Monday, October 17, 2005

luxemboring

i'm in luxemburg. it's empty. where is everyone?
they're not here:
nothere.jpg
they're not here either:
nothere2.jpg
they're not here either:
nothere3.jpg
ah there's someone! no wait, it's just a stuffed owl.
owl.jpg
the luxemburg art scene is vibrant:
vibrant.jpg
seriously where is everyone? i don't know. i give up and order a schnitzel.
schnitz.jpg
i met an irish guy at the hostel who's been here a while, so we're gonna go find some bars later, hopefully things will pick up a bit.

more switzerland..

..because i like it in switzerland.

right now im in the nice but completely dull city of geneva, and it's cold and foggy. but the bikes are free so i've been riding around the city all day.
bike.jpg

it's been a really good few days, i found an absolutely beautiful place to stay in the mountains for the last 3 or 4 days, made lots of friends, it's been very difficult to leave. i went to zurich for a night, and went back to gryon for another day and night just because i liked it so much up there. i only left this morning because the weather is starting to get worse. i could write loads about it but i'm sitting in starbucks and it's annoying the fuck out of me so here are the photos instead.
this is "chalet martin", it's cheap and very cool.
chalet.jpg
this is the view from the window of the hostel. (really.)
view1.jpg
fire!
fire.jpg
jade & trang from san diego, rick from cant remember where in the usa
sandiego.jpg
sam from america. americans and australians are everywhere
sam.jpg
big dinner party last night
dinner.jpg
he made all the food
oz.jpg
emelie from sveeden
em.jpg
french dude
french.jpg
lama in the garden. they piss for around 5 minutes at a time, i timed it.
lama.jpg
cute little people
little.jpg
i find a cat
cat.jpg
"Lager Bier Hell"
hell.jpg

and some photos from zurich, which was another cool city.

the view from the hostel was lovely
view.jpg
this dog is pissing.
piss.jpg
and now he wants my sandwich.
dog.jpg
i find a bar called "con tiki", and get beaten by EVERYONE at table football. they're way too good at this is zurich.
table1.jpg
i get beaten by girls - the shame. (my partner wasn't very good. but still.)
bitches.jpg
someone's ass.
ass.jpg
cant remember this guy's name.
geez.jpg
in zurich, snorting this is apparently a tradition. it's like snuff and tiger balm all at the same time. mm tasty. not doing that again.
snif.jpg
some hot men for the ladies.
hotmen.jpg
this one is from the other day in interlaken, i just forgot to post it. i beat everyone there, including the weird tibetans who kept calling me "gi joe".
balmerstable.jpg

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

more interlaken

some more schnitzel eating and mountain stuff from today.
plus some old people hanging out by a sex shop.
mountain3.jpg
mountain2.jpg
mountain1.jpg
shopin.jpg
back.jpg

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

lots of stuff..from switzerland

i've had no time to go online in the last few days, so i'm dumping the last few days photos and words on here in one big chunk now.
right now im in the swiss alps in a town called interlaken, which is in between two lakes and a load of mountains. i'm staying in a hostel full of people from all over the place which is nice, there's loads of people travelling alone, so i'm feeling totally at home here, ive met lots of cool people here.
people come to interlaken to hike up to the mountains and walk around in forests and explore the lakes. im choosing to do none of that, and instead im sitting in the sun in the garden of the hostel with loads of other lazy people. apart from hiking, there's really nothing to do here, so i'm spending the day recuperating and doing some work. it's been a hectic few days so i need some time to rest.
some pics from interlaken:
a house on a lake:
lakehouse.jpg
it's so pretty here i can't help but take photos of things like this:
swan.jpg
driving to here is a bit like playing videogames
tunnel.jpg
finally! a schnitzel. about time.
schnitz.jpg

anyway here's the stuff from the last few days, in chronological order:

sunday 9th
bern, switzerland

i decided to follow the sunshine and a bit of random instinct, and came to switzerland today, and im now in the town of bern, sitting in the common room of a surprisingly nice hostel called glocke - like everything else in this county, the hostel is super clean, my room is basic but nice, the staff are cool, and it's just generally nice and relaxed. there's also a very lonely looking football table behind me, which i might have to investigate later on.
the drive from turin through the mountains was absolutely beautiful. the photos won't do it justice. i had to keep stopping every few miles and just get out of the car and stare at stuff. it's making me want to stay in this country for maybe another day, although i haven't quite figured out where to go tomorrow yet - possibly interlaken, or i might even go to zurich. don't know.
it's sunday again, so when i got here the whole town was completely empty, but i was told to go and look at the rose gardens which are on the other side of the bridge, at the top of a small hill - this is where everyone likes to hang out on a sunday night here. it's basically just people sitting around drinking and smoking and watching the sun go down in a massive garden overlooking bern. i sat down to take a few photos and i heard a girl next to me talking in english, so i got chatting to her, and ended up going for a few drinks with her, her boyfriend and a few of their mates. unfortunately at that point my camera batteries died, so i only have crap mobile phone pics of them which is a shame, because they were cool, mostly swiss and therefore incredibly chilled and civilised, and they even offered me their garage to park my car in - but for tonight the car is gonna stay on the street, fuck it, i dont care.
anyway here are the photos from today - ok theyre completely touristy this time but it really is so pretty here that i couldnt help it.

the town of "wankdorf". wonder what the people who live there do all day:
wank.jpg
the drive up here is amazing:
lake.jpg
bern is pretty:
view4.jpg
view3.jpg
view2.jpg
view1.jpg
the view from the rose gardens
sunset2.jpg
sunset.jpg
everything here is so fuckin tidy
street.jpg
driving thru some mountains
drive3.jpg
drive.jpg
i stop here for lunch
drive2.jpg
i meet a cow
cow.jpg
i shop at "dick".
dick.jpg
nice drips
drips.jpg

saturday 8th - torino, italy
ok so i decided to leave france completely, and head for italy today. it means missing monaco, but i don't care, i needed a change of scenery and i've had enough of france now. the weather reports are saying rain for the whole italian coast, so i pointed my car in a slightly different direction and came to turin, which means missing tuscany too, but again - i don't care, i'd rather follow the sunshine than drive around the italian coast in pouring rain just for the sake of it.
turin turned out to be amazing, blazing sunshine and loads of people everywhere, and i got talking to a really sweet brazilian girl called nani, who ended up inviting me out for dinner with a load of her friends (about 20 full on hardcore italians who turned out to be the nicest people ever - they even gave me a lift home at the end of the night). and the coolest thing about these people was that they were all my age or older, and kind of living normal lives in turin (one of them was a policeman, another was a butcher, another was a hairdresser etc), so it was a bit like seeing some proper turin life for a night. i yakked away in english, they yakked away in italian and we all got on like a house on fire.
anyway i got drunk again, so the photos are shit, but there you go. and for future reference, lemoncello - just don't. not out of a big wine glass anyway. my stomach feels like i've drunk a gallon of acidy cat piss.

i'm definately in italy
pizza.jpg
turin street
torinostreet.jpg
non ce vita
nonce.jpg
what the fuck are you doing??
whatthe.jpg
old man and what he's thinking
juve.jpg
a girl with a lampshade on her head
lampshade.jpg
bloody hungarians
hungary.jpg
didn't know richard gere lived here
gere.jpg
italians drive too fast. this is me in the slow lane. shitting my pants.
faster.jpg
dog of the day
dog2.jpg
my torino friends
dinner.jpg
the view on the way to italy
coastline.jpg

friday 7th - st raphael, france

well, im in st. raphael and it's shit. the weather is kind of nice, and the beach is nice too, but this town is mostly made of plastic, and i've seen the following kinds of people:
- old people, loads everywhere. most of them are trying to find their way out of the car park
- twitchy middle aged women in brown leather, which matches their brown leathery skin
- french teenagers in motorbike clothing with cigarette logos. marlboro is popular
- estate agents
- actually i did see one really cool thing, a dog attacked its' owner and ripped a big chunk out of her trousers. didn't have the camera ready at that point tho.

the rest is all casinos and kebab shops.

i was gonna spend 2 days here, but i really can't be bothered, and i'm feeling a bit like i've seen enough of france, and i'd rather go to somewhere else now. i know there's loads of cool places everywhere in france but i wanna go to another country.
the weather looks like it's gonna be crap all along the west coast of italy for the next 5 days, and i don't really fancy driving to tuscany in pouring rain, so tomorrow i'm gonna change direction and head towards the mountains via torino, and see what happens there.

some quality photography from the day:
the beach is nice:
beach2.jpg
local poetry..
encule.jpg
..and local art. how shit is this????
hotgraff.jpg