Sunday Afternoon in Lille

August 18, 2019

I’m not entirely sure why it is that I decided that I would stop by in Lille on my trek through Europe – maybe it was because it was a half decent sized city that happened to be on the route that I was taking. Well, whatever the reason, it really didn’t take all that long to get there (namely because I was staying in Ghent) and one of the great things about traveling by Eurail Pass is that, generally, you don’t need to book your seats, especially if you are only traveling by the regional trains. … More Sunday Afternoon in Lille

A Day in Cronulla

August 5, 2019

I mentioned in a previous post that you could travel to the far north of Sydney, jump on a ferry, and cross over to what is a pretty huge national park. Well, as it turns out, you can also do this by heading to the South as well, though the biggest difference between heading north, and heading south, is that if you head south you can actually catch a train, and not only can you actually catch a train, but unlike Bondi, and pretty much every other beach in the city, you don’t even have to then jump on a bus to head the rest of the way. As it happens, down in Cronulla, the beach is a short walk from the station. … More A Day in Cronulla

Back to the Beach – Patong

July 19, 2019

I would say that with a hard heart I climbed onto the Ferry to head back to Phuket, but the thing with Phi Phi Island is that there was only so much that I could do there before I became bored. I had pretty much visited all of the bars, and on the third night at the back beach, it just was nowhere near as exciting as it was that first night (and honestly, neither was the music). Okay, maybe I could have gone on that cruise for a little longer, and when we arrived back at port, a part of me was annoyed that we didn’t take the full day cruise, however what happens happens, and it was now time to leave. … More Back to the Beach – Patong

An Afternoon in Ghent

July 6, 2019

The original plan with my trip to Europe was to travel to Amsterdam, do what people tend to do when they are in Amsterdam, and then jump on a plane and fly to Istanbul to explore some of the coastal ruins, as well as paying a visit to Gallipolli (something that many Australians like to do, though it has been suggested that the one time you don’t go to Gallipolli is on ANZAC day because, well, the place becomes ridiculously crowded). Well, unfortunately, that didn’t happen, one of the reasons being that my Mum was dead against me taking my brother to Turkey (though she didn’t seem to have a problem with me taking him to Thailand and Cambodia – go figure). … More An Afternoon in Ghent

Beaches of the North

June 22, 2019

In a way it is hard to say which beach is the best beach in Sydney. When it comes to accessibility these ones up North really don’t make the grade. Well, if you do happen to have a car, and live within a reasonable distance, then maybe they aren’t that bad, but when you are either like a friend of mine, who lived in the far west, or me who happens to be a tourist that does most of his touristing by public transport, then maybe not. … More Beaches of the North

Bangkok – Oriental City

June 3, 2019

Well, Bangkok is one of those cities that happens to grow on you. Ever since I left that first time on a plane back to Hong Kong a part of me wanted to return. The other thing was that when I was there I lost a copy of A Farewell to Arms (by Ernest Hemingway) and when I finally bought another copy I decided that I wasn’t going to read it again until I returned. Well, I did … … More Bangkok – Oriental City

Afternoon at the Rijksmuseum

May 19, 2019

Yeah, the Rijksmuseum is pretty big, but not as big as the Louve, namely because the Louve does happen to hold the record for being the world’s largest museum (though I am sure somebody is going to come along sooner or later and steal that title from it, most likely somebody in China). In fact, it pretty much took us an entire afternoon to explore, well, most of the place, though on the lower levels we pretty much breezed through, if only so we could get to the impressionists before the place closed. … More Afternoon at the Rijksmuseum

An Abbotsford Pub Crawl

May 5, 2019

I realised that I haven’t done a good old fashioned pub crawl in a very, very long time. Okay, maybe I should be writing about the one I did in London where I attempted to visit every street on the Monopoly Board, and have a drink at a pub there. However, I am just going back to good old Melbourne, and taking you all on a trip to some of my favourite pubs in Abbotsford, which happens to be one of the inner city suburbs. … More An Abbotsford Pub Crawl

Notre Dame – Thoughts of Our Lady

April 19, 2019

When I first heard that the famous cathedral in Paris was on fire at first I wasn’t really sure of the extent, and then the reports that it might be completely destroyed started flooding in. Of course, one of the reactions was to send in the water bombers, which might work for when you happen to be dealing with out of control bush fires, but not when the roof of an eight hundred year old building is in flames. … More Notre Dame – Thoughts of Our Lady

On to the Coffs

April 14, 2019

So, after spending a couple of days in Newcastle (that is Newcastle Australia) it was time to continue my trek north. By this time I had pretty much reached to edge of the Sydney Rail network – to an extent, so it was now time to jump onto the Countrylink to continue my journey. The problem with the Countrylink is that there are only two that pass through here on a daily basis, which means that I had to make sure I was at the station otherwise I would be waiting around for quite a while with absolutely nothing to do, and nowhere to stay. … More On to the Coffs