DUBROVNIK - CROATIA

i was lookin forward to crotia. sun and water. felt like an eternity since i had seen that combination.

i stayed at irish kimbo's parents holiday house at cavtat which is bout 20mins on a bus from dubrovnik. all i had planned to do now til i head bak to london was relax and relax i did.

sittin on a beach (by the way in croatia a beach is pebbles n concrete next to water), in the sun, drinkin a cold beer, goin for refreshing swims in the clearest water in the world. magic! doesnt get any better. did this for 3 days.

one of the days we headed into dubrovnik to have a wee looksy. its a breathtaking looksy at that. sitting looking over the andriatic sea with pebble lanes and steep steps down to the old town. it truely is a magnificent city. me n kimbo headed to a bar called cold drinks which sits on the cliff edge overlooking the sea. one of the most amazing bars iv been to, watching the cliff jumpers as we had a relaxing beer. ended the day with fresh mussels and squid.

definately was exactly wat i needed. loved it!

SARAJEVO - BOSNIA

now this is wat made the radovan capture so interesting. goin from upset betrayed nationalist serbians to celebrating muslim bosnian. weird.

sarajevo have reconstructed itself pretty well. had a good look around sarajevo. the old town isnt too big but enough to keep u occupied as time flew by. sarajevo is the home to bosnian muslims, croatians and even serbians so it has an interesting mix but the muslims aspect definately stands out.

had a great bunch of backpackers at my hostel where we enjoyed a few bevies. in the shops pivo comes in cans, 1litre bottles 1.5litre bottles and wait for it ......2litre bottles! quantity not quality must be the key.

went for walk up some massive hill that looked over sarajevo and its mountains. nice view but i was exhausted. definately noticed not playing footy this year as my fitness is shite.

on my way to croatia i stopped over in mostar for an hour. its a city south/west of sarajevo and unlike the capitol is stil destroyed by war. blown up buildings, bullet holes everywhere.

like serbia and probly all countries in the baltic ex-yugaslavian region, its interesting to hear the locals stories. there is always two sides to everything.

NOVI SAD - SERBIA

not feelin much better i thought i'ld face my sickness head on and decided to head to serbia. it was an interesting train ride. i arrived in novi sad which is 70km north of belgrade late at night but managed to find my hostel no worries.

i did my apprenticeship with a serbian named miklos who is from novi sad and happen to be there on holidays. it was great to catch with him and have a tour guide and experience the serbian culture. i kno i wee bit of serbian which i successfully used on a few occassion.

i caught up with miklos for a few beers and a walk thru town on the first day. shite weather, rained all day. met up with him later for dinner.

next day it was shite weather again. but always goin to be interesting when you start it with rakija(the traditional liquor).
we went to the beach on the danube where they hav an awesome set up for a great day. bars, restaurants, family areas, sporting areas etc. pity the rain kept the punters away.
we headed up to the fortress which is where the famous exit festival is held. exit was on my itenary but i couldnt get there in time without back tracking so i gave it a miss. now exit is definately a must on my next trip. to have music festival with 20 stages in a fortress like novi sads is unbelievable. i couldnt imagine it. it overlooks the city and the river.

when i was in serbia radovan got caught. he was an ex-general for serbia and had been one of the most wanted men in europe for his war crimes against the muslims 7years ago. its to hard to explain it in writing but it is a massive for serbia to give up an ex-general no matter wat the circumstances are. the nationalist felt betrayed.

had an interesting and enjoyable couple of days in serbia with plenty of pivo included. to hear serbians side of view on things is amazing in an area of europe thats has had conflict for wat seems like forever. surprisingly serbians are one of the most friendliest people i have met. i would have loved to hav stayed longer and headed to belgrade too.

BUDAPEST - HUNGARY

next stop is budapest, where a relaxing couple of hours in the traditional hungarian baths was on the cards. i arrived in the afternoon and headed to heroes square for a look, then to the baths. they had a heap of different baths, with diffferent temperatures, aromas, waters.

headed to bed that night not feeling the best. then my body shut down. dont need to go into details but after 2 injections, 15 tablets a day and 4days stuck in bed that was my budapest experience.

nae bother, it is expected when u live a backpackers lifestyle to hav a few days ill. just didnt need to be that ill. funniest part was i couldnt find an english speaking doctor, so explaining to the doctor my symptoms was like a game of chirades.

however hare krsna had a street parade that i could listen to from my bed on one of the days.

thats it from budapest!

VIENNA - AUSTRIA

my original plan was to spend a few nights in vienna, however plans always change. so i only had time for a day trip.
i was planning to catch the hydrofoil along the danube to vienna, however plans changes. one too many beers caused me to miss it but nah bother i just jumped on the train and got there only an hour later than intended.

i didnt want try and squeeze in everythin in one day so instead i just cruised around the city taking in which every sights i happened to pass. the danube canal runs thru the city with boats, bars, urban beaches set up alongside it. the town itself its as good as any when it comes to architecture.

walking thru the streets u can have a variety of street performers including amazing opera singers. my highlight was this amazing artists that only had spray paint, a stanley knife and a magazines as his tools, with an stunning outcome.

in vienna they love their icecream which freaked me out a bit. instead of catching up for a coffee or a beer, people also caught up for an icecream. imaging a table of men talkin nout watever eating icecreams.
for lunch i had the traditional viener schnitzel n beer followed by a schnaps.

i made the hydofoil home along the danube which was at sunset. bloody marveleous day out with vienna definately pencilled in for next time.

BRATISLAVA - SLOVAKIA

i took the train south to bratislava and book into my hotsel. nice city from first looks. went out for a drink and dinner with my roomies. with romanian, phillapino, norwegian, irish girls, irish, english, danish lads. so it was a multi national evening but a fab one at that.

next day i checked out the st martins church, bratislava castle (as u probly notice every city has a church on top of a hill and a church). took a massive walk around town and then had a well earned nap. went out for dinner again for a lovely original slovak meal then bak to hostel for a drink. the hostel had a amazing jazz band playing there and everyone was having a great time. then they ran out of beer! so obviously we had to move on. went to a few bars and it was always friendly atmosphere with the locals trying to teach me slovak which i butchered.

next day i took to a day trip to vienna.

bratislava was good. i really liked the city alongside the danube. unlike prague its untouched by tourist and you could feel the slovak vibe. coz its not over run by tourist they are so welcoming to help you in anyway and especially they love to share their culture. also slovak women are the most beautiful woman in the world.

PRAGUE - CZECH REPUBLIC

i went to prague in 2006 for a few nights and loved it, so i thought i would go bak for another look.

prices for trains were 120quid which is like $200 so i checked out busses. the busses were expensive too, they were 100 quid. so i hitch hiked for 10quid, well its organised hitch hiking. there is a website that people write where and when they are travelling, then u ring them and plan where to meet. but u still wait for them with ya thumb out so its hitch hiking by technicality.

anyway got to prague no problems and had a good sleep. next day i did my sight seeing of prague. taking in the prague castle, st nicholas church, charles bridge, astronomical clock etc. prague has loads of historical sights that look amazing day and night.

that night i went a bar and liverpool vs tranmere was on so i got settled there with a couple of welsh and dutch lads.

next day i just relaxed and wandered around in my own little world, finding little shops, bars, buildings that i didnt kno existed. in my dorm was this eccentric german chap that was in prague for the world amatuer chess tournament where he was seeded number 2 out of 350 players. that arvo we had a few games and he was amazing. the last game he told me before the game started that the rook would get me check mate, and it did! he explained after every game his strategy so now i will be unbeatable bak in oz!

that night we went to the biggest club in central europe with 5 levels with an elevator to acces each of them. each floor had a theme. it was a great night with pivo and the infamous absence involved.

prague is stil great but it has got to a point that tourist rule the city which is a shame. i heard many different languages but not czech and there are so many tours, souvenier shops that it sorta takes away the czech culture but stil worth a visit.

STUTTGART - GERMANY

stuttgart has great memories for myself. football fans would remember stuttgart is where australia drew to croatia which took us to the next stage of the 2006 world cup. also the comical graeme poll 3 yellow card incident.

i have a good friend christina that lives here. she stayed with us in 2005 in adelaide and me and the boys stayed with her in 2006, so i thought on my way to prague il come visit her for a couple of nights.

it was a good chance to relax as its been all go since i have left. during the days i just relaxed watching tv, reading and sleeping which is exactly wat i wanted. i have already seen a lot of stuttgart last time i was here so i wasnt interested in goin into town.

1st night christina had friends over for dinner n drinks to celebrate finishing uni. it was a good night with a german meal of steamed würsswurst, pretzels n warm salad and wheat beer. 3/4 of the conversation was in german and i had no idea wat they where talking about but it was fun.
2nd night i cooked tea. exactly the same but bbq würsswurst, cold salad and grilled bread. we went to christina's uni for drinks. thursday night is their party night. it was another good night with good german beer.

auf wiedersehen

LUXEMBOURG CITY - LUXEMBOURG

luxembourg is the 3rd smallest country in europe with only 500,000 people. it usually gets missed by tourist as its main visitors are there for work. it is well known for banking and is part home for the european union. so i thought i'ld check it out.

i went to go for a walk 1st day and it took me an hour to work out what everything meant. there is no english signs and to make it even more confusing some signs are german, some are french and some are luxembourgese. luckily for me i cant speak any. eventually i was away walking around like i was from luxembourg myself. cutting thru side alleys, under bridges, across glorious parks.

luxembourg is nice, not to busy and has a lot of history. being in between germany and france you can imagine the crossfire and attempts to take over luxembourg. luxembourg people are very proud to be an independant counrty.

i checked out the casemates, which are tunnels below a fortified castle that was built in 900's and gradually got bigger and bigger. the defence walls and moats ran 25km and tunnels were used to protect families and soldiers. in the 1980's when netraulity was declared between european nations they decided to demolished the walls and tunnels. however a stretch of over 2km could not been brought down and now is a tourist attraction. pretty interesting.

i also checked out the notre dame cathedral and other sights. luxembourg has plenty of greenery and has a valley thru the middle of the town. overall luxembourg is a plesent city and was worth seeing.

ROCKWERCHTER, LEUVEN - BELGIUM

rockwerchter is Belgium's main music festival.
it is over 4nights with the choice of camping or single day trips. i chose the 4night camping tickets.
as i had been to rockwerchter in '06 for just a day i was pretty amped to get bak there and take in the whole festival.

it has a simple set up with one main stage and a marque, similar to the falls festival set up. it gets around 50,000 people and the line up is wat makes it so impressive. as well as how good it is run. no queues for beer, food or toilets and definately the cleanest festival toilets i have used.

now for the people. like all festivals everyone is in good spirits and are friendly. the language barrier wasnt to bad, even tho everything was in german and flemish most campers obviously spoke english coz it was english music being played. i ended meeting great people again, my main crew were from ireland and brisbane. so many aussies travel.

now for the music. awesome line up with bands gettin at least an hour set each. overall it was another awesome festival that i recommend highly to anyone in europe over the first weekend of july.

i ended up seein jay-z, glasto's headliners who got good reviews so i thought ild give him ago. he has 99problems and i saw them all of them in his music. he plays other artist music and ruins them by talkin over the top. worst part of the festival was wen he used ac/dc. also radiohead bored me again.

my favourites bands were:
nêil young - the legend himself, played for 2hours.
kings of leon - cemented their spot as my favourite band along with pearl jam n muse
ben harper and the innocent criminals - didnt dissapoint
john butler trio - i take them for granted being from oz but they were amazing
chemical brothers - have to close BDO on the main stage next year not boiler room
hives, mark ronson, mgmt, beck, rem the list goes on.....

bring on rockwerchter 2009! who's comin with me?

AMSTERDAM - THE NETHERLANDS

its the start of europe part of my oversea's trip.
first stop amsterdam for a night.

that is all.

GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL @ WORTHY FARM, ENGLAND - UK

GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL! one of if not the best festival in the world.

over more than 1000 performing artist over 20 venues. 140,000 punters and 35,000 crew, staff n performers. its glasto baby!

i headed to glastonbury from liverpool on my own. i met 2 sound girls on the coach ended up bein my glasto buddys. sabrina a.k.a knackers and maria a.k.a bucky.

knackers knew some other peeps that we camped with so we had a strong gathering of 12ish. got their on the wednesday to set up with the festival not officially starting til friday. in saying that their was plenty of smaller stages with bands and bars open for wed n thurs. thursday night cut copy played!

by friday i was well into glasto mode and couldnt wait for it to explode. glasto over the last 5 or more years has had constant rain. it is a must to bring wellies. however we only had one night of rain. it still called for wellies for the next 2 days as mud is everywhere.

its sort of hard to explain how good glasto, u sort of hav to c it to understand. theres so much goin on away from the 9 main stages that u get caught wandering.

the diverse range of music is amazing. from older music in neil diamond, shankin stevens,to commercial music of jay-z, amy whinehouse, john mayer to dance legends groove armada, fat boy slim it just blows u away. its impossible to attend and not find something that u will love.

i randomly ran into heap of people from adelaide on the satday. great group that i ended up hanging with for a fair bit of glasto. it would hav been great to go with my mates, especially my falls crew but in saying that wen ya got 140,000 punters at festival u meet some awesome people.

representing australia was midnight juggernaughts, hilltop hoods, crowded house, hoodoo gurus, presets, cut copy and operator please( operator were so good!)

anyway il leave ya's with my favourite acts of glastonbury 2008.
kings of leon - repeat of falls
crowded house - legends
eric bibbs - bibbsy, say no more
mgmt - the newest best thing i have seen
battles - nothin sounds like em
the presets - rocked disco lounge
editors - solid
last shadow puppets - alex turner from artics with special geust jack white

cant wait for glasto 2009! who is comin with me?!

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - USA

las vegas with 9 lads! it doesnt get bigger than this. it was life changing for the better. but as u can imaging like a footy trip wat happens in vegas stays in vegas.

well most of it.

the reason for the vegas trip was for Guido's 30th. to join him to celebrate was myself, kinta, weeman, marky, sharpey, scotty, macca and the suprise of huss.
we stayed at new york new york, which we all were happy with. it had a rollercoaster on it,outside pool, coyote ugly bar plus a heap of other bars.

a few highlights are:
headin to hooters on guido's actual bday then coyote ugly bar.
saw pene & teller (magicians) at rio followed by the rooftop bar overlooking vegas drinking fishbowls.
hellicopter past hoover damm to the floor of the grand canyon for a champagne lunch.
balagio water feature show.

apart from that peeps i cant go into any more details, all i have to say is go to vegas!

TIJUANA - MEXICO

we headed to the border of mexico, only 30 mins from the luxury of san diego.
crossing the border was weird, a turnstile and a policeman that was sleeping. that is it. no checks or nothing. coming bak into america on the otherhand was the opposite.

tijuana has the most murders, rapes n notorious behaviour in the world so to go their was very interesting. like anywhere you have to respect their land but in saying that they still will try to get the best of you. dodgey bastards haha.

on the plus side tijuana is cheap. $1 corona is the goin rate. wen in tijuana u hav to do as the mexicans do. so tequilla shot from the bottles was on the cards.

the strange thing is that i enjoyed it. talkin to local bar staff and street kids comin up to try and sell u bracelets n other little gifts. it reminds u that the difference in people's quality of life is huge. travelling to main cities is nice but it sorta hides the countrys problems. within a half hour i went from the massions and beaches of san diego to the shantys and dirty streets of tijuana. it makes ya appreciate things a little more.

LOS ANGELAS & SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - USA

the country of stars n stripes is next on my itenary. first stop LA.
the city of angels!

i had accomadation sussed out in santa monica, which in on the west coast. first day was just relaxin after the 11hour flight from the UK. the next day i went on a mammoth walk through santa monica and venice beach, 2 nice beaches with the sun shining.

the second night john girvan a.k.a girv came up fron san diego for a bevie. we just stayed local but it was a funny night taking advantage of naive americans. they all believed i was an animal psychologist over in america to check up on all the kangaroos well being. whether they had enough space, correct diet etc. everyone believed me. girv was over for work to as a dolphin scientoligist. yep, they believed him too.

on thursday day we jumped in girvs convertable and cruised from LA to his gaff in San diego. along the drive we visited venice beach, beverly hills, hollywood, san clamente, oc and malibu. we ended at a local bar to watch the lakers v boston game on tv. they love their basketball!

i found out that girv knows everything about everything which makes him the best tour guide ever. we stayed around san diego friday, with girv explaining the set up. we saw pacific beach-PB, mission beach-MB, ocean beach-OB and mission bay. girv lives at PB.

saturday we headed to torrey pines to watch the golf US open. it was awesome. we set ourselfs at hole 13 and watched a heap of players come through. i had a life sporting memory as tiger miss hit of the tee and the ball landed metres away. being only 5m away on his recovery. also wen i went to the toilet on hole 14, as i came out sonny garcia was waiting to use my cubicle. it was belter of a day that i wont forget to soon.

sunday we went downtown san diego which is known as the gaslamp district. we checked out the padres ground, decent stadium. ended bak in PB to watch game 5 of the laker v boston series. wanted to go the game but the cheapest tickets was $600!

monday we scored tickets to the US open playoff between woods and mediate. another boss day, unfortunately rocco didnt get up, tiger is just a freak. after the golf we went to a batting cage and had a hit at driving range.

not planning on headed to america untill last minute, i was suprised with the seppo's friendliness. they love an aussie! i had a good time in cali especially san diego. thanks tour guide girv.

DUBLIN - IRELAND

just 40minutes after leavin liverpool i was in dublin. the dirty old town itself.

made my way to trinity college to meet up with guido, then headed bak to his gaff. not a bad little gaf on the camden street, one of the main streets in dublin. we sat on their roof top and had few beer with marky, phillie, kinta and the one and only weeman. sun was out and it was a good start to dublin.

next day guido took me around dublin, through temple bar, along the liffey, past christ church and the post office with bullet holes. then ended the day by hitting some pub on camden street.

met up with kimbo (a girl i met in IOS in 06) on the wednesday and we hit up the guiness factory. it was pretty interesting with the brewing process and history with loads of reading and no tour guides. up on the top level is the gravity bar, which has 340degree not 360 views of dublin. it was a fab day with heaps of walkin, its the best way to see any city, just keep walkin. that night kimbo, laura came out with me guido and weeman.

thursday was a relaxing day, with more drinks in the afternoon. we headed to kintas pub then markys bar which is cocktail bar. he made the menu so the names of cocktails are his mates. e.g. the weeman, a guido highball. we ventured on the south side of the liffey and temple bar and ended at phillies pub.

friday we jumped on the luas to tio's house. it was the kiwi's bday so he chucked on a bbq. frank gallagher was with us, any one who has seen the show shameless, this guy is frank gallagher.

saturday was awesome! sun was out so we had a rooftop bbq. then we all headed to mallahide castle to see radiohead. it was an awesome day, walkin up to mallahide castle with sun shining was the best settin to for music i have seen. it was a magic day/night.

sunday we all went to johnnie's which is the highest pub in ireland. it had trad (traditional irish music) and good character.

dublin is weird, there is nothing much to see. there is no big sights, if you ask the locals wat should i see? they direct to different pubs. its more of a social country and wen i go back in august to see muse i will head to different countys. overall dublin and irish people in general are so welcoming and social which suits me pretty well.

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - UK

i arrived to the merseyside on friday arvo with roger "chimpmits" mccozzy waitin for me in a porsche 4x4/batted old rover. headed bak to his new gaff via anfield to drop my bags off, then straight to the battle cruiser for wife beater or 3. ended up jumpin on the train to town to catch up with stevieG for his birthday. unfortunately SG had to head off to Trinidad for a kick, so we were left in jamie carraghers bar knockin bak a few in honour of our stevie. try the pepe pasta!

with lots of larfs along the way we ended up in concert square. it was a boss night, meeting loads of quality scouses until chimpmits decided enough was enough at a ripe time of 10.30 as we headed off home. the nullarbor's and umbrella ella ella ella's were a big hit.

saturday was a glorious day and we headed down to south road for a bevie n bet. i lost a few quid, whilst roger poured out half a beer in the worlds smallest beer garden. with the sun in the sky we went to jonesy's for bbq. rogers cousins karl n jack came west from hallifax to join in. baz n steph, mccozzy's good scouse mates, made an appearence aswell. it was a good day, with good people and we made tracks in the arvo to the bug. it was at this time roger informed me he would not be heading out. obviously this left me feeling shocked and dismayed. me and karl soldiered on into varsity (formally known as the barracuda bar) and then into concert square for a purely belter night out. ended up home in the early hours with a plant as a gift for sleeping beauty.

sunday was not as glorious, with constant rain and no sun to be seen. wat a difference a day makes. we ventured to albert docks for look about and jumped on the duck bus (its a tour bus that takes ya round the city and then drives into the water and turns into a boat). we saw all the sights of liverpool and now hav been officially baptised by the water of the mersey.

that evenin we made our way down matthew street to the cavern club. its an amazing venue that you hav to see to understand it. an underground music club where the beatles made famous as it was where they started out. bands like the rolling stones, sex pitsols, the who etc also played there in their heyday. not suprisingly a beatles cover band were playin. after takin in the beauty of the cavern club we met up with baz n steph for a lager n food. another good day and night that ended with singalongs at rogers gaff and yes we did sing you'll never walk along.

today we are heading off to liverpool one, liverpool's massive open air shopping centre to see lfc's biggest merch shop that has just opened. doin a wiliams tunnel tour later on, its where they kept all their slave years ago, which turned into a black market area of liverpool where tunnels go in every direction for miles under liverpool. off to manchester tonight to see foo fighters. they are playin at city of manchester stadium, man citys home ground. should be another sound day/night.

well thats liverpool covered for now. off to dublin tomorro for a week.

stay classy australia!

LONDON, ENGLAND - UK

well after a 22hour flight which included a quick stop in singapore (using their great squatting toilets!! no need for sitting down singa) i arrived in london. the city where the smart ones would break the law for a free trip to relocate australia. i jumped on the tube for an hour to upminster where my anuty marlene picked me up. arrivin at 7am i put in a solid effort to last to 9pm to beat the jetlag. a day driving around essex was good to keep me awake and dinner with aunty marlene and uncle chris finished off a relaxing day.

on the wednesday aunty marlene took me to the westend, where we had lunch and saw my first thetre show. we saw the lion king which was a great show with amazing african music. watched the football that night with uncle chris, england's warm up game for euro 2012.

thursday i met up with bec stubbs, travellin a fair bit of london. we had a boss day which included the strand, covent gardens, piccadilly circus (that corner), hyde park, bucky palace, notting hill (that blue door and portobella markets), oxford circus, tottenham court (that angel pub) and finished up taking the tube over to camden and wondering around however didnt buy any funky records with that old mo-town sound. stayed at mitchams house which was just out of london in a small village old amersham.

well thats london for now but will be bak in august. now bout to jump on the train to head to liverpool to meet up with roger "chimpmits" mccozzy.

stay classy australia!

SYDNEY, NSW - AUSTRALIA

hey punk rockers

sydney was my first stop, a chance to re-enact my last time here which was the 2004 westies trip. staying at daveyluke's gaf and socializin with the great man himself, i knew i had to hav my drinking shoes on.

friday night went to the fitba to watch aus v ghana, in which was a dour affair. the night was at a massive crossroad, we choose to head in the right direction of home. 7 hours later, bout 5am in the morning we arrived. it was a random night of shinanigans with jane leading the way.

satday we went to circular quay (say it how u c it people, its not key its quay) to take in all the sights of sydney. meeting up with good mate richo along the way. ended up at glenmore rooftop bar which looks over the quay with great views.

heading home in the late arvo for a spruce up, a few britneys and a quick 2 hour game of buzz. second winds had set in and we headed out to newtown. my beautiful cousin chloe met up with us to join in with the laughs, as well did couple of her mates and the one and only raj barker. it was a stella night, which ended with midori and milks.

today is just a relaxing day in front of the box with a few beers, getting ready for a big buzz/singstar session later on with davey, cluts, tracey and walker.

sydney has been a great weekend with good mates and if this is an indication of how my trip is gonna to turn out........ im gonna have a f*#kin ball!!!

stay classy australia