Bodhi Bum

So another bank holiday weekend just passed here in the UK last weekend, and we decided to do the usual long weekend activity in Europe and do a "short city-break" as they call them here. Whereas if you were in Canada you might take the May 2 4, grab a 2 4 of beer, a tent and head out for a little camping and fishing. That's not really an option in the UK where they caught their last wild trout in 1685 or something. Not to mention that the island is completely devoid of any serious large animals. You got a lot of bunnies, but not much else.

Anyways, I digress. So last weekend we hopped the plane after work on Friday and headed for Barcelona. 'Barna' as the locals call it, is only about an hour forty minute flight from London (and close to the same from Liverpool where Mikey flew out of). We both landed pretty much the same time at around 10:30pm, and had to catch the bus from Girona airport into the Barcelona. Ryanair only flies into Girona, which is an hour twenty from the city, but any other option to fly directly to Barcelona is like three times the price. I found two tickets for 144 quid each, which started the weekend off fairly cheap.

So by the time we got to Barcelona it was already midnight. We caught a cab to Las Ramblas from the bus station, and got dropped off at Placa Real where the hotel was. Now I booked this hotel site unseen off a hostel site on the internet, and although the reviews said it was a little dodgy the location couldn't be beat. And were they right. Our room was pretty standard, but open the balcony doors and you walk out on our very own balcony overlooking the square. Placa Real square is pretty much the heart of the city. Las Ramblas is the main street, and Placa Real is the centre of the action. It was activity 24/7 with people eating out in the restaurants in the square by day, and thousands of drunk tourists drinking 1 Euro spanish beers and partying in the street. It was a pretty crazy place to stay, and although a little on the loud side trying to sleep, it was the ideal place to be based for a few days.

The first night we didn't get settled and out onto the streets until almost 1am, so we pretty much just to stick close to home and wander the streets. The armies of little men selling 1 Euro beers in the streets kept us well stocked for our travels. Now Barcelona I was told doesn't get going until well after midnight. Now that's hard to beleive, even London is rocking before 11pm on the weekends. But the Spanish don't seem to come out until the rest of the world is already in bed. Even on Sunday night we thought about going out early as it was Sunday and people had work the next day, but we were told not to even think about having dinner until 10pm cause then things would be picking up once dinner was done. So a lot of beers and a cool clubs, and the sun was up so we dragged our drunk selves to bed for some early morning sleep.

Second day it was beautiful sunny blue skies and 32 degrees. Nice change from cloudy old England. So we decided to cure the hangover immediatley with a jug of Sangria and a selection of seafood Tapas right on the strip, Las Ramblas. Proceeded by a wander down to the ocean, and along the pier to check out the beaches. We made it to the first one, and the bro went for his very first swim in the ocean. I forgot my shorts so had to pick up a pair at the beach, for approximately the price of a small car. Highway ransom at 74 Euros, but jeans weren't gonna cut it in 32 degree weather.

That night we got going late as directed, and went to check out a few clubs. First was closed, but the second turned out to be in a castle thingie up on top of a mountain, called Le Terraca. It was an open air club, with palm trees actually growing out of the dance floor. Pretty amazing club, and we even got to watch the sunrise from the balcony.

Sunday we did another wander down the beach, and found that there were actually a number of beaches. At about beach number three, we stopped for lunch at a beach side restaurant and polished off a pan of piella (Spanish national dish, which is like baked seafood rice concoction, and really, really good). Two jugs of Sangria went down as well while Mikey tried his best to burn himself, and I tried my best not to (but still did). After that the bro ended up with one big red burn on his knee, which doesn't make much sense, and I ended up with a bad farmers tan. After lunch we kept walking and we made it to beach number five I think, after having passed the touristy beach, then the mixed beach, then the kiddie beach, etc, until we found the cool, young beach. We had the brilliant idea to stop and buy a six pack and a bag of ice, and had a little afternoon party/siesta on the beach. Of course by this point the sight of endless varities of breasts had become commonplace, but I still had to get a pic of one to prove to everyone back home that the girls actually do let it all hang out in Europe. Although I'd say it's probably more common in Australia. At least 50 percent of the girls on Sydney beach are topless, while in Barna I'd say it's more like 20% at most.

Switched hotels Sunday night to a backpacker hostel in Placa Real and hung out with a couple Canadian guys on a post-uni trip through Europe. Sunday we did the touristy thing and caught the sight-seeing bus around Barcelona. The cathedral was absolutely amazing. It's the only cathedral in the world that is actually still under construction. It was started about 120 years ago, and is still going strong. I don't know if the Spanish are just really slow builders, if they take way too many siestas, or what, but the detail they put into this thing is crazy. It was designed by Gaudi, this famous Spanish architect you designed half the city.

Sunday night we had dinner, grabbed our bags from the hostel and headed to the bus station. Of course we left with plenty of time before our flights left, but on the way there I checked the schedule and saw that the last bus for Girona airport was already gone. So after 115 euro taxi ride we made it there with plenty of time to spare. Flights were pretty uneventful, except that it was after the long weekend and the Customs line at Stansted airport in London was about an hour long. Tired and burnt out at 12:30pm, standing in a line for an hour is not fun. But made it back safe and sound and already have another week of work done. Chill out weekend this weekend, to save the energy and money.

Bodhi

It was another bank holiday weekend last weekend here in the UK (why are all the UK bank holidays in the spring, and then you don't have any days off the rest of the year hardly?). So what to do? How about a trip to Prague.

I've been wanting to check out Bohemia for a long time, and after a quick check of where we wanted to go, Prague seemed the obvious choice. Plus with all the budget airlines now, it costs next to nothing to fly around Europe. That is of course if you buy at least a month in advance. Which of course I didn't do and had to pay about 260 quid for my flight on EasyJet.

You'd think they'd be sick of drunk Brits making fools of themselves on stag parties, but it was a chilled out place. I did fly over on the plane with two stag groups, both of them all dressed out in stupid costumes and drunkenly singing their football chants. But thankfully we didn't run into any in the city.

Prague is an incredible city and it didn't dissapoint. Besides having the reputation of being the British stag capital of Europe, it has some really good nightlife. But as a city itself I really came away liking the place. It has incredible architecture like I've never seen before, an amazing amount of history, and being Bohemia it has a really cool laid back vibe to it. Plus it's easy to get around, not too big, and very friendly people.

The food is a strange one, since there seems to be more Italian pizzerias in the city than anything else. But we did try dinner one night at an authentic Czech restaurant with the great name of Jazz and Beer. The meal of Goulash and dumplings was amazing, and the jazz was pretty good to.

I think it would be an amazing city in the summertime, and I'll probably have to check it out again when it's hot. But overall I was definitely impressed by the place and rank it up there with a lot of the better cities I've been to.

Bodhi

Now what is better than celebrating St Paddy's Day and getting pissed on green beer? Actually celebrating it in Dublin with real Guiness and Harp beer, and none of the green crap that turns your toilet bowl green at the end of the night.

It was a great weekend trip and an easy jaunt since we were both working right close to Manchester airport in Knutsford, and was only a short half hour hop over to Dublin. It turned out to be a pretty crazy party, although I'd have to say that New York probably has a bigger party. Although no where near as authentic and cool.

Now I've been a lot of cities, and my impression of Dublin was moderate. It's a nice, small city with some great people. But brutally expensive and frankly not all that exciting. Of course St Paddy's day had people from all over the world coming for that one party. But I get the impression that on a normal weekend it would be kinda quiet.

But like everyone says. If you want to experience the true Ireland, get out of Dublin and see the countryside and the small towns. That will have to be another trip.

This Saturday found us waking up semi-early (before noon) and heading out on the road with our new found Texan friend, Adonis, to explore the Peaks District of Northern England.

Adonis had his company car decked out with a GPS, so we just plugged in the city of Sheffield, which is just across the Peaks National Park, and set off.

A chilly looking shot from our hotel window last week in the morning before heading off to work. I thought this was a pretty traditional looking English shot.



So it was a quick drive out of Knutsford north through Stockport and on into the increasingly hilly country as you head East into the centre.


It's an amazing change as you head out of Cheshire which is all flat countryside and heavily developed, and you get into the Peaks area with the hills rising up around all the towns.

Then the towns end and you drive up into the clouds. Literally in this case as it was a foggy day and the hills were spectacular.



It's incredible how a half hour drive takes you out of what is typical English countryside into something which more resembles Greenland or Alaska with barren tundra landscapes and mountain ranges in the background.



Pretty beautiful landscapes, with a lot of hikers from the surrounding area out for days roaming the hills.

We took various photo opportunity stops along the way. Even though we actually live and work here, we still played the tourists for weekend.



The roads were tiny and windy, and hazardous. This one was called the Snake in the grass, or something like that.


Our last stop was in a fair sized town called Buxton, which I had never heard of but turned out to be a beautiful city with a ton of amazing buildings. It was getting dark by that time, so after checking out the local beer at the last pub we were off and back home to Knutsford.


So all in all a great day out crusing some new parts of the English countryside.

Bodhi

So the week is over and another weekend has come around. Busy week at work, but the weekly report back to the client went well. My little progress spreadsheet had a lot more green lines on it than red, which basically means that I struck off a whole lot of controls this week, much more than the client was expecting. So I make the boss look good since he can do his weekly status report to his boss and show some stats that make him look like a great manager. So with the week done and the weekend here, I got up early Saturday morning and caught the early train to Chester. Chester is the capital of Cheshire, and a really old city with a lot of history. I passed through a few weeks back but didn't have batteries in my camera and didn't stop for long. This time I charged me camera and left the whole day open. The ride down was interesting, mostly since it turns out that there was a Chester V Stockton football match going on that day and the train was pretty much full of 16 year old football Hooligans. They were drinking the whole way and since there was only a few seats on the train I ended up having to sit right in the middle of them. As soon as they heard my accent I ended the focus of a little unwanted attention. I had to play the Canadian card, then next thing I know I'm doing football chants. I learned one new one that they plan on doing at the next World Cup in Germany. "Two World Wars and One World Cup, Doo Dah, Doo Dah". Not sure how that will go down with the Germans, but guess we'll see.
So the City of Chester is one of the little English cities which has a whole ton of history and a whole lot of blood in it's past. Chester is called the Gateway to Wales, since it's right on the Welsh border, and is the city where way back in the 16th century the English launched the all out assault on Wales to bring it into the big British empire. The city is originally an old Roman city, and the Romans built a big wall around it to protect it from the barbarian Welsh across the River Dee. It was an outpost back then, and it stayed that way far a long time for about 1600 years. And then the English had the bright idea that they wanted Wales too. So they used Chester to launch an assault into Welsh territory.
There's a whole lot history around Wales, and it's the only city in the UK that has a complete Roman Wall around it which still stands. Actually, the original Roman Wall was a lot smaller, but the Saxons in Medieval times extended it to wrap around the city right down to the River Dee.
The city itself was rebuilt up in Victorian times in the style of the Medieval architecture, with the white and black timber buildings. It's pretty noticeable around the town as it looks like an old Medieval city. But it ain't Medieval no more, since it's now a big old tourist city. This town where once the war against the Monarchy had the city bombarded with cannonballs, and thousands of people died. Now it's a big old tourist city with packs of Chinese tourists wander around snapping pictures.
So the big thing to do in Chester is to check out the Roman/Medieval Wall and take a walk around it. Which means walking around the entire city. So I figured that since I there, I may as well get a little exercise and walk the wall. turns out I wasn't alone. Seems to be a big weekend thing with the tourists and the locals.
It was a great day out and a whole lot of walking, but I got to see the city and get a bit of history in. Plus there's nothing better than finishing a good afternoon walk off with catching the England V Italy match. I only got the first half, then just made the end of the game back in Knutsford just off the train.
So it was a good Saturday afternoon. And now it's Sunday evening and the weekends pretty much over. Back to work again tomorrow, but ain't that just the way. The weekend comes, and next thing you know it's time to go back to work again. Oh well. That's life."

So it's the weekend and Saturday and a beautiful, grey, cloudy day. But what's new in the great British winter. Work is done and the weekend is here.
Woke up early this morning with the plan to hop the train from little Knutsford and go out exploring the great wider area of semi-Northern England. Haven't done much exploring cause I've been too busy at work. So I planned today to play a Scouser and explore the local Manchester culture, but found out pretty quick that Scouser is a less than polite term for Liverpudians (aka from Liverpool). I guess that would make me a Mancurian (not to be mistaken with Manchurians, aka Japanese China circa 1941).
The local UK slang is tough to grasp, but from what I can see most Brits don't get half of it themselves either.

Good day out today and had a good tour of Manchester. It was only 40 minutes from Knutsford on the train, and an easy ride. I got off the train at Piccadilly station, walked out the front door and had no idea how far anything was. It's a big city and I could have been five miles off High Street for all I knew. So I hopped on the free bus (it said Free Tourist Bus on it) and took the ride downtown. Turns out Manchester city centre is not all that big and I hopped off after three blocks. I tried to find the river which runs through the town and the so called wharf, and liternally walked right over it and kept going without hardly noticing, cause it's more like a little stream than a river.

By the river is Manchester Cathedral which like most old English Cathedrals is pretty impressive. Although, this one didn't quite measure up to Salisbury Cathedral anywhere close, at least this time I figured out how to take indoor pictures with my camera (* use the MUSEUM setting).


It's not a huge city, but the city centre is pretty much one big department store. Apart from the Medieval Manchester area which is what you usually think of with old English towns with their history. Manchester may have history, but the Mancurians seem to have decided they prefer the 21st century and skyscrapers and department stores are better. I honestly think there is more shopping in Manchester than any city I've ever been in. The Arndale shopping centre takes up about ten city blocks and is about a quarter of the whole downtown. I was talking to a local and she said that after the big IRA bomb in 96 they pretty much started over downtown and rebuilt it all brand new.

The one thing that stuck out was the styles there. Seems half of the kids were total goth or punks. And the girls were mini skirted tarts, or Slappers as they like to call them here. I've never seen so many girls in 2 degree weather wearing a micro mini skirt, belly shirts and a half pound of makeup. The girls were out on a Saturday afternoon looking like they were done up for a nightclub. I saw a lot of that up north in Newcastle, and was warned about the Geordie girls, but it's worse here.

In all, it's just another city, albeit an easy one to walk around with a fair bit of history and a whole lot of shopping. Had a good day and caught the Rugby Six Nations, England V Wales back in Knutsford. England won.

Not much else to report.

Ok, it's Wednesday. Hump day. Middle of the week. Only two more days to go till the weekend.

Pretty standard week this week. The new job has turned into a pretty decent little contract. This is the first time that I've actually worked as part of a large corporate Internal Audit team and it's amazing to see how it works. Audit by trade involves a ton of travel, and the consulting side of it is pretty much all travel. But I never really thought that the permanent staff doing this would be the same.

The internal audit department is essentially a row of desks with monitors and laptop cradles. So no one owns a desk. You just sit down wherever there is an empty desk and plug your laptop in. Everyone splits their time between three or four offices, from the south coast to London to the midlands to the north. Kinda cool because it's easy to do in the UK, since the country is so small that you can move around and still not be more than a few hours from home. So every day I go into work I don't know half the people there, and once I get to know someone, they're more than likely gone the next day. So today I go in and out of the usual 20 people, there's 3. I thought for a second I screwed up and came in an hour early. But nope, just the crazy life of an auditor. Auditors are crazy. Really.

I was out last Sunday morning and pretty much took only one pic of these Canada geese that seemed to be kicking themselves that they flew all the way from Canada only to find out that the water is frozen here in the UK the same. Although this was the first pond freeze of the year that I've seen here. But it's bloody cold now and today it dropped below zero for the first time during the daytime. Too cold for me.

Anyways, life is good and nothing much new to report. Just working hard, making money and working on the well rounded physique.