London, couple of days in London

Ok, after the shock, of almost not making it here... it was time to do some touristy stuff

Sylvia, my friend that stayed with me in NZ, looked after me for a couple of days,
showing me around, feeding me way too much thanks again

The union jack, you would be amazed at how long it took to take this photo! just didn't want to show it's colours

Beefeater

One of the Ravens at tower bridge

Couple of guards

Henry the 8ths Armour, notice the protection around the family jewels!

First BEER in the UK

Tower Bridge

tower bridge... yep thats me

OMG, they are stalking me still damn

Changing of the guards

Me at the bridge, yeah it is alot cooler here

Me at the queens place, was going to ask for a cupper

They are everywhere, always watching... 

Me walking to big ben, no not the pies! the clock

Hello, Hello!, can anyone hear me?

Me & Sylvia... I really need a shave

Me a raven, and a guard

First dinner, note, they are vegie

froked if I know where this is...

O2

Me in chains

HMS Belfast, an insane amount of guns on this, think it was built in 1936 or something

Belfast

Scary things in london

Pretty cool in the sand

FAKE Palms, not only in Warsaw! they are in London too! hell these are inside!

London's Calling, Rubber Glove or No Glove

Ok, I booked my ticket to London from Nantes, I checked some connecting flights to Budapest, and they are like 50 euro! Sweet!, Everyone in england should speak english, it should be soo easy... and not a problem...

WRONG...

Entered customs border security, filled out the form, where are you staying in london, I put "unknown", I was going to get a UK sim and txt my friend when I got to victoria station... I couldn't see what the big deal was, I could book into a hotel...

3 hours they kept me, they wanted to see my money, I was lucky I took out 1500euro the day before, (learning my leason from Poland/Czech).... damn travelex card charges 14% for the money coming out of a non Euro cash machine....

Thinking this should be enough for 5-7 days in london, and a few weeks in Eastern Europe....

I was not phased by this, I was like give me the bloody internet, and I will book the next flight out of here.. fork the UK... bunch of prix.. I think they were scared I wanted to work in the UK, was like WTF would I want to live here for?, I'm from NZ, why would I want to live anywhere else?

Anyway I made it, my friend Syliva was was waiting for me at the end of some bus stop!!

It was soo good to see a friendly face, I honestly was over the UK after customs, may have been a little cranky... but still. we went off to a Hindu temple complex, not to far from where she lives.... it is the largest outside of india (I think) it's carved from italian marble, that was shipped to india, carved there, then shipped to the UK, and put together... it was funded totally from donations from the local community. (No photos were allowed inside.) it was simply breath taking...

Temple

outside

another outside

My Friend Syliva & me yes its COLD here!! can't wait to get back to Europe!!

Anyway thats it for the moment, gotta explore london a bit more, and catch up with some other friends here!!

Atleast I didn't get the RUBBER glove

What happens at 3am in the morning, in france?

After a hard nights drinking at Fredo's place, 3am in the morning, Roasted Potatoes, and left over bbq are unaware of what fate awaits them

The Horror!! The Horror!

Sucks that I am still Vegie... Thanks again, was an amazing weekend

OMG it's HUGE!

Yes, there be a mexican!!!, ok I've taken probably 800 photos, so there must be some good ones in there.... 30 full HD video clips (which I found had no sound! duh!) changed a setting on my camera, it is now doing it to mpeg encoding with sound yippee, 

There Be a Giant Mexican!! this is the giant, it takes like 2 guys to jump off with the ropes just to lift his leg, he is huge, takes ALOT of work for them to animate him, I believe this is the 1st or 2nd generation puppet, developed by Royal De Luxe

Giant walking around town, crowd was huge, few hundred thousand atleast, the poor public transport system got hammered, the trams were crammed so tight, that you couldn't validate your ticket.. duh!

Giant, checking on the good lords work...

Think he's getting ready for a sleep

Crowds of people

I see giants walking

Getting ready to fly

Me & a cute giant girl in the background ;-) isn't see sweet!

Epic photo

Giant getting ready for a drink, well, one of the poor guys up top was about to get WET

Damn who gave those Mexicans such a big GUN!

Thats it for the moment, flying off to London tomorrow, this was an amazing weekend, Thanks again Fredo! for putting up with me!, at for feeding me way too many beers ;-)

omg the puppy has been defrosted... and a Giant has appeared

the next day, I set off to see what was going on, Fredo, was working the morning, but was also excited to see the giant once more

The Puppy Lives!

There she is the little giant, she is amazing, looks soo life like

The puppy again..

Another of the Puppy

Happy Puppy

Puppy having a sleep, it actually makes a sound while sleeping

Another of the little giant in a new dress

Picture of me, totally pissed, at a bar, with Fredo, amazed I didn't have a hangover the next day! ;-)

Back to Nantes (France), Defrosting the puppy...

You maybe thinking, WTF, hasen't he already been there?

the answer is YES, I am returning for the Royal De Luxe, or for the little Giant!, this cost Nantes 800,000 Euro to put on, so around 1.6m NZD for 3 days

I arrived on the 26th, sent a txt to my friend, he said to check out 2 spots in Nantes, first there was the Wall (below), was easy to spot, crowds of people around, this shows the history of nantes?

It is pretty impressive, this just "appeared" as it fell out of the sky, bit like the orignal, where a spaceship crashed on the road.... no one knew what was going on, this was pretty cool.

Next spot was outside the main church, encased in block of ice, the puppy was defrosting

me & the defrosting puppy in the background....

Another shot of the puppy in the block of ice...

Must be cold in there!!

Anyway... this is the beginning, of what was about to be on of the best days of my life....

Czech Republic, the horror, of what I though was the end of my trip

Catching the train from Krakow to Prague, this was a night train, 9 hours, was direct, so no changing of trains etc, my hosts said I should catch a train to the border, and walk across, "Cheaper" and you only need to walk 200 metres across a bridge to Czech.

Ok, that maybe simple to someone that has some idea of how to speak the language, but I had a hard enough time just buying my tickets!! took, 4 attempts to find the correct ticket place, (needed to be an international ticket) great huh!... and it was expensive, well I thought it was 150nzd for a second class sleeper train..

Anyway, 10:00pm leaving Krakow -> 7:30am Arrive in Prague Czech, I said goodbye to my amazing hosts, (she even made me sandwich's to take with me) polish people are amazing, thankyou again so much.

Working out what train I had to be on.... I asked a guy what carriage, he pointed, seemed simple enough, and it was.... I was fully loaded up backpack+belly pack (containing my laptop/camera)... walking towards the carriage, then... I hit a loose paver, & tripped up, I went down HARD...I though this is it, my leg is broken maybe my arm.... let alone how my laptop/camera were.... 3 people came rushing over to help "all speacking english ROFL "are you alright", I unclipping the pack, and they helped me back up. 

OMG my leg was so sore, I seriously though my kneecap was smashed I wobbled around, sat down, in a dazed confused state, thinking what do I do next?. I had to get on that train...

I hobbled onto the train, with my backpack, patched myself up (few cuts) & feel asleep, knee was just bruised, even now 5-6 days later I can still feel it.

In Czech, Prague, you may think I would go to visit this amazing city... but no... I went to annoy one of my friends in Litomerice, Czech Republic, a small town 60km north, Petr, had only just got back to  Czech a week before hand...

first look at Litomerice, town square, yes czech is different again to other towns/citys in Europe.

Big brother is watching you, cameras are everywhere here, even tho it is a little town, (there are access to cameras from the internet) showing  footage for the last 4 years! 

another view, Petr took me for a walk around..

Fields of RAPE, rape seed that is, it is everywhere in poland/czech, used in canola oil production

Germans were at it again, this was an old medievil fort, that got converted into a "Work camp in WW2"

View from a hill

Walked around, and a lovely lady,asked us in, offered a beer & some traditional Czech cakes, I was like what is your angle! what are you trying to sell me, shop was selling traditional dress's/clothes for the areas around Czech, sounds like in the past they had huge farms...

Her Daughter! soo Cute!

Yet another town, Czech is so nice, it was a pleasure to get into the green again

more houses again

and again :)

Fort in the middle of a forest we walked to, around 3-4km walk I guess

short cut into the fort! yep I could just squeeze in

another amazing palace

View from the top of a hill (again)

Petrs Familly,  we went to there house to have dinner twice!, Petr's dad was a legend, kept filling me with beer and food, thank you again so much for your hospitality