Krakow, Auschwitz, and Wieliczka (and Katowice Airport as an extra)

Well Krakow is great, I would recommend it, lots to do, off season less English stag parties! A church on every corner nearly, architecturally amazing. We went to have a laugh and that we had. Hotels, transport and food were very cheap. All the bars/clubs seem to be downstairs.
I did have some dude trying to sell me a trip to drive a tank or fire a gun eh no.
The salt mine in Wieliczka was very interesting, carvings and ingenuity, a lot of walking though, and the Scamo of the photo extra charge. Got soaked walking to and around the castle but happens..
The old Jewish town was lively and good to go to, and round the square was the main event.
Auschwitz was a must see, informative and educational but not as traumatic as I anticipated or feared, maybe that was the frightening thing, but then Auschwitz II Birkenau (a 3km walk) was massive and bleak and eerie, left a real impression and somber after it. Again a lot of walking. Found the poles very helpful, on the complicated ticketing machine on the trams/buses,and giving directions.
Krakow Airport was fog bound so we had the chaos of the buses and getting to katowice airport, didn't shade a great trip.


visited 14 states (6.22%)
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Austria Skiing 2009 - Kirchberg/Kitzbuel

Accommodation was ok, the pension/hotel set up with meals worked out well, werved by a herr gruber lookalike. Some excellent skiing on tuesday, wednesday morning and thursday, although crossing the top of the mountain on wednesday evening and friday made me regret leaving the balaclava at home... St. Paddys day we flew the flag like 2 ejeets but it was worth it, kitzbuel much more lively than kirchberg. Ivan ran close to getting a slapping for his backward skiing...Lots of super crazhey dutch people about there for some reason. Ski lifts were never a problem, except for one incident on the 1st day with high winds. The farmers plate meal, always undid any good the open air and exercise was doing. Friday doing the Hahnenkamm (or the bit of it they let you do) was another achievement, and the spill I had on it, I need to pay off the paparazzi for filming it...
Overall I think I preferred France for skiing, but Austria impressed me especially with their unforgettable europop...
Home in time for the Grand Slam!!! and Bernard Dunne Fight..

Munich and a little bit of austira

Munich with the lads - was fun - driving on the opposite side of the road a challange.
The Park lands englsich garden etc. and public space in general around the city are excellent
Dachau was interesting and a must see but not an easy experience but I was glad I went - as the monument said in various languages Never Again should this be allowed to happen - although I fear we did in Bosnia and Rwanda..
Neuschwanstein Castle was a sight to see Disney-esque
Zugsplitz awesome but from the austrian side quite pricy
Eibsee lovely, nice lake and mountains, the lake was lovely to swim in but the stones were hard on my feet.
Garmisch very picturesque and I loved it
Allianz Arena - new and cool but not as architecturally splendid as the Olympic stadium and park. Again the public transport system is excellent as in all germany.
Keinstein - Eagles Nest was excellent moral quandry of its associations etc.
Koingsee was also lovely quite touristy and left us a race to get home but just made it


visited 13 states (5.77%)
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Val Torens, France 2008, Skiing.

Well another a la carte skiing adventure to France, Ryanair to Grenoble and a hired bus to Val Torens, which as a high altitude resort had quite good snow conditions considering there was a few weeks without snow. The Town was very artificial nowt organic to humor you had you had a day off skiing. Food was grand, although I had very bad experience with beef so rare it was just blood just oozed out of it.
Skiing was fine, even if i preferred last year for variety and testing runs. Also the lifts were very busy not helped by a strike in a neighboring trois vallées resort. Overall there was a good variety of runs.
The runs in the Orelle Valley were my favourite, kinda empty and long and manageable runs from high mountains. Again I found the French very helpful especially on the couple of spills I had Cava/Daccord was uttered and helped up on to the skis, on a few occasions.
Also had the most comfortable boots ever no problems at all, the skis coulda done with some sharpening though but easy to control the only injury was to my shoulder on a bad fall but nothing to write home about;)
The friday was interesting since there was some snow, freezing fog and zero visibility for most of the day. Again when you weren't concentrating on the view and just on your movement and turning technique your skiing was better.
A few good nights out being led astray by a mad devon blacksmith was a good laugh, think I talked to females from most of the counties of the european union...

Brussels for Brianos - "Enterment du vie du garcon"

Well Brussels it was and via Aer Lingus to Brussels Airport and not Chareloi, the 10 intrepid associates of "The Shadow" ventured forth to do our duty and bury his life as a boy, Colm, Marko, Rocky, Ray, Rob, Alain, Joe, Eamo et moi. The weather was very warm and humid 31 and 33 degrees. The Hotel could have benefited with air-con! and they stole my football...
Saturday was dipping our big toes into the city, and psyching ourselves up for the football match, which was postponed til after 8 due to weather conditions.
Saturday Evening apres some food we introduced Briano to some of the female population of the city and quite cosmopolitan it was, also some of the boys were introduced to black russians and the games began.
Sunday, was another hot and humid day, a cultural day of sightseeing and a bus trip, where we found out the architectural splendour of the city was mostly copied by Leopold from one of his foreign trips to France or Italy. After catching the some of the Hurling match on tv we had an evening meal in a Mexican establishment. Initially a quite nite was on the cards and after a libation in a bar we lost 1/2 the batalion, the rest again went on and against the odds had some sport with the brussel-folk(and many other nationalities) til breakfast!
Monday with some officers down, more cultural ventures to the Atomium and the some shopping before the long journey home..
Thanks Colm for the organising, thanks Rocky for the tee-shirts and thanks brian for the excuse for the trip.

Oh and Belgium was a new country for me to visit!


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Skiing in Serre Chevalier, France 2007

Well ryanair-ed it to Tornio/Turin in italy and got a hired bus to deposit us in Serre Chevalier France.
After some misgivings about the lack of snow we were rewarded by our choice of venue with ample snow on the mounts and runs we were on, granted as the day went on some runs got moguly and slushy but thanks to some snow the friday before we went and indeed on the monday(very interesting to ski in) we were blessed with good conditions.
I would say my skiing peeked on the tuesday and I was quite lethargic on the wednesday and for the rest of the week, I think my skiing has improved and I tested myself more then in previous years.
The part of serre chevlaier we were in Chantamerle was very french and very quiet - the next hub up in Villeneuve was much more party like but still quite dormant I would say. I found the people very friendly and managed many an communication exchange en francais. Whilst 2 of my traveling companions had a bad experience in one restaurant, for the rest of the time it was excellent especially in "Le Kitz"
As a resort i would say it is good for the intermediate or advanced skier and definitely not for the novice skier. The long black run Luc Alpand tested knees and edurance as you had to negotiate this to get home of an evening and then it was very cut up slushy and heavy, it the morning it was crispy and icy and much better.

The route home via Brancon to Grenoble on train was a long way back but pleasant enough with nice alipine scenery

Berlin, Stralsund, Mon(Klintholm), Zeeland(Fakse Ladesplads), Rugen, Hiddensee(Kloister)

Well another venture to Germany and Denmark by the good ship de verandering. Berlin was its anticipated avant garde unorthodoxy. Not much of the oul wall but hey. Stayed in Emmanualkirkestrasse and Norwegianstrasse for their nominal resonance with me.
The DB journey to Stralsund was as efficent as ever a one minute delay but perhaps my watch was wrong!
Sailing again was cool, day one was a bit long for me but we managed. The dutch maat from last year was the Skipper this year. The white cliffs of Mon again looked awesome, some rough waters on the way back to germany and rugen

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Kloister and hiddensee was amazing - no cars and lovely scenery and a dip in the water. Canoeing was a disaster for me and my co-canoeist since the rudder was jammed but hey we had fun.

Click on image below to view the route of de verandering

My second (and technically third) time in Berlin, a city i vow to return to i spent fews days at the start of the holiday in berlin and couple at the end of it. Hired a bike and enjoyed a cycle around taking the long way and wrong way once or twice but really enjoyed it, a few times i took the bike on the train was never sure if this was kosher but nevertheless, Spandau, the zoo, olympic stadium etc much to see and do. Potsdam is a must visit if your in the Berlin region.

World Map

Here is a handy visual of the world and "states" I have visited..
Thanks to this guy Douwe Osinga
The countries I have visited so far and mother Ireland - this displays my true european creditentials...as all the red is in the north middle as you look at it (cept for Cuba + the US)



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Livigno 2006

Well a return to Livigno in North Italy for some skiing. A very inexpensive trip it was (Shay would have been proud) our last minute panic resulted in us getting a very good deal.
Ok the air trip wasn't the best, having to land back in dublin on the outward journey was a worry, however we got to bergamo and then faced the mammoth bus trip.
Accommodation this year was excellent, and the conditions were excellent for skiing since there was fresh snow, and Tuesday was brilliant trying to ski during a blizzard. Also the bizarre apres ski in the chalet on that day with dancing germans and dutch people, and the chef with the Indian head gear and knife in hand....
thursday night was a good night out myself an mike playing guitars and singing songs with some Danish engineers.
Colin, Mike and me..

Hamburg, Rostock, Danish Islands.

Well the german efficency always impresses the irish tourist. The bus, train and tram dove tailing perfectly to make getting from Hamburg to "The Verandering" in Rostock harbour simple.
The Sailing From Rostock to Kuehlungsborn-hesnaes, Mon, Falster, Das and back Rostock - was brilliant.
Rostock was a nice town I enjoyed the saturday entertainment in the center of town.
Hamburg was different, seems to merge old buidlings with post war buildings. Visiting the Beatles old haunts was a bit crap the nightlife was unique and experience.
Note to self - I should have hung out with the Norwegian Bikers and not the mad danish alco.

Click on image below to view the journey on de verandering.

Les Deux Alps Ski trip 2005

Mike, Neil, Ronan et moi.
Well my first trip to france, was fine, 'cept for getting sick for a couple of days I did enjoy it. A touch more expensive than italy for skiing but the apartment was next to the main lift. Skiing conditions were not the best since there was not as much snow as you would have liked - up on the glacier was ok, it was one of the reasons why we chose a High Altitude resort.
The scenery was immense.
Got slagged for my ample Calves..... skiboot filling ones they are.
Nearly killed this dutch/belgian snowboarder, when he turned right in front of me, perhaps the highlight of my trip;)
The Apres Ski - what I could go to was grand a bit more fun than in italy.
I found the people very friendly - "Daccord?", especially when you tried the cupla focail francais.
Amazed at how much french you can remember - especially when you have to state your symptoms to the pharmacist, who helped me get back to myself. Of the week I missed maybe 2 days being sick, but thankfully got a good 4 days which was nice. Overall I think I preferred the resort to Livigno, a bit more expensive, but not the manic queuing, and "scamos" which annoyed me.

Ski trip Livigno, Italy 2004

Charlie, Mike, Neil, Ronan and me.
Scamo, skiing ok(could have done with more snow), but the people were not impressive in their behaviour. Ok a few laughs but the height of the season was not recommended for a holiday, all mad kids and their parents elbowin at the skilifts to try and sadly successfully skiping the queue.
Apres Ski was not the best in my opinion.
Eugene a guy in Ronans class was a bit of a character
Skiing Round the Forrest was good fun and the snow park on the inflatable was a bit of a laugh on the thursday. I got annoyed when one of the guys on the lifts shut it before we could go up it to get enough height to ski back to base - meant we had to walk the lenght of the town to get back!!!
The only italian who seemd good craic was Dominic the instructor - who yoddled
Note to self - dont follow the kamakazi kids to often! Eugene and Charlie were also traumatised by this experience.
And stay away from Barnsley dudes named Mick who thought I was his buddy.
The Rep seemed to take a shine to Mike.
Neil and Mike met an aquaintance from a previous endevour Shay - whose economic fruggality we admired....I think

Welcome to my Journey diary....

Well I shall put up my reviews, complaints, comments, etc. here. I shall also put up the archive of places that have had the luxury of my presence all gleaned from a text file.
I intend to add some photos when I get time etc.

Oslo - farewell

Well stopped working in Oslo and returned to mother Ireland for better or more likely for worse;)
I promised I shall return one day.. perhaps to do more mountain biking or skiing or traveling about..

Good bye, Shell Building, maliks, egon, Frogner, Aker Brugge, Karl Johann gate, Freidsbourgvien, Holmenkollen, Majorsteun ... Lovenskioldsgate etc.

Cuba

September 2001 was spent mostly in Cuba - Havana, Pinar del Rio, Vinales, Playa Girón Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Bayamo, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, Camaguey, Santa Clara, Havana.
By that time I was sick of hearing Chan-Chan, but the music was great.
Very Interesting! I wish my languages were better but just say someting like No ABLO
I didn't like Havana, Vinales was lovely, as was Trinadad. Trinadad was perhaps my favourite place in cuba, I escaped and went to the beach for a day which was nice and then back to the town to hear some afro-cuban rythmns and chill in the UNESCO designated town.
Crushed a few crabs while driving down to Playa Girón they are hard to miss on the road, although some native nicked my favourite runners whilst out on the window dry..
Cienfuegos with its half finished Russian Nuclear reactor! and the Thomas terry theatre....spiffing.
Santiago de cuba and driving to Guantanamo with Richard Neill who was writing a book on his experiences of trying to learn the Bass in cuba... must get that book sometime.
Ah driving on the autopista
Going back to havana via Camaguey (having to get a punctero fix the puncture in the tyre was a lesson in how Cuba works...) and Santa Clara with the Che "shrine" was an interesting gradual end to our travels - was that Ernesto Che Guevara playing golf!!
Havana 2nd time round was none the better, ok the museum of Idiots Batistas palace was an endurance test, and we did the cigar tour thingy, after much reading I think I can now tell the real thing from the banana skins....
Of the many surreal moments, the Fashion show in Hotel Ingalaterra, the thunderstorm and th e band started to jam to Smoke on the water I shall always remember.

Copenhagen - Denmark

Well I stopped off here a number of times so I better take a look. Not impressed with the little mermaid - ok ok - it is little not really worth the hour walk out to it.
Surprised to see a number of drunk people on the streets in the morning, although a Danish associate claimed they were all Swedish!
I always found Denmark a welcome respite to the very high prices in Norway, Sweden and indeed Ireland! And the danish krone I still have some somewhere, and the coins with the hole in them!
I never minded passing through Copenhagen (Shopping haven) airport, I had a shower there once on a return home journey and it refreshed me to go straight out when i arrived home.

Stockholm - Sweden

A trip to sweden was fairly easy - well it was so close to Oslo. The most memorable trip was the one via train, you could pull down bed and have a kip. Strange people who would avoid eye contact at all time.
Stockholm itself was much more cosmopolitan than Oslo(Norway) and indeed Goteburg(sweden), however it is a nice city - I did the tourist thing visited the Palace and its extensive buildings, visited Gammel Stan(Old town) which was quite nice. Again as with every nordic place i Visited the t-bann was very impressive in its punctuality and efficency.

My first trip to Stockholm was to meet up with Doug (he had headed their earlier) I was on this oldish train with compartments with 2 seats parallel and you could pull down "shelves" for beds so there would be 3 beds either side. It was like a train during the 2nd world war and I was expecting some soldier to knock on the door and demand to see my papers!
What amazed me was the fact that I shared this compartment with a few swedes and they would refuse to make eye contact with you... in case they would be forced to speak to you, so I was stubborn and wasnt gonna start! so we had this wierd silence - thankfully they got off early and I was able to hop up and have a snooze!

One trip to from Oslo to Stockholm I got a modern train with airconditioning and comfy seats, I got pestered by a car mad guy who wanted to practice his english talkin to me but since i was just hoppin on the train after work I wanted to sleep - i felt jez I am not turnin into one of these insular nordics, so I reengaged the Irish part of my brain and chatted aways to him.
I also thought it weird to have a metal detector on entering a Nightclub -

Norway

In the latter part of 2000 I visited Norway for initially 6weeks - this grew to a few months, then on to christmas, then for a few months in 2001.
I travelled a little bit within Norway perhaps not as much as I should have - it allowed me to venture to Sweden and Denmark a bit as well.
Bergen is Nice but it rains almost as much as Ireland!
Oslo is a nice compact town - Aker Brugge is a bit weird like the IFSC. The park in Majorstuen is kinda weird - with some holocaust memorial with all these statues of Fat Naked people.
I recommend the ski jump in holmenkollen and the tryvann ariel tower which you can go up for 50 or 60NOK good exercise.
Places we went out to, Cafe Opera, Studenten, Barons... Smuget, the obligatory Irish bar Killkenny Inn(there was a dublinner and dirty nellys as well), and Odeon, Grappe out on the way to majorstuen.
One of the major benefits was that my stay in Norway allowed me to learn to ski (well sort of) I even had an abortive attempt and snowboarding and cross-country skiing- suffice it to say snowboarding I kept fallin on my bum (so much so I thought I would get nappy rash!), Cross country was one of the most exhausting things I have ever done! I was so sore after it I spent the next week walkin like John Wayne!
But when I settled I caught the downhill bug - when you spend a day trying to stay on your feet you forget about nearly everything.
Over all Oslo and Norway are nice places, the country side is lovely the mountains, the people while teutonic and insular are friendly when you get to know em.

Corfu Greece

With my able accomplice Ivan -
A Ipsos was ok perhaps too late in the season for much fun and frolics, weather was fine ok could have been better, Corfu town just a commercial port not mych to it.
The bus trip exposed us to the driving techniques of the greeks! and the commentary of "Panoramic view"over and over again....
We were denied a trip to Albania by political sensitivities due to the war in Yugoslavia.
Cycling was difficult but good fun in a masacistic kinda way - up to the celestialnamed Kassiopi
The boat trip was good as well got a chance to try a few knots when docking - the clove hitch!
When the US Aircraft carrier came to the bay it was full of yanks loud and broke the restfulness

California

Autumn 1998 I ended up in California,my first time in the US, went to San Francisco and LA with BT and Ronan. Landing in the US was interesting, especially since I was the first not to get "Incorrecto" shouted at me by the customs official, he made some quips about shamrocks but nervously i didn't know where to walk, since all i could see was the incorrecto queue, then folding doors opened Get Smart-like and I was in America. Strangley I enjoyed LA more than San Fran, contrary to my expectations.
San Franscisco was good for Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge and Park, street chess players and the cable cars. Felt awkward when followed by beggars, which was annoying.
LA - There was lots to do, I liked the tacky tours, Universal was good disney not so much, Manhattan beach was nice and close to the sea - i enjoyed a dip each day we were there. Hired bikes and cycled round the airport and up to Venice Beach which is a freak show and worth a visit.
Drivin up the ventrura highway with Julio and Ronan in a pontiac was also memorable. I couldn't convince Ronan to visit the Ronald Reagan museum alas. On the Bus tour with the Persian driver who photographed any celebrity he gave a lift to was interesting, especially when there was a traffic jam due to a shooting! Still a good trip.