Rark Mussell Around the World

A London Weekend

I really don't know how London does it. When you think you have done quite a bit, seen quite a lot, and got pretty involved, something still seems to arise from no where to trump it all. Let me talk you through just one weekend in London to give you a bit of an idea.

Friday Night: Camden Town.

Friday night. What better way to kick of a weekend then meeting up with a bunch of good mates for a few illegal street beers by the Camden locks, before heading out for an all nighter across north and east London. The crew, Gareth W, Martin K, David G and Mark W.

Gareth, with a hard earned Pavarotti ((tennor) £10).

As the clock struck midnight, the crew kind of disbanded somewhat, leaving only Mark W and myself to see the night out. We didn't shirk on our responsibilities and saw the night out until dawn, when we found our way back to Mark's warehouse in Hackney Wick.

Somewhere in Shoreditch?

Mark.

Possibly also in Shoreditch?

Mark has a sweet pad. He also has several bicycles. Saturday morning, saw us riding the bikes around, past the building site for the 2012 London Olympics, through the canal system around Hackney and into Victoria Park for some ice cream. Everyone loves ice cream, so as far as I was concerned, the weekend was already a success.

Saturday Night. Owain + Ben + Bar = A Speakeasy Gig.

Saturday night, new venue, new crowd. Owain P was playing a gig in Chiswick, and had asked me to come along to take a few photos. Accompanied by Sarah G, Kylie B, Caitlin S, and the rest of the entourage we invaded the Barley Mow. We weren't the only ones who had plans for the Barley Mow that night though, as the venue was packed out in no time.

Packed.

Not only was the gig a roaring success, we got to have kebabs on the way home. Kebabs and ice-cream on the same day. The weekend was just showing off now. How could things get any better!

Kebabs: make Owain crazy and Sarah really happy.

Then came Sunday. After a lazy morning the order of the day was a BBQ brunch on Owain's back deck. Just as the BBQ was heating up, and the sun doing the same we got a call from one of Owain's neighbours. It wasn't your normal neighbourly chat, in fact the neighbour was leaning out the window asking us to call the fire brigade as her house had just caught on fire.

Neighbours in need.

After the fire brigade had been called and the neighbour was being looked after, we rushed out the front of the building to check on things out there. Um, well, how to describe it. First thing you saw was thick, acrid black smoke pouring out of the front of the building. The second thing to catch your eye were two ladies, literally perched on the window ledge of the building, hoping like hell that the wind wouldn't change direction and smother them in the smoke. Thirdly, and hard to miss were the windows on the bottom floor exploding with the sheer heat of the inferno.

Intense.

London Fire Brigade, hugely impressive.

The place that was in flames was home to a health shop. Apparently one of their tanning beds had literally exploded, with the copious amounts of plastic and electronics creating the impenetrable smoke. The fire brigade once on the scene got straight into their business. While a cherry picker saved the ladies, others were dousing the flames, and all up they had the blaze under control in a matter of minutes, and literally just in time. Any longer, and people would have been in serious strife. Thankfully everyone managed to get out largely unscathed.

The scene (Owain's house is the white building).

But Sunday wasn't through yet. After reviewing the pictures, I decided to give one of the Local newspapers a call. I found the number for The Sun, and a few minutes later was talking to their picture editor. He asked me to send a few of the better ones in, and within a few minutes was calling back, asking to see some more. Longish story short, the next day they were published in both The Sun, and the Daily Mail (combined readership of approximately 11million people). Not a bad weekend in all, and although you could hardly call it a typical London weekend, nothing so far in this country has been what I would call typical. It has been full on, non stop awesome.

Well, it is impossible to fit in everything that has gone on, but one thing I would like to do here is say thanks to all the people who have put me up over the last month. You have really made things pretty fun, and I appreciate it much. So thanks Owain and Ciaran, Charlotte and Scott, Holley, Mark, Helen and Aidan and Andy Watts.

Ciaran and Owain in Clapham.

Charlotte and Scott in Oxford.

Holley and Ashley in Grenwich.

Andy Watts in Finsbury Park.

Helen and Aidan, I am still looking for your picture, but my hard drive is playing up, so in the mean time I will put this picture up for you. And Mark, your pics are above.

Paris, Amsterdam and Norway.

To get to Paris you can take the train, 2 1/2 hours, fly, 1 1/2 hours, or bus, 9 hours. I bussed. Candace who joined me trained. Over the next few days in Paris we saw quite a bit. When I say Candace likes to see the sights, you better believe she likes to see the sights. One of the undoubted highlights was a marathon 14 hour day. The day started off easily enough with coffee, pan o chocolate, and a baguette at a leisurely time of 11am followed by a train into town where we started walking. We walked solid for about 4 hours covering so many sights I forget half of them. 5.30pm early dinner and a cheeky drink before jumping on some bikes for a 4 hour bicycle tour starting at 7pm. The bike tour was ace, riding to Notre Dame, through the Louvre, and all the other places we didn't quite manage in our walk, before finishing with an hour long cruise on the Seine that dropped us off under the Eiffel Tower at 11.30pm. Most people would probably call it a day. Most people would. The Tower though was excellent and we were treated to some pretty special night time views. Paris was a lot of fun. Unfortunately I can't access my photos of it at the moment, due to the aforementioned hard drive packing a sad.

Amsterdam

In Amsterdam we met up with Jos, Beke, and Deirdre. It was good timing as the Netherlands had made the world cup final, which was to be played on the Sunday night we were there. The whole city basically turned orange overnight, and it really was party central all throughout the day.

Jos and Deirdre's place. Beke didn't make the cut for this photo.

It isn't Amsterdam without the bikes.

As the day turned into night, and the final started, the atmosphere was peaking. Excitement, karate kicks to the chest, dubious dives, and no goals after 90 minutes. The Dutch at this stage were still confident, and just when it looked to go to penalties the damn Spanish had to go and spoil the party. The atmosphere instantly died. No one spoke, and I have never really seen anything like the aftermath on the streets. To a man, everyone appeared to have just been slapped in the face with a wet flounder. Utter disbelief mixed with confusion was the overwhelming mood.

The wet flounder look.

Damn.

Trying to emulate the wet flounder.

But lets move on. It's only a game. In other Amsterdam news, we were treated to a canal cruise on Jos' new boat that he had only picked up the week before. On a blazingly hot sunny day, there isn't a better way to see Amsterdam. On a boat, with a few friends, some food and beers. Jos even let me drive for a little.

On a boat.

On a boat in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam by night.

Also a very funny city.

Norway

Apart from a 6 pack of beers costing approximately $50nz from the supermarket, Norway was very good to us. Staying with Beke and Frederik at Frederik's place on the coast just south of Oslo was one of the most relaxing times to date on the trip.

Beke, Jos, and one very expensive beer that we were forced to share between the three of us.

Maybe all the beer tax goes to pay for the crazy lights in the Oslo subway.

In keeping with the boating theme, Frederik took us out a couple of days on the surprisingly tepid Norwegian water.

How do plants grow on rocks? It is a question I have never been able to answer.

Good form.

Indifferent form.

Queit Norwegian fishing village. A pint here goes for $20nz

Frederik (in green) with his boat and first mate (Jos).

So thanks Beke, Frederik, Jos, Deirdre and Candace for a super couple of weeks. I won't mention the day that was described separately by both Beke and Candace as 'the worst day of their lives', nor the long walk with all our gear in the midday sun, for half an hour, when 2 stops on the train would have got us there (sorry again!), but it would be boring if every day was the best day ever, and even the stuff which is crap at the time usually turns into a funny story when told at a later date.

Goodbye Norway.

The flight back to London had some pretty choice colours happening

So at the end of all that I now find myself back in London for a few more days. Next country looks like being Switzerland, before back for the Edinburgh festival in Scotland, then Spain. So sometime before then should have another update posted. Till then, keep well.

Mark

p.s. if you want a bit of a laugh, check out the comments on the Photo as it appeared in the Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1292108

Argentina

You know you are in Argentina, when you go to a restaurant, and the 'small' steaks on the menu weigh in at 400g. Notwithstanding that 400g is a rather large steak, no self respecting red blooded male could possibly go to the steak eating capital of the world and order a 'small'. It took me the best part of an hour to get through the large rib eye, served rare with a selection of condiments, and a bottle of Argentine red, but was it worth it, you betcha.

Florida Street, Buenos Aires, and one of my favorite photos yet.

Argentina didn't only deliver on the steaks though, Buenos Aires would have to be my favourite large city visited in South America. As with any large city, it is very difficult to put your finger squarely on what makes it such a good city. Maybe it was the cheap wine, the delicious beer, the best hostel we have stayed in yet, the street music & food, art, parks, or the people. But if I had to reduce it to one thing, it would be the vibe (by implication including Mabo & the Constitution). Everywhere we went, there were things happening, interesting things, things that made you laugh, things that amazed you, and things that made you happy (like eating chorizo sausage for breakfast lunch and dinner one day).

Playing beer pong at our hostel

BA was also the first time couchsufing on the trip yet. Couchsurfing, for those that don't know about it is a massive community (almost 2million people around the world) of people willing to host a visitor for a couple days, share some stories, show them round town, and generally have a pretty good time. Maria was our host, and within a couple of hours of meeting her, we were having a three person party in her apartment, dancing away to the Beatles and Buddy Holly. Unfortunately the ticking clock had us leaving Maria's place after a couple of days and heading up to Iguazu Falls on the border of Brazil.

A couple of the hundreds of waterfalls at Iguazu

Iguazu is simply overwhelming, with close to 300 waterfalls in the area. The Iguazu River bed literally drops between 60 and 80m over a semi-circular 2.7km sending twice the water volume of Niagra falls off the edge. The awesome thing is that you can walk below, above, behind and around most of the falls thanks to the extensive walkway system through the park. My camera has been previously covered in sand, and mud, dropped, baked, frozen, but this was the first time it has been fully saturated in water.

Brazil

What a time to head to Brazil. The largest, most passionate, and successful football nation on the globe, and we rocked up into Rio 2 days before the world cup started. Justice. You couldn't possibly miss any of the action, as every second shop, on every single street had a tv in their window, hanging above the counter, or otherwise, showing every second of every single game. But there were a couple days to go before the cup started, which meant time to hit the beaches and the city, and check the place out.

View from under Christ the Redeemer

We were staying about 3 blocks from Ipanema beach, and you can quite easily lose yourself for a day or two wandering along Ipanema, and the adjoining Copacabana, having a caprahina or chop on the beach front, and doing a good deal of people watching. All of these make for some pretty good photo opportunities, so will share a couple of my favourites below.

Dude got balls.

Pretty good form for a 7 year old

7 year olds are also take their body boarding pretty serious in Rio

Surfers. Although I probably didn't need to point that out to you.

Ipanema Beach

Rio is one of those crazy paradoxical cities, where you have the amazingly rich mixed with the dirt poor. 2 minutes from one of the most famous beaches in the world, you find yourself in the very heart of slum town favelas. Well I didn't exactly find myself in the heart of the favela, as you would be pretty stupid to walk in to one with your camera, or to walk in by yourself fullstop. But there were plenty of other areas of the city that you can get to, and although less sketchy, still have a good level of sketch to them. Certain areas of Lapa are exactly that way, so which is why I took substantially less photos there.

Lapa

Well, back to the World Cup. Fifa had set up a huge huge huge screen in the middle of Copacabana beach, and sitting in front of it watching England play the USA you felt like you were in the middle of a massive festival, surrounded by stalls, merchandise, food, people and atmosphere. Pity the game stank, and it wasn't until Australia were trounced by Germany that you finally had something to cheer for. But there was only really one day that really counted in the immediate future, 15 June. 15 June was to kick off with the All Whites playing Slovakia at 8.00am, followed by Brazil's first game of the tournament at 3.30pm. To say the Brazillians get into their football is an understatement. From first light at dawn the streets were buzzing. Cars tooting their horns, people blowing their horns, yellow and green hanging from every single building, shop and public space, and yellow jerseys all over the place. After watching New Zealand's famous 1-1 victory, the atmosphere continued to build. The noise, the colour, the excitement, all were phenomenal gearing up for the 3.30pm kick off. As for the game? I wouldn't know, my flight to the UK boarded at 3.20. Terrible timing.

London Town

It doesn't get much better really. Meeting up with one of your best mates (Owain P), in their new home town, in a city, and a continent you have never been to, over a year since you last met, and with a full couple of weeks of good times ahead. Well, I would have been happy if the whole trip ended after the first night, because what a night. It is easy to get blase about sights and attractions if you have seen them before, but walking through Westminster, to Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and over the Thames, I was actually blown away. First imagine the setting, evening sun streaming in some awesome golden light from a perfectly blue sky, and walking through and around maaaaassive ancient buildings, castles, and parks, for long periods of time not seeing a single manifestation of modern day living (no convenience stores, advertising signs, noise). You almost felt like you were Marty McFly, and the flux capacitor had just taken you back to the 1700s. It was a great evening.

Owain & London Town.

The evening also brought back a famous tradition, called 'eats town', that has been a long standing, and much loved activity of both Owain and myself. It involves an excessive amount of walking, while stopping every half an hour or so to re-fuel with a tasty beverage or morsel of food. Eats-town sessions in the past have been known to stretch for as far as 18km. This was up there, in both distance, and delicious food eaten, not to mention being in London. Everything seemed to just work out, eg. simply by chance, when we were walking past Queenies palace, they were changing the guards. Awesome.

Eat in Eats-Town.

I made Owain make this gesture, it is not in his character to do so, but for the good of the photo, and to produce a 2010 representation of British punk/rock photography it had to be done. This photo has not been edited (nor have any in the entire blog for that matter).

Owain getting his photo skills on.

I really like subways, I don't know why, but they seem to combine all walks of those above ground into a compacted, concentrated sub city, complete with trains. I also really enjoy taking photos in subways (they call it the tube over here though).

Mirror shot

Double trains comin' atcha

Ciaran

Well, its almost been a week now since arriving in London, and there really hasn't been any down time. Along with taking in a lot of the sights, and catching up with more friends, have also managed to get along to the Royal Ascot Races (thanks Helen and Aidan!) and to Wimbledon (thanks Kevin!)