My name is Greg Williams.
I'm travelling from London to Australia, and taking longer than necessary to do it.
This blog is intended to track that journey, and make it a bit more interesting for you to find out what I'm up to.
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This building looks oddly familiar. Where could I be right now? ;)
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2nd largest department store in the world and the biggest in Asia: Nextage. It's really big. From what I could figure out, the fountain outside was timed to music by the Backstreet Boys.
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One of the many spectacles of Shanghai one must see before they die, apparently. Admittedly, it's quite spectacular in person. This view is from M on the Bund - a slightly posh bar, but in "western" money it's not expensive at all. Dinner at People 7 was indeed puzzling.
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An elaborate collection of jade, porcelain, furniture, calligraphy, and painting. Not bad. The building is very impressive from the inside and out.
Shanghai weather maintains its foul condition. This summer wandering seems to have rain as its theme.
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Shanghai's pedestrian mall is damn big. All the Chinese are very interested in my Swear shoes. Anyway I'm in the shopping district looking for maybe some cheap clothes and shoes. Wish me luck.
(Oh, I did retrieve my bag and camera too, for those who were worried)
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I left my camera (and bag) at a friend of a friend's place the other night in Shanghai, I think. Will retrieve it soon. Today I'm in Hangzhou. . 5-star accommodation overlooking the lake. It's a stretch for me to call it backpacking.
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Welcome me to Shanghai! This is a view from the Australian Consulate Residences where my friends Jasmine & Mark live. The soccer field belongs to the USA, apparently.
The apartment is nothing short of palatial in my opinion, though, I have been staying in hostels for the past couple of weeks. The maid offered to iron my clothes! This feels more like I'm taking a break from travelling than actually still travelling. Local temp: 32.C Lovely.
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This is the hallway of the train I caught last night. Lush, no?
I'm already in Shanghai with my hosts. More news when available. Sorry, the GPS location is for Beijing.
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Site of Beijing's biggest buddha, which is unfortunately located in a building where photos are not permitted. This is a photo of the building. He's carved from a single giant sandalwood tree and totals 18m in height. Bloody big.
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Just hanging out in Tian'anmen Square waiting for friends. It's bloody hot here, but you get used to it pretty quickly. The pollution is immense. Going to look at temples today, whether my friends arrive or not.
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It would appear that Summer is the time for restorations of major landmarks. This happened to me in Amsterdam, Brussels, Berlin, St Petersburg, and Moscow, too.
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Guess where I am?
I spent the entire evening in my hostel just relaxing and checking email. I'm hoping to hear from some friends from the train today, but I'm also not about to sit around waiting for them. I may be in this palace all day - it's quite big.
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Starbucks Coffee inside the Forbidden Palace. Isn't this one of the signs of the Apocalypse? Shocking.
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Now passing through the Gobi Desert. I've adjusted to Mongolian time now, which makes things easier on the train, which has adhered to Moscow time all this way.
Ulaanbataar was an interesting stop with a lot of people boarding and alighting.
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Passport control point for exiting Russia. The locals have put a bit of a cook-out on with some kebabs and selling stuff for a bit cheaper in places (and more in others). This stop is long, a couple of hours, so we're all killing time.
The big question is where we can exchange Russian rubles to Mongolian money to spend in the Mongolian dining car.
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The train just passed the edge of Lake Baikal, the largest freshwater lake in the world. It looks like a sea as it stretches beyond the horizon.
Train life continues. Days go like this: wake up, have breakfast, play a game or read or something, have lunch, see friends in other carriage, have lunch, play games with friends, drink beer, go to bed. This is also spiced up a bit with train stops to buy stuff or pointing a camera at stuff out the window.
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I was anxious about this train. I didn't really know what to expect, like who would be my roommate, or how many people would speak English, or would anyone be around my age? As it turns out, things seem perfectly okay.
This is a photo of my room. Note the wood panelling: lush. My bed is the one pictured which is the upper one of two.
Have made some friends in 2nd class from Germany and Britain, too, so it should be fine. My roommate is from America and seems fine so far. The man that looks after the carriage is great too. Mainly because he sells us beer at half the price of the dining car.
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This is the view from my hostel balcony in the east of Moscow. The tower in the distance is Leningradskaya, one of Stalin's Seven Sisters. The smog obscures it slightly.
I saw a man light himself on fire in Red Square. Naturally the police went nuts and bellowed at everyone nearby that there was nothing to see. It had little to no effect.
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Mum and Dad just called me while I was in Red Square so here's a photo for them of me outside St Basil's Cathedral.
If this is St Basil's, does that mean the Towers are Fawlty?
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Welcome to Moscow. This afternoon was spent just looking around instead of actually doing anything. The tomb is closed in the afternoon.
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Another famous scene from Russian Ark. The gallery is a copy of the one in the Vatican. It took 7 years to finish.
This place is enormous.
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The grand staircase from the end of Russian Ark. I'm taking more photos of the ceilings and architecture than the art itself (which is allowed).
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The morning queue for the Hermitage. Orderly chaos. Even if I'd woken up earlier, I'd still have to wait in it.
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A small bar, loud 50s music, and they're playing Russian Monopoly! My opinion of this place has improved greatly.
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Well I made it safely into St Petersburg and found my hostel. I had a little trouble getting a token for the metro, but all is well.
The hostel is immaculate, the staff friendly and so I cannot recommend Nordhostel enough.
If I take a few steps from my hostel front door, this is what I see! The Hermitage!
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The church of the rock, a church in a rock. Quite remarkable. Off to St Petersburg tomorrow.
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Verkkokauppa is one of Finland's biggest electronics outlets. But they didn't have what I wanted in stock.
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After an hour or two of playing Nintendo and having Chinese for dinner, Darren, Dave, Sean, Chris, Maren and I are now at Rotterdam Bar. Not a bad lazy afternoon and evening.
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And I thought I'd leave Helsinki without seeing the cat lady! Here she is performing cat tricks. One of the many things to see in helsinki.
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The big white cathedral in the middle of Helsinki. I'm just having a wander around town with Maren today.
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We didn't go in because it's rubbish, but the sign reads Aussie Bar. The advertising is clever around town though.
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We ate chocolate cake and chocolate tea at some Finnish chocolate
place that was doing chocolate-making lessons. Lots of chocolate.
(Apologies, but the geo-location is slightly wrong on this, but only
by a few city blocks...)
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The annual Helsinki fireworks display! Quite big and spectacular.
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Arrived in Helsinki and I've barely slept. Tonight it's Helsinki's Flow Festival, sort of electronics and rock and stuff.
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Sitting on the Gabriella's sun deck, I enjoyed the sunset with Mary, a Norwegian living in Essex. Helsinki awaits in the morning, Åland Islands is the first stop, apparently.
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And I now bid Stockholm farewell. I knew you for only a few hours and wish I'd maybe spent a day with you instead.
Meanwhile, this ship is enormous! 16 hours from now I'll be in Helsinki. The ship is full of all kinds of people: families, travellers, couples on a cruise old and young, and a handful of people just here for a good cruise. Which one am I?
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My last night in Sweden, Jimmy and I have headed out for sushi. I've already tried traditional Swedish food: mackeral and potatoes, which was surprisingly good. Tomorrow I'm headed to Stockholm by train; tomorrow night, the ferry to Helsinki.
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After an afternoon at Jimmy's stepdad's farm yesterday, I woke up this morning to discover a tick had found me simply irresistible.
Thankfully, Jimmy's sister is a nurse, so the divorce was sorted out quickly and efficiently.
This is a photo of my left hip, not my arse.
Back to Göteborg today.
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Blonde hair, blue eyes = nearly everyone in Sweden. Visiting Jimmy's family is interesting. It might take me a while to pick up Swedish as a language, but immersed in it certainly helps. The haunted cabin is cancelled due to weather, and John and Lisa have decided to do something else. I haven't had an internet connection since Denmark, so I'll have a bit to catch up on.
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Last night we decided to take a break and spend the night at Jimmy's sister's flat eating pizza and watching videos. Later today we're headed to a cabin with John and Lisa as part of a sort of camping trip. The cabin is haunted, apparently, so it should be loads of fun...
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This is where Jimmy's grandparents live and where we are staying. It's simply spectacular and comfortable and unlike anything I've experienced before.
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Met Jimmy in Sweden. We're headed for Björkö, an island in Bohus on the Swedish west coast. Just waiting for a bus right now.
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Looking across a canal in Christiania, the cells chime across town. Immediately, I notice a reed no longer behave as a reed, but transform into a hand. It conducted the bells like ao orchestra, indicating tempo, pitch and melody. And as the reed returned to being a reed so, too, the bells of Copenhagen ceased their hourly symphony.
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The Little Mermaid. Impressive, no? ... Ahem. Checked it off the list.
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Naturally, I'm quite chuffed. I found Iceland's new 12 Tónar store in Denmark. So I made the first purchases for this holiday: AOQ, Mugison, and the new Kitchen Motors Family Album compilation!
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Welcome to Copenhagen. Apologies for the 2-day silence. It's difficult to find something that's typically Danish looking, so here's a quick photo of the Rådhus. Thanks to Janus for hosting me here.
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Eva and I sat for some hot chocolate and a crepe at this little cafe on Kastanienallee. After a late night for the last 2 nights, it's nice to just sit and have a quiet one. Don't get me wrong though ... The drink still has liquor in it.
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Went to the museum today when it started raining. Really well designed, and a nice layout inside.
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(from left to right) Daniel, Alex & I in the Oscar Wilde pub in Berlin. We've enjoyed a few beers. ;)
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Quite a cool memorial. The outside betrays its depth and complexity. Also, it's huge.
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TV Tower in Berlin. Big innit?
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Apparently one of the landmarks to see in Brussels (yes, I'm back in Brussels) is the Manneken Pis. It's a fountain statue of a 5-year-old boy taking a leak. Why do all the tourists find it so amazing? I'm sure i've seen these in people's backyards...
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Bless you little red umbrella. When I was lost trying to get from the train station into Gent proper, you were with me in the torrential downpour. You proved yourself unequivocably. R.I.P. 01/08/2006. You will be missed by many and replaced by none.
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Weather-wise, a miserable day at Gent's Gravensteen. Lovely old building though.
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Dijf Sanders rocks the Cafe Republic in Brugge.
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We just ate lunch in Markt in Brugge. Next the Chocolate Museum!
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Sint-Quintinuskathedraal in Hasselt.
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Ilse and Freddie in conversation at Plomblom in Ninove. It's late.
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Anne, Freddie and i have stopped for lunch in Kortrijk. We're waiting for pizza.
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We're on a train to Kortrijk, where our friend Anne lives. To pass the time, Freddie is wrestling with my Nintendo DS Lite. Just outside Kortrijk.
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A large building in Brussels. The Royal Palace, I'm told. Anyway, i'm in Brussels. :)
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Have met Koen in Domburg. Coming to a seaside town was a great idea.
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After several days of sun in Amsterdam, the cloud cover has returned as I head to the coastal town of Domburg by train. Everything is a light shade of grey and my GPS doesn't work too well with clouds.
I was misdirected by the station staff to the wrong platform and watched my train depart without me on it. I'm on a different train instead but i found my way, thanks to my friend in Domburg, Koen.
Interestingly, no one has yet asked for my ticket.
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I sat here and took a photo of my girlfriend 6 years ago. When we broke up a couple of years later, we did briefly argue over who should get to keep that photo. In the end, i kept it. But here i am again in that same spot.
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Crossing the channel, the weather became very grey and cold. Visibility is terrible in every direction. Even out the back of the ferry.
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I'd passed this garden for years but never bothered to visit until now. The church was bombed in 1940. The hedges represent the locations of the pews.
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Sitting outside the Tate Modern gallery having a bite to eat.
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My hair is getting rather long, don't you think? The wallpaper is in my room. It's like living with Tim Burton.
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Jimmy in soho square just hanging out having lunch.
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