Winding up...

Yesterday I spent all day in the outside Cafe opposite the apartment. I like it because the staff there know me as I pop up 2-3 times a year for a few weeks for the last however many years.

Last Easter it got "scary" as I stopped having to order and they just always brought me what I wanted... So this time I have been varying my order to keep them guessing. I got there for an early breakfast capuccino and started a new book, Fiction!, called Merde Actually - 6 hours, 1 coffee, 1 sandwich and 2 beers later I had finished it. Its pretty amusing, a nice break from Stalin.

On the way back in to the flat I noticed in the mirrors in the lift that I seemed paler than I had been before... Too many days of eschewing the beach... So today I made damn sure I spent a healthy 4 hours lying on the beach/splashing around.

Croatian Lakes

Below is just a brief glimpse at Lake Plitsvice (i think thats how the english spelling goes... I called it Lake Blitskreig and Spit Vice and lots of other things...)]

This trip ended up streatching the bank a little... Aside from the 4am wake up to make the 6am bus which cost about 15 there was also the entrance fee of about the same and then the way back which is NOT direct but via some other town.. Karl's town is the translation... can't remember what the croatian is... not Karlstadt or Karlsburg or Karlsgrad... something else...

Croatian National Park! (Plitsvice??)

International Firework Competition

At this time of year in Monaco there is an International Firework Competition and entries are spread every few days over a few weeks or so.

Last night was another display, I took about 200 photos and some are below, they are by no-means the "best" but I couldn't face hours wading through them all for focus etc.

I find fireworks pretty challenging to photograph as the contrast is so great and often confuses the camera between a really quick exposure (if it locks onto a flash) and a really long one (if you set the photo up when its dark awaiting the next flash). I found it easier just to turn the camera onto a manual mode and crank up the ISO setting to 1600.

A few examples below, maybe when i get home and can see them on a bigger screen i can pull out some good 'uns

Hearts

No Money

Ive managed to (and had to) increase my AMEX limit by 400, various other cards are buggered already...

Then i got an email telling me my phone bill... 160GBP... thats probably the largest one ive ever had, brilliant.

So im broke...

Currently reading: The prison letters of Wei Jingsheng (almost finished) and The Stalinist Legacy by Tariq Ali (just started/halfway through). The latter is a Marxist analysis and makes good beach reading, I love reading fantasy books on the beach.

Need a Job.

And then I saw a cloud...

Saw a large cloud today whilst lying on the beach - left in disgust.

Deafness now cured, it was tremporary after all...

Last 2 days i've been having a large lunch sized salad for breakfast, its actually really good...

Been lying on the beach alot, slightly red nose. But I'm now the brownest I've ever been.

Feeling most chillaxed...

Game over

I'm in Monaco to stay until the 2nd August.

Travels are over.

Its a hard life, there is a beach and healthy food and not alot more. I'm fairly brown at the moment - I hope immigration let me in. (Post-racist humour steeped in irony - get off my back).

Remember you can read other occasional pieces I write here.

If everyone is particularly lucky I might publish my travel Diary at some point, only 12.99 + VAT (price subject to changes in line with inflation in Zimbabwe).

Also I have gone partially deaf in my right ear, I hope this is a temporary state of affairs... fairly sure it is water or something... i'm not a doctor.

Rijeka Exodus

Today, in 2 hours or so i'll be leaving Rijeka and Croatia aswell, heading initially for Trieste by coach i will change onto a train and head to... towards the west...

I have photos but can't do anything about that here, when i arrive in Moaco hopefully i'll put some good ones up.

Passed exams

Here be the breakdown - not great, but those who know my work ethic might be... surprised.

Concepts in International Relations
71.10%

Elementary Logic
71.00%

Explanatory Concepts in Political Science
65.50%

The Short Twentieth Century and Beyond
60.30%

Time for a beer.

Ok, plans! Coming home.

Passengers: MR ALEXANDER STEPHENSON
British Airways booking reference: (deleted)
Flight number: BA8136
From: Nice Terminal 1
To: Gatwick (London) Terminal N
Depart: 02 Aug 2006 22:35
Arrive: 02 Aug 2006 23:30
Class: Euro Traveller
Operated by: British Airways
Booking status: Confirmed

Rijeka

Seems nice, I am here for mazbe as much as 2 weeks before I come home. At least 1 week.

Im near a castle looking out over the sea.

Sunday everything is closed...

I cant find an internet cafe with a USB port so my ipod remains uncharged and no photos on here, i cant find one that does apostrophes either. lots of these ČĆŠĐćčšđŽ crummy things though.

got to go!

Xander breaks the Hungarian music photography scene

While I was in Hungary I went to a music festival.

I took some photographs.

And here they are in some Hungarian music article for the magazine "Underground".

Im international I tells ya!

Zagreb Night

Left the Dorm i was staying in because there was a freaky Belgium guy. Wandered around the corner and went into a tiny bar, the tiny ones are the best because there are no tourists. Higher chance of social interraction with the locals... even if they just rob you.

On the TV was a comedy, a man was in hospital being resucitated with one of those electric thingies but the Nurse, dressed only in her underwear, was so hot that he kept having heart attacks so the Doctor had to drag the Nurse into the cupboard... It was highbrow stuff.

Got talking to the locals, One of them fought in the Croatia - Yugoslav war, he got 2 medals. He has a son who is 25. He buys me beers, then we go somewhere else and get more beers then we go somewhere else and get more beers... there is a pattern (and i dont get robbed - i thought that was inevitable but no), then i go to the Dorm and say hello to the Belgium guy, hes freaky. It poured hard with rain.

In an hour my train leaves for Rijeka.

Lake Bled

Following advice I woke early and pootled off to Lake Bled. About an hour and a half by bus.

In the middle of the lake there is an Island with a church on it, I hired a rowing boat and set off. I looked around the church - Its most impressive aspect is its age and location. I then swam around in the lake a little before rowing the boat back to the owner. I was complimented on my rowing technique and the man bitched about tourists who didn't know what they were doing... Its nice to be told you're great. Then I lay in the sun to dry off.

This here picture is a Swan with Cygnets... now that is a silly looking word. Looking towards the Church on the Island.

Beyond Austria

From Vienna i went to Klagenfurt in the south and spent 2 nights with a friend from university, then i got a lift with his father and brother to Ljubljana in Slovenia, where i am now.

It seems nice but i havent as yet had a good chance to look around, tonight and tomorrow i shall try.

No photos as i left my camera in the room and not alot has happened... more social stuff than cultural stuff... I also bought my first piece of artwork from local artist in Klagenfurt, it is currently in the mail to England, so to my family: look out for a larger than A4 brown paper parcel.

I need to get some food and maybe a drink...

Vienna!

And now a little culture to detract from the sleaze below (click on the photo for a close up its breathtaking)... scroll down!