Iceland to Rome, Italy

So due to technical difficulties (access and ability of internet plus my own ability) it has been a long while since posting on here. I thought it was about time but unfortunately it will be a bit briefer than South America. So here's a few pictures of the trip so far up to Rome. Hopefully the next post wont be to long after this.

The catholic cathedral in Reykjavik, Iceland. A very expensive place to go to for someone on a budget so didn't get to see a lot. Reykjavik was a really cool city though and over the three days there I never saw darkness due to how far north it is. It makes knowing when to sleep pretty hard.

In the Catacombs in Paris, France. Pretty freaky place filled with bones of people from the plague.

Posing in front of the Louvre, Paris. Good picture for our Album cover to convince people we are a travelling band.

I think everyone will know what this is. Took a lift right to the top of it. Paris (of course)

Theo and Me enjoying the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Leonardo DaVinci's house in Amboise, France. Walked around inside and through his garden but he didn't seem to be home. Nice place though and this was where he lived his final years.

Az and Me splashing in a river of wine at the Haro Wine Battle, Haro, Spain. The clothing was white at the beginning and there wasn't a river of wine flowing down the mountain. An insane festival.

Bull 'Fighting', Haro, Spain. This wasn't bull fighting but more like taunting, dodging and jumping bulls. The guys that jumped these bulls were awesome.

Castle, Lisbon, Portugal. This castle looked over the whole of Portugal's capital city, Lisbon. It was our first castle of the trip.

Running of the Bulls, Pamplona, Spain. The look of satisfaction after surviving the horrific ordeal of running away from a bunch of stampeding bulls. The most fear and adrenaline my body has ever experienced.
Waiting on the side of the road for the Tour de France, in France of course.

The leading pack of the Tour de France. It was all over in seconds.

Benno and Me in front of Pont du Gard, France. This was an old Aguaduct built by the Romans many years ago to transfer water between towns. This particular Aguaduct is built above a river so the constant downward flow may continue from the source. Pretty impressive architecture.

The harbor in Monte Carlo, Monaco. I saw every single one of my dream boats here.

Another Icon everyone has seen pictures of before. The Leaning tower, Pisa, Italy. Pretty amazing this thing is still standing. The lean is crazy.

The Pantheon, Rome, Italy. We were just standing about and then we were struck by a massive ray of light through the Pantheon's roof. We felt as though we were the chosen ones.

Benno and Me flicking a coin into the water at the bottom of the Trevi Fountain, Rome, Italy. Benno's timing was off. I nailed it. Amazing fountain. Apparently flicking a coin over your right shoulder will ensure your return to Rome.

The Famous Colosseum, Rome, Italy. Mind blowing to finally see this spectacle. It was difficult to comprehend just how old this structure was and how they managed to build such a magnificent building.

End of Part One. In Austria at the moment so I really need to get Part Two up as I've already seen a lot more since Rome.

Kingston, ON to Victoria, BC Canada Across Land

The 4,500km drive across part of Canada. Will fill in with the writing explaining the pictures soon!

Algonquin Park, ON, Canada

Went camping in Algonquin Park. Great scenery and was the first time i saw the 'real' Canada in my eyes with pines and lakes everywhere.

Caught myself a fish in the lake we camped by. Wasn't very big but ate it just because I had gone to the effort of catching it.

Posing by the lake!

Grand Bend, ON, Canada

During work I had a couple of days off in a row so decided to do something a little different. I bought a tent from Walmart, hired a car and drove across Ontario to Grand Bend over on Lake Huron one of the great lakes. It was a long and boring drive but when I was eventually there the lake was beautiful. The great lakes are where a lot of people in Ontario go on holiday and they call the lake the beach. Very different kind of beach than I'm used to.

The beach at Grand Bend. Grand Bend is a very popular beach for people in Ontario and even during the week the Beach got crazy busy. While I was there Ontario was in the middle of a heat wave with temperatures getting up to 40 Degrees Celsius. The water here was beautiful to swim in and it is hard to believe that during the winter the lake will actually freeze over.

Lake Huron in the morning. It was already hot enough to swim and it was 7 o'clock. The lakes are massive and it is like your looking out to sea until you get into the water and don't have the salty taste.

The beach early in the morning. Was a lot less busy at this time.

Niagara Falls, ON, Canada

Well here we go. I came to Niagara Falls with intentions of checking out the water fall. However, I ended up living here in the HI Hostel for just over three months and working on Clifton Hill the street of dreams for children and hell for adults. Nailed a job in Niagara Falls as a Supervisor at 'Adventure City', which is an arcade with rides attatched to it. Had a great time here and met some great people.

The falls themselves were a bit of a let down for me in comparison to what I had seen at Iguasu Falls in South America but the Canadians had certainly made a big deal about the falls.

Heres a picture of the HI Hostel in Niagara Falls where I lived for 3 months and had a wicked time. Certainly a very cool place to stay for a 3 month period.

Certainly spotted plenty of Squirrels around the hostel. This one has probably just fetched some food out of the dumpster.

Here is the area where I worked for the 3 months I was in Niagara Falls. The entrance to the arcade is at the back of the MGM building. All of the stuff in the picture though was all linked to the arcade as well as it was all owned by the same guy. Very wealthy man!

Clifton Hill, the street I worked on at night. It was as I could imagine Vegas to be but for kids.

The Iron Horse. My trusty mode of transport in Niagara Falls. It treated me very well. Had some interesting down hill adventures on her though having no brakes.

Standing in front of the American Falls part of Niagara Falls.

This is by far the best view I could find of the Falls and it is from the roof of the Sheraton Hotel. One of the benefits of getting on well with certain people who know the right people at work. The far falls is called the 'Horse Shoe Falls' and is considered the Canadian Falls. The closer Falls is considered the American Falls.

This picture is taken down in the gorge a little bit down from the falls. Chilled out down here a bit just to get away from the craziness of Niagara Falls. Was a really cool spot where you could walk along the rocks and even spotted a Beaver mooching around trying to build something.

Also down in the gorge below the falls. This area was known as the whirlpool. Certainly wouldn't have wanted to be sucked into the middle of this area. The picture does not do the whirlpool justice. Again you can see in this picture that the Canadians managed to make a tourist attraction by putting a wire up and travel people across the whirlpool to get a better view of it. Was a shame they did this everywhere in what would have been such a nice area if left alone.

Had a great time though as I said and will never forget Niagara Falls!

Toronto, ON, Canada

It's been a while since I've updated the blog so I thought it was probably about time to get some pictures of Canada up. We arrived in Canada on the 2nd of June flying into Montreal. We only spent the day in Montreal due to the difficulty of dealing with speaking french and also the fact of wanting to get out and start earning money. Therefore we caught the bus and moved on to Toronto where we were lucky enough to be able to stay with some kiwi lads living in the very centre of Toronto. We spent about 5 days in Toronto just sorting out work related stuff so we could start working as soon as we found a job. Had a great time in Toronto it is a very nice city and there seemed to be plenty to do during the summer months. The city was also very cool in how it had been designed with the city being broken up into different districts, such as the banking district where each big bank had a corner of the street all facing each other and the entertainment district where all the bars are.

Here is the CN Tower. It is located right in the centre of Toronto and is by far the biggest building in Toronto even though there are sky scrapers everywhere. You can go up it and do dinner etc... but it was far to expensive at the time for our budget.

Just a couple of the high-risers from a park in the centre of town.