A lot of war and some peace

After my second attempt I finally managed to read all of "War and Peace" within a space of about 6 weeks recently. Previously I had started but then got a bit distracted/bored and stopped.

If anyone is going to attempt reading it I would suggest reading it quickly and without long gaps in between sittings. Otherwise you will lose some of the characters and plot developments.

So how do I feel about it now that I finally finished? Its hard to summerise but I will try. Overall the second time around I enjoyed the book a whole lot more. I managed to remember about 95% of the characters and I think this really helped to enhance the experience.

I think that while being lengthy this book is not a difficult one to read especially when considering some other famous Russian novels. One thing I most enjoyed was the satirical way in which the characters were depicted which on occasion produced chuckle out loud moments. Some of the characters were almost caricatures and while serving the plot and conveying what the author wanted well, they were hardly believable or loveable. While I cared what happened to certain characters in certain sections of the book there was no one character that I loved or cared about deeply. The unmistakable omniscient voice of the author and sometimes his overt maneuvering made it obvious that they were just there to serve a purpose and be a tool for what the author wished to convey. You can argue that all characters in all books are just that but I found it very obvious and in my opinion sometimes too obvious.

As the title of this blog suggests most of the books seemed like it was in the war related events and times. I'm not a fan of war films or books but I found the war related plots very interesting and enlightening. Most things happen not because of the will of some amazing person or one decision but because many small things coincide to produce which in hindsight appears to be a significant event. All wars are useless and pointless - "War is not a polite recreation but the vilest thing in life, and we ought to understand that and not play at war".

I loved some of the beautiful analogies the author used to convey what he was saying.

"Just as in the clock the result of the complex action of innumerable wheels and pulleys is merely the slow and regular movement of the hand marking the time, so the result of all the complex human activities of these 160,000 Russian and French - of all their passions, hopes, regrets, humiliations, sufferings, outbursts of pride, fear and enthusiasm - was only the loss of the battle of Austerlitz, the battle of the three Emperors, as it was called; that is to say, a slow movement of the hand on the dial of human history"

Often the author would use several analogies to get his point across and I sometimes felt as if I was being hit over the head over and over again. I just wanted to shout out and say 'YES! I GOT IT.. LET'S MOVE ON". I think this book could have done with better editing especially towards the end. I'm not saying that because I dont like long books but I believe this book wont lose anything wonderful in it even after some serious editing. Some people might disagree.

I want to finish by recommending this book to everyone to read.

Here are some beautiful lines from it:

“I simply want to live; to cause no evil to anyone but myself.” 

“We are asleep until we fall in Love!” 

“Because of the self-confidence with which he had spoken, no one could tell whether what he said was very clever or very stupid.”

“Everything depends on upbringing. ” 

“The only absolute knowledge attainable by man is that life is meaningless.” 

“A Frenchman's self-assurance stems from his belief that he is mentally and physically irresistibly fascinating to both men and women. An Englishman's self-assurance is founded on his being a citizen of the best organized state in the world and on the fact that, as an Englishman, he always knows what to do, and that whatever he does as an Englishman is unquestionably correct. An Italian is self-assured because he is excitable and easily forgets. A Russian is self-assured simply because he knows nothing and does not want to know anything, since he does not believe in the possibility of knowing anything fully.” 

“the same question arose in every soul: "For what, for whom, must I kill and be killed?".

"Everything was just as it was everywhere else"

“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” 

“The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience.”

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Harvest

Last Saturday the 17th Nov 2012 Pramo and I went to the Harvest festival @ Parramatta Park.

Here is the line up:

We saw Cake, Beck and Sigur Ros but I have to say Sigur Ros alone made the whole thing worthwhile. I have never seen Sigur Ros live and have only started to listen and love their music the last couple of years (yes, I know where the hell have I been?). The show was mesmerisingly beautiful with amazing lighting and great sound. They had 3 people on strings and 3 more on horns along with the Sigur Ros band members on stage.
The sound was turned up and the kick on the drum made my heart ache (in a good way). The crowd was captivated the entire hour and a half they were on stage and those epic 10+ minute songs made the time go very quickly.
It was one of the best shows I have seen and the concert was everything I love about their music and more. People were quite still, slowly swaying to the music, sometime listening with their eyes closed, immersing fully in the achingly beautiful sounds.
They played a few tracks from their new album which has a more rocky/heavy feel to it but I liked it straight away - must go an listen to it and see how I like it as a whole.

Here are some pics and clips from the concert (the sound is clipping due to the crappy camera phone)...

Setting up before Sigur Ros 1

Setting up before Sigur Ros 2

Sigur Ros on stage

Sigur Ros from Pramo's phone

Sigur Ros from someone else closer to the stage

Beck



Beck video

Steampunk R2D2 - I want one!

I saw this Steampunk R2D2 a couple of years back in Boing Boing and wanted it ever since. I wish I knew how to make it or convince the person who made it to sell it to me. I love steampunk everything!

Sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

---------------------------------------------------------------

This is one of my favourite poems. It's probably Shakespeare's most well known and loved sonnets. I will never get sick of reading it and I still recall the first time I read it which may have been in English class in high school thinking how beautiful it was and dreamily hoping I would meet someone who would woe me with poetry... ahhhhhhh!
Anyway, here is a nice reading of it.

Enroute to Kandy

Another beautiful photo.

Beautiful Picture

This gorgeous picture taken from Sirigiya is from a photo blog I saw when I was looking for Lankan landscapes to paint.

Game of Thrones - Can hardly wait..

I finished reading the books months ago and loved them (except maybe all the Cersei viewpoints in 'A Feast For Crows'). I was surprised how many of the characters I managed to keep in my head, but I still missed a few connections here and there. Its only after you read all the blogs about the books that you discover some of these obscure things.

The HBO series was very well done I thought. Amazingly close to the books in many regards, now when I think of the characters I am imagining the TV series actors rather than my own little creations in my head. I remember thinking when I first saw Daenerys that the version I imagined was way better than that. Unfortunately I don't recall what she was like in my head at all now.

I don't know how I can wait for possibly years for the next book and even series 2 isn't due until April next year. I will probably have to re-read some of the older books. For now I'm resolved to re-watching series 1 and reading the production blogs for series 2. Yes, I know I am sad!

What it means to be a professional developer

I read this article "Keep Your Workbench Clean! Code Quality & The Professional Developer" today. It has some interesting concepts about what a professional developer should do. While there is nothing new or revolutionary about what it says - I mean we should be already doing this - but I liked the whole carpenter analogy.

Stop All The Clocks

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

W. H. Auden

Portugal

I cant believe we've been back in Sydney for almost a year month now and I still havent written about our time in Portugal. Being the last country in our European summer 09 itinerary we arrived in Portugal with mixed emotions. It was sad to be almost at an end to our backpacking adventures and yet we were looking forward to seeing all our friends and family back in Sydney.

I've always wanted to visit Portugal and it didnt disappoint. Our first stop was in Lisboa the capital. We stayed at a fantastic hostel right in the heart of town. The hostel was only a few weeks old and everything was brand new. It had funky modern furniture, great dorms and everything was pretty high tech - with RFID chips as our room and locker keys and Macs available for internet browsing. We got to know the owners during the course of our stay who were 3 young entrepreneurs who really knew how a hostel should be.

It was also the hostel where we met some great fellow backpackers from all over the world and really bonded. There was the most unamerican-American Nick, who was over from Morocco as it was Ramadan there. Nick had a deal with the hostel owners and he cooked many fabulous meals for the residents in exchange for his board. He made a fantastic chicken curry on the first day which totally won me over. The only difference it had to my chicken curry was that it lacked a little heat but the flavours more than made up for it. On many nights we stayed in for dinner with many of the other residents to enjoy Nick's fabulous food over unlimited wine and beer and unforgettable company.

While Nick was busy in the kitchen we got to know a whole band of like minded and crazy people staying at the hostel. There were the two Finnish beauties - Saijja (pronounced Saya) and Lotta who became part of our air band with a couple of extremely friendly French guys (their names escape me). Then there were two more Fins - Artur and his friend who always wore a red hat and was known simple as the guy with the red hat. Nick's meal while tasting great took a very long time to arrive at the table so we had ample time to get to know these lovely folk.

Our time is Portugal and Lisboa in particular really stands out in my mind because of the great food we had. Portugeses food is rustic, simple and delicious. They use a lot of seafood in there diet which Pramod and I ofcourse love. I dont remember ever having a meal that I didnt like.



Coming from an ex-Protugese colony we also felt a subtle connection to the country as we recognised many common words in the two vocabularies and could see the Protugese influence in Sri Lankan food and architecture. Every Protugese person we met there was friendly and welcoming - I really would like to go back again and spend more time there. In Lisboa we went out with our new hostel buddies a quite few times so it didnt feel like we did a lot of touristy things. We did visit the castle overlooking the town, took a ferry across to the other side of the harbour and did a day trip up to Sintra. Somehow the place got under our skin so to speak.

After about a week in Lisboa we went up north to Porto and Braga which were quite different in character to the capital. Porto felt old and gritty especially around the old port. Braga was small, beautiful and cosmopolitan - the only thing I didnt like about it was a big Macdonalds they had allowed in the main historical square with the most out of this world fountain.

Then all too soon it was time to fly back to London to spend a few days there before heading home.

Granada

Granada was our final Spanish destination and turned out to be the most loved. By far the most beautiful of the Spanish cities we've visited, it has a great mix of old and new. Granada's Moorish past is ever present from the majestic Alhambra (the most visited monument in Spain) overlooking the city to Albayzin, a district full of narrow winding streets from its Medieval Moorish past. Even the offerings at the souvenir shops are more Arabic than Spanish.

We stayed at a great little hostel called 'Funky Backpackers' which felt more like someone's home rather than a hostel. In a way we were part of that family for those four days we stayed there as we got to know the family and became friends with many travellers who we met there. In Granada the siesta is more widely enforced than anywhere else we've been to in Spain and soon we got used to the essential afternoon nap as well. We did a free walking tour of Albayzin and Sacromonte and got to know many interesting things about Granada's past thanks to our crazy Aussie guide, Sol. We climbed to a lookout in Abayzin to watch the sunset hitting the Alhambra beautifully and ended the tour at a cave restaurant in Sacromonte for Sangria. Granada has a great Flamenco tradition especially in Sacromonte and as we walked back into town we could hear many cave houses and restaurants alive with its gipsy like songs and frenzied clapping.

The next day we had lunch at a fantastic restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet which had a mix of Lebanese and Moroccan cuisine. We stopped by for some Turkish apple tea on the way back and came back to the hostel for some essential rest at the hottest time of the day. The hostel had cheap dinners on some nights and we stayed in for dinner on several occasions to enjoy Paella and Spanish omelette thanks to Manuel.

On our last day we visited Alhambra with its many palaces, gardens, military compound and towers. That same night we went back to see a special Flamenco show that came highly recommended by all the locals we had met thus far. The Alhambra has a great open air theatre in one of its gardens where many artists have performed over the years and we felt very lucky to see something there. The show was a theatrical Flamenco dance show with a cast of about 25 to 30 with many dancers, singers and musicians. The costumes were dazzling and the skill of all the dancers were breathtaking. It was a fantastic experience to see Flamenco under the starry night with the Alhambra beautifully lit as its backdrop. The show and our time in Granada as a whole is something I will cherish forever and will not soon forget.

Madrid

Everyone whose been the Madrid has described it in very unflattering terms so I had low expectations of the place. However, I was pleasantly surprised to like the city in the end. We stayed in a huge hostel in Madrid and were unfortunate enough to stay in an eight bed dorm full of Italian boys who wondered in at all hours of the night and made a ruckuss each time. So suffice it to say we didnt get much sleep there.

We did a walking tour run by the tourist office of the old Madrid and learned much about the city. As there was only one other person on the tour (a lady called Helen from Perth) it was like having our own tour guide. We made friends with Helen and went for hot chocolate and churros(deep fried bread stick things) afterwards and she invited us to come and stay with her if we are ever in Perth. She also told us about her cousin who lives near the Spanish/Portuguese border and runs an organic farm that takes in WWOOFers. We had finally found a place to WWOOF but since we had booked the rest of our days in August we couldnt accept the offer. Afterwards Pramo got a hair cut at the oldest barber shop in Europe much to his delight as his hair was starting to look much like an afro and annoy him to no end.

We visited the Prado museum in Madrid with its sizeable collection of European Art. The museum was well organised and housed in a beautiful building so we really enjoyed our time there. Afterwards we went and chilled out at the Parque del Retiro (Park of the Retreat) for a while and watched people paddling about in the man made lake.

Coincidently one of the people we met in our hostel in Barcelona (Dhileep) also happen to stay at our Madrid hostel and we had the biggest shock to see him in the room next to us when we happen to go by. That night we spent walking around Madrid and showing him some of the places we've seen and visited so far.

Madrid is a big party city and people start the day very late with lunch at about 2-3pm and dinner at 9-10pm and then partying till the wee hours of the morning everyday of the week. Apparently some people try to live the Madridian party life and do a 9-5 job but end up burnt out very quickly. Our tour guide told us that there were more bars per capita than any other European city in Madrid and the young and old alike tend to bar hop with their friends all night long. So if you like to party head to Madrid!

Barcelona

As expected Barcelona was baking hot when we arrived there. We were exhausted by the time we made our way to our hostel after a 6 hour train journey from San Sebastian. The hostel had everything we needed including air conditioning which we were very thankful for.

Barcelona was full of amazing architecture everywhere you looked. Its home to many out-of-this-world Gaudi creations such as La Sagrida Familia church as well as La Ramblas - a long paved strip full of restaurants, cafes and shops as well as human statues dressed in all manner of costumes to impress the tourists walking by. While many people headed to the beach we went to see all the Guadi creations spread across the city. I liked his stuff just because he didnt believe in straight lines. We also visited the Picasso museum which contained a lot of his work leading up to & including cubism.

I remember Barcelona more for the nice people we met at the hostel more than anything. While many hostels have all the great facilities and places to hang out people dont always mix together. This was not the case in Barcelona as everyone went out together and made friends.

Barcelona is notorious for pick pockets and we were warned by everyone who has been there as well as the people running the hostel to be very careful everywhere. We heeded their advice and escaped without having anything stolen. Some of the others at the hostel weren't so lucky. One guy got his bike stolen from right in front of the hostel and his bag stolen all on the same day.

I really liked Barcelona despite the excess of dog shit & smell of urine everywhere you walked. Its one place I would like to go back to and spend more time in.

San Sebastian

Our first stop in Spain was San Sebastian, the capital of Basque country on the north east coast of the country. San Sebastian has three beaches surrounding the old part of town which is overlooked by a mountain fortress housing a giant statue of Christ. We stayed in the old town where the party never stops. The old town is a small compact collection of streets full of pintxo bars, restaurants and shops. San Sebastian is brimming with tourists who crowd the beaches by day and bar hop by night.

A visit to San Sebastian is not complete without a visit to some of its pintxo (pronounced pinchos) bars. Pintxos are small h'ordeuvres which consist of a topping such as chorizo, seafood, cheese, omelette etc on top of a crusty piece of bread pierced by a toothpick. The bar top is packed full of plates of pintxos and you basically order a drink like sangria and have as many pintxos as you want. Once you've had enough you tell the bar tender how many you've had and then pay a fixed price for each one you had. The price varied from one to four euros. Then you go to the next bar and start the process all over again. Each bar had its own speciality. We had pintxos many times while in San Sebastian and I have to say I really liked them.

We spent the days in San Sebastian exploring the area surrounding the old town. We climbed to the hilltop fortress for great views of the town, sea and beyond. We walked along the beaches to the end of the bay to see the famous seaside sculptures. At night we would go out for Sangria and pintxos or tapas. The hostel we stayed at was really cramped but had a very friendly feel. On our last day a week long festival started in San Sebastian. Although it rained most of the day it didnt seem to deter the many bands, parades or the crowd. That night everyone in the hostel headed out together to watch the fireworks over the beach. All in all it was a nice end to our stay in San Sebastian.e

Bordeaux

Bordeaux turned out to be very different from what I expected. It was a very pretty town with wide boulevards, huge squares, plazas and elegant buildings. It felt more refined than Paris in places. Apparently Paris was fashioned in the image of Bordeaux as it was already well-established when Paris was just a 'quasi-medieval' town.

We stayed in the rich area of the town in a budget hotel so ended having to walk quite a bit to get to restaurants and the main shopping strip. In Bordeaux on the banks of the river Gironne is the 'Place de la Bourse' built in the 18th century with two pavilion-like buildings behind a fountain of the three graces. The area in front of the square is dominated by a water feature called the 'water mirror' - a huge flat rectangular area that is sprayed by mist from the ground every 15 minutes or so. The 'water mirror' was a favourite with all the kids and adults alike who walked, slide and played on it for hours. The buildings and the surrounding area was lit up beautifully at night and was nice for an evening stroll. Behind 'Place de la Bourse' was a long pedestrianised walkway lined with shops, cafes and restaurants supposed to be the longest shopping street in Europe. Although I remember hearing the same phrase used to describe the main shopping street in Copenhagen.

We spent much of our time exploring the town by foot and chilling in its gardens and parks. We were there for four nights and found the whole town ghost-like over the weekend especially Sunday. Except for the tourists walking about trying to find something to do there were no locals about and hardly anything open. While there we did find a great supermarket near us with everything you could ask for and more. It had an entire aisle dedicated to cheese and two whole aisles full of wine (one for red and other for white, of course). The wine selection was so huge and cheap we ended having a bottle of wine with salmon & cheese baguettes for dinner for a couple of nights. Oh and when we went to get a baguette (french stick) from the bakery in the supermarket we had a choice from about 10 different types.. the French do love their food and wine!

While walking around town we came across an English pub and since the 3rd Ashes test was on I asked the girl behind the counter if she wouldnt mind putting on the cricket for us. After being shocked by the request (because no one had ever asked for the cricket) she obliged. So we spent a couple of hours watching cricket and sipping beer & cider - spending a very English afternoon in a French town.

Tours

After Paris we headed south west and ended up spending a few days in Tours. Tours is a nice town in the heart of the Loire valley and we stayed in the old town very close to the Loire river. The old town is full of restaurants and bars with the main square surrounded by old terrace houses which look as they are almost leaning on one another. These houses have now of course been converted to eateries and shops.

For a smallish town Tours is quite cosmopolitan with a big variety of restaurants. We even saw a Sri Lankan restaurant there. Tours is also where we decided to have a meal at a traditional French restaurant. The waiters did not speak any English and with our very limited French ordering was a stressful affair. We knew basics like fish, pork, cheese, chicken, beef etc.. so we guessed and ordered a three course meal. The entrees started well enough - Pramo had a potato and sardine salad and I had crusty bread with tuna pate thingy. Then came the main course. Mine was a roast chicken leg with potatoes and salad with an orange glaze which tasted quite good. Pramo who ordered something pork was given a plate with a boiled pork knuckle accompanied by boiled (killed) vegetables. The pork knuckle was pink and looked gross. The look on Pramo's face was classic - he was hoping it was a bad dream. He struggled his way through the main course hurrying along to get it over and done with. Then it was time for dessert. I ordered a creme caramel which was pretty nice and Pramo had ordered a selection of cheeses. France having 256 different types of cheese we were looking forward to trying some of them. His dessert consisted of two pieces of cheese and a leaf of lettuce. One of the cheese pieces smelled like someone's foot and the other was Camembert. So our adventures into French food ended that night as you might have guessed. The next day we had Japanese followed by pizza the night after that.

The Loire valley is famous for chataeux and wine so we did a tour of the area that took us to some of the famous chataeux (Amboise and Chenonceau) as well as wine tasting. Chenonceau castle was impressive as its built on the Cher river connecting the two banks almost like a bridge. We found the huge house impressive with its richly decorated rooms, perhaps the most interesting part was the tremendous kitchen with every conceivable cooking apparatus that was used back in the day displayed for visitors to marvel at. The path leading up to the house is framed by giant plane trees providing much appreciated shade and a welcoming feel. To the left of the path there was a huge maze much to the delight of kids of all ages including myself. Next to the house on the left bank there were beautiful formal gardens layed out with care much like those in the palace of Versailles. On our way back to our tour van we went through the farm house and vegetable gardens to the edge of the property. The vegetable garden had every conceivable vegetable growing in neat rows and beds hedged by small apple trees trimmed to act like a fence. We were very tempted to pick the apples but decided against it :)

Next we visited Amboise castle and saw the grave of Leonardo Da Vinci. On our way back to the town we stopped by a winery for a quick tour and some wine tasting. The winery much like others in the region were using a limestone cave to store the wine which provides the correct level of humidity and temperature for storage. We liked the wines we tried and so ended up buying a couple of bottles.

The next day we spent walking around town and sat by the side of the Loire river having lunch and enjoying the wine we bought the previous day. The afternoon passed quickly over a bottle of wine and it was one of the most relaxing afternoons I've had in a while. That night we bought pizza for dinner and went to eat by the river again. The side of the river we were on was paved along the bank and many people enjoyed walking & picnicing along the bank. Up the river there was an outdoor cafe/bar on the river bank with a band playing to a packed crowd. We went along and sat around enjoying the great band for a long time. The band could be described as folky-funk. They played traditional French folk songs with a violin and accordion to a funk base line. People of all ages stopped by the cafe/bar to listen to the band. It was a most pleasant way to spend our last night in Tours.

Paris

We spent a full week in Paris in the southern edge of the central district. It was a mixed week full of mishaps and moments of bliss. Our camera stopped working. We were sitting in front of Notre Dame and it wouldn't come on. As this happened on a Saturday we spent the weekend trying to find some place to repair it but everything was closed. So in the end we decided to get a new one and get the G9 repaired in Sydney.

We saw all the big Parisian sights - Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower (by day and night), Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, Champs-Élysées, Arc de Triomphe etc. On our first full day there we stumbled upon a free walking tour and got a great introduction to the city and its history. Being an art museum buff I was looking forward to the Lourve quite a bit. We got there early so didn't have to line up much at all and we got to see the Mona Lisa without standing shoulder to shoulder with 200 other people. Unfortunately as its covered by glass and cordoned off its impossible to get a proper look at it at. While we saw the most famous of the Lourve's works I found it to be too big and spread out to really enjoy. Its size is quite overwhelming and you have to go trawling through rooms and rooms of mediocre stuff to get to see the good stuff.

Musee d'Orsay on the other hand was a more manageable size. It also had all the great Impressionists masters and their famous works to make the trip really worth while. I also realised that the picture that had been hanging in our Bayswater flat was in fact a copy of a painting by Camille Pissarro. It was incredible to stumble upon the original in the museum.

We discovered the Parisian china town a short tram ride from our hotel and had excellent Vietnamese night after night. Neither of us are big fans of French food so this suited us quite well. I was happy enough to enjoy the great croissants, baguettes and crepes during the day and sit down to a bowl of hearty Pho at the end of it. We spent a lot of time walking around the city and relaxing in its beautiful gardens. Jardin de Luxumburg was my favourite with its grand water features and beautiful flower beds. On our way to it we came across a Patisserie with all sorts of intricately beautiful desserts for sale. We bought a couple of desserts and I enjoyed an exquisite mini creme brulee. I was hoping to go back to it but never got the chance.

We did a day trip from Paris to Versailles but unfortunately Pramo wasn't feeling too well and had to go home as soon as we got to Versailles. I on the other hand carried on & proceeded to stand in the queue to get a ticket for over an hour in the hot sun. The French have such convoluted systems - you had to line up to get the tickets (which come with a free audio guide), then you have to line up again to enter the Palace and then once inside you have to line up again to get the audio guide. Its so inefficient when it doesn't need to be. I didn't bother getting the audio guide after standing in the ticket queue for over an hour. Anyway the palace and gardens were quite beautiful and grand but I think I never got over waiting so long to get it so it didn't seem really worth while.

I had high expectations for Paris. Maybe that was the problem to start with. After listening to everyone I know talk about how they like/love Paris I expected to feel the same way. I think I need more time/visits to feel that way about Paris. Its so huge with so many things to see and do that visitors can have a very varied experience of it. Its one place I want to go back to because of that very reason. Maybe next time it will help to have a bigger budget and know a bit more French as well.

Freiburg

After leaving Munich we headed west to Freiburg to escape the normal hostel/hotel routine and take the chance to stay with our uni mates Sarah and Riah. Freiburg is a small city near the entrance to the Black Forest and close to the Swiss and French borders. The week we spent there we really liked the feel of the town. Freiburg is cosmopolitan city big enough to have everything you need but small enough that you can walk the cobbled streets of the old town in half an hour. The streets in the old town are lined with fresh water open canals called 'Bachle..' that provide endless play opportunity for kids and a gurgling soundtrack as you walk by. It is said that if you fall into one of these canals that you will fall in love with a Freiburger and stay there forever.

On our first day there we climbed the hill overlooking the town to see great views of the city all the way to the Black Forest. While there we spent the days visiting the daily fruit & veg markets on the grounds of the characteristic gothic cathedral 'Munster' and the nights making simple home cooked meals to enjoy with a bottle of wine with Sarah & Riah. We also got to try great thai in town and spend an evening in a beer garden with Sarah's friends enjoying the beer from the organic brewery across the road. I never drink beer but ended up really liking the local brew which was so easy to drink.

Freiburg is a town we both wish we could find the equivalent of in Sydney. Being Germany there are lots of engineering firms nearby so that you could easily ride to work as both Sarah and Riah do. They have great restaurants and bars and a lively night life yet being so close to the Black Forest there is ample opportunity to go for walks, hikes and rides to feel close to nature. I think we also liked it so much because we had locals to show us around the place. But undoubtedly the best thing about Freiburg was having the chance to catch up with Sarah & Riah. As they say there is nothing like old friends.