Los Angeles

A view of LA from La Cienega Blvd
The capitol records building
the stars on the walk of fame

Mulholland Drive

the Hollywood Sign as seen from Mulholland Drive

A house from The Big Lebowski, honest, dude.
the house from Benson

Beverly Hills
One of the signatures at the chinese theatre
The Chinese Theatre

We didn't plan to go to LA but fortunately our flights gave us a whole day in the city. We had a day room booked on La Cienega Blvd (my second Ryan Adams reference after standing on the corner of 44th and Broadway) We caught a cab into Hollywood to Manns Chinese Theatre to go on a tour we had booked from NZ since we only had 12 hours we thought we'd check out a bit of the city. Headed through Sunset Strip, hollywood blvd, Santa monica Blvd, Beverly Hills, west hollywood etc etc. Drove down the 'Beverly Hillbillys street, saw the osbournes house, bela lugosis old house that has been bought by johnny depp, a house used in the Big Lebowski, the Viper Room, Whiskey a Go Go, and many other hollywood sites, up and along Mulholland with a view of the hollywood sign etc. Back to the Chinese Theatre for some shopping at the guess store and Virgin megastore and wandered down to the corner of Hollywood & Vine and a view of the famous circular Capitol Records building. We then caught a cab with a really nice driver (we'd had a few, the guy in Dublin was nice too) Dimitri from Russia (or as he clarified later some country between poland and Russia), who also mentioned the amount of drunk driving in LA and how a tourist couple had been run down & killed by a drunk the night before pretty much on the block he had picked us up on. We headed back to the hotel and then on to the airport for our 12hour flight back, and our shambollock 2 hour changeover for our flight back home to winter, a weird feeling.

New York City

A view of the Empire State from the Empire State Building

New York at night


Ground Zero

the Flatiron Building
The Carlton Hotel(& a yellow cab)

Part of Central Park
No Soup For You! forever! (it's closed down)

The Chelsea Hotel

The Hudson River loooking out to New Jersey

Times Square

Um, the picture explains itself


Got into New York and got a charming New York yellow cab driver(thats sarcasm by the way) not a terribly pleasant start to our visit. The cabs are fairly high tec with a TV in the back and the first thing we see on the news is a thing about a near miss with two planes on a runway at JFK airport(the one we just left). So we got to our 'blow out hotel' of the tour which made up for some of the grot we had stayed in, The Carlton on Madison Avenue, Manhatten, very nice, and nice staff. We went out for a walk in humid heat, and around the block was the Empire State building, we cheesed it down to Museum of Modern Art(MoMA) to see a Dali exhibition they had on. The staff there were great and we ended up seeing some amazing art work such as his Persistance of Memory(the melted clocks one) and the Metomorphosis of Narcissus and many other uber famous Dali paintings (though strangely after 3 exhibitions -London, Figures, New York, we still had not seen one of the 'elephant' paintings). Then we wandered up to The ed Sullivan theatre(The David Letterman show) and down Broadway to Times Square, and off to Grand Central Station and the Chrysler Building, and back to The Carlton where Steph and her flatmate Jen were also staying with us and we headed out for food, except Steph, whos order never turned up, bummer. Had an unexpected 6.5 hours sleep!
The girls got up and went on their 'sex and the city bus tour' which I obviosly declined. i planned out a route and wandered exuberantly through an amazing New York sunday morning down to the 'flatiron building' (the triangle one you'd know if you saw it, was the worlds tallest building in 1903) and on through Chelsea down to The Chelsea Hotel, visited by the likes of Jack Kerouac, but probably most famous for the fact Sid killed Nancy there, so I popped in to the foyer for a look round. On down to The Hudson River where I wandered along and cut back down and saw the Soup Nazis Kitchen from Seinfeld, and on to Central Park. on my way to Mannys, and Sam Ash guitar stores i came across Radio City Music Hall and NBC theatre. Bought myself an Ebow after a few accent problems (an 'E'bow, 'E'bow, 'E', no not a 'capo', an 'E'bow, 'E', 'E', 'E'bow, maybe I should have said 'A'bow) Mannys is uber impressive, with signed photos all over the walls of anyone you can imagine, anyone, Stones, beatles, Clapton, NY Dolls, The Doors, Dylan, Hendrix, Zeppelin, ACDC, Ozzy, Dean Martin, anyone.
Went back and met the girls and headed down Broadway. We caught a cab out to Pier 17 where we got tickets for the 7pm 'water taxi' and then went down to a Clothes Store and i went and checked out 'Ground Zero' though you can't see much, a lot of construction and cranes etc. went back and jumped on the water taxi (our tour guide was reminded me of dolemite, trying to rap and rhyme all his commentaries, hilarious) so we headed out to the statue of liberty , ellis Island, Brooklyn Bridge and got back an hour and a half later, just in time to miss the 'Bodies' exhibition across the street by 5 minutes. So we decided to walk to Little Italy for some food, which took a little longer due to our map being a little innacurate and Chinatown taking up a bit more room than indicated. After dinner caught a cab to The Empire State building (which is open till 2 am) where the girls went up the top for a look. After al the other frak outs in towers and steepleshalf that height I new it would be too much for me, and it was windy emough at ground level, so I sat it out, Deb later confirmed I would have lost my insides if I'd gone. Back to the hotel for a solid 1.45 hours sleep before our cab ride to Newark Airport. New York at 4am Sunday is actually very quiet for the city that never sleeps. we did see the rats coming out of the (steaming during the day) sewer grates to climb up the rubbish bins and inside to get their nightly dinner, rather fascinating actually.

Back to London, again

The boys

Deb and a squirrel

So Friday was our last day in London on this trip, so of course what else would be top of our list(I mean Debs) but to feed the squirrels in St James Park. They sure like nuts. Then off to Blackfriars Pub, which according to Steph is a few hundred years old (though there was that whole Abbey Road thing, haha) for the worst tasting warm local beer of the entire trip. Then off to dinner with Scott, Justin & Rita, Big Mal, J Baz. then down to a pub for a Becks Vier (which was the product i initially was in the advert for, though it's now a generic Becks ad). Then back to Stephs for an awesome 3 hours sleep for our flight to New York City.

Dublin

Grogans (what else would you call a bar)

A view of Dublin from the Gravity Bar


Dublin was a brief but pleasant visit. We only spent one night there but I really enjoyed the city. we stayed with a freind of mine I had worked with at sounds in NZ named Cormac and his wife Caroline who treated us royally (or grandly as the Irish would say). after catching up at their house for a while we toddled down to the Guiness factory and ended up on the Gravity Bar for a surprisingly nice pint of Guiness, and after that headed out to a restaurant for a nice dinner and then on to Grogans Bar (I know, hilarious) for another Guiness and on to The Bernard Shaw(which was unfortunately closing) and wandered down past the river for our first(but nt last of the trip) sighting of rats and back to Carmacs around 12.30am for a solid 5 hours sleep till our next flight. Sigts of note we passed, Dublin Castle and church where St Valentine is buried(how romantic).

Barcelona

The Dali Museum

A ceiling in the Dali Museum
The famous Mae West room in the Dali museum

Steph and Deb on the roof of La Pedrera(the other weird looking things are chimneys)

view of Sagrada Familia from Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia

Parc Guell
Parc Guell


After about 3 hours sleep and a near death early morning cab ride we caught a plane to barcelona.
After checking in and wandering down La Rambla and having lunch we headed out to the first of our Antoni Gaudi based expeditions which took up most of our time in Barcelona. Gaudi is a famous architect who died around 1920 and his most famous work The Sagrada Familia church is still undr construction and is still only about 50% finished.
We headed up to Guell Parc (Park Guell) and got there late afternoon (Barcelona continued our hot summer, around 36 degrees). we spent a good couple hours wandering around the famous gardens, sculptures, and Gaudi house. It was here that we were disturbed of the trend we first encountered in Prague we had noticed of people(females) doing absurd model type posing for there simple holiday photos and obviously taking themselves a little too seriously, it was in the park that we noticed this disturbing trend had seeped down to girls just over the age of ten, so what to do but start doing silly model poses ourselves. We then headed back into La Rambla and sat for a meal for an hour or 2 and then watched a couple of the many buskers. Barcelona interestingly gets busier as the day goes on, and around 10pm is busier than during the day.
The next day we headed straight for the sagrada Familia and spent a couple hours there, I continued my trend of going up high towers and spending then next half hour freaking out till we got back to ground level. very impressive structure. Then off to La Pedrera & Casa Battlo and for more Gaudi architecture. We then jumped on a 2 hour bus tour of the city (where we tried to stay awake) then to Hard rock cafe for an average meal and a wander around the shops, then off down our street(where we of course got offered drugs) back to the hotel.
our 3rd day in Barcelona started with more Gaudi at Palau Guell and off to Cathedral Musique de Catalonya to caheck out the impressive glass domed ceiling. We had impulsively decided to head out to Figures(we had joked about the idea but not too seriously till now) on a 2 hour train ride to Salvador Dalis home town to see the Musee Dali he had set up about 20 years before he died(impressive ego, set up your own museum while you're still alive) We were catching a late night flight so by the time we got there and back we had nearly 2 hours there in the nice little town and it was definitely worth the visit. By the time we flew and metroed and taxid back to Stephs house in Putney it was 2am for a solid 4 hours sleep for our flight to dublin the next morning.

Back To London

daoR yebbA

(non)Wooly Mammoth (thats probably about 2.5 meters long!)



After paris We did a long drive back to Calais and across the Ferry to the white cliffs of Dover and on to London. We got in around 5.30pm Saturday and caught a minicab to stephs house out in Putney. We then headed back in to some Irish pub (O'reillys I think) just of Picadilly Circus for some drinks with Scott, Justin, j Baz, Ange & Deano for my birthday which was on the sunday. we were pretty knackered and Steph bought me the most salted tequila ever digested and we headed home about 12.30.
We slept in the next day till about 1 (we had had limited sleep for the last 3 or 4 weeks and it was nice to get at least one good sleep, little did we know it would be the only one in the entire 6 weeks) and headed into town where we went to the natural history museum and checked out all the gigantic full Dinosaur skeleton (and a woolly mammoth skull, which made up for Prague, and one moa) displays which were rather impressive.
we then headed to Harrods upon debs demand and walked into the ground floor full of stockings handbags, shoes etc and my heart sank when I realised I was in for the most boring hour or 2 of my life. I took some money and wanered with an air of carelessness for money since it was my birthday and proceeded to wander aimlessly through more handbags, cufflinks, sports coats, polo shirts, jackets worth about $1500NZ, and after a couple floors realised that was that, untill I noticed a sign with music on it, my heart a flutter I quickened my pace and came across guitars and grand pianos (one worth 80,000pounds and probably more) and after spending about 15 minutes there walked through the next door into the cd/dvd sections where I spent the next hour and a good ammount of money (ironically Deb and Steph only bought one pair of stockings and didn't think much of it.
Off to Abbey Road, why not, we were in London after all. After picking one of the 2 Abbey Roads on the map Steph thought it was the right one, and after a long metro/walk we finally came across the famous crossing and studio. Since Steph had been there before and claimed that they had checked on a postcard and everything as to the accuracy of how to take the photo we went along (though I did announce my doubts) as it turned out we did cross the wrong way as we passed a fridge magnet about 5 minutes later, doesn't matter, I find it pretty amusing really.

Paris

The Arc de triumphe
The Champs Elysee

the Catacombs

the double stare of death

La Rotonde cafe was a popular hangout for the likes of Miller and Dali

I was looking forward to Paris, and it was the last stop on the Contiki before we headed back to London for a week of more of our own stuff.

The first night was a nightmare. we headed into town to see Montparnasse, the adopted home of Henry Miller, the home of the only skyscraper in Paris(because once they built it they thought it was so ugly for the landscape they passed a law to not build anymore apart fro in the financial district of course, says it all). The bus driver was awesome, the attendant at the subway was appaling, and with a couple of shady characters floating around us we wondered why we'd stuck ourselves in the paris metro without being able to speak french an not really knowing how to get where we were going. We quickly got ourselves sorted and headed into town. The next change over seemed sweet and we were doing nicely untill they booted everyone off because the next 3 stops were under maintenance. we then spent the next 50 minutes going in a loop round the metro stations to get to the next stop which should have taken minutes(here is where I point out we are not morons, but also not the most metro savvy, considering we don't even use the busses in Wellington). Anyway, we finally made it to Tour Montparnasse to go up for a view over Paris at night after our nightmare metro escapade, which took nearly 2 hours from the campsite(probably about a 45minute trip) and walked in to get tickets to be told it had closed 5 minutes ago, I pointed out my brochure which said 11.30pm and was told tickets close half an hour before that. Awesome. So we walked out to Rue de la Montparnasse and strolled down past the cafes which were once haunts of Henry Miller and Dali and Picasso. We then proceeded to have another nightmare trip home, which ended with us leaving a suburbian metro station, asking for directions to the taxis(the buses had closed for the night) and the guy only spoke french and walking aimlessly down a god knows where suburb at 1.30 in the morning wondering how long it would take to get robbed. Luckily we found a stray taxi after a few blocks and got home.

the next morning we headed into town with the group and had an awesome day to make up for last night. We got off the bus and strolled down the Champs Elysees to the Arc De triumphe from where we caught a metro to the Eiffel Tower, and another to Montparnasse and went into the Catacombs, which you end up above ground 4 blocks away from where you went in after walking past the remains of 600,000 people! We then had to skip the panthenon (or does paris have the Pantheon? i'm pretty sure it's not the Parthenon, it's all too confusing, we had seen one of the 3 in Rome anyway) and headed to Notre Dame, and amazingly detailed gothic church which didn't have any hunchbacks.From there we headed down for a quick visit to The Louvre(not the best kind of visit for such a huge museum) and popped into say hi to the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. Then we headed up to Montmatre and saw the Sacre Coure(spelling?) and went to a nice french restaurant for dinner before heading to La Nouvelle Eve for a cabaret show(not far from Moulin Rouge) involving dancing, breasts, acrobatics,comedy, and more, i was sceptical but it was amazing and we had a ball, I'm off to the next Cirque de Soleil or any similar show that comes to town next time.