Krakow - Wsciekly Pies

This was actually one of the highlights of my trip, not so much the drinking of it but the manageing to re-create it in the hostel.

I tried it in a lovely bar called Awara (that looked good, and has some good bands on too by the looks of it) - it made with a shot of good quality vodka, a few glugs of rasberry syrup and then a few splashes of tabasco. The trick is to pour the rasberry slowly down the side of the glass AFTER the vodka. I nailed it in the hostel and we all shared a few shots.

anyways, here what they look like

Krakow - huge walk

After missing the bus out of town decided to head to the castle and have a look around, was quite nice but I wasn't really feeling indoorsy as the sun was shining, so i decided to head to the river and it was totally frozen and beautiful - i did a much larger walk than i had planned as it banks all the way round in quite a big circle.



The castle is actually called Wawel castle, and this pic is not mine - it was covered in snow when i was in there

Krakow

The forecast wheren't good - hovering between -10 and -15 before i got there - but it was pretty much that cold. Lucky there was no wind as such, but a 1 hour wait at the bus stop was a bit of welcome.

Still, made it to Good Bye lenin (34 Grodska) pretty easily, a very welcoming hostel with a great communal area where you've really got no choice to talk to others. The rooms are blasted with heat and really cosy, and they have free coffee and snacks and free internet.

Met a nice guy called Sabine who was in my room, he'd been there for a week and i think he'd began to thing he should have been there for a few days only - not sure its a week place really!

I did plan to Austwitz but it was 2 hours away by public transport, so i can of took the desiscion to just chill in krakow and have a foody drinky walky weekend.

First i took a walk out the jewish area and stumbled on this bar pictured - great place - just needed some tunes and people :-)

Cork - Inchydoney

Only heard of this place cos of a friend at work had rec'd it to my via her irish friend. so took a but to Klonakilty which looked a lovely town as it goes, and it was a pretty nice journey to get there through the countryside.

I liked the way the girl in the Tourist board had no hesitation in saying it was easily walkable, even though it was almost two miles. They'd be directing you to the nearest airport down south. Good on her.

So, It was a fairly long walk to get there, but it was worth it - almost deserted beach when i got there, just a hotel from what i remember - so i scoffed my pre packed picnic and had a seat for a little bit.

The pic is from Klonakilty, would have liked to spend a night there.

Cork - Kinsale

Day 2, and had a look round town, but it seems to me that corks more of a night time place and i was spending my days out in the countryside - so i hopped a bus to Kinsale.

Once there i did a big coastal walk out to a lovely spot seen here:



Looked like some nice sailing here too.

Once back in town i spotted this nice little bar right round the harbour, took a bit of a hike to get there but it was well worth it - once of those tiddly bars where you can only fit one bar man behind it. No draft, just bottles of beers and tons of old spirits - managed to get one of the few seats in the garden with such a lovely view.

The pub was called the spinnaker bar, and id love to go back! Two pics here, one of the view, and one of the pub.

(not sure why the pics have moved up!)

Cork - cobh

Took a flight to cork and checked into a lovely hostel there, think its near the collage, was quite cheap and about a 15 min walk into town.

So dumped my bags and took a little stroll to get my bearings. Id heard there was not many sights to see in cork other than outside the town, and i ended up gravitating towards the train station.

When i got there there was plenty of trains to cobh (pronounced cove), and though the name seemed familiar I wasnt sure why. So i took a punt, jumped on the train and pulled out the guide oob. It was ony then i realised that it was a little tiny port that id read about which just happened to be where the Titanic last sailed from.

So i had a lovely walk round the town, and then ended up watchin Ireland almost beat Italy in a world cup qualifier. Good game as well with the irish scoring first.

Anyway, after a few nice pints I tried to get the train home, which was cancelled, then cancelled, so i went for a few more pints and then finally made it to back to cork.

Not bad for a first afternoon. Good intro

Madeira

off to the portugese island this week, got a car hired and looking forward to some good walking wine, and cheese!

tragedy

saw a guy die on the beach at villefranche - on his own, no family or friends with him - not sure what happened, but was horrible.
sad.

another jazz bar!

went to one called shapko, where the house jazz band (good though they where) made me realise how special the prevous band at the cave romagnan had been

then went to kings bar, where some v average rock cover band where belting them out , and pulling all sorts of rock star poses!

oh, just found the names of the US guys - Cory Sherman, and Charles Kim - NYU 10

just looking at my notes, and i went to a bar called Pompeii - which i vaguely remember, and then on to a bar called Blue Whales and watched PSG versus someone else - cant remember!!

ive also written then i heard a good mash up of alphabet street and help!

Namu Quartet

that was the name of the band at the Cave Romagnan!

best night ever..

... well, i always say that - bit it was pretty damn good -
after the cycle road went for a wander and chanced upon a bar called cave romagnan - 22 rue d'angleterre - I heard some Jazz and dodged in and it was one of the best performances i've ever seen - and in i tiny little bar

the crowd absolutely loved it, and where cheering all the way through -

i think they recorded it, and i hope to track down a copy by writing to the bar

Socca

.... is a local chick pea pancake, which is pretty nice - had it in a place called Lou Pilha Leva - on rue centrale

pretty cool spot to have some food

Cycle ride to Monaco!

so three of us set off on what was one of the best bike rides i've ever been on - took in Villefrenche - Beaulieu-sur-mer, and then on to monaco and casino sqaure

saw 'the world' ocean liner there - what a ship, although looked pretty empty!

Cannes and night out in Nice!

took the train to Cannes to see what all the fuss was about - pretty nice place as it goes, but i was bored within an hour or two - bought a guide book in french to try learn a bit of the lingo, but ended getting the wrong one anyway

couldn't find an open loo anyway where at all, so faced with a desperate train journey i decided to drop into a bar, and wet my whistle and use the convenienc' s :-)

so went back to Nice, then met Sam - and we headed out for a few beers with two american guys he'd met - called Cory and - ??

ended up getttin pretty hammered with these guys, which was cool! but they where all 21 years old - freaky!

was going ok untill they started talking about whether Kanwe was better than Jay-Z!

err, i'll get y coat!

Waking in Nice!

Got a crackin nights sleep and woke up about 10am - excited about havin money, and being somewhere and not actually worrying about running out - as is usually the case.

so made a bee-line (via the bank) for Lafayette's - a big department store with a great food section. Picked up a few goodies, and then headed a general wander

also picked up a lovely bottle of red for about 3 euro's - Chateux La Comanderie Du Bardelel 2007 - and it was pretty damn good !

met a guy called sam in the hostel, young lad from buxton - on his way to spain to do some cheffing before uni

anyway - here's a painting of nice market (above)

London to Paris

took the 7:20 eurostar from Pancreas - bit early in the morn for champers, but still a great place to start a journey

ended up issing the connection in paris, but managed to change my train - and pick up a nice cold beer for the journey! (just the one - got a nice bottle of red to drink)

train was quite busy, overheard an interesting conv between an indian guy and his dad - talkng about their upbringing in kenya and then moving to france.

Had a little doze and then woke up in lovely hills with the start of the alps in view - then once we hit marseille it slowed down a little and hugged the gorgeous coast line through antibes and onwads.

Time for picnic and wine now, grabbed a coast side seat - popped the wine and kicked back with some nice snacks!!

went through cannes and landed in Nice about 8pm. Went to chez patricks guest house (very nice guy) and checked in for 17 euro's a night.

cos i wasn't getting paid till midnight i only had 3 euros left and had to watch everton get beaten by standerd leige from outside the bar.

So, sedate start to the trip, but Nice looks good!!

Off to Nice....

on the train tomorrow - major excited about the train as it goes, but also looking forward to the coast - got a bed booked in Chez Patrick, and *not* the pink lady!!

top picnic planned for the train, plus a lovely bottle of french red -

hope i wake up in time!

you know - i might start this blog up again!

its about time - been a few nice places since, amsterdam, seville, lisbon, limgoes, istanbul, ireland, cyprus, venice, bassano del grappa, Trieste,

next up - the italian alps - where i'll try and post some interesting stuff

weather

has gone crazy here - it started raining last night, there was a power cut, it rained all night - ive just heard a loud bacg of thunder - looked out and theres the thickest fog ive ever seen!

not what you want with a scary bus journey tonight, hope it clears up

thats it then...

booked on the overnight bus to dehli (in a few hours) , then get a few hours there to shower, and buy some cheap jeans cos my army pants are in the worst possible state a pair of trousers could ever be in - and then its back to blighty on a virgin flight!

hopefully some good films, and i think i fancy some gin and tonics should make the flight very pleasent indeed

and why i wrote everton instead of everyone (below) ive no idea!

just a little insight....

to how nuts things are here

been reading the papers every day, and theres always a story that gets me - i read yesterday a chemical plant where doing a drill to see how they would cope with a leak, so they had people on the floor pretending to be affected, and released smoke in to the air to simulate a leak - and then the Fire Engine storms in and runs over one of the guys on the floor - killing him! how bad is that!

food food food

had one of the best carboanaras ive eved had last night - not what youd expect up here but was delish - loads of fresh garlic in it! mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

few more gotfathers last night, so was a bit late getting up today - the label on the beers actually say the strength is 'no less than 5 and no more than 8.5' so you have no idea whether you are just gonna be merry, or totally spannered! russian roulette or what, in a good way though!

so i walked up to triund today, which was quite tough - got befreinded by a tibetan guy who ownde a shop on top of the hill - he wanted me to stay (for money) which would have been cool, but for some reason i decided to come back

almost got to the snowline too, but the path was getting slippy and there was a pure drop on the side, so i went 'sensible' and turned back!

cheeky monkey

monkey came down to breakfast this morning, and this woman near by panicked a little and left her table - which wasn't very wise - within seconds the monkey was on there and grabbed the bowl of sugar, poured some of it in is mount, and then took the rest with him - up a ladder!!! brilliant

also, seems to be the 'thing' to do here, is instead of jackets everton has a blanket wrapped around them - i havent succumbed to this yet, but it kinda makes sense - so this time, im siding with the hippies !

matrimony

i knew that arranged marriages where still very popular here, and very much the norm - but i wasn't really sure how it all worked
so got the sunday times this morning, and there is a massive suppliment with it - and its all looking for bride, or grooms! EVERY bloke describes themselves as 'handsome', its so funny

but some of them are parents looking for a wife for there son, or vice versa, and then there are different sections relating to caste, religion, language, or area!

was quite an eye opener

and on to Dharamsala and McCleod Ganj

a few more buses and i find myself rubbing shoulders with the dalai lama - well, he lives here anyway. Is way up in the himalayan foothills, but aint too cold yet - ive got a nice room in the Kunga guesthouse for 125 ruppees, with a lovely outdoor cafe and a view of the snowy capped mountains - seems to be loads to do here, nice bars, lots of tiny cafes with about 3 seats - and lots of ok looking stuff for sale - ! and plenty of freedom/fisherman trousers on display

this picture is of the indrahar pass which im gonna try and get up tomorrow, its normally a 5 day round trip, but im just gonna do the start of it, maybe get to the pass - and then head back - it looks stunning, hope its a clear day!!

how funny is Will farrell!

got to see a bit of Anchor Man last night, and its classic, aint seen a good comedy for ages! and i saw that Talladega nights on the plane the other week as well (with Sacha Baron cohen in too) and that was well funny too, in a hill-billy kinda way

train to Pathinkot

this was the narrow gauge one that takes 10 hours - i made it up by 6 which was a big shock - even had time to buy he paper and some snacks! and right, for a 10 hour journey through lovely valleys, and with the himalya's in view the whole time - cost - 27 ruppees!!!!, thats about 30p - unbelievable - topped off with a 10 ruppee double helping of pakora and that made for a cheap day indeed

stayed in Pacthinkot which was not what i expected, it was masive and full of mayhem in the street, with a few sleazey stores and the likes - i had a walk, and some food in the worst place ever - it was one of those where i walked into an empty cafe, then it filled up - and i was still served last - so close to walking out, but i was starving!

so after managing to not get knocked over by the bikes, cows, rick shaws etc - i opted for several more 'godfathers' and some prem footie which happened to be on! nice

Jagindernagar

got the bus here and stayed at the hotel Ule i think, i got room service of dopiaza, rice, chapati, pickle and a drink for just over a quid! i had to keep the receipt, how cheap is that!

had two godfather beers and when i stood up ma legs where totally flubbered, and then i found out that they are 8.5 % - too much for my little legs to cope with, so i flumped into bed and watched cape fear - and hopeing i would get out of bed by 6am without an alarm clock!

Manali to Mandi

had my last brekky in manali, and bumped into toronto Nick again - i think his life much have changed 20 years ago cos everything was '20 years ago' - eg, been skiing for 20 years, climbed snowdon 20 years ago, aint been to shimla for about 20 years, etc, etc - and there was loads more - im guessing his wife kicked him out or something, or maybe thats when arrived back on planet earth after some dodgy 70's years

anyways, the journey was fabulous, very scenic all the way - although in th paper today it says a bus fell down a gorge not far from where i was - the roads here are dangerous, apprently 230 people die a day in roa accidents - over 80,000 a year!