Umamiblog

written by john lewis

Travel Category Archive


London, first day

Having slept for an insanely long time I eventually woke up in the wee hours of Monday morning. The first thing I noticed is how light it is here so early in the morning. It starts to get light come about 2:30am and is fully bright by about 4am. It’s disturbingly early for light.

Trey and I were subsequently up quite early and by 6am we were waiting to take a tube into the city. We stopped off at Islington and found a place open for breakfast. Islington appears to have been gentrified somewhat but is gorgeous. We then went walking past these canals Trey had spotted the day before. It was quite neat and picturesque and the temperature was slowly starting to rise as the morning went on.

From Islington we followed the canal quite far until we reached another tube station that took us to St Paul’s, it was stunning from the outside and even better from the inside. Yoko Ono had a couple of things at the cathedral. This was a peace tree that people had attached little messages to – there was another similar installation on the inside of the cathedral too.

We started in the crypt and slowly moved our way to the main floor. Sitting in the centre of the cathedral and looking up is just awe inspiringly beautiful and the decoration is amazing. Of course you can’t take any photos inside and that’s probably a good thing just for the fact there would be no way you could fit in all the color and other subtleties in a photo.

Once inside you can climb up to three different vantage points. The first is the whispering gallery which true to its name you can whisper to someone on the other side of the gallery and hear them fine – the acoustics are rather unique.

If you climb even further up you get to the outside at the lower part of the dome – the views are great and as you walk around you get a 365 degree view of the city and most famous landmarks. Climb even higher and you get to a little gallery on the outside through some very narrow staircases that is above the dome. There isn’t much space at the top and there are plenty of people.

One of the landmarks you can see directly from the top of St Paul’s is the Millennium Bridge leading to the Tate Modern. We found our way down from the top and across the river Thames to the Tate. The art and architecture in the Tate was really good and there were throngs of people there. One of the coolest installations was where they’ve hooked something up to the Millennium Bridge that listens to the vibrations made from people walking over it and then using and amplifying these vibrations to create music (or just noise) inside the museum. Cool.

We then went on a riverside walk towards the Tower of London and across the Tower Bridge – taking in all the riverside sights and attractions. From there we caught a tube up to Hyde Park and walked through the park while citysiders enjoyed the long sun and hot temperatures. Its funny how less harmful the sun is when you have an ozone layer above you – it’s great.

\we then slowly made our way towards Buckingham Palace where we strolled past a live television production that I had no idea of. When we did make it to the Palace we saw a little march of the guards on duty who then promptly stopped moving at all.

From there we decided it was probably time to start heading home and walked towards the tube station at Picadilly Circus. We stopped off at Islington again to go to the supermarket which was pretty much empty (of produce rather than people). Then finally we made it back to the hostel where after a quick shower I had to collapse. We’d been out for close to 16 hours by the time we’d made it home.

Photos


Shots of the canal near Islington.


View of the street from St Paul’s


Yoko Ono’s peace tree installation.


Forgotten the significance of this but it was inside the crypt at St Pauls.


The view from the platform at St Paul’s. Towards the right you can see the ‘Gherkin’.


River Thames.


Stairs to the upper viewing platform.


Tate Modern and the Millenium Bridge.


Millenium Bridge.


Tower Bridge.


Hyde Park.


Buckingham Palace.


Picadilly or Trafalgar… someone please correct me.

Posted in: Europe 06

Leaving on a jet plane

I left Wellington for my 5 week jaunt to Europe last Friday but it already seems like an age ago. I decided weeks ago that even though my flight from Auckland was on Saturday I really need to leave Wellington on Friday in case the airport got fogged out. I figured at least if it was fogged out on Friday we could hop in the car and drive all night to make it in time – leaving on Saturday didn’t afford us that option.

So leaving work on Friday was a bit manic, as well as the normal pandemonium involved with having to leave projects and work, I needed to give a little presentation at our weekly end of week meeting. After finishing that I had to fly out of the office with Trey and make our way to the airport.

We made it there on time, but of course, Trey forgot his passport. That wasn’t an issue per se for that specific flight as it was domestic but he was definitely going to need it to get out the next day from Auckland. Origin Pacific, who we were flying with in this incredibly long and skinny plane, agreed to courier the passport up when a friend could drop it in for $60.

So after a mild moment of panic, things appeared to be under control and we were still on track to make our flights the next day. Of course when we wake up the next morning, Wellington airport is fogged in. After much anticipation and several phone calls to airlines and the American consulate, the passport arrives shortly after the airport finally opens in Wellington.

Flying with Emirates was reasonably pleasant. The aircraft is new and includes the latest interactive display units for all seats. It was a great way to kill time and kill time I did. There were probably about a hundred different films on there and hundreds of music albums and radio shows, heaps of games, cameras below and in front of the ship, and even a module that let you call and send emails (although at a hefty price). I watched V for Vendetta for the first time and if you haven’t seen it I would recommend it.

bangkokairport-sm.jpg

Punters watching France beat Brazil at the gate lounge in Bangkok

The first stop was Sydney, and then after that Bangkok, after that Dubai. We arrived at Dubai early in the morning and the temperature was already about 40degC. The sun was just coming up and somehow you could look at the sun for the first few moments it was rising – it was stunning and huge.

From what I hear Dubai is growing at an astonishing rate and I’d hazard a guess that no where is this more pronounced than at their airport. The airport itself is huge and there is construction everywhere. Our plane was one of a dozen that we disembarked from at a “temporary” terminal. This meant climbing on three huge buses that took you to the real terminal. The real terminal is massive and you can see them extending it for about a kilometer in every direction. Still they don’t have enough space for all flights.

A small section of Dubai airport

At 6am, Dubai airport is chaotic and very busy. I found Trey waiting towards our departure gate. He was talking to a US Marine coming back from Iraq and making small talk. This marine suggested the only way to succeed in Iraq was to wipe the civilization out completely because that let you start again. Of course, and I think I might label this “Trey’s Luck” but the time that he happens to talk to a marine about Iraq it’s with a nutter who thinks wiping out civilizations is palatable and of course he talks to him IN the Middle East. After beating a polite but hasty retreat we made our way to the terminal. Kudos to Dubai for putting on free WiFi access. All airports should follow suit. I can’t wait to visit for a few days at the end of our trip.

Watching the flight track, we left Dubai, flew over Iran until we reached the top of Iraq and then headed towards the UK. Having not slept that much on the previous 3 legs I grabbed a few hours before landing at Heathrow.

We received a bit of a grilling from the customs official, and then made our way to the Tube station at the airport. About 45 mins and two line changes later we found ourselves at the hostel we had a booked. It had received a few good reviews online but was a bit of a dive. Not that I cared. At about 2pm on Sunday I climbed into bed for about 15 hours…

Posted in: Europe 06

Service notice

Gone travelling somewhere warm.

Back in 5 weeks.

Posted in: Europe 06

testing for when john is away

Hi guys, I am testing this bloggy thingy so that when John is away I can update sh*t for him. Doesnt seem hard so far….
speckle.jpg
even managed to upload an image! Lets see if i can do it again when John is not here to give me instructions…

Posted in: Europe 06

Going to Oz for a week… w00t w00t!

Sometimes things just work, and this is one of those times. Shortly after St Paddy’s Day ends I’ll be on a plane to Sydney for about 9 days, and I can’t wait.

Friends from the South Island who has missed out on tickets to the Auckland U2 concert decided it would be a good idea to get tickets for the Melbourne concert instead. And who can blame them, the airfares would’ve been about the same or cheaper and Melbourne is far more interesting than Auckland. As it all worked out, sadly U2 had to postpone their concerts which put Russ and Greg in a bit of a tough spot. Credit to them, they’ve decided to go anyway.

Anyway I was talking to Russ yesterday and he mentioned they’d still be heading over and I thought “Heh, maybe I could go as well…”. Didn’t take it all that seriously and mentioned it flippantly to Sarah who insisted that I should do it. Apparently I’ve been working too hard and am too stressed out and holiday would do me well.

Ok, thats all good and well but the reason I’m busy at the moment is because I’m invested heavily in a few projects at work. Would I be able to get a week of leave at such short notice given that it would be a significant risk to those projects. Well, my CD didn’t seem to think it was a horrible idea and was happy to entertain it for me. After checking with all the PMs I’ve been working with it seemed that it could be possible…I’d just have to work my butt off a bit this week (no problem, I was going to anyway).

So I’ll be taking in Sydney, Newcastle, and Melbourne starting on Saturday, great. Will hopefully get to see some of the Commonwealth Games madness Melbourne will be in starting from tomorrow.

Posted in: Travel

Coming home…

I’m writing at the moment somewhere over the Tasman Sea. We took off, I guess, about an hour and bit ago. Last night was a fairly useless night of sleep. I was torn between staying up with Richie, getting to bed early as I needed to get up at 5:20am and then having to deal with drunk roommates coming home at all hours of the morning.

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Posted in: Aussie 05

If the shoe fits…

Yesterday I bought some cool new shoes from a store called Sole in Melbourne. The store was quite funky, most of the shoes were right out of my financial grasp except for this one pair that I really liked for $100.

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Posted in: Aussie 05

Water, water, water…

Oh my goodness it was hot today. We knew it was going to be a scorcher because they had forecast 35′C the day before. But even still nothing really prepares you for the heat which I swear is multiplied by all the tarmac and concrete in the city. Its the kind of hot that sucks everything from your body, your fluid, your energy, your will to live and yet people were continuing on, business as usual.

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Posted in: Aussie 05

Introducing Melbourne

Hi folks, and it was off to Melbourne today. Early to bed last night, like most people in the hostel, only early to rise for me as I had to catch a shuttle to the airport at 7am. Have just got back to Russell’s cousins place and it is now 11pm. Sorry again for the late entry.

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Posted in: Aussie 05

Oh my head…

I’m never drinking again, ever. And this time I mean it.As you can probably tell, today’s exciting installment comes at a slightly later time than usual. My cellphone tells me it is a quarter past 7pm here, I’ve only been up for a couple of hours. That’s how good the night was…

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Posted in: Aussie 05

Happy Birthday Richie

Hi folks, yet another warm day here, fantastic. Have already drunk my body weight in water today and have made it to the beach for a swim. I think I’ll head back again later. I’m quite envious of Australians if this is what their summers are like. Mind you, I don’t think I’ve seen any since I’ve been here…

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Posted in: Aussie 05

D-Day +1

I woke up this morning, 11am, not a bad wee sleep-in I think to myself. Being rather parched from a few beers the night before and sleeping in the 25′C+ heat meant I was rather thirsty. I popped to the store next door to get a bottle of water where the guy behind the counter commented that I was up early… Oh yeah, its actually 9am here… :P

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Posted in: Aussie 05