Halo from Kobenhavn

Well Ric and I arrived in Copenhagen today.. caught the over night train from Frankfurt and arrived about 11am.. the weather is pretty crap today and we haven't done anything yet just waited for the showers to open up at 2!

Frankfurt was bloody HOT! and the weird thing is all shops are closed until 2pm.. the whole place is dead you can crawl across the road and you wont be hit by a car cos no one is out!@

we walked around for a while and ran into HEAPS of aussies.. appart from german fans aussies are the next most represented. But its good to have chats with them plenty of stories going around.

But i have to say the german transport system is not very tourist friendly, nothing is writen in english anywhere and the trains are well crap! old and loud.. there are no ticket gates anywhere so you can sometimes get away with nt using a ticket.. so far I havent had a strike against my eurail pass we were meant to get a hole punched for our Frankfurt > Copenhagen trip but when the conductor came with sniffer dogs we just told them we were aussie and they left lol...

One thing i am still having trouble getting my head around is how EXPENSIVE everythng is here.. its crazy! we've just been eating stuff from bakeries when they go on special haha.. a big mac will set you back 2.8EUR or something likke that.. water is 2EUR and we could not find a proper supermarket in frankfurt which was annoying but we did manage to get a litre of apple juice for 49EUR

To this point, most of the german people have been pretty nice and helpful, but there have been times when people help you they seem to come across as very demanding, even when they help you with everything you need and try to help you some more! I guess it is just the way germans are. Havent spent much time talking t many Danish people but they seem fairly laid back.. but this place looks more expensive then germany!

not sure what is happening tonight but there are 4 aussie girls and an aussie dude who are staying at our hostel and I think we are going to go and watch the aussie match with them.

I will hopefully be able to upload some pics soon but these macs are hard to use when everything is in Danish..

PS. Yes, Europe is full of beautiful beautiful girls.

Sooooo I:m here

Finally arrived in Tokyo this morning.. flight was the smoothest i have ever had (much to my disapointment..) but all is good, its very misty here and there were a few showers around but nothing major. I am styaing in New Koyo again and this time my room is on level 1 directly opposite the showers.. blah.

Strange thing is.. i havent met anyone who speaks english at the hostel yet! they all seem to be europeans.. mainly french.. and ye they are being their typical loud rude selves..

I spent the day walking around Akihabra, Shinjuku and Ueno.. just checking out prices for lenses.. they arnt nych cheaper her :/ A few weird things have happened.. last time i was here i was in the white mans club.. where everytime i walked past another white dude they would nod at me.. this time itlooks like i am now in the black mans club.. they all seem to be nodding at me now! hahah

amyway i am gonna try and find a bar to watch the wc..
should have pics up tomorrow fromNikko

btw on the way to the cafe.. some weird dude was standing agaisnt a pole throwing up over him self.. its good to see after you just ate!

ja ne

Less then 12 hours (or 1 power nap to go!)

I can probably say that I am 70% packed and ready to go! I'm just sitting at home waiting to go see the doctor to get some antibiotics for my trip since i don't want a repeat of what happened in the philippines!

I've got a few admin tasks left to do as well... Put up all my card details etc in a safe place, write down all the phone numbers of people I will be visiting in different cities etc etc.

My pictures will be up here http://www.boredofstudies.org/mark/gallery
You can catch my blog right here!
And if you want a rough idea of where I am you can look here http://www.boredofstudies.org/mark/

I'm looking forward to going to japan first up! I'm heading up to Nikko to climb a mountain 2700m high, visit some waterfalls and bathe in an onsen.. all in the space of a day!

So far on my trip I have confirmed that i will visit the following places..
- Tokyo
- Frankfurt
- Copenhagen
- Stockholm
- Munich
- Berlin
- Prague
- Budapest
- Barcelona
- Madrid
- Ibiza
- Helsinki
- Shanghai
- Beijing
- Hong Kong

and I will have about 4-5 weeks of unplanned time! and these are the places on the cards for that
- Amsterdam
- Switzerland
- Poland
- France

Anyway, Its about time to head back to the doc's.

Cheerio All!

My very own break.com moment..

So it's saturday.. I'm at home bored and recovering from a week of sickness and SITPP.. so i get a call to go bike riding at parra park.. i'm pretty much all good now, so why not i say! I get to Ric's place load the bikes into the car and then head off to Alan's house to get read since he lives right next to the park. Anyway we start riding around.. everything is all good.. but it's getting a bit boring, so i remember when i was younger i use to be able to ride behind people and hit their back tyre with my front tyres.. it use to work pretty well, so i decided to ric to make things a bit more interesting, i hit his tyre but it made me loose control and i got the wobbles.. but luck i got it back and kept riding.. but i decided to have another go so i went up and hit his tyre again, once again i lost control, but this time.. i didnt regain control.. I ended up falling off the bike and sliding on my right knee and here is the damage that has been done!



everyone was cracking up including me, so i learnt my lesson the hard way =)

anyway Inside Man has finish downloading bring it on!!


GO NETHERLANDS IN TOMORROW'S GAME!!!!!

THE JACKET HAS ARRIVED!!!!!

Yes thats right!!! my jacket has FINALLY ARRIVED!! however, to keep things consistent it did arrive with plenty of controversy! I got a call about noon today, from my DHL 'investigator' and she said its on board with the driver now and will be delivered soon, i asked her where it was going and she said my home address.. and at which point i had enough! I ripped into her a bit and said it was meant to come to st hilliers! she said that would take another day (which i have herd them say MANY MANY times before.) i was getting pretty pissed so i said tell the driver to leave it at my door.. which she said could be arranged.. but i doubted her! anyway i check the australian air express website, and it says my package was delivered around 2.. i get mildly excited thinking cool it has come.. so i get to uni and start working on my stuff and my dad calls me around 4 and says the courier just came to my house and dropped it off... BASTARDS LIED!! AGAIN!!!! anyway at this point i was happy!! not as happy as when i ripped open that DHL bag to find my jersey in there!! I was so worried it was going to be the wrong size haha i would of went to work and jumped off the bridge if that happened!

anyway here is a pic of the long awaited jacket.. and the infamous bag it came in.

EDIT: Channel 9 has just called me and offered me a multi-million dollar deal for my story!

WHERE IS MY PACKAGE!!!!!! Cont..

Surprise surprise.... NO PACKAGE!!!!!!! What is this world coming to!!!!!All a man wants these days is to get a freaking package!! Anyway here is today's progress report.. After printing SITPP i give DHL a ring.. i get this lady and you know how you get start getting angry at someone and they will take it and get angry with you? well she was one of them.. i told her my story and she was getting pissed off for me (or so she says) and when i was about to give her my details to get her supervisor to call me back the phone cut out... I called back and i got this happy go lucky girl who i couldn't tell of and i just couldn't be stuffed repeating my story so she just grabbed my details and said her supervisor will be in touch.. bah.. anyway at 5:05 i get a call from the supervisor.. another girl who spoke so damm fast i couldn't get a word in she basically told me my package has had an unusual amount of handling and it was unacceptable, and that I've had a DHL investigator assigned to me to find out why this happened to my package and to get it to me ASAP.. expecting a call tomorrow morning.. this is just getting beyond a joke! I've already started brain storming my complaint letter!!!

on happier news, Japan and Germany had a 2-2 draw.. this means good things for Japan and should give them a very good chance of beating australia in the world cup!!

WHERE IS MY PACKAGE!!!!!!

So I order my dutch football jacket from america, i pay 30$ postage for it to be sent with DHL (it was the cheapest option anyway).. A few days after i bought my package i looked up my consignment number, to my amazement it had already arrived in sydney (goooo DHL!) so i was expecting my package to be dropped off the next day (thursday).. so that day came and went without a package.. no big deal, i called DHL up and they said because i live so far west that they don't deliver that far out and have given it to another courier company to deliver.. and the my package was on board with the driver and will be delivered later that day! WOOHOOO! so 4pm comes and goes.. i call home, no package.. I ring up DHL again and he goes i did not leave an 'authority to leave' so that the courier could drop it off.. so instead the courier kept it and returned to Auburn.. I asked the guy at DHL to change the delivery address to my office in the city.. all good, told me it would be there by tuesday at the latest.. fair enough.. a bit annoying but i can live with that. So monday comes, i hassle our receptionist every hour asking for my package.. nothing.. Tuesday comes.. i look up my tracking number, package still at auburn, wth?? So i call up DHL again.. the guy hmm's a few times.. and says he has increased my priority and said his supervisor will look into why my package is still at auburn.. but he tells me with my increased priority my package will be a day away because it has to return to the DHL base for city delivery... grrr I've just checked my tracking number again and my package is still sitting in Auburn! NOT HAPPY JAN!!!!!

Updates will be made when more news comes to hand...

I feel sorry for the person who is going to cop it if my package is at Auburn tomorrow!!! fits of rage at soccer will be NOTHING!!