Nordsjælland

Gilleleje harbour-front

When a friend invited me for the weekend to her family's summer house on the North coast of Zealand (as opposed to the North island of New Zealand), I jumped at the opportunity. It wasn't quite summer weather - if anything, the weather was typical of Perth in the winter - however, that wasn't to deter me.

Danes (and I think Scandinavians in general) have a 'thing' about summer houses. Most family's have one somewhere or other, and there are many towns scattered all over the place (mainly beachside) which are specific summer house towns. In other words, they are zoned for houses which aren't permanent residences. In winter they are all but dead, and on beautiful summer weekends they come alive. The town we went to was Smidstrup, not far West of the more popular town of Hornbæk, As it wasn't really summer yet, the town was still quiet and we got to enjoy the area without the crowds.

The Spanish Revolution

My first real taste of Spain was all I had hoped it would be. I think I got a bit of a whiff of the culture during my travels in South America, and getting to know some Spaniards quite well during my time in Copenhagen imparted nothing but positive impressions, so I was eager to visit. Well, I most certainly was not disappointed. My good friend Carlos invited me and his house-mate Nico, to join him on a trip to his home town, Madrid. We had 4 full days there and did not waste a moment...
Within a couple of hours of arriving in town we were off to the city centre to watch a flamenco show and eat our first of many tapas meals. Amazing! The music and dancing was fantastic, and although put on for the tourists, I can't complain because it was a great introduction to the dancing and the music - definitely lively, definitely entertaining, and put together with quality food and beer, the night was perfect.

Too Political For This Blog?

I was sitting in Bangkok airport waiting for my flight to Dusseldorf when news came through that Osama Bin Laden has been killed. Within moments of the first rumours coming through on BBC, there were signs of cheering outside the White House, congratulations all around, and of course the self-congratulatory message from Obama followed soon after. The scenes from outside the White House looked as though a massive crowd of people had all together won a major lottery. Quite amazing I thought. But in all this, I had two thoughts:

Diving the Similans

There is something quite magical about a country where people will quite happily try and rip you off to your face, but if you turn your back, they will not steal a penny from you. This is what I love about Thailand. Since my first visit to the country I've loved the place. On my first night there I went out for dinner at a restaurant just down the road from where I was staying. Having flown through the previous night I wasn't exactly 100% awake, and when the bill arrived, I left THB 180 (or at least I thought I did) on the table and left. A few metres from my room I hear someone calling after me - the middle aged waitress who had served me had run a couple of hundred metres after me to chase me down. I had mistakenly left THB 580 (~AU$18) on the table instead of THB 180 (~AU$6). Wow! Talk about service!

Nang Thong Beach @ Khao Lak - all to myself!