Merry Christmas to all of you, my blog groupies.
I am celebrating in the traditional manner of jumping out of a plane.
I think it is a suitable action.
Rock and Roll
Paddy
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Where the air is fine...
Buenos Aires. Just like Europe, but warmer in December.
Seriously. Romantic sidewalk cafes, cobbled streets, impressive monuments, stylish people that make your attempt to pretty yourself up futile - no matter what you do you still seem like an extra from Fraggle Rock.
I have not actually managed to do any touristing in my time here. Saw a few movies. Went out for a few drinks here and there. Went out dancing and prancing - which is a big thing, if there ever was a city that lives only by night, this is it. But tomorrow I promise I will start with the tourist gear. But just because you asked nicely.
Oh and my camera is in the panel beaters as of yesterday. Yay!
Rock and Roll.
Paddy
Seriously. Romantic sidewalk cafes, cobbled streets, impressive monuments, stylish people that make your attempt to pretty yourself up futile - no matter what you do you still seem like an extra from Fraggle Rock.
I have not actually managed to do any touristing in my time here. Saw a few movies. Went out for a few drinks here and there. Went out dancing and prancing - which is a big thing, if there ever was a city that lives only by night, this is it. But tomorrow I promise I will start with the tourist gear. But just because you asked nicely.
Oh and my camera is in the panel beaters as of yesterday. Yay!
Rock and Roll.
Paddy
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Bussy goodness.
Well, as you may be aware, I need to essentially traverse half of this continent in order to make it to Santa Cruz in Bolivia to catch my ride to the Northern half of the globe. So at some stage I going to have to end my crusade south (I mean crusade in a sense totally unrelated from anything war-ry or holy. Just so you know) and turn around.
Well, sad as it may seem, that day has come (´cause I know you have all been following my progress with vivid interest - sighing and screaming at the appropriate moments - wishing there were commercials so you could take bathroom breaks without missing any of the action). Tomorrow I get on a bus to blaze a trail towards Buenos Aires. Which sounds fine, except when you consider that this will take 2 and a half days. Now, I have become accustomed to such wince-inducing travel action in the last 10 months, this is still somewhat of a record.
Accordingly I have stopped in the personality deficient town of Rio Gallegos to go in search of a few good books, a blankie, and maybe even a few good Cosmos or Cleos. Because nothing makes time fly quite like a woman´s magazine directed at mid to late teens. Who doesn´t want to know 15 ways to sizzle in the sack? Not me!
The glacier by the way was very impressive and very icy. A 60 metre wall of solid rising up in front of you really does provoke feelings of awe and wonder. It would have made for quite a few good photos as well, but you already know the situation in that department.
Counting down to the end of South American time now. But Mexico still to come. Doing a bit of a road trip thing with the indubitably lovely Alison Packam. Then Canada to settle down and ...work... again. This is a concept which due to popular opinion, I still vaguely understand.
Rock and Roll.
Paddy
Well, sad as it may seem, that day has come (´cause I know you have all been following my progress with vivid interest - sighing and screaming at the appropriate moments - wishing there were commercials so you could take bathroom breaks without missing any of the action). Tomorrow I get on a bus to blaze a trail towards Buenos Aires. Which sounds fine, except when you consider that this will take 2 and a half days. Now, I have become accustomed to such wince-inducing travel action in the last 10 months, this is still somewhat of a record.
Accordingly I have stopped in the personality deficient town of Rio Gallegos to go in search of a few good books, a blankie, and maybe even a few good Cosmos or Cleos. Because nothing makes time fly quite like a woman´s magazine directed at mid to late teens. Who doesn´t want to know 15 ways to sizzle in the sack? Not me!
The glacier by the way was very impressive and very icy. A 60 metre wall of solid rising up in front of you really does provoke feelings of awe and wonder. It would have made for quite a few good photos as well, but you already know the situation in that department.
Counting down to the end of South American time now. But Mexico still to come. Doing a bit of a road trip thing with the indubitably lovely Alison Packam. Then Canada to settle down and ...work... again. This is a concept which due to popular opinion, I still vaguely understand.
Rock and Roll.
Paddy
Friday, December 08, 2006
Return to service.
Ok. I admit it. I have been slack. But as my cousin Simon has observed in his usual adroite style - which, praise be, is for the first time not focused on my personal grooming habits- spinning tales of wit and wonder is less fun when you can´t break up the text with the odd image or two. It is all about rhythm, 1 text entry, 2 photos, 1 text entry, 3 photos. Like that. (Which is odd really, as in normal circumstances I have about as much rhythm as Kevin Rudd on acid) .
But the gauntlet has been thrown and I must have my satisfaction. For I am never one to walk away from a challenge, unless it one involving a chicken, 3 tubes of strawberry yoghurt and the entire front line of the Brisbane Broncos. So, my beloved readers, as of this moment, regular transmission has returned.
I am now in Argentina. I passed thrown a very pretty town called Bariloche which was a bizarre mixture of Switzerland and Isreal. Switzerland in that it was lakes and mountains, chocolates and cheeses, beagles (I kid you not) and buxom lasses with blonde pigtails. Israel, in that 80% of the people (everyone, not just the travellers) were Israelis. Now, they were lovely, it is just that I never considered that Hebrew would be the lingua franca anywhere outside of Israel. Somewhat surprising.
In any case, I found it all a bit touristy and decided to move on. Which brings me to Puerto Madryn, which, to replace the Israels, apparently has a very large Welsh population. What is going on here? I am feeling very twilight zone and fully expect to find a large Tongan community in my next destination. Puerto Madryn is very much more my style. A lazy port town with a national park near by with all manners of wonders. Penguins, whales, sea lions, sea elephants (which are among the ugliest creatures ever, ranking slightly behind hairless cats). I feel very at one with the natural world.
Tomorrow I move down south deeper into Patagonia, to see the largest glacier in the world. I would have gone today, but unbeknownst to me until this morning, today is the day of some saint or other and as such, I could not pick up my laundry. And one of the rules I try to live by is that you should always greet a unfamiliar place in a fresh set of underwear.
Rock and Roll.
Paddy
But the gauntlet has been thrown and I must have my satisfaction. For I am never one to walk away from a challenge, unless it one involving a chicken, 3 tubes of strawberry yoghurt and the entire front line of the Brisbane Broncos. So, my beloved readers, as of this moment, regular transmission has returned.
I am now in Argentina. I passed thrown a very pretty town called Bariloche which was a bizarre mixture of Switzerland and Isreal. Switzerland in that it was lakes and mountains, chocolates and cheeses, beagles (I kid you not) and buxom lasses with blonde pigtails. Israel, in that 80% of the people (everyone, not just the travellers) were Israelis. Now, they were lovely, it is just that I never considered that Hebrew would be the lingua franca anywhere outside of Israel. Somewhat surprising.
In any case, I found it all a bit touristy and decided to move on. Which brings me to Puerto Madryn, which, to replace the Israels, apparently has a very large Welsh population. What is going on here? I am feeling very twilight zone and fully expect to find a large Tongan community in my next destination. Puerto Madryn is very much more my style. A lazy port town with a national park near by with all manners of wonders. Penguins, whales, sea lions, sea elephants (which are among the ugliest creatures ever, ranking slightly behind hairless cats). I feel very at one with the natural world.
Tomorrow I move down south deeper into Patagonia, to see the largest glacier in the world. I would have gone today, but unbeknownst to me until this morning, today is the day of some saint or other and as such, I could not pick up my laundry. And one of the rules I try to live by is that you should always greet a unfamiliar place in a fresh set of underwear.
Rock and Roll.
Paddy
Friday, December 01, 2006
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)