Zoe Zombie

Munchen!

// August 16th, 2008 // Comments Off // travel

To my dearest journal thingy,
I was way too quick to write the other day and left out a lot of really cool and interesting stuff. So let me begin retelling you -
On the 9th we went to Amsterdam. It’s a cool place! The hotel was lovely (but I felt super bad every time the bathroom door kept smashing into the TV cabinet!). The first night we had gone to a live sex show.

It’s usually just couples fucking on stage, usually to some song. It’s the strangest thing. It’s choreographed sex to music. And at some point I felt completely strange as we were sitting in a normal theatre – one which you would excpect to be playing movies. But this one had couples fucking. And you sat in areas where the term “leg room” wasn’t taken into consideration. You had to sort of sit down as the chair was going down.

Later on as I was getting familar and comfortable, I was pulled up on stage along with another girl on my contiki tour to dance with a male stripper. I didn’t want to go obviously and I felt embarassed. But I could not stop laughing. I thought it was so hilarious! The highlight was apparently rubbing sunscreen on this guy with my middle fingers instead of his requested palms. Everyone in the audience thought this was hilarious and so far on this trip when anyone on the tour is about to give the middle finger they yell out my name and display it proudly as though I gave these people a gift.

Afterwards, a small group of us followed Roger’s lead into various coffee shops and bars around the red light district, getting stoned and drunk. At first, we had gone to this coffee shop that was the opposite of the Grass Hopper, totally local and probably infested with HIV. The staircase was a death trap in this place. You needed health insurance just to go up and down the damn thing. The steps were incredibly narrow and they were no problem getting up. Once we spent about an hour smoking the best weed we’d had in ages, it was a mission to get down without your face meeting the floor.

We spent the next day looking all over the town, despite our contiki manager claiming that Amsterdam is basically a ghost town on Sundays. Every shop was open (including 10,000 H&M’s) and there were people offering horse rides and all that crap. The variety of stores… it makes me wonder why Perth cannot get shops like these.

We began by exploring Anne Frank’s house which was quite interesting. The whole house was done up very well, like the house had been before Frank’s family was captured. In various rooms, it was cold and dark and again we had the dangerous stair cases popping up every now and again.

Later on in the evening, we went on a cruise through the canals. It was such a fun time, we all did shots, drank, waved to a bunch of friendly (or weirded out) locals/tourists and danced until it was pitch black. I didn’t want it to end but it seemed as though my alchol intake would end it earlier than I’d like!

After the cruise, we went on the prowl again back to a coffee shop that we had been to the night before and had loved as it was right on the canal. For the first time in my life, I got so incredibly stoned that I fell backwards whilst asking the bartended to unlock the bathroom door for me.

After Amsterdam, we made our way to Berlin. I had been soo excited about Athens that I had forgotted about all the Nazi history that I was looking forward to viewing and of course, other history.

For some reason, I can’t think of what we did the day we got there but the day after (ooooh that’s right we had dinner at this outdoor beer garden. Lots of fun!) we did a walking tour. The guide covered a lot of German history and it was interesting, but just like any of these things, it can be kind of boring. I mean sure, the history is interesting but all you’re doing is walking, stopping, listening and looking. Then you get bored and look around while the guide is still talking.

Later on, we did a night tour. We had gone back on the tour and looked at areas near sections of the Berlin wall. The night tour quickly turned into an alcohol tour and we left early to save our wallets and livers.

The day after Berlin, we drove on over to Prague…

Oh, be right back. I just gotta check on the landry!

Voula, Athens.

// August 4th, 2008 // Comments Off // travel

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.