...and they even speak English!!

So, here I am in London safe and sound. It is wonderful. I can understand nearly everything people say to me.

The last week or so was great. I was staying with a family friend Marco in Weimar near the middle of Germany. Lots of wondering around the countryside, checking out the local Bauhaus museum (Bauhaus started in Weimar) , cooking, sleeping and generally revelling in being in a cozy house in the middle of Germany in mid spring.

I am now staying with Katie (thanks chicken!!) and gearing up for my assult on London town. I haven't actually left the house yet (english speaking television ... ohhhhhhh), but they do not know what is about to hit them (and even after may still be in the dark, me thinks). In general I am feeling like I did when I first hit Sydney (young, stupid, excited and the sense that something large is about to happen).

Tomorrow KT and I are going to check out a temp share house that is just around the corner from KT's house which would be nice. We could have afternoon tea!

I don't have any photos of London yet, but I did take a snap when I was flying in over miles and miles of postage stamp fields of vibrant greens and yellows. Pretty and so overwhelmingly fertile. Fancy! Getting lots of rain and having soil! Who would have thought it was possible?

Hello and goodbye

Just a quicky to say that I am still alive and still know how to type. I am going to London soon. It is rather scary, but time to start having a nibble on the bullet, me thinks.

Berlin´along

Tonight is my last night in Berlin. Something is wrong with me. I am sober as a judge. I am not sure whether it is the smiling spring sun or the city bursting with business, nudity and punk rock, but I simply haven´t wanted to party at all in Berlin and keep getting up at silly early hours like 5.30am to walk around and see everything. This city really suits me. It has been bombed so many times that there are relatively few very very old things that you simply MUST see, so you can wonder around and take it all in at whatever pace you choose. Nudity is big here, and with the spring sun reaching burning temperature there is plenty of skin in the big centre park "Tiergarten". Actually, I got flashed today in Tiergarten. This is the second flashing for me in one year, but it was such a sunny little path that I didn´t even miss a beat.

In other news, I am now wearing earing that, if not dusting my shoulder, are definitely of the "dangly" variety. This is all very new and rather fun, but probably boring as buggery for the reader.

Off tomorrow for Weimar to stay with a family friend for a little while. I am starting to think more seriously about my next move e.g. London. Thoughts include, "Oh man, what have I gotten myself into". Still not sure how it is all going to pan out, but if there is one thing that travelling is making rather clear, it is that things will be sweet whatever happens even if there are some peaks and troughs along the way.

Here goes..

Ok kindly patient chaps and ladies, here are some pretty, or at least colourful, photos to delight and amuse.

Pretty Honfleur in Normandy (second day sometime around 9am)

Me after a good nights sleep still in France near Bayeaux experementing with smiling for the camera. Not very successful still.

Some Chateaux or another early in the morning before all the other bastards got to it.

Beautiful Gimmel les Cascades (France)

Walking around Gimmel. It was so stunningly beatuful. It was raining for the whole walk but the moss and everything made it lovely. I kept expecting Robin Hood to leap out and do his thing.

Me after the best meal of my life in Gimmel

One early morning high in the Pyrenees near Lourdes France

I get sidetracked by my own shadow in Frejus, France...

Stupidly pretty town of the Cinque Terre in Italy...

THE BUSINESS No.1

THE BUSINESS No.2

Old dude walks home (some town in Italy)

Same town nearby Roman Amphitheatre ruins

The Cathedral we nearly saw

Just another day in Rome

Old stuff getting older in Rome...

Around Como, pretty Como...

I play Heidi Switzerland

Ooooooh... tunnels... in Mountains...

Out of Como, in Berlin

Sorry about the vagury of the last "post". Strange things happen in Como. Actually, that isn#t true. Como is a sexy little lake side town near the very top of Italy. I stayed there for a number of days and did little day trips to Switzerland, including some Heidi style mountain walking and cheese eating. Much fun. Also, driving around the Swiss alps is truly AWESOME, specially for people who like tunnels. Long tunnels. Oh yeah.

However, I got on the wrong side of the French alps on the way back to Nice (I was seduced by the offer of a very long tunnel and some spurious signage) to (a) drop car and (b) catch flight to Berlin. This meant for some white knuckle driving along a little winding kerazy road at seriously stupid speeds to make up the 400 odd kms of mountain that I had added to my route. This was actually quite fun cause I got to go the full rally car style, but I really wouldn't have wanted any passengers. Going back the way that I came simply wasn,t an option. In the end I was pretty happy because I got to see some bits of France that are actually not touristy and also quite nice.

So here I am in Berlin sans car. I was grinning my arse of when I got on that plane. 30 days of driving, a total of 8000kms under the belt and some massively awesome things seen I am ready to kick back and let other people ferry me around for a bit even if this means having to carry my gear.

Photos. Yes yes I know I know. The camera /big thanks to Choco/ is going very well and is just brimming with inane shots of old things and the odd shot of yours truly trying to a/ smile and b/ not look some god damned constipated (my usual photo expression it seems}. In some I even manage a lopsided grin!

Now Berlin seems very nice so far. Most impressed. Tomorrow I am going to hit some of the galleries and see if I can,t make up for all the ones that I missed in Paris.

Love ya,ll

in como