Zoe Zombie

To mister journal thingy – Before I go on with the latest shit from Athens, I forgot to add that a strange thing happened the morning Roger and I were to leave Wacken and it was all over. I had decided to rest in our tent before making our 4am bus. A while after Roger had come back after seeing Kreator, two very drunk German guys came up to our tent and just started talking to us. As I was lying in the tent, I didn’t pay them much attention however one of them liked Roger a lot as he asked if he could sit on his lap which Roger blatantly refused.

One of the other guys started vividly describing a dream in which he was being raped and humbed by big fluffy rabbits. I soon realised that this sounded a lot more funny in a German accent than an Aussie accent. Justt like everything else. Why is that? Not too sure!

We spent yesterday doing a tour of the city and all (most) of the ancient Athenian sites. I was so excited to just know that the places I was walking through were the same places that Pericles, Thucydides or even Socrates once walked. The tour took us to the stadium where the first modern day Olympics were held We then had a drive around the city and looked at the olympian Zeus temple.

Of course the Acropolis is where I wanted to see. It was awesome to see the places were Socrates taught Plato, where the Athenians met to discuss political matters and where they went to the mmarkets and watched comedies or tragedies.

All the way up to the Parthenon on top of the Acropolis there were stupid Paki’s selling ship from umbrella’s to frozen water. It was kind of annoying.

One of the amazing things was that there were taxis going up near the Acropolis and horse and carriage rides.

After the Acropolis we went to the museum. it was interesting but after a while you do get sick of looking at all the ornaments and vases. But the earrings and bangles were very interesting.

Although next time I would not go on this tour. It was 78 Euro for a whole 3 hours. Rip off.

After the tour we walked around the city some more and I found a metal store which we thought was a god send to top of an average kind of day. We felt at home and bought some CD’s that seemed cheap. I bought a couple of Grave CD’s after falling in love with them at Wacken.

And now it’s on to London!

SOme things i left out yesterday as I had been writing so much I wasn’t talking to Roger for the entire time. I think he felt lonely!

Wacken – lots of awesome metal market places offering alternative clothing and jewellry at very cheap prices. It was a place I could shop at forever. We continued to go back and everytime we did we found something different.

My feet we killing me all day so badly!! I had to keep sitting down.

Woops! Gotta go, be back soon…

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What a funny day in a non humourous way ?(uh-oh!). Roger and I went for a walk around the Placka. Athens is quite average for shopping! Their GUESS shop was in this building that you had to go upstairs and then ring a doorbell. I was really put off by the incident and we backed away slowly with our hands raised.

When we found an internet cafe, we could see the top of the Parthenon. I have never been so taken aback in my life.

(Random Wacken though – Grave were so fucking awesome!)

The grandess of it – it sticks out like a sore thumb. I had studied the Parthenon and I know about it but it never compares once you actually see it! Tomorrow we are going for a day tour. It should be interesting.

In the late afternoon, we went to the beach across the road from our hotel (which is a nice place by the way!). It was the first time I truly missed home. The beaches in Voula are unlike the ones at home. The “sand” is made up of crushed rock and shell which makes for uncomfortable strolls to the water! Not something you really want to dig your toes into. And once you feel as though you may have reached some sort of freedom from your shell/rock hell, you are greeted by rocks in the sea bed. I kept thinking that something was coming to eat me because I couldn’t see the sand. To be honest, I don’t think there is a living thing in that water. I thought it would be crystal blue!

If Perth has anything going for it, it is the beaches.

One thing I am enjoying is the TV. Seriously, in Hamburg it was so hard to find anything in English. Only the movie channel and CNN was English so we constantly had it on the movie channel the whole time. But here most of the programmes are in English with Greek subtitles.

I have just watched an episode of Beverly Hills 90210 (the old school eps, not the new class or whatever the fuck it’s called) for the first time since 2001.

The food here is amazing. We went to Dream Grill in Woula yesterday and the meat was beautiful. Today we went to some place in the Plaka which was really nice but then we started getting sleepy after our meal and asked for the b ull. It didn’t come until 20+ minutes later. We were both pissed off and didn’t want to leave a tip. However I still gave 3 Euro which was really low. We were also annoyed that they did not ask if we wanted more to drink or if we wanted desert. Pathetic. So the top I left was less than 10%.

I realise that perhaps it is a part of their dining culture. But ours is better

P.S I should note that our bus driver on the A2 route was smoking. ODD. Even though taxi drivers smoke as well… odd. yes.

Currently in Athens, we just got here today from HAMBURG. We have been flying everywhere and the lack of sleep comes to  mind!!!

To start at the beginning:
We were in HONG KONG – it was a long and pleasant flight but we finally arrived. I just wanted to check everything out once we got outside – the heat was so overpowering – we jumped into a taxi without a second thought.

Everyone speaks English in HK so it was no problem getting around. Although our taxi driver didn’t seem to understand what hotel we wanted to go and dropped us off a street away!

We were able to find our hotel easily enough but for me – the heat was far too much to bare. It was so humid, I was sweating profusely & felt as though I might COLLAPSE.

We finally reached out Hotel and I was pleasantly surprised. It was nicely decorated. Although, these things do come second nature to me – I’m not one of those ‘walls were disgusting peach colour – never staying here again!’ pricks you see on TRIP ADVISOR!

Everything was so cheap. At first, I recall feeling a guilt because we had gone to a 7Eleven and bought three packets of chips, chewing gum, two beers and two smirnoff reds for HK$85 which is roughly AUD$11! Taxis were incredibly cheap. To THE PEAK which was a good half an hour from our hotel was $18 roughly. In Perth it would have cost an easy $35+.

The Peak is really so beautiful. During the day, the grandness of it all really leaves you in awe. And at night, it becomes incredibly romantic as lights from the building have the power to bring the day back into HK. It’s almost like being in VEGAS but not so in your face.

Roger and I bought new phones for most probably record cheap prices. Mine was roughly $700. Still don’t know how much exactly but it was still cheap. A totally impulse buy but who cares?! I had got money back from the ATO so I wanted to spend it after I felt a weight was lifted.

The shops in HK are awesome too. Ridiculously huge but of course, nothing to be found in them!

One thing that struck me was the sheer weirdness of walking. Here’s a story – Roger and I are at a shopping centre at The Peak.  There are at least 5 escalators to go up to the top. We step on them with ease. Roughly 75% of HKer’s begin a ritual of holding on to othe rail, hovering their uneasy foot over a moving step, isolating a single targeted step and attempt to put both feet on them to continue their journey. Untl next time.

It’s not just the walking but the LACK OF SPEED. People walk as thought they have until next year to get home. It can be frustrating – but also for locals. one woman was too busy pushing her way through a slow moving crowd that she failed to see a face-height sign and SMACKED her face right into it. CLASSIC!

But oh, I am not done. Roger and I were at yet another shopping mall when we stopped in the middle – unsure of where to go. Finally we begin walking again, only to have a woman cut in front of me so close that she tripped over my walking foot! As in, the next step I was taking so that I could walk as a normal person does! I was annoyed at first but gained a sadistic satisfaction when I saw her trip and her arms flailed in the air.

THINGS TO REMEMBER IN HK.
- in summer, bring SUMMER CLOTHES! my stupidity lead me to believe I would need ‘warmer’ summer clothes.
- HK is shit for clothes shopping.
- you can street drink (+++)
- HK is good for electronics
- never go to any mall that has no one inside. Chances are, it is shit.
- just ask for a fork. WHO CARES???
- ignore buddhist bitches
- wifi is everywhere
- there is no internet cafes in the city, are on the island.
- expect people to push in front of you.
- taxi it everywhere
- alcohol is cheap
- don’t use hotel internet.

From HK, we flew to London. A 13 hour flight and my ankles did not well. It was an incredibly irratating flight. A dumbass at the front who insisted on keeping his seat and the empty seat next to Him back the entire flight. Parents constantly walking around with their babies, thinking they are the best in the world and that everyone should look at them and coo. Little stupid kids who can’t pee in the actual toilet and pee on the floor instead. People who don’t know how to remove a paper toilet seat cover from the toilet after they go and leave it for me to carefully lift off and bin it. A dickhead behind me who did not know how to properly fold and secure his tray table and leap me out of my extremley light sleep anyway. Just a shiteous flight. But I did enjoy the awesome movies! I watched Batman Begins again. I really want to see the Dark Knight again!!

So we get to London and it seems easy enough to get around. However, it feels daunting to me and I am intimidated. We get to our cheap ass (not really. it was expensive but it was CHEAP! Get me?) hotel and my guts are churning – bad. I constantly felt like i needed to fart or shit. Uncomfortable. Roger had to go out to drop off our valuables to Helen ready for WACKEN. Whiles I was lying on my bed. In a weird, humid apricot room. I wished that my guts would stop churning.

When it was time to go to bed, we slept in thisthis tiny double bed. I barely moved all night.

We were getting up early to get to Hamburg. The flight was quicky and painless and we got to our hotel easily enough (after a random guy told us the wrong way to go!).  By this time I was already intimidated by the language.

We were unable to check into our room and so we wandered around a bit.  And things are for sale so we wandered around a bit. Things are so different there. I almost felt embarrassed for people who come to perth for a HOLIDAY?! For what?!!!

The next day was spent shopping for WACKEN. We ran around like mad dogs trying to get everything ready and trying to remember things from a list we never wrote down. We had to check out by 12 that day and bet at REMEDY RECORDS by 2pm for our shuttle bus to WACKEN which is why the running around was required.

(P.S – before I forget – shit was cheap in hamburg too).

Fast forward to 2pm on July 31st. We are sitting on a bus with 30 other people dressed in black, army pants, studded belts and black hair (mostly). Some people know them as freaks but we are NOT.

On the bus, there were 3 extremely annoying guys from the United States who continuously put a bad name to themselves by being extremely loud, obnoxious, chewing gum loudly and saying “like” every second word. I am glad I will never see them again.

I had felt guilty and sorry for Roger as he had to lug around a huge ass bag containing all our clothes and the blow up mattress wehich weighed a tonne because it was one of those really thick ones. When it was inflated, it came up to my knee.

I DO NOT KID.

We walked around for roughly 15 minutes to find a place to set up our tent which would be our home for the next two days.

Do you even understand me now? Because this is how incoherent I was for the next few days. I look back at Wacken now and all I seem to remember is some sort of awesome blur. I was in awe. I was at the biggest metal festival in the world. 80,000 other metal heads amd 3 days of awesome bands, camping, beer, german food and other cuisines, toilet vouchers and 3am piss runs. Sleeping in a fucking tent that was so restricted in room thanks to the blow up mattress but it was joy so WHO CARES!.

Wacken – I don’t think that I can really capture what it felt to be there. To this moment I am still in awe and shocked. The weather was way too hot on the first day and pissed down on the second.

We got a sweet spot to see UNEARTH and it pissed down with rain so bad that my underwear was soaked. REALLY.

For now I must leave as Roger is starting to feel lonely.

Kalinichta.