Reading Festival

Safely back in the cheerful clutches of England, I managed to get myself sorted with a flat and a car in Oxford, I also found time to once again attend Reading Festival (my third festival festival of the summer).

I went to this festival with my Welsh mates Dave & Jonny, and a whole raft of other people.

One of the best aspects of this festival was the '90's rock line up – recently reformed headliners Rage Against The Machine were the definite draw cards for me;other bands like Metallica, Tenacious D & Queens of the Stone age were the icing on the cake.

On the first night Cage The Elephant, an American band asked if they
could (and did) perform a live set in the middle of our campsite, we
got a free gazebo out of it too!

The wolfman turned up and tried to eat a roadie

Me, Georgia & Dave

A ginger-kid trying to steal himself a soul

Dave rocking out hardcore

We got creative and made a glowstick fire, it didn't keep us warm

Team photo

The aftermath

Despite the fun times had at this festival with our diverse group of people I have to say that the organisers could learn so much from Roskilde and other European Festivals! Simple things like having wider walkways through the campsite remove the problems of the scrum-like crowds that plague Reading.

Is that me being picky? yea - I'm such a Europhile!

Big Swede, little Swede

After saying goodbye to the sunny, sandy climes of Kefalonia I made my way back to Athens from where I launched myself across the continent to Göteborg, Sweden. The purpose of this part of the journey was to meet my recently new niece Penny, and my mum sister & brother-in-law of course!
Soon after arriving we made our way to the summer house to catch up with Clas' family, his brother Henrik is also a newly crowned proud father and it was time for the new cousins to become acquainted.

The proud mum

The proud mum

The proud uncle

I managed to time my visit impeccably such that I could go to Way Out West, a local music festival at which the Flaming Lips were performing. The Flaming Lips are a band I have wanted to see live for quite some time and I could not resist this opportunity.

The set opener, Wayne the lead singer crowd surfing in a giant blow up ball...

They also had a whole lot of people dressed as Teletubbies & a big green alien

I saw many other decent bands there, including the most excellent Neil Young.

Göteborg was the final stop on my European summer jaunt, unfortunately from there it was back to England and the looming concept of gainful employment...

Greece – Meteora & Kefalonia

So I've been a bit slack in keeping this thing up to date over the last few weeks, whoops! Time to play catch up...
(FYI, I'm settled in Oxford now, about to start the new job)

From Sofia, I bussed down into Greece, after a night spent in uninspiring Thessaloníki I made my way southwards to Meteora. Meteora is an area of sugar loaf shaped mountains, in years gone by the cliffs were occupied by hermits & monks seeking privacy & sanctuary from the outside world.
Eventually the area became quite popular with monks in general and many large monasteries were built, a number of which are to this day still nestled high amongst mountaintops.

There are guided tours which show you through the monasteries, but I was far to unorganised for that type of caper – instead I opted for a bus to the uppermost monastery followed by a snap-happy walk back down the road with a couple of Taiwanese tourist I met along the way.

Look really closely and you can see two climbers

Daphne & Elaine, my Taiwanese walking companions hamming it up

From Meteora I made my way to Athens to catch a flight to Kefalonia where I spent the best part of a week staying with my friend Natalie & generally relaxing on the beach!

We went out for dinner on Mark's birthday, here are some of our London
based crew getting shown warm hospitality later in the night

This lot danced the Macarena and didn't get
burnt on a pyre, where's the justice in that?!

"Say Cheese!"

ditto

On one of my last days, I went across the island to another
town, one of the attractions was Melisani Lake, a lake in a
sinkhole, very beuatiful with amazingly clear water

Sofia

I'll keep this one short, I just noted the length of the previous post!

Arriving bright and early in Sofia I made my way to the Hostel Mostel, another fine establishment. I'm not sure if it is just the places I've been picking, but it seems that Eastern Europeans are excellent hosts.

I spent the day wandering the city, the highlight being the park filled with old soviet war monuments that no one has been bothered to remove, or keep in repair.

Sofia was a nice enough city, like in Belgrade I battled a little trying to figure out the Cyrillic signs, unnecessarily however because the young people had excellent English. the people were friendly, the beer was cheap, I had a good time -there's not to much more you can ask for really is there?!

A monument marking the passing of the soviet era

Sculpture in the park filled with Soviet statues

Amusing graffiti

Riots on the streets (of Belgrade)

Needless to say, a 6am bus ride after a few beers is a bit rough... it is however very cheap and they barely looked at me 3 times at the border crossing, I've been working on my nonchalant exterior since the Hungary/Croatia fiasco.

Anyway, upon arrival in Belgrade, Andrew (an Aussie on the same bus) and I found our way to Happy Hostel. Another great little hostel! this one was run by Alex, his girlfriend and her sister, the converted apartment was a very laid back place, lots of people had chosen to shelter from the rain outside on the bean bags in front of the TV.

A couple of days before I arrived in Belgrade, Radovan Karadzic was arrested. He is one of the Serbian generals wanted for war crimes against the people of Kosovo. Serbia is trying to join the EU and the arrest of these war criminals is a condition of that process.

As with all these things of a political nature, there are supporters who are unhappy that someone they view as a national hero is to be tried in a biased international court.

So there I was, completely unaware of all these going-ons, just a carefree traveller wandering a new city, trying not to think to think too much about the troubles of the world. The first thing I noted as I walked around was the high number of police around, there were a couple of officers on each corner, it gave the place a general feel of latent violence.

As I found out that evening, there was violence brewing just under the surface of this troubled city. It came to a head that afternoon in the central city, maybe an hour after I had returned home. Andrew & Margo (a German girl from the hostel) were having a coffee in the main square when it erupted with protesters, there were placards, flags, as Andrew & Margo made a hasty retreat into the coffee shop the chairs they were sitting on became weapons at the hands of the protesters!

The next day, Margo & I walked around the city & the imposing fortress that overlooks the confluence of the Danube & the Sava. Again I notice the large police prescence, there were bus loads of them, waiting.

Margo braving the weather at the fortress

There was a strong police presence at this mosque, apparently
it is a regular target during times of unrest.

We spent the afternoon helping a Dutch nutritionist/aid worker/hippie find a hostel and adjust to the city. He was on the way to the Rainbow festival, which from what I could gather is a month long event in rural Serbia where like minded people come together to share their skills and interests whilecoming up with ideas on how to solve the problems of the world.

After a great afternoon of chatting and wandering, I ventured back to the hostel to prepare for my departure that evening, Margo & Dutchie carried on towards the square, bad idea... There were more riots, more police, more arrests. Margo made a hasty retreat while Dutchie had a stern talking to for getting his camera out!

For plants at least, life goes on amonst the ruined buildings.

I left Belgrade for Sofia that night on an overnight train, glad that the troubled city was behind me, but disappointed I hadn't learnt more about it and it's occupants. One day really isn't enough.