Round the World with Mick

See photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaellar/ just in case you forgot.

I arrived at LAX and tried to find the secret gate 44c to catch my commuter flight to San Diego. I won't be flying american airlines in a hurry (well, at least until wed night when I have to go back to LAX) since after shuttling me to the secret gate they then almost didn't put me on my confirmed flight due to overbooking it. They obviously didn't interpret my 'I've been up for 20hrs, don't friggen mess with me' look correctly. Bloody americans.

It was 26 degrees when i touched down in San Diego- a very welcome change from sub 18 degrees temps in the UK. It was a pleasure to be picked up by Mary at the airport. We headed home to Mary's apartment in La Jolla (pronounced La Ho-ya for the uninitiated) and then out to dinner at Rock Bottom for Mac & Cheese (Mary) and Jumbalaya (me) and some beer (would you expect anything less from Mary?)

The next day after a sleep in we headed down the coast to Pacific Beach (PB) where we waited for half an hour in the sun outside Kono's on the beach for breakfast burritos (ahhhh sun...) filled with eggs, bacon, potatoes and some other goodies. well worth the wait.

After breakie we had a walk around Garnet ave in PB and a look in the shops. After admiring the extraordinary range of porn outfits (a.k.a. 'halloween costumes') in the stores, and making a few purchases, we headed back to the car. We found some icecream (cold rock style for the adelaideans) and then headed down to Coronado Island. Coronada island is home to the famous Hotel del Coronado, the site of Some Like It Hot. It was pretty cool and home to 2 weddings (that we saw). We wandered around and then settled in to the bar for a cocktail (Mai Tai for me) and a beer for Mary.

We had a meal at home (love home cooking) and then went out in to downtown San Diego for a drink at Yard House. We admired the porn stars (a.k.a. halloween revellers) before heading home when everything closed at 1am (boring huh).

OK, that's all for now. I hope to write again from San Diego before I leave on Wed night to head back to Melbs.

Cheers.

Please see http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaellar/ for photos.

I arrived in London and went via London Bridge station to get to Schona's house. She picked me up from the Blackheath station near her in Lewisham and we headed back to her place for a drink and a catch up. Schona is Kerri's friend from Ads and I am lucky enough to have met her in Melbs and I was also lucky enough to be able to stay with her and Matt in London. We spent some time taking a million photos of her apartment to make Kerri feel like she was there with us.

Matt arrived home shortly and we established our mutual Ads connections (this is starting to weird me out a little) before heading out to Zero degrees brewery for pizza and beer. We walked home after dinner along the Heath which I have often read about but never seen. According to Schona (and she is a school teacher so she is just about as credible as a scientist...) there are many bodies buried under the heath from the Black Plague so they don't build on it. It is quite odd to have a such a large area of grassed green area in London. but very beautiful.

The next day, Schona and I set off to Brighton for the day. I contined to be impressed by Schona's driving skills- we didn't get lost once or need to look at a map driving to Brighton- Schona had only been driving in London for a week before I arrived!

Brighton was absolutely beautiful (when it stopped raining) and we had fun finding a pub for lunch (it was a bit of an effort choosing one from the hundreds) in the laneways of Brighton. After sausages and mash and a beer we headed down to the Brighton pier where we had a bash at Dolphin Derby- we were embarrassed by some young uns and sought out some fairy floss for the true carnival experience....

We headed home for the evening to be greeted by Matt and a home cooked meal of chicken stir-fry and lentils. I have a new found appreciation for vegetables and home cooking after travelling for 4 weeks!!

The next day Schona and I headed to Greenwich where Schona was getting her haircut. It was a miserable London day but I had fun exploring the old naval college- now Greenwich university. It was very very beautiful. More old buildings. Went past the Cutty Sark and found some shops for a look. Schona and I had some awesome curry for lunch and stopped in briefly at home for a nanna nap before heading out to get half price tickets at Leicester square for the theatre in the West End.

We managed to nab some bargain-ish tickets to 'The Producers' and we sheltered from the rain in a pub waiting for Matt before heading to the theatre. The show was great (though it didn't take long for the ushers to identify us as the rowdy aussies- I think it was because we were busted trying to take our bottle of wine in with us..) After the show we headed home via some burgers.

In the great tradition of goodbyes haunting my holiday I farewelled Matt and Schona on Thursday morning and I headed off in to London to meet up with Hayley at Victoria station.

Having not seen Hayley for 4 years since we worked together at WCH in ads, I was very excited to finally catch up with her!! It was like old times. We had a great time wandering around London past Buckingham palace and covent garden, parliament house and big ben. London by night is a bit of alright.

Camilla and Grant are in the final stages of preparation for their wedding on Jan 6th 2007 and two of Grant's groomsmen live in London. I haven't met either of them- Grant's brother, Warwick, or Grant's best friend, Nick. They both live in or near Clapham so I found a train to take me there and met them at The Clapham North for a drink or five and a meal. It was great swapping stories and collaborating on the Best Man's speech (although I suspect Grant and Camilla may have had some nervous moments back in Adelaide receiving updates by sms).

We finally said goodbye before the last train and I headed home to try and get a few hours sleep before I had to get up and head off to battle Heathrow security again.

After falling asleep in the airport and being woken by a kindly sole before my plane took off I boarded and began my 11hr flight to LAX.

Ta Ta from the UK.

Please see http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaellar/ for photos.

My day of travelling to Manchester did not start well. After getting up at 5am I was lucky enough to get flashed in Brescia on my way to the train station. He stopped following me when I used the common language of gesticulation combined with some yelling!!

Security made me cry in Heathrow (I'm getting a bit over airports....) and by the time I got to Manchester I was well ready for a drink. Which was just as well because we had time for one cup of tea before we headed out to dinner for Oli's friend Nicky's (another Aussie) birthday. After an overload of brit music and beer (washed down with chips in gravy) we finally got in at 4am. I was a bit tired.

I spent Thursday (after sleeping in), on a foot tour of Manchester and then Friday after work we picked up a hire car, Nicky and Adele (the token English person) and headed off to Glasgow. It took us 3 hours and several arguments to get to Glasgow where we stayed with Finn and Catriona, friends that Oli and Nicky had made a month earlier on a holiday with some mutual friends. They very kindly took us in for the night even if there was some ulterior motives in having people to play Presidents and Assholes with. The cards went everywhere on this trip. The next morning they showed us around Glasgow after a very big and fabulous breakfast.

We visited the Glasgow museum and then headed off to Loch Lomond. We stopped at a Whiskey distillery on the way and then arrived in Balmaha on the Eastern shore of the Loch. It was a little cold and miserable when we arrived but still very beautiful. We checked in to the Oak-Tree-Inn and found our lovely room and then went for a walk down to the Loch and around the (very) small town.

We settled in to dinner with our pack of cards for some more P & A, trumps and poker mixed in with beer, tasty Haggis and some beautiful mains. We all slept very well and then got up to find a beautiful crisp morning. We hired a row boat (nicky and i voted for an outboard) and rowed out to the island in the loch near our hotel. There is an ancient burial site and 1300a.d. church on the top of the island so we walked up and had a look around. It was very beautiful. One of Rob Roy's cousin's is buried there and the ancient church served as the Parish church until a new one on the mainland took over it's function.

We headed up north on the Loch a little further during the day, stopping off at Luss, a beautiful town on the Loch with a well renowned tea shop. We had some awesome scones and hot chocolate jammed with cream before heading up further to see some more beautiful sites of Scotland in Autumn.

On the way home from Loch Lomond we drove through Greenock- near Port Glasgow. Greenock is my mum's home town and used to be a famous ship building town, responsible for the QEII and Queen Mary cruise liners, before the town came down on it's luck and had to close the Kincaid ship building yards. Although quite industrial, there are some very pretty parts of the town, especially near the water.

We finally got back to Manchester around 8pm on Sunday night whence we headed almost straight to bed!!!

The next day I had to get up and catch a train in to London for the next leg!!

Sad to say goodbye to Oli but had a fantastic time visiting her!! She is very happy in Manchester- enjoying the slightly whiny brit music.....

Please see http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaellar/ for photos.

After a tour of Genoa with Vilija, including seeing the 'interesting' sculpture at the port I headed off the next day to Brescia to stay with Marco.

Brescia is halfway between Milan and Venice and is a beautiful little town. Brescia experienced the most Australians ever when 3 of us congregated for Marco's bday weekend celebrations.

On the weekend Marco, Jacqui (a friend of Marco's from WEHI who is currently Post Doc'ing in Paris at the Pasteur) and I went to Verona where we visited Juliet's 'balcony' and had some awesome Gelati. On the way back we stopped in at Desenzano, a beautiful little town on Lake Garda. It was definitely the cocktail hour so we had some aperitifs before heading home for Marco's feast. We had enough cheese to make an entire army feel unwell followed by Marco's pork sausage cream pasta. mmmmmm. pork sausage.

The following day we escorted Jacqui in to Milan to catch her plane back to Milan. Marco and I hung around and purchased him a beautiful jacket (see picture later with lamingtons) and visited Il Duomo of Milan. It was fairly awesome. By far my favourite Il Duomo.

The next day I took myself off to Venice which was very niiiiice. Had some lovely weather and toddled around enjoying the sites. Particularly enjoyed the Basilica San Marco. I'm quite convinced that Saint Marco Evangelista (for whom Marco was named) must have had something to do with cooking because I arrived home to more homemade delights from Marco. We then set about making lamingtons (using Italian teacake instead of sponge to cut time) for Marco's lab. We also made fairy bread in the morning and Marco took Vegemite to torture the Italians with.

On my final day in Italy I wandered around Brescia and then headed to Bergamo (an outer city of Milan) which is an ancient high city. You arrive on the train in the 'new' city and you catch a tram up the hill to the old high city. It was very very beautiful and there were some lovely sights to see. I narrowly avoided being attacked by pigeons whilst eating my lunch of Bergamo specialy ravioli. Of course I had a gelati chaser....

I was very sorry to farewell Marco on Wed morning - I had a great time sharing his birthday and his house. But I was off to visit Oli in Manchester.....

A final Ciao Ciao from Italia.

Photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaellar/

Monday night VJ and I caught the train to Genoa where she and James live. They have an awesome apartment with an amazing view of the city and port. James makes a very good house husband and had dinner on the table shortly after we walked in the door!!

On Tuesday Vilija introduced me to Italy of the Stairs. No wonder Italian women don't get fat (or have large thighs.) Our first duty was to eat focaccia (so good) and then visit PosteItalia (See photo). If you are ever in for a fun time try it out. It is a wonder anything gets anywhere from Italy. Makes you really really appreciate Australia Post.

We headed off from Genoa back down the coast a little to Santa Magherita, a beautiful village with more stairs. After walking (including some decent stair action) around a little and finding some turtles and scooters and gelati (of course) we headed off to Portofino- play ground of the rich and famous. I should mention that we put our lives in the hands of the gods (lucky we visited all those churches...) by taking the bus along the very narrow streets between villages. Portofino was very beautiful and even better when we climbed yet more stairs to get away from the tourists swarming the central piazza and found Castello Brown, an ancient Castle with a long history and the most amazing views (See photos of Portofino.) In the Castello they had pictures from Portofino in the 1950s and 60s with Aristotle Onassis, Sophia Loren, Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor (with one of the husbands), Orson Wells, etc etc.

We got home just in time to head out to Aperitifs with some of Vilija and James' Italian friends. Genoa has a lift (due to its hilly nature) that you get in somewhere near their house and then it does underground down to the city centre. strange but very handy if you are looking to avoid some stairs.....Aperol and tonic with a wedge of orange might just be my new favourite summer drink. Give it a burl sometime. Followed up with gelati from one of the best in genoa (we have it on good authority). strawberry that fizzes in your mouth.

Which finally brings me to today. Today Vilija had to work so I headed off to Cinque Terre- the 5 little villages on the coast just down from Portofino. I caught the train the Monterosso the most western of the cinque terre villages, had a looook, took some photos and then set off on the walking trail to the next village of Vernazza. After 50 million stairs upwards (that's not that much of an exaggeration) I was wondering what I had got myself in for but the views were spectacular and it was actually an amazing walk, all 1.5hrs of it (See photos).

It was so great catching sight of Vernazza and it was the most beautiful of the 5 terre towns I visited. I stopped for lunch (Panini), Gelati (strawberry and bacio), water (lots of it) and sunscreen application before heading off on the track to Corniglia the middle of the 5 terre. I had fun finding cats all the way along the 5 terre.

By the time I reached Corniglia another 1.5 hrs later I'd pretty much was happy never to see another step again. Had a wander around (again very beautiful) and then took the 363 steps (according to the lonely planet guide) down to the train station. I took the train to the last town of the 5 terre, Romaggiore and had a look there (see Photo) before taking the train back to Genoa in a state of complete physical exhaustion.

James was in the process of MAKING gnocchi when I arrived which we later had (after I had washed away the dirt and sweat of the day, and tended to my sun kissed skin) with genovese pesto. Fantastic. And as if that wasn't enough he then helped me load my photos on to Flickr. Don't forget to go see them.

Tomorrow the lovely VJ is taking me on a tour of Genoa (I hope we can avoid the stairs....) So, Ciao Ciao until then.