paraphernalia

After waking up slightly late, I took a taxi to Glasgow Central station and boarded my early morning train to Warrington to revisit my Mum's relatives and see a Liverpool FC match.

During the ride to the station, the taxi driver and I discussed the unique position of Renfrew as a small town that just happens to be near a large one (Glasgow). Considering if Renfrew was in Australia, it would just be another suburb of Sydney, it is odd to feel that it has such an independent identity. But it does, and I love it for it.

The train journey was fairly uneventful, and gave me a fantastic opportunity to sort through my photos (which had amassed to an impressive 4gb over the 2 months!).

On arrival at Warrington station, Andrea drove us straight to the football match. I can't believe we were lucky enough to get tickets - Liverpool FC tickets are as rare as hen's teeth and relatively expensive too! For a season ticket you're looking at hundreds and hundreds of pounds! Ouch!. It was a great game, although for me the most important aspect was the atmosphere and all the singing and verbal jousting between the two sides. Obviously it helped that Liverpool won 2-1. To top it off it was the 100th anniversary of the Kop Stand, which made for some amazing banners and the like at the start of the game.

After the game, we all went back to Helen's house and I got a chance to see the kids (Hannah, Jamie and Lauren) as well as Mark and Karen (and obviously Helen!). It was great to catch up and share stories of all our travels around Europe. In the time that I'd been away Mark and family had been to Cyprus and got to drive through where Mum grew up in the RAF base, but unforunately they couldn't take any photos as it's still a restricted zone.

Our evening was spent in one of their local pubs laughing at the absurdity of the gypsy wedding taking place nearby and the clearly-on-drugs karaoke singer who spent half the night rollerblading through the pub!

Ah England!

Given that I didn't get to bed till 3am this morning, I managed quite well to wake at 8am. I even managed to fit in a quick phone call to Mum, Dad & Flis which was fantastic.

Once I'd checked out etc. I headed straight for Windsor Castle - the last thing on my 'to-do' list. It was a beautiful day, and even though it was a Saturday and Windsor was busy, it was great. There's so much at the castle itself - including Queen Mary's Dolls House (a miniature of everything in the State Apartments), the State Apartments themselves, and the Castle. Definitely worth a visit.

My final stop was to say bye to Simon & Bronwyn at their place near Heathrow. We stopped for a beer, and it was a great way to end my week in London. Before I knew it, I was on the plane to Amsterdam talking to Jake, a guy from Melbourne (!) who works in the film industry. Really interesting guy, although I don't think I could ever travel like he does - he aims to hit 10 cities in 15 days! Talk about maximising your Eurail pass!!

Nathalie & Soren (friends from NUS again) picked me up from Amsterdam Schipol Airport - which was totally unexpected - and we went bar-hopping and caught up on everything that's happened to both of us since May 2005.

Already Amsterdam is looking fantastic - so very different to the UK. It's relaxed, groovy, and organised, albeit in a chaotic manner!

Tot ziens!

PS: For photos of Windsor, click here
PPS: For photos of London, click here

Today I got to speak to Ange again - yay!! It's really nice to talk to everyone back home - rather than just send emails and SMS'. But I don't think it's going to be able to continue for the next week or so, because I'm moving around so much

Today's plan was pretty much to do everything that I hadn't done so far - namely the Tate Modern and Covent Garden. So that's where I started, buying some tacky souvenirs in the process. To be honest, Covent Garden doesn't do a lot for me during the day, but I'm sure at night it's awesome, because there are SO many cafes and bars.

As with every day this week I've had lunch outside, and once again it was along the Thames. This time in front of the rebuilt Globe Theatre, as I was seeing a matinee performace of 'The Comedy of Errors' there. The performance itself was fantastic - all the actors were suberb. The only downside was there was little interaction with the 'groundlings' - those of us who stood directly in front of the stage. For such a farcical play as CoE, it made sense to involve at least part of the audience (the play is perfect for those 'ooohs' and 'he's behind you' moments). Alas, they did not, but it was still amazing to be there. Another one of those 'I can't believe I'm actually doing this' moments. I can now definitely recommend the standing tickets (especially for 5 pounds) but only for the shorter plays - I wouldn't want to be standing for 3hrs+.

From the Globe, I walked down to the Tate Modern art gallery and had a look to see what all the fuss is about. It's an impressive building (an ex-power station) and contains some equally impressive 'art'. The only downside is every piece seems to be designed purely to question 'what is art', which gets a bit tedious. There are plenty of blank canvases (what is left out is important), slashed canvases (the black hole within as a reflection of empty modern lives) and toilet bowls (shit). Overall, though, I'd definitely recommend it and I really enjoyed spending the afternoon there - particularly as it had air-con!!

To cap an excellent day off I went with Camilla; her cousin and her friends; Jasmine (from Koln & NUS the semester before me); and Liz (a friend of Camilla's who is planning on going on exchange next semester) to dinner and clubbing. After much umming-and-aahing we ended up having Italian for dinner (really nice) and going to an underground hip-hop club near Piccadilly. Considering that was pretty much the first time I'd been clubbing since Singapore last year I had so much fun.

Tomorrow's my last day in London so I'm off to bed!

After a hectic Day 3 that culminated in one of the best nights of my life - seeing Les Miserables on the West End (!!!), I decided to have a bit of a relaxing 4th day in London, visiting a friend in Cambridge and going to the Museum of Brands & Advertising.

But first a few words must be said about Les Mis. Wow! OMG! Fantastic!

It was just like an opening-night performance, even though it's been running for 21 years. There was even a standing ovation and full theatre on a Wednesday night! The performances were outstanding, and it was just brilliant!

SO yes, the Museum of Brands and Advertising. It's tucked away near Notting Hill Gate tube in the leafy suburbs, but it's well worth a visit. It's really interesting (and yes, I'm a marketing student so I'm biased) to see the history of the last few centuries told through what we've bought and seen over that time - fascinating stuff!

Cambridge
After a train ticket fiasco on the way up, I was not in a good mood arriving into Cambridge station. However, almost all of that bad blood was dispelled once I'd walked around a bit. Cambridge is like a York without so many tourists, or how I imagine London was 200-years ago. Everything is unbelievably old and in surprisingly good condition. There are loads of tourists, but they don't really cramp the cities' style at all. There are merely there, soaking it all in.

I visited all the main colleges - Kings, St Johns, Trinity, St Catherines (where a friend from Syd was staying) - as well as the Round Church - one of the oldest remaining 'round' churches in the UK.

I didn't get a chance to go punting (being propelled along the river by pushing on the banks and riverbed) as it poured down with rain, but I did get to have a great catch-up with Claudia, my boss from Sydney. We had an excellent evening and I got to meet her friends - so if they're reading this, hi Ed, Jen, Bec & of course Clauds. We had fun being awfully un-PC and discussing the many merits and faults of Americans, Australians and Poms. I don't think anyone did well from that conversation. At least the weather was a bit cooler although Cambridge still suffers from the same air-con drought as the rest of the UK. Claudia has worked out why, even if somewhere has air-con, it's still shite - no one is used to having it, so they turn it on and open all the windows to 'let the breeze in'. Argh!!! Talk about cooling the world!

(Matt et al at USU: you have to ask Claudia to tell you about the 'hair' story' when she gets back. Then sit back and enjoy

But all too soon it was 10pm and time for me to leave quaint, cosy, walkable Cambridge. I loved it there, and if I get the chance, I'll definitely go back.

I may not get the chance to blog for a while, as I'm kinda rushing between cities and countries for the next week, but I'll do some mega-blog when I re-establish a routine somewhere.

PS: For photos of Cambridge, click here