LEN'S EURO TRIP

Well after being in the snow for 3 months I think the cold had finally gotten to me. My spirit to to travel was in need of a recharge and I could think of no better place than warm sunny australia.

Mark and I got back to town from our last job in the oilfields on the saturday night. We met up with our friend Gabby for her birthday that day. She was a top chick and I felt it was my duty to help her celebrate by shouting her a few captain morgans. Mark got stuck into the rum aswell and got aquainted with Gabby's married friend Noriko - a very tall leggy girl. Even though I wasn't in the spirit I danced with the girls and even mark who never danced got into it. A great night.

The following wednesday I decided it was time to say goodbe to edmonton. We went out for a movie with Gabby and I remember the look on her face when the preview for '300' came on. I thought guys drooled. Mark made gabby and I laugh when he leaned over into my ear and what was supposed to be a whispered comment about the girl in the movie, came out loudly - "nice tits". A typical aussie male comment.

We said goodbye to gabby after a beer and left the next for the airport. We arrived at the airport only to find that the flight centre girl had booked us for the next day. Luckily it was a quiet flight and the champion staff at westjet changed them over for the next flight at no charge.

We arrived in Vancouver 2 hours later to sunshine and warmer weather. It was a good feeling to not have to wear thermals. The next day as usual it pissed down again. So much for the sunshine.

It was a spare of the moment thing but when I walked past flight centre while walking around old dreary vancouver I could help but feel curious. I thought I would hold off until after the weekend comming back from Vancouver Island but after another night in the hostel and waking up to another rainy day I wanted out.

With my flight booked for the following tuesday I walked down the street with mark back to the cambie. I had a sudden dread in my stomach something along the line of second thoughts I guess but it was done.

We went to Vancouver Island the next day and met up with mark's friend and her brother who worked at a hostel there in the city of Nanaimo. The hostel the 'Painted Turtle' was fairly new and pretty quiet. The beds had matresses on them not plastic. I had the best sleep in ages.

Marks friend Tif made us a great dinner of spagetti bog and afterwards I tried snoozing while Mark and Tif got stuck into a bottle of rum.
I was awoken a couple of hours later and dragged out after much crankyness of not wanting to get out of bed. Can't beat em join.

For a quiet town it sure had a nightlife. We went to a huge sports bar to start with and after a few captain morgans I was ready to socialise.
A couple of hours later and one of the girls in the group wanted to head to the strip club around the corner. Hmm okay this could be interesting.

The strip club was more like a nightclub and with a bit of nudity thrown in. It was actually pretty cool and didn't have that dodgey strip club feel to it. Couples were dancing and it was a laid back atmosphere. We called it quits after a hour there and headed back to the hostel. Next door to the hostel was a martini bar. One of the girls suggested it and seeing how I'd never tried a martini I thought why not.

Mark was well and truly hammered by that stage and starting to get a bit friendly so I sat back and let him do the talking. I had a martini called a 'texan' which was pretty sweet. Like drinking a glass of skittles.
After a broken martini glass or two and mark ordering rum in a martini bar we called it a night.

Woke up the next day feeling pretty good. Went for breakfast and came back and Tif and her brother took us for a ferry ride to a floating pub for fish and chips. A friend of theirs invited us to a hockey game that night and what a better way to finish my canadian adventure than to see a live hockey game.

That night we went a saw the local team play and underdog team. The 'Nanaimo Clippers' vs some team in green. The 'Clippers' flogged the other team as they clearly showed better skills. Plenty of pushing and shoving added to the atmosphere. The game finished and we dropped of the friend and grabbed some dinner in the form of burger and chips.

The next day Tif and her brother took us for a cruise to see some rainforests. It was pissing down so we stopped and checked out a minnie rainforest and called it a day and grabbed some lunch.
We went back to the hostel and I had a snooze. That night we went for dinner at an italian restaraunt. Afterwards we grabbed some beers and played some 'Texas holdem poker'. After being at the ski resort for a few months I was not bad and Tif and her brother canadian born australians both fell before me. I came third so I was happy.

We went back to the hostel for our last night and I went straight to sleep. The next morning we packed up and caught the ferry back to vancouver. It was typical that the weather was beautiful as we were leaving. When we arrived in vancouver we had lunch and watched a guy fall of a roof at the construction site opposite to us. Good old safety regulations - no saftery harnesses needed here.

Vancouver - Horshoe Bay

We arrived back at the cambie that night in downtown vancouver. Some crazy guy was climbing an electricity pole accross the road. Mark worked his mojo on some swedish chicks and roped me in to go out with them. At that stage I really didn't give a shit for chatting up random women but I went along to listen to a band they wanted to see. It turned out they took us to a lesbian night at this particular bar. Even worse was when women walked past and let one rip and man it was wrong. I later accused mark of being a grub doing that around women and he said he thought it was me. Smelly lesbians!!

We went back to the hostel and I went to bed and left mark to entertain the swedish chicks. He came up a couple of hours later - empty handed.

The next day it was raining as usual and I ate breakfast then walked with mark to the bank then said goodbye. As I jumped in the taxi and left mark standing there I felt bad deserting him. I knew I had had enough and it was time to go home.

I caught my flight to LA and waited 10 hours until my flight to australia was ready. As it got closer I could hear aussie accents all around me and it was a relief but a bit sad at the same time. The 13 hour flight was a lot more bearable than the original flight from australia to london 9 months ago when I had first started out.

Vancouver to LA - The different terains

I flew into in sydney and wondered where in the big city cecilia was below me. I was looking foward to meeting her. I had family in melbourne and I figured I start from the bottom and work my way up until I got back home to mount isa.

I finally made it to melbourne airport and after an hour lining up and customs made it out the doors to warm air and sunshine. I WAS HOME IN AUSTRALIA!! I could have kissed the ground.

Monday morning mark and I decided to go look for work. I stuck my head into a companies door and asked if they need workers. I noticed that were into fibre optics and networks and the night before I had noticed on the internet that fibre optics labourers were needed. I put two and two together and yep they need labourers.

The good news was that we were going to be out of town at camp sites which mean free food and accomodation and saving lot's of money. The only downside was very cold and no women. I needed money more than women and drinking so that was fine by me.

Mark went up to a place called seal lake working on the oil pipelines laying fibre optic cable and duct while I went to fort mcmurray. I had a cruisey job wiring up interenet and telephone jacks indoors.
I finished my job on time and headed back to town. Mark on the other had was stuck out there still and freezing his ass off and was unsure when he was getting back.

Sitting around the hostel I was feel sad ass as edmonton wasn't a real exciting town to be by ones self. Ice on the walkways, snowing and minus tempartures made my time there really exciting.
After a weekend of visiting numerus bars and talking to booze hounds I needed to get away. Luckily they sent me out to work with mark (well so I thought).

With a work van fueled up, I went up north 6 hours in beautiful blue skies and clear roads only to end up swerving into a wall of ice about 20 mins from my destination. The radiator died and the boss was pissed. It was not a good start I tell u. I got out of the car and nearly went arse up it was that slippery. Lesson learnt.

The next day on the job I froze my ass off like never before. I had thermals on, snowpants , you name it and I was FREEZING!!! It was like minus 30. I could see why mark was not having a good time. I didn't mind it for the first week but by the second I was at breakling point.

Our job of unrealing klm's of Polypipe was a real shit as it was frozen and slippery and it was like a spring that shot back at u if you let go. Towards the end I got hit in the face that many times I had a meltdown and so did mark. Shit I laughed watching him go nuts with a roll of polypipe. He threw his safety helmet in the air and it just missed the windscreen of a inspector driving past. He didn't talk for most of the day.

After 5 weeks for mark and 3 for me, the job was done. We were a little crazy by the end of it but along the way we had a little fun.
During the last couple of nights we got to ride a snowmobile with a little captain morgan to keep us warm. I bogged the thing twice and man it was hard to get it out. I was a little pissed towards the end and had a sore neck from try to yoink the thing out of the snow. A reverse would have been handy.

Here's some pics of our time there.

Old Marky Misses his Machines

My first Snowman

Mark couldn't resist after 5 weeks

Good old polypipe

Mr Snowman goes down

A little bit of snow

Spectacular Sunsets

You talking to me - Going crazy

It's a Beautiful Day!

You Know It

Bogged the snowmobile!!

Not happy jan!

Well after leaving Big Shite ski resort with my new travel mate mark, we decided to spend a few days in vancouver before travelling via train to the town of edmonton.

After leaving the moutain on the staff bus we spent the night in the town of kelowna where I ate the best piece of steak in nearly 6 months. The girls recommended that we check out a club called liquid zoo. Very interesting - lot's of naked girls.

We then decided to go somewhere else rather than tease ourselves sitting at liquid zoo. We ended up at a club called flashbacks and it turned out to be womens night which meant male strippers.

The next day we boarded a greyhound bus headed for vancouver. The piece of shit broke down in some middle of nowhere town called merrit. Two of the nastiest looking women walked in while we sat there. Mark was checking out some blonde chick from our bus.

We arrived in vancouver that night and headed for our hostel - the cambi. It turns out that the street just around the corner was the most notorious crackhead centre in vancouver. A few interesting people along that street.

Steamclock - Gastown, Vancouver

Vancouver Library

Scienceworks

We spent a couple of days in vancouver before deciding to head up to edmonton and make some money. A mate had told me about this couchsurfing website where people let you sleep on their couch for free so I surfed for edmonton couchsurfers. A profile with a little cutie came up and we both said - yep. A few emails and a phone call later and we were set for wednesday night to meet up.

The idea of catching a train sounded good as it went through the rocky mountains. The only downside was that it was at night. But after the last bus we caught broke down we decided it would be a better option and more relaxing.

Not long after we boarded our train I fell asleep. I woke up later and watched a movie in dinning cart then went back to sleep. There wasn't a whole lot to see outside. A couple of times I woke up as we were going through the rockies but I could only make out the drop off to the side of us and some boulders on the moutain.

The next day the scenery was a bit more exciting, snow capped moutains everywhere and frozen lakes. I even saw a few deer lazing on the side of a mountain in the snow.

We arrived in edmonton later that night and were greeted at the station by our couchsurfing friends (www.couchsurfing.com - travellers checkit out) we had organised to stay for a few nights. Kateland and Gabby, both pretty cute. They took us out to dinner on whyte avenue where all the fun happens in edmonton.

Afterwards kateland was up for some drinking and mark well he was toey and could sense she was up for some aussie fun. I was a bit tired myself and wasn't into partying. After a couple of bacardi's Kateland piped up and said whoever downed their drink first got to spoon with her. She knew mark was nearly empty so Yeah!. I knew my mate mark needed a shag so I was happy for him but it was a bit rough as I could here kateland screaming while I got stuck sleeping with their cat. Not the kind of pussy I envisioned sleeping with. And the little bastard put hair everywhere all over our clothes.

After two nights we thanked them and said goodbye and checked into the hostel down the road. Man the bunkbeds were so small. I hit my elbow on the top bunk everytime I rolled over.

We decided that we would look for work on monday morning and resided to partying from thursday to sunday and being hung over like bastards.

Cheers.