The Sphere Effect

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I’m here in Banda Aceh! I had a really good trip, slept quite well, watched a couple of movies etc etc.

I am staying in a really nice guesthouse with the people I will be working with. Much better than I expected, although the bathroom doesn’t really match the rest of the place. It’s a squat toilet and a trough of dirty water which you pour into the squat toilet to flush it. I’ve also just been told that to shower, I must pour water from the dirty trough over myself. I am assured that it’s quite clean, but I haven’t been able to steel myself to take the plunge yet. Therefore I am actually quite dirty… but have gotten used to that after being a scummy backpacker for the last four weeks. May have to give it a go this evening before bed… fingers crossed all goes well.

I did my first ‘Tsunami Tour’ last night. I had a very good tour guide, and was given a lot of very interesting information. I am quite shocked at the lack of progress that has been made over the last 20 months. The water came in about 5km from the shoreline, and although most of the debris has now been cleared, the water has not properly receded. The ground has sunk several metres and the shoreline is now around a km further inland. In addition, the water is still sitting in stagnant pools in at least another couple of kilometres.

I’ll write a bit more about this later, but I thought I’d let you know that I’m here, and that all is well…

Oh, one other thing. I am staying in a building with a satellite comms tower in the front yard. We have mega broadband, so I’m available on email, msn and skype, but not mobile phone. I’m going to go and get an Indonesia SIM in a bit, so hopefully will be contactable then.

Bless…

Oh… I have started to put up some of my pics from Eastern Europe, but there are so many and it’s hard to choose. Also I can’t be bothered with captions, so you’ll just have to make up a story about where we might be.

To get there, just click on the gallery, (above this) and then click on the Eastern Europe Gallery. Take what you like!

We’ve just hit London again, and we’re utterly exhausted (heaven knows why, as we haven’t really done anything much).

Oh! Yes we have…. A couple of days ago we were in Slovenia, and we had a marvellous time hiking around the mountains all day long, and white water rafting down a river that I can’t spell or pronounce, so I’m not going to try.

It was pretty miserable weather over the last couple of days so we took it easy pretty much every day (actually went a bit stir crazy sitting inside - I’m sure if we were Irish we would have been out and about in it, but we’re not - we’re made of sugar and we melt if we go in the rain).

On the way back to Budapesssht yesterday, we learned that there had been riots there the night before. A bit apprehensive, we did a bit of digging and find that the people there have now actually got some proof that the Prime Minister (who is a left over communist from the old regime and did some terrible things) has actually rigged the elections to be in power. I would be furious too, and I’m quite sure that if I was Hungarian I would be up there protesting as well. They estimate that there will be approx 1.6 million protesting on Saturday - wouldn’t that be something to see!! We did get a couple of pics of the protests (but only from afar, so it’s ok mum!)

We also heard yesterday about the Coup in Thailand, which is a bit worrying as Kath will be there in about ten days, and I will be there in about four weeks. I guess both of us will soon be moving around in some of the more dangerous areas of the world, which has always concerned me, but is something we will have to get used to. Working in the Humanitarian Sector generally means working in the areas where we are told not to go!

So our Eastern Europe holiday is over . We made some lovely, lovely friends, some of which I hope we will keep for a long time (Leah Anne, I cried this morning after we left you!)

I leave tomorrow morning for Banda Aceh in Indonesia. This is where the holidays stop and the work starts. Please pray for me, as I am very, very nervous and a little apprehensive about what lies ahead. I’ll let you know how I go.

It’s a hard life, but somebody has to do it!….

I spent the last week with Kath on a sailboat, sailing around the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia (in actual fact, I think this may be where Dalmations come from as there are lots of cute dalmations on all of the postcards… never saw any in real life though, although there are cats EVERYWHERE)

I definately recommend a Sail Croatia week to anyone who wants to spend a week sitting in the sunshine and doing nothing except sun-tanning, reading and swimming… oh and eating. Food was awesome. Don’t recommend it to anyone who is claustrophobic though, the cabins were a tad on the small side. We couldn’t both stand in there at the same time, and the ensuite bathroom was something to be experienced.

We had an awesome group of people though - you expect to meet a couple of nice people on every tour you embark on, but it’s rare to find that you really, really like every single person you are travelling with. There were 20 of us, and I really like all of them. I have said goodbye to some already, and the rest of the goodbyes will be tonight - I think there could be tears, or at least lots of promises to write!

I am slowly converting everyone I meet over to the fantastic new drink of Champagne and Red Bull - seriously, it’s worth a try! If you don’t like champagne (as I don’t) just add a touch of red bull - and whammo! Instant good night - and NO HANGOVER! (Apparently if you add a shot of vodka it’s called a ‘Liquid Cocaine’ - we tried that and I don’t recommend it. Nasty aftertaste, and definately reduces the whammo effect!)

Things I will remember about this last trip….

Listening to poo conversations between the doctors, nurses and weirdo people on the trip - and watching poo floating by in the water, and being nibbled at by fish, just after being served up a lovely fish dinner!

Taking over several bars with just us, and creating the broken glass dance (to add to the pop up sprinkler, shopping trolley, and sour milk dance). Oh and also the sea legs dance.

Playing endless games of arsehole with way too many people and changing the rules every single hand.

Red bull!

Actually managing to get into the water from the lowest part of the boat, and having everyone jump off the boat at the exact same time from all different levels.

Dancing the night away in Split (hope to do that again tonight)

Sitting at the front of the boat during the Gale Force 5 winds and laughing hysterically into the wind.

Watching the sun set in many different places - Dubrovnich and… some place from the top of a tower - my memory is like sieve.

The people, the people, the people. To all of you - You are the BEST!! You get listed here for posterity!

Claire, Suzy, Kylie, Belinda, Lord Drew, Aidey, Adam, Sarah, Kath, Aleisha, Tracey, James, Lucinda, Shelley, Kate, Rory, Chloe and Suzie.

Mwa ha!

Alrighty then. Now we are back in Split and will meet up with a lot of people from our Eastern Trekkers tour. We have already found Jen and Leah Anne, and will be joining them tonight before going out for another night of final partying with some of our boat people. Then off to Slovenia tomorrow and then back to Budapessht.

Sometimes I think I should have my head smacked. I have a problem with dates sometimes… I admit it. Just ask my sister. Once we were in Mexico City, and we were supposed to leave on a particular day, and we turned up at the airport a day late. We had absolutely no idea what day of the week it was.

Well… I’ve done it again! Twice!!

I booked our flight from Budapest to London the day AFTER I am supposed to leave London for Indonesia, and today we turned up for our Sailing Trip around Croatia a day early. Had to carry our backpacks all around Split trying to find accommodation for another night, because we couldn’t bare to walk all the way back up the hill to our ‘lovely’ hostel of last night. (The bathrooms were truly spectacular - none of the toilets in the girls toilet either closed or locked, and the girls showers were connected to the boys bathroom by a balcony. Modesty? What modesty?)

So anyway, we wandered a little around Split lugging our huge backpacks with us, and couldn’t find anywhere (every building looks the same in Split). Then (after a small prayer) we were approached by a Croatian Man who asked us if we were looking for accommodation and took us back to a lovely little apartment in his girlfriend’s flat. Truly lovely, very cheap and we are very happy and satisfied. We have spent the afternoon wandering around Split, doing some shopping and drinking on the sidewalk across from the beach. So it’s not so bad after all.

Sometimes I wonder why my friends put up with me ……

We have the fortunate (or unfortunate?) fact that very few people on our tour drink … or they do drink but are on antibiotics and CAN’T drink (Leah Ann!!) so we haven’t really had any nights out with the group.

We did however manage to have a good night out in Krakow. Just Kath and myself and the only other guy on the tour Nick. We met up with our tour guide Pav (what a honey) and went out with him and a couple of his friends to ‘the best club in Krakow’. It’s a good thing he turned up actually as we were convinced that we had somehow ended up in a gay bar and weren’t really sure where we were or should be. After a good bit of a boogy we made it home by about 2.30am - our first (and only) big night out the whole time.

We left Krakow and made our way to Zakopane which is in the mountains in the south of Poland. Beautiful little town nestled in the foothills - had a great dinner but ended up going to bed early for an early start in the morning. We were told that we would be catching a cable car to the top of the morning and then walking down, but the queue was so long to catch the cable car, that we ended up walking up the mountain. Ye Gods! All of my work at the gym did not prepare me. Pav, if you are reading this, you really should tell people that it’s a DIFFICULT CLIMB! Not a nice easy one. We were absolutely exhausted when we reached the top, and I thought Leah Ann was going to pass out from coughing (she is sick, so we got to use her as an excused for being so slow behind everyone else).

Had a bit of a boogy at the hotel we were staying at in Zakopane, and then the next day went on to Budapessht. Apparently you can’t say it in the normal way, with an S. MOVE OVER PARIS! WOW - I am totally impressed with Budapest. It is incredible beautiful, especially at night. I am trying to work out whether or not I should move it to my number one favourite city, behind Sydney and Perth of course. We’ve spent a couple of nights in Budapest and said goodbye to our tour guide Pav .

We did a walking tour in Budapest which really brings the city to life. Hungary as a country has sufference so much defeat and depression over the last 1000 years it is really sad. I have some theories about that, make sure you ask me sometime….

We have joined up with a different tour for the last couple of days and spent today walking around Plitvice National Park in Croatia. The land of the falling lakes - absolutely stunning. We have just arrived in Split in Croatia ready to start a weeks of sailing around Croatia tomorrow. Sigh…. it’s a hard life.

More soon…..

Well the rest of Prague was very nice, we had a bit of a walking tour through the city, but it was raining and freezing, which put a bit of a damper on the whole thing. It’s supposed to be Summer for goodness sake - 14 degrees just doesn’t cut it!

We have joined a small tour group of 8 people (one boy) and our driver Pawel (pronounced Pavel). Pav is Polish and he is fantastic.

We left Prague on Wednesday and made our way to Kutna Hora which has an ossuary made of bones. Basically they have used the bones of about 40,000 people to decorate the inside of a church, and it completely creeped both Kath and myself out. If you have ever felt the spiritual presence of evil, it was like this, and it was inside a church. Not a nice sensation at all.

We left Kutna Hora and drove to Olumouc, which is still in the Czech Republic. We spent the night in the Hostel, Poets Corner, which was very cozy. Unfortunately only got to see the city at nighttime, but it looked very lovely and very empty. Would like to see it again in the day time if I ever get the chance.

Then Thursday, my 34th birthday. Funnily it didn’t bother me anywhere near as much as my 33rd birthday. It doesn’t feel quite so real when you don’t have so many friends and family around you. Also, it was a bit of a surreal day, as we spent most of it at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

I was prepared to be horrified by Auschwitz, but I don’t think I have ever really been aware of the full scope of the atrocities that were committed against the Jewish race. The Nazi Regime really did have the intention of the extermination of the entire race, they were not considered people and were put to death in the most disgusting ways - the sheer volume of murders and violence shock me to the core of my being.

I was reminded constantly throughout the tour of the current situation in the middle east - and although I do not support what recently happened in Lebanon, and I am of mixed feelings about the creation of the Israeli state in Palestine, I can understand the feelings of the Israeli people when they make a stand and say ‘We will never ever let anything like this happen to us again. If you attack us we will fight back. Don’t come against us, we will no longer be a people who sit back and take this’.

I was also reminded that this is not only a historical situation. The racial extermination of entire people groups is still happening all over Africa and in different nations of the world. As we were unaware of what was happening in the Death Camps of Germany, so we too often turn a blind eye to what is happening in Zimbabwe, Sudan, Uganda, the Congo and other areas in Africa, where people are being exterminated and screaming out for help, but they are unheard and unhelped. We in the west simply have more important things to do with our time.

Feeling a little somber we left Auschwitz and it’s gas chambers and made our way to Krakow (pronounced Krakov). A beautiful city indeed - well worth a good visit. I have just finished a tour of the old town and thought I would take some time out to reflect on some of the things I saw and experienced yesterday, and to get it down in writing.

For any of you who plan to tour Eastern Europe at some time, I thought I’d rate our hostels out of ten:

Prague
The Czech Inn
Cleanliness: 10
Friendliness: 4
Ambience: 6
Kitchen: 0 - No kitchen
Convenience: 8
Beds: 10
Showers: 10 (Huge shower heads - 20 cm diametr - woo hoo!)

Olumouc
The Poets Corner
Cleanliness: 6
Friendliness: 7
Ambience: 8
Kitchen: 8
Convenience: 8
Beds: 7
Showers: 8 - but only two showers and two toilets in the whole hostel

Krakow
Hostel Centrum
Cleanliness: 8
Friendliness: 7
Ambience: 8 (Drunk Irishmen across the hall, and drunk Italians next door - oh and banging workmen at 7.30 in the morning)
Kitchen: 8
Convenience: 9
Beds: 8 (With reading lights on all but Kath’s bed)
Showers: 10