Jakey Jake

So I landed in Lima and on the plane over I had met a couple who lived there who were nice enough to drop me in the city. I quickly found the hotel and just vegetated in the room as I wasn’t feeling all that good. I met my roommate, graham, and first impressions were he would be a decent guy to room with, although he thought I would be a total geek with all my computer stuff…. Boy did I prove him wrong. I didn’t really see much in Lima , there wasn’t really all that much to see, mostly I spent the time trying to organize a Brazilian visa, the good thing was it was cheaper than the visa from in Australia

Well after the 19 hour flight I was back in NY NY . This time it was for NYE. I was organizing to meet up with Tash (elliots sister) and Liese (Damo’s sister) I only managed to meet up with Liese but it was a crazy few days. Liese was over there with her friends Emma and Jane from London and they were over for a party. Needless to say this time shopping and touristy stuff took a back seat to partying. We went to a bar on 10 th and 30 th I think, or around there somewhere, and the road was blocked off as some guy had done a hit and run (the woman was ok) but the man decided to flee into a 15 story building and when the cops came for him he tried climbing down the fire escape, however he fell off and died. The next day we decided we should definitely do some touristy stuff so we went to the statue of liberty, and walked around down town. Today was new years eve and we were going to times square… the place to be for NYE. It started off early, we arrived at 5pm and the queues were already huge and we had to run up a few streets to try and get in before the others. We made it in at 57 th st and we managed to squish through loads and loads of other people to get down the front, right near the stage, however our view was obscured due to some rather large satellite dishes. So we contemplated what to do as we had a sober 7 hour wait in front of us. Shortly after we began pondering our options our minds were made up for us as the stupid police decided to close the pen we were in. so we started walking back when we made a break for it and jumped the fences into the pen next to us and then we ran out as we found another part that would give us an even better view. We were walking down some street when we decided to eat at one of the delis and I bought a heap of fruit. While sitting down we noticed a bar and decided to hit it up, the sobriety thing wasn’t too appealing. So we went in and met a bunch of aussies, of course and a bunch of new Yorkers too, especially one cute one called Kelly. So we stayed in the bar until about 11.30 when we went into the crowd to watch the ball drop. It was awesome especially when the confetti dropped, everyone was in such a good mood. Definitely a new years eve to remember.

I couldn’t believe how expensive it is to catch the train from the airport to kings cross, 11 bucks. It only cost 20USD for a weeks pass on the subway in NYC. But I have to say I was happy to be back in Aus, I love it so much there, its definitely my favorite country in the world. It was great to see adam, it had been almost a year since he dropped me at the airport in Melbourne . I had missed him a lot, in fact I had missed everyone a lot. It was so hard to catch up with so many people in such a short time. Anyway the wedding was brilliant, KT and James looked perfect and the speeches at pier one were great. I even made up with Christian after so many years. I think ill be moving to Sydney when I eventually go back. It has a great atmosphere and a lot of energy, not to mention that it is probably the most stunning city in the world (Along with Venice , Rio, Barcelona and Hong Kong ). So anyway after the reception I went back to adams place the next day to get a change of clothes, but when I got bck all I found was my old shitty bag and josh fast asleep. I asked him what happened and he said he hated me and thought I was a dickhead…. I was in shock. He had thrown my new suitcase out the window and ripped up my jeans and pissed in my old bag with all my books in it. He said it was because I kissed a girl he liked, but I had hardly spoken to her the whole night and she jumped me at the end of the party. He didn’t even know her. ISSUES!!! Anyway it wasn’t the last time I had to deal with his screw ups in the time I was back, but more on that later. So the rest of the week I stayed with adam and we worked on some internet stuff and caught up with everything that had been going on. It gave me a chance to just chill out, regroup and get myself together for the frantic week that was going to be in Melbourne . The plane was booked for the 20 th , and philly had kindly offered to pick me up since my car was going to be in storage.

Flying into ny I was pretty excited. Id heard good things about ny but I had no idea what I was in for. After landing and getting held up in customs cause I didn’t have a place to stay and they were pretty anal about all the immigration stuff and they went through ALL my stuff. I finally got into town and found a good little hostel called the Chelsea international hostel on west 20 th and 8 th streets. I wanted to take it easy for a while so I basically just wandered around NY doing the touristy thing. Visiting ground zero, wall st, empire state, central park, grand central station, times square yadda yadda. The shopping in NYC is the BEST, theres a massive range and so much of it is very cheap. I picked up 2 pairs of diesel shoes for 120USD and when I got back I saw that one pair was worth 300AUD, talk about a rip off!!!! Anyway after wandering around for the week it was time to come home for Katie and James’ wedding on the 11 th of December. So the flight from NY to LA took 5 hours with a 3 hour stop over.. then another 14 hours from LA to Sydney .

Next night I caught the train to aswan , where there was a dam and some more ruins to see. This time the hotel was shit, the city was shit, the dam was shit, the people were shit and to top it off they did that annoying muslim thing where all the mosques in the area thought they would blast their prayer sessions over the city at ungodly hours. Bastards. We had to get up at 4 to catch a bus to Abu Simbel, which I had been told was THE highlight of Egypt . What a disappointment. Sorry to all those who liked it, sure it was kind of kewl the four large carvings of the kings, but the entire site had been moved there, and really it was just two big tunnels. Mmmmm anyway.. that afternoon we went back to aswan and my aunty called me to tell me that our family paint factory was burnt down. A bit of a shock, but considering no one was hurt and factories can be rebuilt, I was over it pretty quickly. That night I caught the night train back to cairo before I was to head off to south America on my way back home for a brief stop over. I was so happy to get the hell out of Egypt . Its basically a big dump with people who are friendly because they want something. Its not as bad as India , but it gets a fair way to being close.

That night I caught the train to luxor where I met a pretty kewl aussie bloke who had been traveling for ages as well. We spent the night playing Chinese chequers and he completely kicked my butt. That day we went to see some old temple, I cant recal the name, but for me it was the highlight of the Egyptian ruins. After that we went to luxor temple, where you can see where the Christians took refuge and actually created the first church and you can actually see a painting of the last supper over the ancient hyroglyphs. The next day we went to the valley of the kings and the valley of the queens. The valley of the kings is where the later kings were all buried instead of in pyramids as it clearly alerted grave diggers as to where the goodies were. Anyway I felt that they were kind of overrated. And by this stage I was utterly sick of the attitude of the Egyptians, it was the national pastime to ripoff or molest tourists.

Well I arrived at cairo airport, where I stupidly organized a tour with a guy who was grabbing people as they got off the airplane. Needless to say it was far more expensive than what I wanted to spend and way more than I could have done it on my own. But I figured that I had limited time to go and see everything so if I got it all organized then I wouldn’t have to contend with all the hassle of doing it myself. Well it turned out ok, I stayed in some ok hotels, had my own private taxis and private tour guides, but considering the amount I paid I didn’t tip anyone, and the Egyptians attitude was pretty shit and sly anyway so stuff tipping. First few nights I spent in cairo, I met a local and hung out with him for a bit and we went and got some food and smoked on a hooka, the tobacco was actually pretty good, then he showed me some bars but I didn’t really want to stick around as I felt like they were pretty dodgy people, friendly but always after your buck. Anyway the first day I was picked up and the guide was awesome, he knew everything, he was actually a guide at the cairo museum. We went out to the first pyramid which is much more square than the others but still very impressive, its difficult to imagine that 5000 years ago these were made, when most other cultures had nothing. After this we went to the pyramids at giza and the sphinx. I have to say I was mighty impressed, the sheer size of the structures is breathtaking, and to imagine that they were once completely smooth and covered in gold. The sphinx was actually much smaller than I had imagined but still impressive nonetheless. The next day we went to the cairo museum where you can see quite a few ancient artifacts including mummies and a collection of goods that was discovered in tutenkhamens tomb. Including his sarcophagus, 111kgs of pure gold and of course the ultra famous mask 11kgs of solid gold and precious gems. This was followed by a tour of the city which included the church where jesus, mary and joseph hung out to escape persecution from the romans, it was really strange to see the room where jesus grew up. Lastly we came to the giant mosque, I cant recall exactly who that one was for but it had a great view of cairo , the dirty city that it is.

well the bus left tirana at 4am this morning, they made me change to another bus at 5am and then again at 3pm, its now 7.40pm and im not sure how far off athens we are. been travelling with all these albanians, and i have to say theyre a pretty decent bunch of people. well from what i can ascertain anyway. I think ive decided to forego the syria jordan option, i think if rather not have my head removed by some rusty old steak knife on home video, that and time really doesnt permit it since im flying outta egypt on the 1st. off to lima….

Well lets just say that albania wont be let into the EU for some time, talk about a dump, reminded me of vietnam/cambodia/china, potholes in the roads, shit everywhere blah blah, but it seems so much more lively(as did the asian cities) than their european counterparts. People always out in the streets. Though the hotel i was staying at was a total dump and i was pretty wary about what was going on since it seems there are lots of muslims here and the pakistanis had just declared a holy jihad, i was fearful of keeping my head attached to my neck. found out that the bus for tirana left at 7am so i decided to stay in. The bus journey, 4 hamburgers and a packet of smokes with lots of change for 10 euro, albania is pretty cheap ;0 though its probably not the most fantastic place to visit. Id imagine if they made some nice costal villages and picked up their standards a bit this place would flood with tourists, although as it stands i think im the only tourist in albania right now, or for that matter probably the whole year!!! Everyone owns a beat up old merc that used to be a taxi in germany… anyway i have to catch a bus at 330am to get to athens by 8pm, so im looking forward to staying up late and sleeping on the bus OH YAY! Im still not sure how ill get to egypt, although i have been considering travelling through turkey, syria, jordan, and israel, after reading the travellers warnings issued by the australian government i may decide against it. Although they said the same thing about nepal and it was kind of fun and exciting that there were people fighting near us. (sounds crazy i know, but it makes you feel like your living on the edge a little in comparison to the safety of living in australia). So i guess ill see how much and how long the ferries to egypt are from athens, otherwise im going to be living large and risking my head ahh well it will make for some good stories i bet.

I arrived in Rijeka at about 6pm and i met up with some guys that were on the train and we trundled off to look for accomodation. After walking a few kms, the tourist information sent us back to were we came from, and we found lodgeing in what seemed like a hotel that hadnt been maintained in 30 years, lets just say it was a shithole but nonetheless it was a place to sleep. We hit the town and went to a few bars, one especially nice one was the hemingway!!! i managed to steal one of their menus as a souvenier for mei-ge. The next morning i looked around town but there wasnt a whole lot to see, so i was off again, down to split. arrived in split at 9 or so and was taken to a nice little house where i had my own room and satellite TV… what a dream Unfortunately the weather was terrible so i stayed in, although i had a delicious meal in a little restraunt around the corner… mmmmm seafood walked around town the next day with my brand new 50 cent umbrella…. didnt take me long to realise why it was only 50 cent, the wind was blowing a gale and it turned the brella inside out, breaking a few of the arms… GREAT!!!!! took a few happy snaps and decided i would head to dubrovnik ASAP before i became pneumonic. It was about that time that i realised i had lost my credit card…. SHIT, what a pain in the butt. oh well what can you do??? so looks like ill be on the phone to visa international for a few hours again. On the way down to dubrovnik, which took an extra few hours because of an overturned truck, you could see how heavily the wind was blowing(a la the truck) there were trees blown over everywhere, flooded backyards and schools etc, it was pretty messy. Dubrovnik was pretty much the same way, i managed to find accomodation straight off the bus with a pushy old woman with missing teeth and a lazy eye. But the room was pretty sweet and there were some canadians and an irish guy. looked around town the next day with an american guy john, we walked to the old town where they showed how heavily it had been shelled in the war not so long ago and pretty much all the people that lived in the area lived in the old town. Its pretty scenic, although the weather wasnt that great. We went out that night because it was Dans birthday (the irish guy) and we eneded up at the irish bar, but everywhere was pretty much dead, nevertheless we had a good night out. The next day i caught a bus to montenegro (formerly part of yugoslavia) the bus stopped about 1 hour from the border and i was trying to get to tirana in albania so i could get the bus to athens. the bus driver said he would drive me to the border for 15 euro and a mate of his would drive me from the albanian border to shkodra for another 10. That was all fine and dandy so i went with it. The guy was a bit dodgy though, stopping the bus right next ot his beat up old merc where he syphoned off about 10 litres of petrol from the bus and put it in the back of his car. Everything worked out ok though and i managed to get to shkodra.