Sweden to Russia

We opted for the ferry to get from Stockholm to St Petersburg. It was to take 2 nights and I've day, however I did not realise that the day was spent on land in Estonia! It was a pleasant surprise!

The ferry has a few restaurants, a couple of bars, a cafe and a casino area but it is by no means luxurious! I paid extra for an A class room which was the 4 out of 6 classes and it is of much lower quality than Stenaline! I think it's a much older ship. It's all good fun though, there is enough for us to do and it is still dusk at midnight this time of year with white nights. It's quite amazing! We also had the full moon last night too.

Docking into St Petersburg this morning...

Eurovision Final in Malmö, Sweden

The Eurovision Final was an experience in itself! I - unfortunately - did not have tickets to the main event in the arena as the tickets sold out too quickly so I only got tickets to the Semi Final 2. So we had to either watch it on tv and be boring, or find a public venue that showed the event on live TV which we did!

There were two major public screenings, one was at the Eurovision Village and the other was at the Folketspark in the South of Malmö;. This had entertainment, dancing, a quiz and Swedish karaoke!

I got in touch with some couchsurfers who organised a picnic spot to share which was lovely! We meet some really nice people and also others who we were sitting next to as well, most people were Swedish and a few other nationalities. Quite a few Brits supporting Britain!

One of the CS group brought some skin crayons to draw flags on ourselves, it was fun being patriotic!

It became busier and more packed at it grew closer to 9pm when it was due to start and people were getting more and more desperate for spots close to the TV screen. Lots very very rude too and it was quite ridiculous!

Finally the Eurovision Song Contest began! All 26 countries performed, more than I remember than last year so it took a while!

For the first 5 songs the bass was ridiculously loud and people were yelling in Swedish an apparently popular please that meant 'turn down the bass' which they fixed after the fifth song!

These ones I really liked;

Belgium
Estonia
Malta
Russia
Germany
Sweden
Denmark
Iceland
Ukraine

My favourite counties were Iceland, Sweden (I am probably biased as is hard not to be influenced by all the Swedes surrounding us!) and Belgium.

Voting took a long time but I was very impressed by all the Swedes supporting Denmark when they started getting ahead with the points. They were so excited about it, I know it only takes 20 mins to get from Malmö to Denmark on the train but I didn't realise the two countries were so respectful and supportive! It is wonderful to see!

We didn't leave the park until 1am but there were plenty of trains back to Lund where we are staying.

Eurovision was created to break down social barriers between European counties, and I am so moved and humbled to actually experience this first hand. It is alive and well! Long live Eurovision!

Eurovision semi final 2, 2013

Last night I attended the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) Semi Final 2 of 2013; it was held in Malmö, Sweden.

After all these years of watching Eurovision (about 22 years?) I finally attended a Eurovision performance! I must say that I was incredibly impressed with the smoothness of the live tv broadcast and the transitions of the little videos inbetween.  As you can see from the photo below, it takes a lot of computers to make it all work so well!

Flavoured water was provided in little cartons for free, and recycle boxes were provided. I am getting the feeling that Sweden is very modern in its ways than I did not anticipate. 

The entertainment before the show was great, it wasn't televised but there were roller bladers with some amazing projections of paint blotches on the floor with their jumps! It was very modern and cool!

Most of the songs featured a projected backdrop that complemented the song,  however after seeing the tv broadcast today, a lot of it was missed on tv.

There were a few songs of the 17 that I really liked, namely Iceland, Israel and Switzerland.  However, only one of my favourite three made it through to the final, so I was actually very disappointed with the result!!

The viewing was very enlightening though of how the show functions and how they make the show live. It was quite surreal to really be there! Such fun!

Copenhagen to Malmö, Sweden

Arrived in Sweden by train from Copenhagen under the sea and over a bridge. A very quick trip to Lund where we are staying, only 40 mins! Lund is really nice, a good feel! I found lots of vegan stuff in the supermarket, yippee!!

Denmark

Denmark has been very enjoyable! This is my second visit to this old city. For an old city they also have electric car chargers in the street!

We have been to the Frederiksberg Gardens and Sønder marken gardens, the Aquarium in Kastrup, the Hans Christian Andersen museum, gone on a boat tour and for our last day we went to the renowned Tivoli Gardens - a theme park and entertainment venue in the centre of town. We went on a lot of rides! It was lots of fun! Tomorrow morning we leave for Malmö, Sweden.

Amsterdam to Copenhagen

Amsterdam was great! We went to the Bols Museum (again!) and also to see a Dutch indie band; the Handsome Poets. They were really good, they sing in English but the Dutch crowd qseems to be taking on the indie scene well! It was a lot of fun.

Today we spent the day in Utrecht which was a lovely city.

So it has been a dream of mine for quite some time to travel in a train carriage with beds and a side corridor! Today I got my wish :) We are in a 6 bed cabin but it's quite small. Also climbed up the ladder and somehow fell down due to the ladder not being far or enough!! But I'm ok! We will be on the train for over 14 hours.

London to Beijing

So I've been in the UK for six days, hopefully it's the busiest I'll be because I'm tired of running around doing errands like getting my Chinese visa! It's been great though, catching up with old friends, and seeing the city that used to be my home, as well as seeing the lovely town of Weymouth once more after all these years. Caught up with lots of family relatives which was wonderful.

We went to Brighton yesterday, it was great as always; my favourite city in the world! The Brighton Arts Festival was on so we saw a show in a tiny little underground bar in Kempton. Cute!

Now off to the second country; the Netherlands!

On the Sanyo-Shinkansen...

So after 4 data in Tokyo I'm off to Osaka on the Bullet train. It is so long, very impressive! We will be stopping at Fuji so I'll hopefully get a glimpse of it.

Skybus

Back in Melbourne. The Skybus uses Windows 2000!

Day 1

Cute cute cute city. So much cute stuff! Managed to survive with regards to food, slightly hard though! Managed to eat in a sushi restaurant with amazing food, so fresh!

Went to a sake bar at night, a lot of fishy stuff in everything. I've got to be more careful! Very tired though as it took a while to find the hotel! Drank lots of sake :) oh and bought Asahi made cider from a vending machine for 100 yen. Wow. And yes, I did go to Starbucks in case you wondered!

Arrived in Tokyo!

Customs was relatively painless, but I had to give then my fingerprints!

Managed to buy cheap tickets to Tokyo on the train. I'm sooooo tired though, didn't get much sleep on the plane :(

Arrived in Sydney

Travelled 744km to Sydney. Arrived on time and waiting for bus to international terminal!

To Japan!!

Friday week I'm going to Japan! Check here for updates...

A Silent Film: Digital Album Launch, Sept 22, 2008

After three successful single releases, A Silent Film appeared for their digital album launch last night at the interesting venue of the All Saints shop near Liverpool Street. The Oxford quartet played a short set of tunes from their debut album; The City that Sleeps including their singles; 'Thirteen Times the Strength', 'Sleeping Pills', and 'You Will Leave a Mark' as well as their popular ambiant cover version of Underworld's 'Born Slippy'. Using piano and a great mix of melodic harmonies their performance was not short of brilliant and their style of delivery is intense. Speaking with each member of the band (Stevenson, Jones, Hussain and Walker) it is very pleaseing to see that they are all very friendly down to earth!

A Silent Film are set to release their Sam Williams (Supergrass, The Noisettes) produced debut album 'The City that Sleeps' on October 6, 2008.

23rd September – Guildhall, Southampton
24th September – The Forum, London
25th September – Manchester Academy, Manchester
27th September – Glasgow Academy, Glasgow
28th September – Newcastle Academy, Newcastle
29th September – Sheffield Academy, Sheffield
1st October – Bristol Academy, Bristol
3rd October – Birmingham Academy, Birmingham



Robert Stevenson; Vocals/Piano

Lewis Jones (Guitar)


Robert Stevenson and Spencer Walker (Drums)

Pukkelpop!

It has been a long while since I last blogged as I haven't been on any travels or tasted any beer worth mentioning!! But here I am reporting on Pukkelpop - a pop music festival in Belgium.

Having arrived on Wednesday evening to Amsterdam airport I was met by Anja and whisked away to the small town of Hasselt but the festival was in a village on the outskirts of Hasselt called Kievit. Getting over my jet lag in one night was a challenge but I think I did it as the festival started the next day on Thursday 14th. The weather was really nice for all three days - we were very lucky!


We saw many bands and here are the ones I think are worth mentioning:

Thursday 14th August

The Pigeon Detectives were not as good as I hoped. I didn't know many of their songs but they didn't have such a great stage presence.


One Night Only are a band I've only recently liked, they are pretty young and again they don't really have 'it' yet I think!! But they weren't bad my any means.

Next up was Ian Brown - I was really looking forward to this as I never saw the Stone Roses perform. He was really good, a bit cocky though but I guess he would be seeing how famous he is. He even sang a Stone Roses song which was unexpected!


The Editors were good - I saw them at Glastonbury last year and they didn't dissapoint me this time either. I really like their live performances.

I came across a band called Mercury Rev which sounded really good and I'd like to look into them further.

After sleeping under a tree for two hours I saw the Killers play at 12.30am - 1.30am. It was so stupid to put them at that time becuase they were one of the headlining acts and it being the first night I was half asleep!! Maybe I'm just lame but it felt really badly placed. They did a fantastic performance though as I'd never seem them before.




Friday 15th August

We went into the towon of Haseelt on this day as we needed a bit of a break from the loud noises!


But next we saw the Stereophonics. I didn't realise that they were so popular as it turned out I knew more than half their songs! I really enjoyed this one :)

I'd heard that Within Temptation were not very good live but they dress up and do a nice show. I like some of their songs and the performance was pretty good. I thought the video effects were a little wanky though!!!

The main headlining act for Pukkelpop 2008 was Metallica. They were lost on me though because the style of music was a little off centre from the rest of the bands that played Pukkelpop. Since I'm not a fan I sat back and dranks some beers in the background and listened from a distance!

I got a henna tattoo that day and there was the most adorabe kid getting in the way!!


Satruday 16th August

The Wombats were on the Main Stage which I wasn't surewas the best idea but they played the part. The Plain White T's were next and I don't know them well at all but I found them really good!

I was very impressed also by the 'Special Beer' Tent! They were selling Wiekse Witte as well as Grimbergen and other tasties that weren't Maes! And it was the same price - yay!

Lastly came the band I had waited for the entire festival - and also the last few years to see; the Manic Street Preachers. They were as good as I had hoped and I'm so glad I saw them. They played a lot of old stuff which was great and a few new songs which everyone likes as well. And I was so impressed with Nicky Wire - he looks so happy to be on stage doing what he does!





All in all Pukkelpop was a great success and I'm so glad to have gone! It was a long drive home that night as we left a little early before the festival had ended but I got to see the Manics and we'd had enough of camping by then! Very happy!!