Review for Twist Episode 13

Just listened to episode 13 of This Week in Startups (Twist). Yes I am slightly behind, anyway here is my review for Jason’s little competition.

What makes this show? Firstly for me it is what t focuses on, startups. The other thing that makes it is Jason. He clearly has done it before and there is no reason to list his successes. But he brings a very clean and logically view to many of the topics on Twist, insightful, smart and sometimes a little funny. Yes there is a but. Often he gets caught in a rant, usually a little off topic, but fear not, 90% of time it is entertaining. Jason somehow manages to keep you engaged.

The segment ‘Ask Jason’ has so far been my highlight and this episode stood up to my expectations. He gave some good advice on how to deal with the big companies. The Yahoos, AOLs and Googles. Much of it is common sense if you have ever work in a large company, but I guess some people have different mindsets or haven’t had the experience.

This episode saw the addition of a new segment which I hope will stick around, even if they only do it every fortnight. Jason termed it “Jason’s Shark Tank” or “Jason’s Tank”. I’m voting for Jason’s Tank.

This segment is a play on the Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank shows that get entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas to investors. So Jason had two listeners ring in and pitch their ideas, Jason is even ready to invest in any he finds compelling. He didn’t choose any of the two not he spot this week, but the way he picks up on the ideas so easily and then articulates it actually better the the pitcher is amazing. This is why I listen to the show. To learn from him. How he pitched the second idea was 10s of times better than the original pitch. But that is something that listener can now take back to other pitches he preforms.

The lessons you can learn from Jason, and his guest are the biggest reason to watch or listen to this show. There is an amazing amount of information to extract from Twist.

But no show (or even business idea) is prefect. There are a few hiccups through out the show. First is in the last few episodes I notice audio problems, especially with Tyler’s mic, sometimes I can barely hear him speak. Also the ‘Tyler’s Insight’ theme song may make some people cringe. At least they play a shorter version this time.

If you can actually hear Tyler though you might learn something new. He is full of odd ball information about whatever current topic is. You’ll most defiantly learn something from Tyler.

There is also the length of the show. Episode 12 ran for a little over 2 hours and 13 falls just shy of 2 hour 30 minutes. Now I rate this show highly and recommend it to friends and colleagues but I wish they could gain a little controlled structure and try keep it under 2 hours.

The cause of this is the new segments Jason keeps coming up with, in this episode alone they talked about tips for dating women and about breeding of dogs. Just slightly unrelated to startups, at least most tech startups. If he keeps going we might have 3+ hour shows soon. Lets hope not, I still have to listen to the homework book, which is Accidental Billionaires this week (actually last, I’m a little behind).

Overall, I’m still a fan, and as I write this review, I’m actually listening to episode 14 so I can catch up. I highly recommend anyone interested in startups or in technology/internet give it a listen. Despite it’s few negatives you will be soaking up some great insight to startups and tech news in general. You even get a smile everyone and then.

Oh by the way Jason, if you read this. You can walk into a Apple store in Australia and buy an iPhone, without contract and unlocked. Yes it’s $1040 AUD for the 32GB but everything in Australia is a rip off. You can ever get them on Prepaid with any of the Telcos and get it unlocked.

Luke.

Islands…

I made it! The Greek Islands are beautiful. My favourite so far would be Santorini. But lets start at the beginning.

I only spent one night and day in Athens, it is a bit of a hole but I have been told if you know people there it can be a blast. I check out the site and that was it. On a 10 fucking hour ferry to Ios! The fast ones were booked out.

Ios, Ken had told where to try and stay but I didn’t book anything before I left. Of course the ferry was 2 hours late so I arrived in Ios at 2am. Luckily all the people who have rooms and beds stand around when the ferry arrives asking if you need somewhere to stay. I wanted cheap, real cheap. And I found it. 9 Euro a night, for a tent! That’s it, a tent, I guess to give you shade. Many people had their own pillows and foam mattresses but I had nothing. That ground was hard. So I spent that night sleeping with my head on rolled up clothes.

This is the next 3 nights on Ios. Wake up to the music playing by the pool (Far Out Beach Club was where I was staying). Get up, go for a swim, catch up with Erin (guy) and Josh, buy a bottle of wine each and head down to the beach. Head back to the pool for beer and a swim.

Repeat until drunk.

Head out the the clubs at about 11 though the clubs do not get going until 1-2am so go to the Fun Pub first. Dance my arse off to shitty music and try my luck with the ladies. Walk the 45 minute up and down hill journey back to Far Out Beach. The sun is usually up by this time. Lay down in the tent, which is sweaty hot as it is plastic in the sun! Get up and go to the pool, drag out a sun lounge into the shade and pass out. At about 1-2pm I awake because there are people drinking and partying around me while I lay there looking very hangover. The first time I woke up like this my arm was hanging way out trip people over and my feet were covered in blood. Must have looked great.

So I wake up swim, start drinking and do it all again. That is Ios. Oh also the clubs have Floor Haws (how do you spell that?). Their job is to get people dancing and talk to people that seem alone. Josh and I met Jecka (like Becka but with a J) the first night and many nights after that. Josh tried picking her up but i knew that was a lost cause, it was her job to be friendly.

I then caught a ferry to Santorini. Only about 40 minutes from Ios which was great. This time I booked a hostel because after sleeping on the ground and sun lounges and getting a wallet shape bruise on my leg I wanted, nay I deserved a bed. Though 28 Euro for a 3 bed hostel room was kind of rape. Oh well.

Santorini is so pretty, all the cliffs and ash (black) beaches, it is a really something else. I spent my days swimming in the beach, drinking on the side of a cliff and watching the sun set. It was pure bliss. I miss it. I did have a little hic-up though. One night at about 3am I was at a beach bar with some girls I met in another part of the island and I tried to move a big wooden table and lounge. All went fine until I tried to drag the lounge around and somehow drag it over my big toe. It ripped the nail up from right to left. The nail is still held on a little on the left side and on the right side by dry blood. The next day I did a boat trip out to the volcano and other islands. Trecking up the volcano with a bleed tow in thongs may not have been the smartest move I made.

Yes my toe still hurts!

I then moved to Crete thinking there would be people asking if I needed a room like the other two islands I didn’t book anything. I was wrong. Crete is the largest island, when we arrived at the port there was no one.  There were lots of buses, so I asked where they go, turns out you needed a pre-booked ticket, ahh fuck. But the guy I asked said I should just stay here tonight (the main city) and head either east to Hersonissos or Milia or West somewhere I forget. So at midnight I walked around the main city of Crete looking for a hostel. I finally found one at about 1am, 10 Euro a night I got a top bunk. The place looked so dodge, dirty, smelly. I got no sheets and no pillow. I took my shorts off and used those as a pillow. The place was a shit hole. I woke up at 8am, or I didn’t sleep and headed east to Hersonissos. Ahh much better. I have just been chilling on the beach and in the restaurants.  Life is good. But I think Santorini was better so I might head back there.

After I am done on the islands I will be flying back to London, have a good time there with my mates and then on the 5th Aug London time I fly home to Melbourne, I’ll land 7th Aug 10am in Melbourne. And it will all be over.

Filling in the Gaps

My last post was on Canyoning in Interlaken but I did miss most of Munich. As I said in the last Budapest post I arrived in Munich on my birthday (thanks to all for the birthday wishes), beer in hand on a 11am walking tour.

The rest of the day was not too eventful. Ken and I chilled at his hostel then went to a beer hall for lunch, and beers. We then went back to his hostel for happy hour. 1 Euro beers! Where he beat me in pool 6-2. We finally made our way to Hofbrauhaus which was one of the first halls used by the Nazi party. We met some other travellers there and then 3 of us caught a bike taxi back. I didn’t have my camera but Ken has a picture of me ride the bike taxi after the driver continually said no.

Something very interesting is that all the stereotypes we have of Germans actually all come from the Bavaria area of the country, the other parts of Germany are quite different.

It may not sound like much but I sure had fun. The next day we to Dachau concentration camp, built in 1933. Yes before the recognised start date for WWII. There are a few buildings left and a museum. You can see were the burnt the bodies and the gas chamber, though the gas chamber there was never used. It also happens to be on some lovely grounds. Nearly looks like someones summer home.

The following day we then caught a train to Interlaken. Now I hopefully have already shown how much I enjoyed canyoning. But I did leave some details out. It is not as dangerous as it looks. The most dangerous part is walking. You can easily slip, tiwst an ankle or break it. The slides are a little crazy, some of them are known for dislocating shoulders. But you just have to listen to the guide and not be an idiot. They will tell you how to position yourself so things like that will not happen. Same with the jumps. They tell you where to jump, as they know where the water is deep. Our first jump was about 10 meters or more and we had to jump to the right, near the wall. If you went left there was a rock near the surface. Many of us jumped and still felt the rock on our left side under water. We all started listening more carefully after that.

This guy’s name is Robert, on his back is paragliding gear. He was my flier when I went paragliding. Within 10 minutes of arriving at Interlaken, ken and I spent large, booking canyoning, paragliding and the rope course. First we did paragliding. it was great. Better than I was expecting. The scary part was running down a hill into tree then a cliff hoping the wind would pick us up. Of course it did but it was still crazy. Then your feet drag through the long grass and nearly into the trees but you pick up just in time.As we come into landing they do ‘tricks’. They just spin and roll. Seriously nearly turning upside down. You feel 2-3 Gs in these tricks and then they pull it so you suddenly feel 0 Gs. Then you glide down to land. Highly recommended.

That afternoon Katie (met paragliding), Ken, Stefanie (met in our room) and I went to the rope course. This is a course in the trees. They have harder ones, easy ones, and zip line only ones. You have a harness and are always clipped on to the wire, providing you are not an idiot as you do have to do this yourself. The highest point is 20 meters or maybe a little more.

Well I am afraid of heights. This clearly came out for show. We first did the zip line only one, you clip in, then hook on the zip line part and fly down the wire to the next platform. Great fun, though I was a little nervous on those platforms. The damn trees move in the wind!

We then moved to the second hardest one. This involved walking on swinging steps and across wires weaving between logs. Each time you have to step off the platform I was shitting myself. The worst came when we did the hardest course there. There was one that after clipping into the safety wire, to get across it had ropes hanging at different levels with metal attachments on the bottom to put your feet in. You had to make your way across. After ages being to scared to take the first step I finally did it. And did it fairly well, well better than Ken who didn’t keep steady enough and was swinging all over the place.

The most hilarious part was when we got to a rope which we had to use to swing across and grab a rope wall on the other side. Ken went first, he didn’t make it but got back and on the second try grabbed it. Then it was my turn, I did not like this one. I clipped in then jumped off. Swinging towards Ken, I didn’t make it. I also didn’t make it back on the original platform. My brain went into panic mode and I didn’t want to fall (forgetting I was clipped in). Ken tried grabbing my foot, that was just plain funny. I then stood, leg in rope loop holding on for my life saying “What do I do, what do I do?”. With the calmest tones, one of the operators called out “sit down in your harness”. I then realised how much of an idiot I was, I sat down in my harness and used the pull rope to get over the other side. Needless to say it provided endless entertainment for Katie, Ken and Sefanie and maybe others over the days. This is us after we finished, getting kick out as the were closing.

The next was when we did canyoning, which I have already gone over mostly. On the last day we went up the Alps to a waterfall and the walked back to the town. Then I made a big mistake. I booked a flight from Milan to Athens as it was the cheapest place to leave from near Interlaken. I though since I am going there I’ll stay one night in Milan and have the next day (today) there then fly to Athens this evening. The mistake you are asking? Milan is a hole and I want to go to the Greek Islands already! I am actually at the airport early just wasting time. I should have not stayed. Oh and the hostel was a shit hole, out in the middle of no where.

So my next stop is Athens, which I hear is a shit hole as well. I will sleep there then check out the Acropolis then head to one of the islands! Yeah! I can not wait.

Current schedule has me land in Australia 27th July. That might be changing…

Lesson Learned

Do not travel for over 2 months do no exercise apart from lifting a beer and then go paragliding, do the hard rope courses and got all day canyoning within 2 days. I hurt all over. And I now have a fever, no idea why. Oh and all of this was on the back of a bender in Munich (where else?).

Other than that Interlaken is awesome, it is like New Zealand in the middle of Europe with all the crazy sports. Check out this video to get an idea of canyoning, but it still doesn’t do it justice. You HAVE to do it. I hear they do it in the Blue Mountains in Australia.

Canyoning.

We didn’t do everything there as there are many courses and each year the water changes, actually it can change weekly I think. I did however book the longest and ‘hardest’ one. The highlight was most likely crawling on my arse out on top a ledge. To the left, rocks and shallow water, to the right rocks and water stretching down 100s of meters. We needed to get to the deep water under the ledge, so once we reached the end one of the guides was there and he rappelled us down about 6 meters while so we hang under the ledge, then he lets go of the rope and you fall another 7-10 meters into the water. That was not it, one of the other guides jumped down by swing himself under (no ropes), these guys are nuts.  He then set up a rappel into the water fall. This was to be a slide but the first few meters has a 90 degree turn which would hurt. So he lowered us down into the waterfall while we were holding the knot. When he told us to let go, we did. You’d land in the waterfall and slide down the rock, really fucking fast, the fastest slide there. Then we climb down some rock to other slide where you rest your foot on a guides leg and you look up to get a photo then he pushes you into the slide. It is the most awesome thing I have ever done.

And no one got hurt on our trip.

Well as I feel shit I will head off to lay down, I catching a train to Milan tonight and then flying to Athens the next day. I’ll make some more updates then.

Budapest 2

Hmm what to write. I am really not feeling creative at this moment. I did enjoy Budapest though. Did a walking tour which again was full of lost of history. Went to the baths again with some others from my hostel on the last day. Oh actually I went caving.

Budapest has 100s of KMs of caves under the city, so tourist can head in a climb around. we went through a 600m section. It was actually better than I thought it would be. I even got stuck at one point, we had to go feet first through a tiny hole, moving like a worm to get through and my hip got jammed between the rocks. The guide pulled on my leg and my hip popped out. I was good to go. There were some very tight passages in there, great time.

I think everyone I met in Budapest was on their way to Exit Festival. It sounded awesome I wish I went. I think I will travel one year and do all the festivals. That would be fun. Actually I am gathering a group for burning man in USA if anyone wants in?

I took a night train from Budapest to Munich to met Ken and head to Interlaken. Everyone was telling me stories of people getting robbed and gassed in nights trains around that area. Needless to say I didn’t sleep much a. because I was seated b. because I was watching my stuff. Everything was fine though, the train was nice, I think they do not have a thief problem because I was heading west, I think it is the trains more east. Or maybe they are old stories. Anyway I got into Munich at 7am very tired on my birthday. Found my hostel, found Ken. We jumped on a walking tour and started the day with beers, I love city’s that let you walk around drinking. So we did the tour with beers in hand.

How to spot a tourist in Egypt

They try to walk on the footpath instead of the road. They take their time crossing a busy road.

Those two things alone make us stand out a lot. Pedestrians here just step out in front of cars, weave in and out of traffic, not a care in the world.

Every where I walked around people were looking at me. Many try to get you to go to their shops to buy something, or other you help with ‘anything’. They are just trying to make an income I guess, at least they are friendly. Small children also keep looking at me and then saying things to their mother, most likely “look at that strange man”. Eman told me when she was a child she always wanted to speak to the foreigners but she never had the courage to speak to them. maybe the children are thinking the same thing.

Budapest

So I think a large percentage of gorgeous women live in Budapest, it is crazy. They are everywhere! The city is pretty nice, not huge. I was quite lazy this time and instead of finding my way from the airport with no idea where my hostel is like true Luke style, I got transport from the airport directly to my hostel. Ahh that was nice. No roaming around the city trying to figure where the hell I am.

Today I spent most of the day in the medicinal baths. Hopefully they have healed anything that is wrong with me, maybe they helped remove all the toxins from my body that have made their way there from too much drinking on a rater lengthy holiday. Some how I doubt they did anything. They were pleasant though.

We wondered from pools of 30 degrees to 38, to 40, jumping into 20 degrees then back outside to 36. We tried the sauna’s but the air in there is so dry and it is so hard to breath that I just had to leave. The most hilarious part? The old ladies standing in the pools on top of the power jets, positioning themselves just right so the jets jiggle their breast around. The look on their faces was that of pure enjoyment. I think they are missing something at home. Haha.

Getting lazy

I know, I haven’t made many updates laterly. Not much has been happening. I couldn’t change my flight out of Egypt so I landed in London. I couldn’t get a cheap(ish) flight until today to Budapest so I spent 3 nights in London again. I really did very little. Just sat around at Cara’s place playing musical beds. I had a different bed each night, but at least I had a (free!) bed. Thanks again Cara.

So as I said I have landed in Budapest now. It is 10pm so I have yet to do anything, just going out now to meet a mate for a few beers. Issue is I drank too much last night with Cara and her friend Cat. Hmm. Such a trerrible life I am living…

Egypt!!!!!!!!

Wow it can get hot here. I thought it wouldn’t be that crazy but Luxor is terrible!

After Alexandria I got a lift back to Cairo to meet Ryan, Jess and Tegan at the Delta Pyramids the night before the Intrepid tour started. Well I though I had bad luck. I got there about 4pm, Ryan and co. were meant to get there at 7 or 8pm. I checked at the front desk a few times throughout the night but at about 11pm I went to sleep.

The next morning I checked out and headed down to the lobby, I asked if Ryan actually checked in last night, he did. Turns out Ryan and Tegan didn’t get to the hotel until 2am. The reason being, Jess, Ryan’s girlfriend has chicken pox and she had a temperature at the airport. They were checking temperatures for Swine Flu, she had a higher temperature so she got quarantined until they run tests to make sure it was not Swine Flu. Ryan said the hospital was horrible, more likely that they get sick waiting. It was still no better even when he got her moved to a private room.

Tegan and I went to the meeting point for the tour while Ryan went back to the hospital. It wasn’t a huge day, we met the group we would be travelling with sans Ryan and Jess who were going to come later. I could not get into my room because David, the person I was to share with got there early and had taken off with the room key. Yes they only had one. They tried to get the master key but took so long that Tegan and I just went to the pool and drank beer.

I was pretty sure one of the two girls that came to swim and sun-bake went to BSSC with me, but I didn’t ask then. Later that evening the group, still sans Ryan and Jess, headed out for dinner, a look at the market and a dance show. Again I saw the girls from the pool so I got Tegan to ask (I know, I’m a pussy). Turns out she was from Bendigo. It was Sheena (I think that is how you spell her name).

Saddly they would not let Jess come as the doctors said she was still contageous with chicken pox but of course did not have Swine Flu. So Ryan and her got a hotel and stayed in Cairo while the rest of the group travelled Egypt for the next 8 days.

There is not a lot to report on. maybe I am just getting lazy. We saw the Pyramids and Sphinx in Cairo, then caught the sleeper train to Aswan. Aswan was my faviourte place. Looked much cleaner, smaller and was green because it was so close to the Nile. It is actually strange to see Palm Trees and water so close to nothing, just dirt, no plants, no anything.

In Aswan we learnt about the Nubian people, took a short ride on the Nile, rode camels and had dinner at a local Nubian house. We also checked out the Abu Simbel temples. We had to wake at 3am to go with a convoy for security. It took 3 hours, but the temples are pretty cool. They actually got flooded by the high dam they built in the 60s and $40,000,000 later they moved both whole temples to higher ground, 200m back, 64m higher. Cutting the temples into smaller blocks to rebuild like Lego.

We then took a felucca (sail boat) north up the Nile towards Luxor. This was awesome. I love boats. We got to swim in the Nile, getting towed behind the boat by a rope. We camped on the edge on the Nile for a night, digging a shit hole and sleeping on the felucca (it was mostly just a flat mattress).

Luxor was hot. That is it. Nothing else to report about Luxor.

Of course one of the highlights for me was the Valley of the Kings, sadly like most great places you could not take any photos inside. But it was amazing to see the tombs, some huge still with a lot of colour in the paintings. I would love to go back and help them dig for more, maybe I can do that one year.

I know I may not have sold it very well but it was a great tour, Ahmad our tour guide was great and the people I met on the tour were great. There was 6 Australians, 2 Irish, 1 NZ and 1 English. Many of the other felucca’s we met camping had Australians as well. Seems we like Egypt. The tour was more relaxing than I thought it would be. Many early mornings but plenty of free time and time to rest. I thought it would be go, go, go.

We got back to Cairo at 6am, and I flew to Dahab at 3:30pm. It was a long wait at the hotel. We all just sat and watched bad movies until it was time for each of us to leave. Now I am just outside of Dahab at the Daniella hotel and diving center. I have already done 2 dives in the Red Sea, just on corals. Tomorrow I and diving the Blue Hole.

This is the landscape, mountains that are just plain dirt, no plant life or anything. A road. My hotel. Sand and rocks leading to the water. Over the other side of the water you can see more mountains in Saudi Arabia.

Life is good. A few more days here and hopefully I’m off to Greece. I’ll most likely update a little more often now that I am not on a tour around Egypt. Tomrrow I’ll put up some more pictures as well. Until then, bye.

3 Days into Egypt

I have lost my debit card, got stuck in an elevator, been electrocuted and been involved in a car crash. Yes all in 3 days. Let me explain, from the beginning…

Wow, Egypt is breath takingly different, it is awesome!

Flying in, the scenery was so different to any place I have flown into before. Everything was dusty grey/brown, everything. I spotted a couple of greenery’s and pools but wow it was so different.

Once we landed and departed the plane, the heat hit. Smack! Right in the head, after rain in Paris and OK (not hot though) weather in London, Egypt was a big change. The airport was pretty uneventful (so I thought), I purchased my visa to enter the country and withdrew some cash using my Commsec debit card. Then I wondered around wondering if I should pay for a taxi or go the slow bus route and get lost. Luckily another traveller (Australian from Sydney) suggested we share a cab. Soon there was 3 of us bargaining with the cab drivers for a $70 Egyptian pound fair. A local lady told us that was the best we could get as tourists from the airport. most were asking for $90+. We manage to get $75 and took it.

Holy shit! The traffic here is nuts! reminds me of Thailand, maybe worse though. No one cares about people, other drivers or lanes. People do not care either, they will just start walking across the road when they want to. Cars then swerve to miss then, meaning other cars beep them and hit their brakes or swerve as well, creating a cascading effect. The girl I was in the back of the cab with was freaking out. I found it somewhat enjoyable and couldn’t stop smiling.

We got out at their hotel as the cab driver did not know where mine was. Turns out mine was out near the Pyramids while they were ‘down town’. Not matter a short crazy cab ride got me there in one piece. Oh yes, with a stop into a ‘free museum’ where they make paintings on the old hand-made paper and want you to buy lots (again like Thailand). I didn’t get anything but he was full of some great history, and we spoke Spanish together, it didn’t get far I think he only knew a little more than me.

So far so good. I check into my hotel, relax for a little then head out for a walk of Cairo. I hop in the lift on level 9, my floor, hit ‘0′ for the ground floor, the lift starts moving down. Great. It gets near to the ground floor and then, click. It is strangely quiet, no more can I hear the buzzing of the elevator and want seems like a power generator. Hang on? Shit it is also pitch black in here! The lift shut down. No power, at least it stopped I guess.

Peering through the crack of the door I could see light, and the fact that the lift had about 1 foot to go down to reach ground level. Hmm. I knocked calmly on the lift door, “hello” I said. Suddenly there was lots of noise outside the door, too bad they were speaking Arabic. They were trying to tell me something, while trying to ply the doors open. I just kept saying “sorry I do not understand you” and played the waiting game. Just then the noise returns, and the lights in the elevator come back on. At least I can see now. Of course I tried pushing all of the buttons (even in the dark I did), nothing was happening. Then an English speaking staff member arrives and asks me to push another level. “I tried that” I replied as I pushed them all again. “Wait there a minute” he shoots back. “OK”.

A couple of minutes later, “try now” I hear. I push level 2, the lights get brighter and the lift starts moving. Great! I wonder if the doors will open. Thankfully they did, I didn’t really want to sleep in there.

Out on the street a man named Rami started talking to me. As soon as they find out you’re from Australia, they repeat “G’day mate” about 3 to 4 times. I do not think I have ever said that in my life! Any way, he seemed nice until I realised he wanted me to come into his perfume shop (again like Thailand). I went in, saw his stuff and left. He was actually still nice, pointing out lots of places to eat, drink or shop. His friends might own them all but still.

Another phrase they say here a lot is “Welcome home”, I guess they are referring to the fact that modern humans left Africa 80,000 or years ago to cover the planet. I thought that was a pretty cool greeting.

That was the view from my hotel room. Pretty cool. Although I had to sleep with the traffic below. It does not stop, ever.

The next day I checked out and got a transport to Alexandria. Now I am thinking why the hell did I not fly to Alexandria and then go back to Cairo to meet Ryan and start the tour? I have no idea. It was a pretty uneventful few hour drive north to Alexandria with a short stop at a Coptic Orthodox Church. It was actually interesting, it made me realise that while I know bits of ancient Egypt history, I know or knew nothing about more modern history, say the last few hundred years.

When I got to Alexandria and checked in, I went for a walk around the town. I happen to walk past a McDonald’s that said it had free wireless. Great I thought I’ll go get some money out and buy a drink in there and use there Internet. Good plan until I got to the ATM.

“Hmm, where the fuck is my debit card”.

“Fuck, I must have left it in the ATM at the airport”

Not cool. Not at all. I thought, not the worst thing, I have another debit card with another bank. But that only had $30 AU or so in it. Still not too bad, that should do while here and I can transfer money from Commsec to Citibank. “Great, all sorted” I thought. First I had to locate my Citibank account details as Citibank doesn’t display in online banking. Not too hard they were in my mail (thank you Gmail). I log in to Commsec, add Citibank as a payee and select to transfer some money across.

“Please enter the SMS security code” reads the screen. “Fuck!” says I. Commsec has ‘SMS security’ meaning, I can not transfer money to an outside bank account without receiving a SMS code that I then type in to confirm it is me. That would be fine if I had not lost my damn phone 3 days ago!

OK, this is a little worst, plan B time. Luckily my bother Aron was up still in Australia and I got him to ask mum to send me some money saying I’ll pay her back when I sort it out. Of course I imagine mum was now freaking out and worrying and getting organisation mode. All sorted, now I just have to wait for the money to clear. Issue is when I rang Commsec to report my card lost (on Skype) I have now lost access to log into Commsec. Looks like Mum is shouting me until I return. oh well, maybe this way I’ll spend less.

As you can imagine it is hot over here, so it was quite understandable that when I returned to my hotel I would want to put the lovely fan on that dangles above my bed. I pull the metal chain, thinking nothing of it. The fan just sits there mocking me. OK, I pull it again. Suddenly I get a muscle spasm down my right arm into my body, my hand tightens and flies down in the motion I was pulling. “Fuck that hurt” I thought. The bastard fan just electrocuted me!

The next day (the day I am writing this) was great. Eman, my tour guide for the day picked me up at 10am, I was still sleeping of course. She studied Egypt history for 6 years and has been a tour guide for the last 5. So much knowledge. She took me (with a driver!) to the Catatombs, Alexandria library (on the site on the ancient one) and a few other places. I had no idea what to expect but I really enjoyed it, she had answers to all my questions before I could even ask them.

After the tour ended she asked if I wanted to go to a cafe and smoke a shisha. I of course accepted. As the driver was only for the paid tour part, we went back to her car and she drove me across the city, more crazy traffic. We stopped so I could change some British pounds into Egyptian (more money until Mum’s arrives!). We went to Green Plaza, a open air Mall on 15 acres of land! When we were pulling out from me changing money this is when a van not looking swiped the side of Eman’s car. We didn’t even hope out and look at the damage, she just yelled at him in Arabic and off we went. Turned out it was not much and most of the marks came out with polish she keeps in her car. I bet just for that reason.

So far I love Egypt, I have always wanted to visit and I can not wait until Saturday when the larger tour begins. It is going to be awesome. Right now I am again in McDonald’s Free wireless! Well I bought I milkshake as I feel bad just walking in and using it.

Now I am off to discover more of Alexandria. Do not worry i will not try to turn the fan on tonight.

Luke.

Nutter of a roundabout

Where are they going?

These are images of the traffic going around the Arc de Tiomphe. It may look tame is a still shot but the drivers do what ever the hell they want. In the middle lane needing to go down right? No problem, just turn right, right now! See a gap somewhere that might get you through quicker but you have to cross 4 cars trying to go around? No problem, just do it.

They told us not to try to cross on foot as according to government stats there is on average 1 accident each 30 minutes there. Luckily they provide stairs underground to the Arc.

London, yet again

London was pretty uneventful this time. It was a good time to just chill out and relax as I have been going pretty hard since I got here. So I made my way from Luton airport to Rhys’ house in Fulham, south-west of the city. Not a bad little area. Of course Rhys was not there when I arrived and after a few more door bell rings I saw someone on the top floor look out the window. “That’s not Rhys” I thought, “Nor is it Michelle” the other house mate I met. “Great I have the wrong place and no phone to ring Rhys”. But no pessimistic Luke was wrong! Rhys has another house mate.

“Yes” he says opening the door looking at me strangely. “Does Rhys live here?” I replied. “Yes, are you a friend?” bounces back at me. Of course I am, who else would rock up with a massive backpack asking for Rhys. He let me in and rang Rhys. That night Rhys and I headed to the local for a couple of beers, which turned into Rum, Scotch and top shelf Vodka among others.

I did absolutely nothing the next day but sleep and rest. It was great. That night I went to ‘Pub Quiz’ with Michelle and her friends, it was a good night. And again the next day I did very little, I manage to head into the city and have dinner with Yogi and that’s it. The next day to flew to Egypt!

I did do one thing in London, or discover one thing. I have left my phone either in Amsterdam or Paris. It is a little strange as it was flat and I had no adapter to charge it so it should have been in my bag. I must have for some reason taken it out, although I have no idea why. No one would steal it and it falls apart and if they took it from my bag, they are dumb as there is a camera and laptop in there both each worth more (and working) than the phone. Oh well I needed an excuse to buy an iPhone 3GS, maybe I through it out in my sleep? Possible.

Paris

Expensive.

Paris was a bunch of fun, of course in true Luke style I arrived with my laptop flat and no idea how to get to my hostel. I did however know the name of the hostel, St Christopher’s. It wasn’t long before a found a Internet cafe, but they wouldn’t let me use a computer because they were closed, they ‘closed’ at 9pm. It was currently 8:42pm! I said I needed to look up the address of my hostel, they said “another place 2 blocks right”. Thanks buddy.

It wasn’t long before I got to my hostel, located north of the center of Paris, near the canal. I was pretty tired from Amsterdam and I hadn’t eaten all day. I basically checked in, got some food at their bar/restaurant and hit bed.

Now I only book 2 nights in Paris to begin with and was going to book more later because I couldn’t find anything for the Thursday night. When I checked the next day there was still nothing. So I headed down to the city to catch a free walking tour, New Europe again.

“Luke”, I hear. “What the hell?” I think. Who knows my names here? I turned and there was Maha, the guy who started talking to me after the Amsterdam walking tour. That is quite random. Of course I didn’t remember his name. Anyway they took us around the city showing most of the major sites and telling us some of the amazing history. Orly was my guide, from America. She was currently living in Paris for study and was working over the summer. Of course study here is very different, as she said the university teachers have been on strike for about 2 weeks and no classes have run! Sweet.

Maha was sort of a clinger when he found out I was travelling alone. Now don’t get me wrong I love meeting people and then checking out places with them or grabbing some food, but Maha seemed desperate and a little strange. He wanted to do another walking tour that night around the red light district, where the Moulin Rouge etc. is. I said I might meet him there and that I was going to go back to the hostel to try to find a hostel for the next night and drop my backpack off. He ended up coming with me, I felt I had to go then. So I didn’t have anywhere to sleep the next day and we headed off to this night tour. I should mention it had been lightly raining throughout the day so far.

The night tour was actually quite interesting, although about 1 hour into it the ‘light’ rain turned into pouring rain and I had no rain jacket or umbrella. Needless to say I got very wet, so did many of the others on the tour. On the tour I met Danielle, Bree and Tegan, all from Melbourne, well Bree (Tegan’s sister has been living in London) but the others were travelling from Melbourne. Paris is the first time I actually found the cliche, the one about Europe being full of Australian travellers. So far it had been Canadians, Americans and South Americans. Paris however was Australians and French. Yes the hostel was half full of other French people, I guess travelling from outside of Paris.

After the tour we all headed back to a bar for a free drink. After almost everyone else had trickled away, Maha, Bree, Tegan, Danielle and I all went to get some food. The girls claim to have been told about a wick felafel place near by. We went hunting. Apparently we have lost all hunting skills our ancestors had, we couldn’t find diddly. And we were quickly talked into a Moroccan place Lygon St style. It was a wicked little place that had plants (real) covering the ceiling.

We sat their chatting and eating our strange but nice food until about midnight. Danielle and I shared food as we were not sure what to get, she even order pommes frites as a safety food (french fries), just in case. Tegan and I were still dripping wet, I actually started getting quite cold. Of course the next day I awoke with a damn cold! It had to happen.

So far so good. I had seen a lot of Paris and heard a lot of history of France and Paris itself. And of course met some cool people along the way. The next mornings task was to find a hostel to sleep in, my first search still brought up nothing. Great, I thought. Worst case I’ll head out spend most of the time in the pub and then walk around until 6am when St Christopher’s opens it’s doors again. Luckily at about 9am Oops hostel puts its cancelled beds on-line. I got one. Although I am starting to think it is no lucky as Paris hostels are expensive and I met a guy that night who did sleep in the park as I saw him the next day when we were both checking into St Christopher’s again. I should have just done that, we could have held each other for warmth. Haha.

The rest of that day was filled with sight seeing, I checked out the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame de Paris, Arc de Triomphe, etc. I hit the Louvre the next nigth, Friday as under 26 get in for free! I made it by about 3 weeks.

My last night in Paris I met Nathan at my hostel, we ended up walking the streets of Paris, up the hill to Sainte-Chapelle (the night tour took us here when it was raining, which had the gargoyles spewing out water!) and back until about 2:30am. Luckily Nathan could speak French and he could ask for directions as we got lost a few times and may have turn the wrong way down a couple of streets. Oops. It turned out Nathan was also on the same flight as mine to London the next day, which was helpful as I had someone to talk to for the 2 hours the flight was delayed! Bastards, at least it has only happened once… so far.

Hmm, that is about the highlights I guess. I did hit the town one night, that was costly. In, again true Luke form I got drunk and shouted a round for a large group of people. Paris is expensive, I think I mentioned that.

Well I’ll fill you in on London and then Egypt (just got here so not that far behind) another time.

Luke.

Doing Tourist Things

I am not very good at that.

Amsterdam was awesome, I think. The whole thing is a little bit of a daze.

As I said I flew from Dublin to Brussels and then caught the next train to Amsterdam. The only reason I did this is because it was the cheapest way for me to get there, it also did not take very long. The flight was about 11 Euros and 20 Euros for the train. Not bad at all.

I checked into my hostel, Dirty Nelly’s, it was an Irish pub downstairs with the rooms up some very tight Dutch stairs. Pretty clean place and comfortable beds, so there was a win. I couldn’t get the same hostel as Ken as we left it too late for booking, turns out that I got the hostel next door to Ken’s. Sweet.

His hostel, St Christopher’s ended up being much cooler. The atmosphere was more chilled out. It had a better mix of travellers as well so we sent a lot of time hanging around there. Smoking and drinking out the back.

This is where it gets hazy and why I am not a good tourist. I did not make it to the Van Gough museum, the Heineken brewery, the History Museum, and I’m sure many others. The ones I listed I actually would have liked to check out. Here is what I did do; the Sex museum, Free walking tour (still great), got really high on weed, space cakes and truffles (the banned mushrooms) and drank way too much at St Christopher’s and on a pub crawl. Oh and walked around the Red Light district (our hostels were in the district) laughing at people and talking to the girls. It is quite fun and funny actually.

I spent most of my time with Ken, who I met in London through Rhys, Brandon, who was staying in the same room as Ken and Kattie and Warren who were South African, living in London, visiting Amsterdam for a few days. On the last night ken and I met Carli another Canadian. Oh there was also Oleg, which is just the coolest name ever. He was from Russia but really grew up in America. I actually wanted to get Kattie and Warren’s email or something and catch them in London but when they came to say good bye to me (they left earlier than me) I was a little out of it and didn’t ask. I didn’t see them the next morning, oh well.

The second night we were there was big. ‘Soft drugs’ are actually only decriminalised there so technically it is illegal but they will not arrest you for it. Ken, Brandon and I each bought some weed (I got the meanest stuff there), we proceeded to drink and smoke at different cafes and bars meeting people and just having a good time. We then went back for space cakes (cake cooked with weed in them) and then later to try to find mushrooms. You can sometimes get the ‘under the counter’ but we had no luck, so onto the truffles we went. Damn we were all high. We just walked to streets, like everyone else, laughing and walking through the Red Light district. There was one alley way that got very narrow at the end, I loved walking through that, it was real trippy. I kept touching the walls thinking they are going to close in on me. Haha great times. Later though when trying to sleep, I don’t think the truffles agree with my bowels. I had massive pains all through my lower stomach. lucky I basically passed out and woke up feeling fine.

The free walking tour was again the New Europe group and I again enjoyed it. Full of lots of information and history about Amsterdam. Like prostitution was only legalised around 2000 to try to get rid of the pimps. Apparently it hasn’t worked so the government is slow fading them out, giving them less and less spaces to legally occupy. They plan to turn the area into a high end shopping ares with Channel, Mont Blanc, etc. But it is happening slowly, estimating that the legal Red Light district will be half the size in 5-10 years.

The pub crawl on the last night was pretty good. Carli, Ken and I had a blast and Brandon turned up later in the night. I did my famous disappearing act before the last pub. I do not remember though, I got up the next morning and had Ken posting on Facebook asking where the hell I went? Hah. I can do it anywhere!

Well I’m sure there is more to talk about but I can’t think right now. From Amsterdam I caught a train to Paris, again arriving not knowing how to get to my hostel and with a flat laptop. As it has been 7 or so weeks and I still had not bought a AU to EU adapter or a UK to EU adapter (laptop was purchased in UK). i can report however that I now have a UK to EU adapter from the hostel in Paris. AU to EU still a no goer.

Of course I worked it out, and got to my hostel in Paris at about 9pm. Checked in, had dinner and went to bed, ready to explore the next day…

Fret Not

I have a bed for tonight! A hostel, a little more expensive than the normal but it is Paris. I also should have one for Friday night. So now it is just Saturday night if I decide to stay.

Yay.