The Dolomites

The night before it was decided the visit to the dolomites would happen today(Sunday) as quite a few people were going home early. After an early breakfast everyone gathered in the car park and soon after the train of vehicles departed for what would be an approximately 2 hour journey. After an hour or so the road winded upwards and I was surprised to see how many cyclists were tackling the long and steep slope. Along the way there were also several villages, with quite a few buildings advertising ski/snowboard hire. The carpark at the top was filled to the brim, showing it was a popular tourist spot. The topic of conversation was not surprisingly, where was matt and nicki’s car?!? They had got lost again..This didnt deter most people from doing there own thing. All around us there were peaks which looked spectacular. The nearest one to us had cable car with 2 person gondolas stretching up the extremely steep rock face. this peak had a opening in the middle in which could be seen a small hut, which i identified as being a restaurant like that of yesterday's walk. Everyone broke off into small groups and i found myself with about 8 other's on a walk up to the top. Some creativity by Dan, saw us bush bashing our way to the right track when the wrong path was chosen. About ten minutes in, the gradient really kicked in and we all found ourselves spread out on the mountain side out and walking our own pace. I pushed on at just below my limit and concentrated on getting into a good rhythm. The combination of the hot sun and hard effort made me regret having worn trousers that day despite being told it would be cold at such a high altitude. The view was fantastic from where the hut was situated and after admiring it for several minutes a strudel was next on my agenda. While siting down and waiting to be served i spotted several people climbing the rock face. It made for an impressive sight. The walk back was both good and bad. Walking down hill is much harder on your knees and joints but with my new grippy walking shoes i had fun sliding down the loose gravel. I got close to some mountain goats which i thought was pretty neat. Not something you see every day! Some much needed rest was had on the way back in the car with the desire to catch up on sleep not working it seems. When we were nearing the bottom of the mountain we got slowed by some traffic. We saw some police at the intersection and Sabina got out to see what was going on. It turned out there was a parade happening on the street and that the road would be shut for approx 20 min. We stood with the rest of the crowd and watched as the locals dressed in traditional dress walked by. The highlight was when 3 blokes who had these huge whips cracked them non stop for a minute. The noise they made was terrific! After the evening meeting Pr Alf told us that it would be an easier the next day as everyone looked/felt tired. This was good news as far as i was concerned, i felt trashed. Still an early night once again evaded me but thats the way it is sometimes...Until next time, Cya!

Italian Camp: Climbing Mountains

Hi again,

The next day we got picked up at 8.45am from our Pensione. Walking down the staircase from our room there was several stuffed animals lining the walls including a huge turkey. Several other people mentioned seeing the same thing so it must be a tradition in that area. I hopped into the car feeling a bit tired from the reduced sleep time. It turned out this was to be the trend for the next week :) For breakfast i was expecting a typical affair with the usual assortment of toast and cereal. Therefore i was quite surprised when i found a table covered in assorted sliced meats with cheese as well. I was slightly apprehensive about digging into meat on white bread so early in the day. I ended up eating it though evenly though it felt slightly 'wrong'...at least for the first few days. Luckily there was a supplement of rye break and honey/cranberry jam as an alternative. I might add that after a few days, not surprisingly visitors including myself were going to the shop and buying cereal, yoghurt etc :P. Around 10am we all assembled into the carpark and found a seat for a journey to a village approximately 45 minutes drive away. Most of us headed off in the direction of the end of the valley which ended in what appeared like a steep slope (see pic). We wound our way up the side of the hill which was extremley picturesque. There was a stream of water on the left hand side and a waterfall about half way up. When we reached the top we went down into another valley where there was a small village set on the hill (see pic). Everyone sat down at the local restuarant, eager to taste the local cuisine. The most popular dish was probably strudel, which you can get everywhere in the region and another dish consisting of pancakes chopped up with jam. Pretty good food on the whole, walking an hour up a hill makes it much more satisfying as well an excuse to lash out. A few decided to keep walking in the direction of a waterfall close by while the rest of us made our way back down the slope. I got to chat with Antonio which was fun, interesting how much you an communicate with a mixture of very basic Italian and English vocab! Once back in the village everyone chilled in the restaurant for a while before we snaked our way back to the pensione in the cars. Dinner was a three course meal once again, and the same feeling of having eaten too much sunk in. For something different we had our evening meeting outside round a campfire set against a stunning backdrop. Matt was asked to lead choruses by Pr Alf which led to some funny moments where he didn't have a clue what was going on. Pr Pino was due to give the talk when we came to the realisation there was no light for him to read his bible! Luckily someone had a headlight handy so all was ok in the end. Following the talk came an extended period of spontaneous items from couple's or groups. Some did so willingfully while others had to be given a little persuasion from the audience i.e. cheers and clapping to get themselves in the limelight. The enjoyable night was concluded by most people heading up into Natz for the customary evening 'chocolata' (hot chocolate). Tommorow we head into the BIG mountains, the dolomites...Please leave comments, thanks! Also have lots more pictures here: Photobucket

Italian Camp

Hello everyone,
It's been over a week since i got back from Italy and now i've finally got the chance to sit down and make a record of what happened and my thoughts along the way. So here goes...

The morning of Friday the tenth of August was a special day for me for two reasons. The first was that it was my birthday (I turned 19)! The second and slightly more obvious was it was the day i would head off on a day long journey to a little town in the north of Italy. To set the scene i shall give a little background information. Nicki, Matt, Maddie, Jo and Chigga had all flown out of London the previous night to go to the camp. They were only staying until Monday evening due to work commitments however i was planning to stay for the whole duration (a week). So anyway i got up reasonably early and made a few last minute preparations for the trip. I gave myself heaps of time to get there as i was trying to be as organized as possible... just the way i am i think :) After about an hour and a half i made it to Stansted Airport and went straight to the check in line. The lady on the desk informed me that my luggage was too large for the conveyor belt and that id have to take it elsewhere. In my ignorance though i walked off and only later realised i should of picked up my bag! For a brief moment i thought i might not see my luggage again but that was quickly quelled as being paranoia. I headed for the travellex office and collected some cold hard cash (euro's) for which would hopefully last the next ten days id be adventuring. After killing some time reading some magazines i checked my watch and decided i should make my way to the security queue, which i might add was massive. After what was probably half an hour i found myself at the departure gate and eventually on the plane and ready to go. To pass the time i responded to a couple of b'day txt's and quietly chuckled as i read my b'day card from my pez that had arrived a couple of days earlier (you have to read my bro's comment). About half way through the flight the window seat i had acquired provided some spectacular views of what i assume was the Austrian Alps. The huge peaks covered in snow and gigantic valleys gave me a real sense of perspective i.e. how small the hills are in Hobart amongst other things. The houses and landscape just prior to landing showed off the rows of tree's neatly aligned and trimmed. That as well as the typical orange coloured roof's of the houses are what stuck in my mind in regards to the landscape. I was surprised to find out how small the airport was where i landed, having thought that nowhere could top what tassie has to offer. A 45 minute bus ride later and i found myself at Verona train station. I was abit nervous about the whole train business. Luckily the ticket machine was in English and so buying a ticket was no drama's. Finding the right platform was another issue though. After going onto some random platform i asked (hand signal's mostly) a local where my train would be leaving from. He turned out to be really helpful and quickly got me going on my way. Problem overcome! I found myself a seat after double checking the train was actually going where i wanted to go and proceeded to sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. After leaving Verona we winded our way up into this huge valley. The scenery stayed pretty consistent throughout the 2 hour trip but the different houses, farms etc littered all over the mountain kept me engrossed. It amazed me how they built houses in places that look totally inaccessible and impossible to get to! Upon arrival i set off in the direction of the town of Bressaone hoping to find a bus to Natz. I got as far as the bus depot which was completely empty and decided it was probably safer/easier to get picked up. Pastor Helmut and Antonio picked me up and we had a basic conversation with his limited English. After saying hello to everyone and downing a delicious meal we had a brief chorus session and a few testimonies. It was fun singing in Italian even when on occasions you didnt know what you were singing. I started to recall as well all those number's i learnt in High School! That evening I got a lift a few km's down the road to the next village where my accomodation was. I was sharing a room with a guy from Sydney who's been living in London the last few years called Darren. At 1.30am in the morning he arrived at last after travelling up from Verona airport by car. Much to his and my surpise we discovered that the two single beds was in fact one large bed with two single sheets! lol, anyway there wasnt much we could do about it so went to sleep. Thus ended the first day of my travel's. Stay tuned for more updates...
In the mean time, check out all the pic's ive taken here.

Day in Greenwich

Hey there,
Hasn't been much to report the last couple of weeks, hence the lack of a blog update. I worked on Saturday last week so the weekend went by quite quickly. Probably the highlight was seeing a couple of recent film releases, Transformers and The Simpsons Movie. I enjoyed both of them, the former for its excellent special effects with the opening scene in particular having a huge 'wow' factor. The Simpson's was good to, although it did feel alot like a long drawn out episode. I got asked by Dan on Sunday to give a talk at the house meeting this week. I managed to scrape something together on the Wednesday, still scribbling my thoughts down on the 20 min bus ride to Dan and Alice's place. Worked out well in the end, Praise the Lord.

Today i had the day off work so it was suggested i check out Greenwich. Matt had already been previously with Laura and Sam a week ago so could fill me in on how to get there. This morning i told Nicki my plans and she decided to come with me, so her, Maddie and Jo came too. We had the choice of either getting there by train or boat, in the end we opted for the train as Matt had been somewhat 'underwhelmed' by the 55 min journey along the Thames. After 20 min we got off and followed the signs to a Huge park. It was there where the maritime museum and royal obsevatory were located. The museum was packed full of lots of things all to do with ships, from early explorers to the history of passenger vessels. The most interesting exhibits were of a selection of small models war ships and a brief history of passenger ships, culminating in the 'Grand Princess' released in 1998.

We headed for a cafe and got some drinks, maddie's icecream unfortunately fell on the ground. By this stage she was getting quite tired, having stayed up late the night before. Eventually we made our way up the hill in the centre of the park to the Observatory. In the main court yard area there was the prime meridian line layed out on the ground. The tourist's seemed quite keen to take photographs of themselves on the line :) The view from the hill was pretty cool as you could see some sky rise buildings and the huge 02 Arena, not to mention the historic buildings in the park. We wandered through some of the buildings before we heard over a speakerphone that a guided tour would be starting shortly in the main courtyard. It was quite interesting hearing about the history of the place and the people that lived there. By the sounds of it there live's were not the most exciting, getting paid 100 pounds a year to map the stars every single night. Definitely not my idea of fun! According to the guide in the 17th century there was a 20 000 pound reward declared(3million in today's money) for whoever could build an accurate way of keeping the time aboard a ship. The idea of this was, that if you knew the time relative to GMT then you could calculate the latitude of the ship and that combined with a longitude value could be used to calculate the ship's position. Anyway, there were various problems associated with using ordinary clocks such as the movement back and forth of the ship and temperature etc. This one man set about designing a clock which could overcome these problems. He dedicated his whole life to finding a solution to this problem and winning the prize money... it wasn't until the fourth design that he made that he managed to convince the panel of judges that he was worthy of the reward(you can see each of them working on display). The irony was that when he finally got the money he'd worked so far for, he died 3 years later! I thought that was quite funny and made me wonder what was motivating him to complete this machine, the money, fame or maybe a chance to make difference in the world. Forty five minutes later and we were ready to go home, Maddie had in the mean time fallen asleep. We had a quick stop at a art and crafty market where Nicki found a watch she liked. Lasagna for tea, the perfect way to finish a good day out! Hope you like the pics. Cya, gad