Movin' On

To bring things up to speed, we had our final day in Wiesbaden, Germany. The weather was great again and a perfect end to a great start to the trip. We started in Wiesbaden by eating some brekkie al fresco before sampling some water pumped direct from the earth. I kinda lost the translation but I think I'll live forever now. Which is nice. It was really hot - not quite what you'd expect from a regular fountain. Now it was time to push on, so we jumped on the AutoBahn and headed at great speed to the Rhein. We took a walk through the grounds of a large castle that was home to a species of Green parrot before heading to an ice-cream parlour for a triple scoop of pure pleasure. I recommend the cookie flavour. We ate those down whilst watching the water drift past us on a sunny Sontäg afternoon.

It was time to get in our last sight-to-be-seen and headed up through the hills and past the local vineyards. Atop a pretty hefty hill stood a statue said to signify the beating of the French. Nick and I jump up the huge 4ft steps to take in the view... before getting down after being told that those German words engraved around the edges meant - "no climbing". Ah well, "we're English" - we said. "Insle Aphen" was the reply roughly translated as "Island Apes". It had gotten late and it was just about time to head home to pack and get ourselves back to the flughafen. I snapped away a little more before that journey.

We boarded the 45minute flight to Vienna in good spirits, and couldn't believe how quick time had flown and what a great start to the trip we'd had. It dawned on us we were on our own however, sinec we'd been shown around the whole time in Germany. We jumped on the 'CAT' and entered Vienna's national train station. A few slices of pizza later and we had to track down our first hostel. Naturally we found this no problems so we celebrated by finding the busiest bar in Vienna at midnight on a Sunday night - we had a few beers with the other 2 blokes in there then sank off for some kip.

Modern Way

After the stress we went through on the week preparing to leave, we arrived in Frankfurt looking to relax. So after some potato wedges and a few beers, we went to a cocktail bar and drank Zulu's. I'm not sure what the ingrediants were, but it was probably Vodka, Tequila and something else - that something else also being alcholic. The worst cocktail I ever tasted! It did however get us in the mood to put on our dancing shoes. A quick trip to the local 'classy club' and we were set for the night. Of course we felt right at home wearing our travel gear with all the locals dressed right up in their best designer jeans, shirts and lederhosen.



Saturday we spent looking at Frankfurt itself, eating authentic Frankfurters and "Australian" Belgian waffles. Very good. The city is really nice and clean, quite modern compared to London. The weather was cracking for a mid October day too. I'd like to tell you exactly what I saw but we didn't really have a guide book to check on what we were looking at.




The rest of the evening was spent chilling with a few beers and a movie. I'm about to go get ready for the transfer to Vienna this evening. I got a really good nights sleep last night for the first time in about a week so Iäm pretty much raring to go.

One

Well, I said goodbze to everzone todaz, and now I am sat here in Frankfurt. It all seems a bit odd that I finallz left the UK, and not least that all of mz ´z´s´ are coming out as ´y´s´. Crayz European Kezboards.

We alreadz sampled some local beers - including some coca-cola hzbrid beer and a beer called ´hell´.

I've still zet to pick up mz camera so no pictures just zet...

Wonderland

Friday night in Maidstone, Saturday in London.

I got to Maidstone at around 7.40pm and met with the guys, we started out in a wetherspoons pub for something to eat and a few beers. Those few beers seemed to spur us to bigger and better things, so by 10 o clock we'd walked up to Ikon (drinks were £1.60 each which seemed as good a reason as any to drop by). Then some shapes were thrown, more drinks drunk and before I knew it, the night was over... I hadn't planned to get quite as drunk as that but I managed to get myself up next morning and get back home.

England Vs Austria - World Cup Qualifier -
I met up with all my old work chums for our our final daylong session. We all went to a pub near Fenchurch St for some lunch and nice easy start to the day. By the time we managed to remove ourselves, time was pushing (4 o clock KO) so we dropped by the Ship & Shovell to watch the game. England won with a penalty scored by Mr Lampard and we held out the final half hour minus Mr Beckham - nice.

The rest of the evening in London was spent between various bars - and a quick detour into Somerset House, just enough time for the boys to pick me up and drag me through the fountains - cheers fellas!

We got back into Grays for a curry before I said farewell to a few of the guys that won't be out during the week. By this point England had qualified for the German World Cup after Holland beat the Czech Rep. in the other significant game - though none of us realsised this...

I now have no weekends left in the UK - that's a thought that's been giving me trembly-pant-syndrome most of today!

Block Rockin' Beats

My latest video (and my previous epic) from my last holiday in Mayrhofen, Austria - back in March this year...

www.rachlog.f2s.com

The Green Light?

So, today, 1 day after I planned to have left work - I finally gave in my notice. They seemed a bit shocked but there was no obvious bitterness or bad feeling so I was quite relieved. I will now work this Thursday 6th, Monday 10th and Thursday 13th October - the day before I leave! But now my final paycheque is in the bank - I don't mind helping them out a little.


My car is leaving me a week today, the last of my saleable things are on ebay, I've had all the jabs I can - I just have to sort out my Malaria pills and I'm good to go...


This weekend gone by, I said goodbye to friends of old from my C&E days in old stylee - drinks at the Pocock (Gravesend) followed by Nightshades or Barcode (I always forget the name of this place - I just know it as the place where once, so many of us sat on the same chair - it was flattened, the bouncer charged us £10 then threw us all out). It was great meeting up with everyone and I was relieved to have a pretty clear nog upon waking up Saturday morning. I dashed back to Essex, washed my car for possibly the last time and then gathered some stuff to take to Ipswich for night 2 of my penultimate UK weekender.


I got to Carl & Gils at about 4pm and started drinking while we all watched Ong Bak. By 9pm, we'd played some Pro Evo Soccer, eaten a lot of Chinese food, drunk more beer and ordered cabs to take us to a Vodka bar situated at some kind of boatyard (this is about as much as I can recall, it was dark). By about 11 and after more beers and 3 slightly dubious shooters, it was time to move on; the Corn Exchange was next. After discovering an Indie room - I was set for the rest of my night. I was not seen jumping like a fool to any Charlatans, Hard-Fi or The Music. No.


A whole bunch more Jack & Cokes later, we stumbled home before playing guitar, bongo's and singing (massacaring) Foxy Lady, Fool's Gold and other great songs of old... 5.15am (ish) I dropped my head. I awoke, and naturally went for a jump on the trampoline - it would've been very rude not to. I think this is where my headache came from, trampolines always do that to me...

Travelling without Moving

Summer seems to have gone. Cold and wet was today; nonetheless I was expecting these last couple of weeks to be nice and easy before going away, but things had to spice themselves up I guess... I've had to get my car prepared to sell, which has meant getting the noise that's been drowned out by my music the last few months fixed. I've had a tonne of trouble getting the new part ordered and she's now been off the road for over a week.
On top of that, work still haven't paid me the money they owe me... which all kinda just fuels the desire to get outta here even more.

Aside from all that jazz, the last few weeks since V have been quite quiet - a few nights out with the boys and a couple of weekends spent taking time out with old friends before I depart, it's been pretty cool. I'm taking 3 strong walks a week now in preperation for the Nepalese Himalayas... and taking time out to test out my photography skills.

First stop; Frankfurt - departing October 14th 2005 and leaving 16th October 2005. This will mainly be a quality assurance trip since I've heard that a few of the beers in this part of the world are not up to European standards. I'll report back with my findings.