There is something about the bus stop by my work. There will be no buses for 10 minutes, then 3 will arrive within 2 minutes of each other. Oh well. That's buses for ya. Got my wireless router working at home. Those pesky homechoice folk wanted 85 quid to set up a wireless network (including hardware), so I decided to buy a router myself and pocket the 35 quid change. Seems to be working fine. Sweet. I must admit, if you don't know what you're doing, 35 quid would save you dealing with all those crazy acronyms; WPA,DHCP,SSID - yikes.
Left my camera at home today, so I was a little limited in scope. Decided I should introduce you to my partner in crime, my little Sony DSC P100. Most of the photos last week got taken with it, mainly because it is actually pocketable! (A little too pocketable perhaps. "Take anywhere" isn't so handy when "anywhere" ends up being very drunk on Cottesloe beach. I have the repair bill to prove it. Its all good now though ...)
Here is a picture of some barges on the Thames with the Tower Bridge and Gherkin in the background. A little bog standard but not overly inspired today. It was a Monday. 'Nuff said.
Today we walked, via the Albert Bridge and Chelsea, to the Natural History Museum to meet E and check out the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. Some very impressive shots. Interestingly, a lot were taken with digital SLRs.
Just to prove a point, frost on the roof outside the bathroom window. Right, I swear I will shut up about the cold now.
Today A and I caught a boat from Waterloo Pier, just by the London Eye, down to Greenwich, through which the Prime Meridian passes. The weather was stunning, if a little bracing (yes, I will stop moaning about the cold soon!). Trip down the river took about an hour. Great to see the sights of London from the Thames. Once in Greenwich we headed up to the Greenwich Observatory, site of the Prime Meridian where you can stand with one foot in the Eastern hemisphere and the other in the Western. If you can fight passed the other tourists that is. After that we headed down to check out the local markets, buying a few second hand books to stock the bookshelves in the new house. Rounded out the after noon with a pint in a local. Caught the boat back up river a bit after five. Awesome nighttime views as the boat headed back up the river. A great day. Maybe off to Brighton tomorrow, depending on how keen we are in the morning!
Mysterious numbers on the footpath outside Waterloo station. I am sure it is something completely dull like tiles to replace, but hey, it looks cool.
Just got back from seeing Richard II at the Old Vic theatre. A picked up the tickets on ebay this morning, so it was a bit of a last minute decision. Paid less than cost which is pretty good for a sold out show! 
It is quite strange, catching the overland rail to Waterloo station each morning, seeing Big Ben and the London Eye peeking between the buildings on the south bank of the Thames. Iconic structures in rather mundane settings always seem a little other worldly.
View down the street outside the new house. I think this one a day photo thing could be a little difficult ...
Last Saturday was Guy Fawkes night, so I headed off to Battersea Park to watch the fireworks with a couple of friends. Now, I have this thing with taking photos of fireworks. I nearly always do it, and they are nearly always crap. So why bother? Have you ever seen a fireworks photo and thought "wow, that is really cool. That would look great blown up and framed." No, me neither. Yet still I do it. A couple of years ago I even went to the effort of dragging a tripod along to the Australia Day fireworks in Kings Park. Still crap. This year I settled with just my little digicam. Once again they were, well, in a word, crap. But anywhy, why have a blog if you can't share the pain of a failed photo every now and then. Sorry, but here they are .... the best of the worst.
At last, the Prague photos are up. It's funny, at the time I wasn't that swept away by Prague. I think i was suffering from a severe case of Old Town overdose. However, looking back now at the photos, it was probably one of the highlights of the trip. Well, it is where i took the most photos anyway. All 94 of them. Enjoy!
Eventually you get a job. Not far from the Thames as it happens. Cool. Quite close to Tower Bridge even. 
Each evening you pass Tower Bridge 
as you head for the tube station (London Bridge) on the way home. 
. Before you know it, the leaves are turning yellow 
and falling off the trees 
. It is starting to get cold in the mornings. Nearly three months has passed. Time flies huh ?
Just after I found out I had got one of the jobs I applied for, my recruiter rang me back and informed me that the company I was joining was having a company weekend away at Naples the week after I joined. A brief summary .... Photos here
The others on my flight wanted to go to Capri, but I was keen to go to Pompeii, so we headed our separate ways. The streets of Naples seem to be laid out especially to confuse. After a couple of attempts at shortcuts through the backstreets I gave up and headed to the main street (Corso Umberto) and followed it up to the train station. Bought my train ticket (about 2 Euro) to Pompeii Scavi on the Sorrento Line and headed for the platform. Fortunately didnt have long to wait for the next train. The train ride to Pompeii isn't exactly what I would call scenic, but there are some nice views over the bay. Train journey took about 40 mins from downtown Naples.
Caught the train back to Central Naples and walked back to hotel (which went quite well until I left the main road and got completely lost after about 2 turns !). In the early evening we all met up in the Hotel Lobby, had a few drinks and headed out for dinner (Pizza of course!). The rest of the night involved, well, drinking. Lots and lots of drinking.
Fade in Sunday morning 9am. Waking up. Hungover. Again. Packed and headed down to the hotel lobby. Checked out and caught a taxi to the airport with some other folks from work. Arrived at the airport to find out plane delayed 2 hours. Aaaargh. What better place to spend 2 hours - not. Finally we caught our plane and got back in to Stansted around 4 in the afternoon.
The trip to Naples was awesome, but I am now paying the price of a couple of late & drunken evenings. Didn't have that much time to explore Naples but I did make it out to Pompeii which was incredible. Most of my photos are from Pompeii and I will post them soon.
I couldn't very well update this blog too regularly considering the name. A brief update. Spent four great days up in Edinburgh over last weekend. Caught the train up there and back. Amazing seafood birthday dinner down in Leith. Managed to survive turning 30. 
Only two more cities left to post, Krakow and Prague. Krakow has a beautiful old town square and castle. (It was one of the few major cities to escape severe damage during World War II). My photos don't really show off much of the Old Town or Castle though. Maybe I was suffering a bit from photo fatigue! That said, I am very happy with some of the more abstract ones which could've been taken anywhere! More photos here.
We didn't get off to a good start in Warsaw. After getting off the overnight bus trip in a rather frazzled state, we jumped straight into a Mafia taxi (a dodgy taxi which rips you off - apparently, according to all the tourist literature we read AFTERWARDS, they are rife!). After arriving at the hotel with our lightened wallets we crashed for a bit before heading in to town. The Old Town in Warsaw was quite scenic. Amazing considering it was pretty much flattened during the war, and then rebuilt in the old style. Apart from the Old Town I don't really have much good to say about our time in Warsaw. A handy hint for Warsaw Train Station, buy your tickets in the underpass if you can. It saves you time, especially after you waited in line for half an hour only to have the person behind the counter to shut up shop for no apparent reason!
Yes taking the overnight bus from Vilnius to Warsaw does save you a nights accomodation. No its not worth doing. Look at those shot eyes. Ouch.
Trakai is a small town located about 28km outside of Vilnius. We caught a local bus out there, which meant cheap but no aircon. Luckily it didn't take too long and we managed not to completely melt. The Castle on the lake is ridiculously scenic, although up close it looks a little over restored. Still, better than it falling down forever I guess. This place is definitiely worth the day trip from Vilnius. When it came to catching the bus back home we managed to get there by the time it was standing room only. Decided to see if the driver would mind if we sat on the entrance stairs by sitting there and seeing what he did. Instead of telling us off he handed us a paper to sit on so we didn't get our asses dirty ! Try that in Oz. Best of all, we got to be the door chaeuffeurs for all the people who got on/off all the way back to Vilnius !
