it's identical neighbour. Yet in their un-uniqueness, they succeed in making London unique. They seem overpowering and yet next moment are gone. Replaced by endless fields of the farmer.

The oasis in a desert. The green park in London city. I can't help but smile at the thought of what these parks mean. For dogs free of leash. For small kids on their bikes. For teenagers, freeing their minds momentarily from study. For old couples, contemplating life gone by.

Each sight we passed had a thousand sights within. A horse seen tied to a tree. Free yet trapped in it's freedom. Is it right for us to keep animals as pets if we deny them their natural desires? If for however short that time might be?

Sometimes they seem to take the freedom from themselves. A cat seen up a tree. A haven from a foe? Or the foe itself? trapped in a wall less cell. I often wonder how long those cats in movies would stay up the tree if the fireman didn't come along. I imagine until they got hungry to be honest.

A bird seen in a tree. A nest a few branches up. Together a life? Or just a passing moment? A coincidence. So much of life is made up from coincidence. If I was to walk out of this library this moment and strike up conversation with the first person I saw, my life would be changed forever.

If I was to leave now and start walking with no goal in mind. Where would I end up? What would happend to me? What would my current couch surfing host think? And what about my gear? My backpack - my companion, my house, my life, but never my home. Always home is with mum and dad. I have lived in a number of places now. I have lived for months in flats too while at uni. And yet have always called our house in rotorua home. Will this change when I settle for good in a few years time?

Finding that home was always with mum and dad hed me to thinking how we can keep in touch so easily these days. Is this a good thing? I'll never travel as free as my dad did when he backpacked the world. I sometimes wish I could be truly independent. No internet, no phone, no communication. Cut off from everyone. Independent.

Or would I get lonely? A man in a purple coat stands astride a log in a field. His puropse? We pass by in a train sent for another city. Never to know. Only to guess. Thrown to the wind, we don't truly expect an answer.

Contemplating lonliness, i was broken free of my thoughts by a young kid loudly quizzing, or perhaps teaching, his father. "Anyone can use these toilets", cried the small boy at the end of the train carriage, "Babies, growd ups, babies, even bag ladies. Anyone can use these toilets daddy".

Drunk to forget the past.
Drunk to escape the present.
Drunk to deny the future.