Paris to Aix En Provence

Paris is one of my favourite places to be with Verena made it even better. One of the most stunning things I saw was the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, picture below:

It was so beautiful that I was totally unprepared on what I saw when I entered, it literally took my breath away! We weren't allowed to take pictures so I found this link:
(Although it does it no justice.)
http://www.linternaute.com/paris/magazine/visite-du-sacre-coeur/image/31653.jpg

Whilst at Montmartre I went for a pancake and chose one of the many vendors. I stood in line behind four other tourists who all ordered their pancakes in English from the rather bored and depressed looking pancake lady. Well, I decided I wanted my pancake made with a smile. So when it came to my turn I drummed up the biggest smile I could muster and asked (in French) for a Crepe complete. This was ham, cheese and an egg. She took one look at me and returned my smile. So my pancake was made with love and tasted so good!

One thing I really should mention about Paris is the drivers and bike riders. You see I'm from London, in London bikers ride like they're about to miss a flight. Paris is a bit different, here they ride like they've already missed the flight but they are determined to race the plane to which ever destination they were headed! It's all a bit mental. Crossing the road in Paris is something you need to give lots of attention.

Soon Paris time was up, and so goodbyes were said and onto the TGV trained I hopped. In just three hours I was with my very good friends Aure & Alize in Aix En Provence in the south of France. Here I would stay for eight wonderful days before heading for Barcelona. Aix is a lovely little city with around 140,000 people living there. Obviously I didn't meet them all but those of whom who I did meet were very nice :)

On the weekend Aure and I went to stay in Saint-Maxime, a beautiful coastal town opposite the famous Saint-Tropez. It was off season and we were staying in Aure's uncles flat right on the coast. We spent a few nights partying, drinking and reminiscing of good times back in bolivia.

Being in France was wonderful and just like a holiday for me, but Barcelona was calling and soon enough it was time to pack my bags again and head east into Spain and the capital of Catalonia.

Potsdam to Paris

The 607 bus came every 2 hours over the weekend, yes you've guessed it, I was off to stay in Ferch for a few nights. Ferch is a lovely little village SW of Berlin and Potsdam and it's where my friend Moritz lives. I did get to go to a German techno night, which was nice. Very dark, very loud and much fun!! Afterwards a German man, I'm going to call him Otto as I think that's what his name was, came to pick us us.....In his boat! Luckily the party was near some water and after a short wait Otto arrived (not really sure how he found us as the lake was massive!) and he took us to his houseboat/floating hostel for a bit of an after party!

I spent the next day with my friend Gregor recovering from the techo party boat saga. I felt rather happy and very looked after. Gregor showed me round a beautiful park in Potsdam and the next day walked me to the train station to catch my night train to Paris.

The train arrived at the Hauptbahnhof Berlin, I found wagon 97 and then bed number 76. It was all rather exciting, top bunk, excellent! There were 6 beds in the compartment but only 3 people, which was nice :) I've never been unhappy in extremely small and tight spaces so felt quite relaxed on my bunk. I finished my book 'Join Me' by Danny Wallace (an excellent book!) and settled down for the night. I think I only woke once during the night, and otherwise slept very well :)

I arrived in Paris at around 8am with only one thing on my mind, where would I sleep tonight! I had left a message on the 'Help I Have No Where To Sleep In Paris Emergency Couch Surfing Page or HIHNWTSIPECSP as it is better known.....I also had the addresses of 3 hostels just in case. I stored my bag at Gare Est and went hunting for some internet. I found some and logged on. 3 replies, great!! The first was from a gay French nudist, well what was I expecting? He seemed harmless enough, all be it naked and French. The second reply was from another French gay nudist! Now at this point you might be thinking how does he know? Well on couch surfing you can join groups, and both of these guys were members of 'Nudists' French Nudists' Gays in Paris' Gay Nudists' Being French Gay & Naked....in Paris' and other similarly titled groups. The third reply was from a rather cute girl called Verena, she says she doesn't really have a couch but if I didn't mind sharing her bed then I was most welcome......Couchsurfing gooooooood! ;) I sent her a reply and within a short while had her address....Result! She wouldn't be home till later so I spent the day walking round Paris taking photos and generally acquainting myself with this wonderful place!

Verena turned out to be really sweet! We got along so well that she insisted I stay with her for my entire stay. We spent the next 5 days exploring and discovering new and wonderful parts of Paris. I enjoyed my time tremendously with Verena in Paris. Here is my favourite picture of Paris:

Till next time :D

Berlin

It's time for another installation of 'Where has Paul been?'

Anna and I arrived in Berlin and were met by Anna's mum (and our host for the next few days) in Potsdam, a beautiful city 15 miles from Berlin.

The next morning I decided some exploration would be in order so I headed for Berlin, I saw many sights and took many pictures. I feel at this stage maybe the photos might tell you a better story so here follows a few choice examples. I hope you like them :)

This is the holocaust memorial:

As is this:

After I ended up at a beautiful park in the middle of Berlin where I captured possibly the best picture I've ever taken:

The colours in the park were utterly amazing! Autumn had quite literally exploded all around me and I was so happy being there to witness it. I spent the whole day walking around West Berlin and once it got dark I met up with Anna on the train home. The next day I decided to explore the Eastern part of Berlin.

I had so much in East Berlin I almost forgot to take pictures! Can you imagine that?

Overheard in Berlin in English:

Young boy of around 11 - 'Mummy I like rape music!'
Mum - 'Oh, that's nice dear'

Anyway.........After spending most of the day walking round Berlin for the second day I decided to go and find a vegan cafe that had been recommended to me. By the time I got there it was getting dark and cold out. It was very dimly lit but I went in and ordered some soup to warm myself up. I sat in this cafe waiting for some friends to finish work. The soup was pretty mediocre although they did change some light bulbs while I was there brightening the place up a bit......I found out my friends were out of work and at the other end of town.....Off I went again back to Potsdam :)

Back in Potsdam station I saw a sign for bubble tea. The last time I saw this was in New York with my friend Kristine. I decided another sample of 'alien food' was exactly what I needed. I went for a warm rooibos fruit alien drink with passion fruit squidgy bits. I noticed two punks walking by. Each had a German Shepherd (although I suspect they are called something else here...) and each with a large crate of beer on their shoulders. The tea really lovely and different form the New York bubble tea. The squidgy bits weren't chewy like New York alien drink, no! The German version made every individual orb burst in my mouth with the taste of warm passion fruit. It was most pleasant.

After this my friend Moritz (we originally met in Samaipata, a small village in Bolivia) messaged me to say he would meet me in a bar called Olga and gave me directions. Olga turned out to be a building site so I sat in the bar next door, drank 8% banana beer (cos that's how I roll!) and listened to Tom Waits on the juke box. It's been a month and a day since I left the UK.

Dresden to Berlin

OK so I think I left you all (both of you ;) arriving in Dresden and meeting my friend Anna. Anna is another cat walker from Bolivia's Inti Wara Yassi (http://www.intiwarayassi.org/articles/volunteer_animal_refuge/home.html) and I was to be staying with her and her flat mate in Neustadt Dresden, an up and coming area with lots of students and some great graffiti! Living with Anna was fun, she had a really nice apartment and some fun friends downstairs. We cooked most nights, watched movies and drank wine till late. Life was a chilled :)

On the weekend we went with a friend Gregor to the Sächsische Schweiz, a hilly climbing area and national park. Autumn had just arrived and the colours were nothing short of breath taking!

We walked around all day, had a picnic on the edge of a cliff and took many photos of the utter beauty that surrounded us!

We were all quite exhausted on the train hope, although there was some entertainment in the way of a cute baby playing in his pram. He had the whole carriage captivated for the whole journey while he laughed and played with his toys...Broody....me....nah!......

Dresden is a great town. Pretty much everyone cycles and Anna managed to get me a friedns spare bike to get around on, I really miss cycling! The next night Anna and I cycled to a house party. House parties are a bit different to that in London. If you're a stranger everyone will come up to you and introduce themselves, so polite! Of course I forgot every new name almost immediately but it was such a nice sentiment.

After a week in Dresden it was time to venture to Berlin. Anna's mum lives in Potsdam a city 15 miles southwest of Berlin. In Germany car sharing is very popular and almost the only way students can move around the country affordably. We met Manuel in a McDonalds car park. He drove a four door green Nissan yogurt (or something like that, it was quite forgettable) Obviously I wasn't expecting something exotic or rare, but the child inside still hopes ;)

Manuel managed to ignore all of these signs

Pretty much the best road sign that exists ever! He kept to around 120kph the whole way. I know it doesn't matter, but in my head our car share would be some maniac with a BMW M5 estate and blast us to Berlin in around four minutes. What was important was that the Nissan and Manuel got us to Berlin in around €10, which was nice :D Oh and we passed what seemed like a million wind farms on the way to Berlin. Germany gets 9% of it's power from these things, that's quite a bit!

Anyhoo, Feeling tired now and I've got to grab a shower so it's goodbye for now and I'll update again soon. Till then it's a goodnight from Barcelona xx

Switzerland to Dresden

After saying my goodbyes I hopped onto my the first of three trains that would take me from St Gallen to Dresden. Soon after arriving in Munich I noticed the first of what seemed like an endless train of new German cars, mainly Audis, must have been around 400 of them! It was quite a sight.

The next train I got would split up half way through the journey, and by that I don't mean that the very carriages would tear open and we would all be smashed on the rails underneath us. No, I mean that the first carriage would go to dresden and the rest of the train (that I was happily sitting in) would go to one of the other German towns that exist in Germany. As you may have noticed I didn't know this until a non English speaking train conductor told me. I understood though and at the next station I went to the front carriage....It was rammed! So I sat on the floor in a door stairwell opposite a young couple who were eating a massive bar of bright pink chocolate! What after effects that bar would have I can only imagine!

At the next station the polizei came on to the train, routine checks I'm sure....I put on my most German of faces (whatever that might look like is anyones guess) But to the polizei must have shouted ID check me please I've most likely got at least four Eastern European children in my bags for the highest bidder. And I turn into a gibbering tit almost immediately! Not only does my basic German manage to escape my noggin, but somehow I'd left the door open for just long enough for my English to escape also. All I managed was some sort of exhaling with a slight girly murmur...(note to self, I'd make a terrible spy) The woman polizei notices my...ahem...slight internal panic, I produce my passport and she says to me in English not to worry, it's just a routine check. Anyway they made radio call to quantify the level of patheticness in front of them and after some confirmation carried on down the carriage with a smile, I'm sure they even wished me 'Good luck' O remember that scene from The Great Escape, 'Good luck', 'Thank you'..Gilp, don't slip up now..Oh wait I'm not a spy, nothing to worry about....'Danke' I replied (just in case) They didn't even give a moments notice to the utter crazy at sat two seats away from me, not worth the hassle I guess...I swear he was chewing on a dolls head at one point though!

The train jerked wildly into yet another station, this one was called 'Hof' which made me smile and then my learn Spanish kicked in randomly on my iPod, that made me smile even more. Two hours to go and I might as well try to take in some Spanish. I swear the lady on the recording is half Spanish half cat! She is rolling her R's like I've only heard a feline purrrrrrrrrr.

Passing some beautiful little villages that time had quite clearly forgotten about. So beautiful it almost made me forget about the bumpy train journey. To best describe I would say the train felt like it was being driven by a teenager late for his first kiss!

And eventually I arrived in Dresden to be met by my friend Anna...Tbc

Leaving England for 8 months. First stop, Switzerland.

Well well, that was 14 festivals done and dusted and the best summer of festivals ever to date! Wow and that's saying something!

So I had a week to sort everything out and of course have some leaving drinks! Lately it seems I only see certain friends at my leaving drinks, but if it means I get to see them then I will kepp having them :D

Leaving drinks were two days before I left the country (just enough time for a hangover to disappear!) And what a party we had! And thank you all so much if you came, you all made it very special for me :)

Next up was three weeks with my wonderful grandma in Switzerland. Autumn was just beginning over here and the world was a beautiful place! Three weeks came and went in a flash!

Great friends
Yummy cheese fondue
Beautiful long walks
Chocolates
Finally losing my fear of the dentist
Lots of cake
Too much Swiss cheese
My wonderful grandma
Trips to Bern and Winterthur
Swiss techno nights
Amazing new guided meditation
Swiss musicals and the best hot chocolate ever!
It`s hard to say goodbye.......Switzerland iche liebe dich! I will miss you so very much xx (Look out Dresden here I come!)

In Hebrew we have a word, Nehneti. It kind of means that I enjoyed something but with my heart. It seems apt as I leave Switzerland.

Catch up time! - Bimble Inn Bandada, Boomtown Fair, Reading, Proms In The Park and OOTO!

It's that long awaited catch up and I guess I'm now expected to remember all of the things that happened 3 months ago.....Well lets have a go :)

Right I think I left you all at The Lonely Tree. Well clearly I came down from there and after the end of the Play Festival I rode the 200 miles home after what was three festies in a row!

Next up was the Bimble Inn Bandada and another beautiful installation from the Bimble crew and Pony. We had amazingly wonderful weather the whole weekend! It looked like this:

See! Beautiful! :)

Next up was the one I'd been waiting for all year! The Boomtown Fair! This was just going to be so epic! So many friends all coming to the same festival and a line-up that screamed PARTY!!!!

More to come a bit later today......

I arrived a day and a half before it opened and had a nice day chilling out with friends :)

And then it opened da da daaaaa! So many great parties, I was in a show, we watched Gogol Bordello

and managed to achieve best festival of the year!

Next up was Reading. Always an epic one as it's usually the last time a lot of us festival workers get to see each other till next June! I was lucky enough to be given the Jack Daniels Bar to run, which was nice ;) Reading 2011 turned out to be my best Reading to date! Really had a great time, wonderful entertaining staff and what really seamed to be a great crowd too!

Proms In The Park was up next and for me was a four day event that involved hard work but it was still much fun working with friends. I won't mention the amazing job I turned down at Bestival to stay in London for a paid event rather then voluteering.....Oh well who needs The Cure when we had Gary Barlow.... :(

Out Of The Ordinary was the way I chose to end my 2011 festival season. Festival number fourteen was lots of fun! I took my motorbike out for what was to be the last time and rode down with Rob on his Triumph, it was an excellent ride :D The festival was just what I needed :)