Milan, Italy Nov'09

Twickenham. Tick. Murrayfield. Tick. Millenium. Tick. With the All Blacks tour of the Northern Hemisphere now apon us, it was time to knock over another sporting destination & what better place than Sans Siro stadium in Milan against the ever improving Italians. 16 of us flew out on the Friday night after work and returned on Sunday evening. Our day got off to the perfect start when we woke up to see playing on Italian TV the All Whites beat the well reknown giants in soccer, Bahrain to make it into the World cup. Unfortunately the rugby game was not as exciting as the soccer game & the weekend will probably be more remembered for some dodgy sausages outside the stadium pre game 'sausage factor' which resulted in several crook kiwis over the weekend!

Above- Showing our support for the mighty AB's outside Sans Siro

San Siro is typically home to the local football teams AC & Inter Milan. The game was sold out with an attendance of over 80,000 people which is the most they have ever had for a game of rugby in Italy.

Above- The crew from left to right; Jo, Juliette, Cam, Ed, Becs, Amy, Neena, Richard, Nadia, Tom, Kathryn, Hannah & Todd. Because we had bought our tickets from a company dedicated to getting ex pat kiwis AB's tickets we were sitting with a number of other Kiwis.... including a team of 20 who were there on a 30th Birthday party dressed in full body black lycra suits aptly titled the Spand (dex) Blacks- Im not sure what was more entertaining, them or the rugby!

Unfortunately we played out 'B' side for this outing- some noteable omissions from above were DC (Carter) and Hardcore (McCaw). Above- Duomo di Milano from the square

Above-Galleria Vittorio is over 130 years old it houses all the big names Prada, Vuitton etc so Nadia was allowed no where near it.

This is the building where the controvesial painting by Leonardo Davinci (The last supper) is held. People are shown through in 15 minute blocks as you are lead through no less than 3 tiny rooms which helps ensure the air in the main room is maintained to ensure minimal deteriation.

Northern Ireland October'09

Belfast City

Everything about the centre of Belfast looks normal, it is the same currency, the same time zone, the same shops and the people all speak the same language as you. It is not until however you go out of the city centre a little way that you start to see that Belfast has some very serious issues.

We did a black cab tour which takes you out of the city centre somewhat and from here you will see the issues come to the fore. Literally on one side of the city you have the Catholics (the Falls) aligned with Ireland and on the other you have the Protestants (the Shankle) who align themselves with England.

It was clearly not enough to have them living on different sides of the city so they have also erected a massive wall (the peace wall) to keep them apart. In each of the respective parts of town they have painted murals reaffirming their respective allegances (as per the image below).

Each side of the city has to be treated the same by the city council so it is costing them a samll fortune because if for example they wanted a new swimming pool they would need to make sure that there was a pool on the Catholic side but also the exact same facility on the protestant side. There has been a lot of violence in Belfast between the 2 groups over the years to the point where the English police only left in 2008.

Above- Nadia signs the 'peace wall'

Above- The gates that seperate the 2 sides are locked on weekends from 7pm on Friday night and dont open again until Monday at 6am.

Below- Back to reality in the centre of Belfast
The Giants Causeway

Our tour for this did not start of too well when the tour company Paddywagon tours forgot to pick us up! Unpreturbed though we got on another tour and headed out to the Giants Causeway which is a cool rock formation which is entrenched in myth and legend.

The shortened version of the legend suggests that the causeway was created by a giant man named Finn MacCool who created the path by throwing some of the mountains in the water to get to has adversary in Scotland. When the Scottish giant came over to Ireland to attack Finn was very tired from creating the causeway so he thought of a genius plan. He dressed himself in babies clothes and sat in a cot. When the Scottish giant arrived Finns wife said that he was out but to wait for him as he wouldnt be long. The scottish giant saw the size of the baby in the cot and thought if this is the size of Finns baby then how big would the father Finn be! He ran off scared all the way back to Scotland tearing up the causeway along the way so that Finn couldnt follow him.

We got very lucky with the weather on the day we visited the Causeway, Nadia was always going to need to wear the 'puff' jacket though.

Giant shadows!

Krakow- Poland, October'09

I will not try and dress it up... Krakow is a depressing place. We were there just for the weekend & just about everything about the place was gloomy & depressing (even the KFC was not great!). It was in stark comparison to the sunny Greece holiday we had just had, the big difference being, that this was a 'cultural visit' & history and culture is one thing Poland is not short on.

In this respect Krakow (with Auswitz & Birkenau) is a must see destination.

The entrance to Auswitz- The writing says 'work will set you free'

Above- the square in the centre of Krakow

Above- Wawel Castle
We went out for some local fare, with mixed results....
Above- Nadia uninpressed with her Pear compote (you can see why)

Below- I am defeated, there is only so much purple cabbage a man can eat

The Wieliczka Salt mines

This sounds random, but it was actually really good. It is listed as a UNESCO world heriatge site for good reason. Our tour incorporated this with the trip to Auswitz as it is located between Krakow and Auswitz and if you get the chance definately go for a look.

The salt mines lie 180 metres below the ground, there are stairs you have to go all the way down on and then thankfully a lift for on the way back up. The main attraction in the mines are the huge halls that have been dug out by hand and intricate statues made from pure salt crytsals. One interesting thing about the mines was that the salt air is said to be very good for the lungs & they often send people down to the mines who have respirtory issues.

Auswitz and Birkenau

Auswitz & Birkenau are the most famous of the concentration camps. Auswitz is located about 1.5hrs drive from Krakow. Be prepared for a shock when you visit this place, the barbed wire fences everywhere, the gas chamber etc but the thing that made it the most real for me was a huge room all filled with human hair which the Nazis used to make jerseys from (also on display).

Above- The end of the line... lieterally. It is on these tracks that all prisoners arrived to Birkenau. The train first stops approximately 500 metres up the tracks from this photo and the healthy prisoners are taken away for work. The less suitable workers stayed on the train and were disembarked straight from this point, into the gas chambers.

Above- The memorial erected on the grounds of one of the gas chambers. The artist who designed the momument intended that its meaning be interpreted by the observer.

Above- the shooting wall- If you were lucky enough to miss the gas chamber, it is likley that you either died of exhaustion whilst working or were executed by the firing squad above.

Greece Island hopping Sept'09

Kebabs, stray dogs, naked Germans, beautiful beaches & more Australians than Australia- Greece has it all. In September we headed off on our summer holiday. The brief was simple; beaches, relaxation and most importantly guaranteed sunshine. We were away for 8 days flying into Athens and out of Mykonos, with some island hopping in between.

Athens

Athens is apparently the only place in the world where McDonalds runs at a loss, the reason for this is because their wonderful array of cheap kebabs. Their kebabs have two names. They are called Gyros if you are having them wrapped up for takeaway or Souvlakis when you go for the dining in experience.

We stayed in Athens for 2 nights (1 full day) which was just about the right amount of time. Beyond the Acropolis & museum there is not a lot else to do and it is not the nicest of cities with more stray dogs than all the dogs in NZ's SPCA combined!

The Acropolis is visible from all over Athens

Standing in front of the Parthenon

Above- The Acropolis by night

Above- The Temple of Zeus

Above- The Spectacular sights of the Acropolis were not immune to the stray dogs.

Above- Great outfits and even cooler routine outside the parliament building in Athens.


Santorini

After an 8 hour ferry from Athens we arrived to the beautiful sights of Santorini. We were staying in a place called Pirissa down the bottom end of the island which had some very handy beaches at our doorstep.

The most impressive place on the island is Oia. Situated at the top of the island where most of the pictures from below are taken. You can literally stay in a hotel sitting on the side of the island, but save you euros because these places don't come cheap!

Sunset at Oia

Above- Nadia rips into another Gyro

Donkeys were traditionally used to lug things up & down the hill in the past & it seems Santorini has not quite moved into the 20th century as they still use them!

The views from the town of Fira... you can see the still active volcano to the left

Red Beach

Our powerful motorbike taxied us all around the island, it had a top speed of 40km but unfortunately the 50cc engine only sputtered to 12km's uphill.

Naxos

We stayed on a lovely part of the island called Agga Anna which backs off on to Plaka beach. This island out of all of them definitely had the best beaches.

The temple of Apollo stands proudly at the port of Naxos.

Crystal clear waters are all part and parcel with Greece relaxing.

Agga Anna beach

Dinning beachside at Plaka beach

A classic Gyro- they cram in tomato, excessive amounts of onion, tatziki, an undefinable meat and to cap it off a few chips. It tastes amazing- look out for the gyro juice down your top though.

Mykonos

This island is well known for its nightlife which is said to be the best in Europe, it is also very gay friendly! They have some great beaches including one called 'Paradise' which sounds idyllic until you consider their is another beach called 'Super Paradise' I cant wait for 2012 when they open up 'Super Dooper Paradise'.

Above- Paradise beach... if you look really closely you can see a few nude Germans.... Why is it that its only ever the really old people who get nude?

Above- The loungers at 'Paradise', just metres from here you can see a woman gyrating on a pole to music & you can have a gyro brought to your seat- they have thought of everything those Greeks- remember though it will cost you c$30NZ per lounger to hire though.

The famous Windmills of Greece

Greece was an awesome holiday and highly recommended to anyone considering it.