So I've just finished my first week at Lund! It's been great meeting so many new people from so many different countries and since it's our orientation week a whole heap of stuff has been going on: mentor group BBQs, bus tours, a lot of parties and, of course, a lot of info talks (including a pretty funny one from the head of police: "I am Patrick. Welcome to my town!").

Mentor Group BBQ



Corridor Party

Bus Tour of the Osterlen Region

Welcome Party

Swedish Classes

We've also had two Swedish classes so far. The vowel sounds are bizarre and numerous but once I get the hang of them I think I'll be OK since I have a very good memory so vocabulary should come easily to me. The orientation classes are mostly another excuse to meet more people but I'm pretty keen to make a good fist of it, mostly because I need a good mark in the exam this week to get into the semester-long Swedish course. I hadn't intended to do that course before I arrived, but almost everyone else seems to be trying for it and I've always liked learning languages so it seems like a good idea. Coming from Australia you feel so inadequate when you come to Europe and everyone speaks two or three languages as standard.

The cool thing I discovered about Swedish is that Swedish, Danish and Norwegian are mutually intelligible. So a person from Sweden can talk in Swedish to a Norwegian and the Norwegian will understand and can speak back in Norwegian to the Swede who will equally understand. How cool is that!? So if I learn just one language I can speak to three different nationalities... What a bargain! Of course, Scandinavians are so good at English that you'll never end up conversing with them in their language own anyway, but it's a cool thought nonetheless...

Lund Arrival!

So after nearly a year of planning and five weeks of travelling I've finally arrived in Lund, my home for the next four months! We arrived a day early to avoid the queues on the official arrival day yet still had to wait three and a half hours in line to get our keys! I guess everyone else was thinking the same thing...

It wasn't all bad though; I got to meet a lot of people, mostly Germans who seem to have swamped the place.

Anyway, here's my trip report for Florence. There's one more for Rome to come and then it's all Lund! Party time .

* * * * * * *




Introduction

Our train from Cinque Terre to Florence went through Pisa so we hopped out for two hours to take that obligatory Pisa pic. I refrained from pushing or propping up the tower .

After getting back on the train we found ourselves in Florence within an hour. Europe is amazing like that!

My parents told me two things about Firenze: it's very flat and the food is good.

The former is certainly true. The only times we walked up an incline of more than 10 degrees were when we walked up the 463 steps to the top of the Duomo (tiring!!!)

And when we went to Piazzele Michelangelo to get that postcard panorama shot.

Indeed the whole city is quite small and everything is within walking distance; we never once boarded a bus or tram (and there is no metro).

As for the food, it was certainly nice but nothing out of the ordinary. As far as I can tell, Florence has three specialties.

The first, I am a big fan of, and I made sure to sample three scoops every day: gelato! Nocciola (hazelnut) e cocco (coconut) per favore!

The second, tripe, I never had so I can't tell you much about it.

Tripe at the Central Markets



The third though is quite interesting and unexpected: T-bone steak! Bisteccia alla Fiorentina, as its called (Fiorentina is the archaic name for Florence), is sold by the 100g (at 4-5 euros per 100g) and the minimum amount you can order is about 1.5 kg (meaning it's basically a dish to share between two). They don't ask you how you'd like it done - it automatically comes quite rare (though the one we got was well into the medium range unfortunately). Definitely something to try if you're in Florence.

Sites

Michelangelo's David

Florence is the home of the Renaissance so it's full of wonderful painting, sculpture and architecture. The most famous site in Florence is undoubtedly Michelangelo's David. Housed in the purpose-built Accademie, David is truly a sight to behold. Standing on a pedestal under a low dome he is both impressive and imposing. I couldn't take a photo, but it wouldn't do it justice anyway. You really have to see him for yourself.

The Uffizi Gallery

The Uffizi Gallery is the main art gallery in Florence and apparently one of the most important art galleries in the world. I had to wait three hours in line so expectations were definitely high. Unfortunately, inside I only recognised two paintings, both by Botticelli: the Birth of Venus and the Primavero. They were both definitely very cool (especially the Birth of Venus, since I didn't even know it was in there) but the rest of the gallery was pretty boring: a few Donatello self-portraits and then basically a zillion Madonna and Child paintings. I swear I've seen enough of those to last me a lifetime on this trip...

Piazza del Signoria, Palazzo Vecchio

Just outside the Uffizi is the most bustling piazza in Florence, Piazza del Signoria. Here buskers play to big gelato-eating crowds while the backdrop of the Palazzo Vecchio (former home of the Medici family) and the many famous statue replicas give a cultured Renaissance-y feel to the place.

Ponte Vecchio

The most famous bridge on the Arne River, the Ponte Vecchio is lined with jewellery shops and was the personal bridge of the Medici family (which they used on their way to the Palazzo Vecchio to avoid the traffic and smell of the commoners).

The Bargello

The Bargello sculpture museum is meant to be to sculpture what the Uffizi is to painting. This evidently means "not much" since I found both rather bland...

Basilica di San Lorenzo and Medici Chapels

A church where two of the Medici family are buried (in tombs designed by Michelangelo). Attached are some cool cloisters (I really like cloisters for some reason) and a library.

Santa Croce

A cool church where Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli are buried.

Galileo's tomb



Leather markets

A local specialty.

Pitti Palace

Another former residence of the Medici family. Much like the Palace of Versailles, it has a massive garden complex behind.

Typical Florentine street

Florence doesn't really have much of a nightlife. It does however have very a nice atmosphere at night; lots of brightly lit shops, people walking the streets with gelatos, musicians playing their guitar in front of a restaurant or a piazza, and lots of people having a few drinks at a cafe.

We did however go out once properly and on the night we did I had an awesome time. It was pretty neat because Kochan followed us from Cinque Terre and Andy, an English guy we met at the hostel in Nice, was also in town. Then, on the way from Kochan's hotel to Andy's hostel we ran into two Canadians who were doing an Italian course in Siena. One of them was so bored with Siena (glad to see someone agrees with my assessment of the place) that she had deliberately missed the train back (much to her friend's annoyance) so that she could spend the night here. By the time we picked up Andy, two people from his hostel had decided to tag along so we had a little group going when we arrived at this little Irish pub that had been recommended to us by a few sources.

After a few drinks there we went to this club which for some reason had a downstairs karaoke area. After getting a few vodka-Red Bulls in us, Kochan and I ripped up Summer Nights (Grease) with these two Cali girls right in front of these two muscular guys whom we eventually realised were probably their boyfriends. After making a quick dash for it we ended up upstairs where we partied the rest of the night away. Good times .



SIENA

We also managed to fit in a day-trip to nearby Siena (90 minutes by bus). An Aussie girl we met at the hostel in Cinque Terre was also in Florence at the time and she really wanted to go so we tagged along. I found the place very pretty but pretty boring. There's the sloping main square and a very impressive cathedral but that's about it. I guess you can say it has 'character'...

Cathedral



Cathedral library

Introduction

After reading Wiggins' and Townsends' 'The Clock' interviews, I noticed that both listed Cinque Terre as one of their favourite places to go. I'd never heard of the place before that so I quickly googled it and upon seeing how pretty it looked I decided that I'd go too!

To give you a quick run-down, Cinque Terre is a collection of five small villages on the Mediterranean coast of Italy. The whole area is a national park and the thing to do when you're here is to hike from one village to the next. The whole walk only takes four hours, although you'll obviously want to stop in each town to have a look around as well.

The northernmost town (Monterosso) has a distinctly touristy feel because it's the only one of the villages to actually have a beach. The other four are quaint old fishing villages which just have rocks at the waterfront (though people seemed to enjoy reclining on these just as much).

Now I know I said Nice was beautiful, but man Cinque Terre is a worthy challenger! The photos don't do the place justice reallly... The sight of the sun glistening on the water and the entirety of the natural surroundings were just stunning. Enjoy .

Monterosso

Vernazza

Vernazza is probably the prettiest of the towns, with its cafe square, marina, small sand beach and pier.

Corniglia

Manarola

Riomaggiore

We only stayed for two days and quite frankly you don't need any more than that. We were staying in Manarola, the fourth village down from the top, so on the first day I caught the train to Monterosso and legged it back home. The first leg, from Monterosso to Vernazza, is by far the hardest so it's definitely recommended to get that one out of the way first.

Vernazza off in the distance - the hike takes you (much to my chagrin) to the top of the hill!



On the second day I walked down to the last village, caught the train back up to Monterosso and then lay at the beach all afternoon. The beach is actually divided into a series of beaches and some (the ones with umbrellas) are private beaches for which you have to pay a 10 euro entry fee. Ridiculous, though perhaps not as ridiculous as having to pay 0.5 euro to go to the toilet!

Additionally, in what has to be the biggest chance encounter ever, I managed to run into a poker friend from Sydney on the first day (he's known as Kochan online). He was with his cousin who also does law, so during dinner on the second day she and Erica had a good chat about law while I caught up with Kochan's WSOP bust-out stories. Good times, and such a tremendous fluke!

Anyway, we're in Florence now, eating gelato like it's water. More to come!

Introduction

So I just finished my week on the French Riviera! The Cote D'Azur carries with it such a lustre that going in I had really high expectations. In fact I was probably looking forward to this portion of my trip more than any other.

In hindsight my experience was mixed. Visually, the place is absolutely stunning and without a doubt the prettiest place I've ever seen. There was one moment on the bus to Eze Village (a village on top of a hill overlooking Nice) when I simply gasped in wonderment. I can't say that many places of natural beauty have left me in awe like that. On the other hand I expected a really vibrant nightlife - almost Vegas-esque - but the area is a lot more laid back than that. I'm sure there are some buzzing clubs in both Nice and Monte Carlo, but overall the atmosphere at night just isn't the same as a Vegas or Barcelona.

That said I had an absolute ball and met a bunch of great people, particularly at the hostel we stayed in at Nice.

NICE



Nice is a pretty small town - there's the old town, the beach, the port, and that's pretty much it.

Place Massena

The main square which connects the Old Nice to the newer areas.

Fruit and Flower Markets in Cours Selaya

Place Rosetti

Typical windy street in Old Nice

View of Old Nice from above

The port

Beach

The beach is pebbled and excruciatingly painful to walk on. Trying to get out of the water was one of the most harrowing experiences of my life... If I lost my balance, hundreds of small stones were awaiting my fall!

Eze Village

Halfway to Monaco on top of a hill lies this awesome little medieval village. Sick view from the top!

Random Russian Cathedral

Quintessential French dishes - bouillabaisse and steak tartar

The hostel

The hostel (Villa Saint Exupery) has won a bunch of European and French awards and as soon as you arrive it's easy to see why. They do your laundry for 5 euro (amazing for me! lol), have internet and WiFi, have a shuttle service into and from town every 15 minutes, organise day trips and activities, and have their own restaurant and bar. In fact every night no one bothers to go out because pretty much everything you'd want (except a dancefloor) is right in the common room! Most nights would be like: have drinks during happy hour, order a pizza or the dish of the day for dinner, then meet a bunch of new people and play endless drinking games with them. Rinse, repeat!

MONTE CARLO

When I started getting good at poker I wanted to go to three tournaments in particular: the WSOP Main Event in Vegas, PCA in the Bahamas, and EPT Monte Carlo in Monaco. I've already done the first two and my intention was to do Monte Carlo next year. However it looks like the EPT will be moving the venue of its Grand Final for this season so this was the perfect chance to go to Monte Carlo.

For those of you who don't know, Monte Carlo has one of the most famous casinos in the world with a super stringent dress code (jackets at night) and an entry fee to play (I found this rather bizarre). Unfortunately, it doesn't house any poker tables! I was looking forward to fleecing some oil magnets who were holidaying here for the summer L. The only casino in town that has poker is the Sun Casino and when I went there to check it out it only had 5 tables in its "poker room" and only three games were running: two 10/20 $1000 max buy-in games and some random tournament. Disappointing!

The place is definitely a very cool place to visit though, though I don't think you'd need more than two days there max.

The Casino

The small area bordered by the Casino, the Hotel de Paris, and the Cafe de Paris is in many ways Monte Carlo itself. When you get here you can't avoid the opulence and lavishness that Monte Carlo represents.

Our hotel

Keen to replicate the feeling of being at EPT Monte Carlo, I even booked ourselves into the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel which I believe is where PokerStars puts its qualifiers!

View from our balcony

Poolside

Indoor pool

Cocktail bar

Beach

Port and steep road leading down to it





Hairpin turn on the Grand Prix circuit (you can see the tyre marks!)

Prince's Palace

Random meal



Nice friends (pun!)

At the Nice hostel we met two Irish traders who had undertaken poker training for their work. They and their London broker came out to Monaco for our last night there and we had some nice Japanese before hitting the town. Since it was technically a business meeting for them, I think they got to write off some of the drinks as a business expense. Sweet!

After some hectic weeks in Paris and Barcelona it was nice to take two days off in the small, sleepy town of Montpellier. We decided not to go to Marseille as originally planned because after some research I decided I quite enjoy being alive.

In Montpellier you can walk from one side of the town centre to the other in about 15 minutes and though there's some beaches and castles further away we never bothered to venture out that far, preferring to relax and recuperate.

The town centre itself is quite nice. Lots of little laneways and squares filled with cafes, markets and shops, and a large pedestrian plaza that is the focal point of the town (Place de la Comedie) which has the cinema, shopping mall, university and a couple of opera houses just off it.

Place de la Comedie






Cool painting/fake background




Another Arc de Triomph...





Aquaduct

Markets












At the hostel we met a young South African lawyer whom we spent both days walking the town with. I also met a student from Montreal who was reading a bi-lingual version of Hamlet. I found the idea of this intriguing so I had a look and noticed that the French translation maintained the 10 syllables per line in the sonnets, but I imagine a lot of the rhymes, puns and meanings would be completely lost in translation.

Anyway, a nice and chilled couple of days. Next, Nice and Monte Carlo!

Barcelona was amazing...

Food

Going in I was mostly looking forward to the food...mmm paella and tapas...

Gaudi Galore

Before I left I got some tips from a friend who went on exchange to Spain last year. One of those was: "and obviously there's all the Gaudi stuff".

I nodded: "Yeah, of course."

I had no idea who or what that was.

I wasn't kept in the dark for very long however. The city lives and breathes Gaudi.

Casa Batllo

Casa Mila

Park Guell

A friend took us around Park Guell and she explained how the park is actually an unfinished city. The nobility of the early 20th century commissioned Gaudi to make them their own walled city within a city but it was never finished due to lack of funds. When you walk in the entrance it feels like you've stepped into a real life Disneyland. One can only dream what the city would have been like if it was completed!

Sagrada Familia

After Park Guell Gaudi went on to work on his final project, Sagrada Familia, where he is now buried. Ironically that project is still not finished either, and it will take another 30 to 80 years!

Other Sites

Beach

Port

Picasso museum

La Rambla markets

La Rambla is the main esplanade that leads to the port and beach. The fruit juices at these markets were amazing.

Tibidabo

At the top of the hill overlooking the city stands a church and a theme park (interesting juxtaposition anyone?). You get a tram about halfway up the hill and then take a cable car up the rest of the way. On the day we went the theme park was closed because a young girl died 2 days prior after the arm of her ride broke off...

Arc de Triomf

Placa del Rei (Royal Palace)

Underground there's a museum where you can walk over the ruins of the Roman town that used to be there.

Dali Museum

The Dali Museum is in a far away town on the French/Spanish border and involved a four hour round-trip but it was definitely worth it. It was so bizarre to get in a train and then to emerge just two hours later in a place where everyone speaks a different language!

Old and New Barcelona

The Gothic Quarter is a maze of windy, narrow, medieval, streets. Cross the road and you'd be forgiven for thinking that you'd suddenly crossed into Oxford Street in London!

Nightlife

On the first night we arrived at about 830PM and planned on getting an early night after dinner. On the way home though we ran into one of the English-speaking pub crawls that we'd thought about doing so we tagged along.

It was pretty terrible (and 75% guys).

On the fourth night we met some Americans from Sacramento at an Irish pub and met up with them again on our final two nights.

On the first of those we went to a club which was OK but not fantastic (Catwalk). I'm pretty sure any of the dozen others lining the beach would have been better, but some of the people we were with didn't want to pay too high a cover charge.

On our last night we went to this shot bar which my friend had enthusiastically recommended (Espit Chupitos). At 2 euro each, there are over 500 shots (some protected by copyright!) and most of them involve some sort of spectacle (usually fire, though some are rather more complicated). Get the Monica Lewinsky for a male friend who can take a joke or whom you really dislike!

This hyper-happy French guy (above right) we met introduced us to a shot called the Bin Laden. It involves swishing a Listerine-like shot around your mouth for a minute before swallowing and breathing deeply (upon which you go into a deep bout of coughing). I found the swishing bit completely fine (maybe because I use Listerine and eat loads of chilli) but the others didn't seem to find it so comfortable...

Barcelona's nightlife is in some ways a lot like Vegas. It's not a city which happens to have a good nightlife; it's a nightlife city. Everyone there is precisely there to have a good time, and with that comes an awesome party atmosphere.

I'll definitely have to return at least once. Maybe for EPT Barcelona next year, who knows!

Postscript: Compulsory Pick-pocketing Story

As you probably know, Barcelona has the best pick-pockets in the world. In addition to being completely pro at whisking away a wallet without you noticing, they run some rather complex scams to get your money. One that I read up on involves one person coming up to you and asking you something. When you inevitably ignore them and tell them to piss off, they go off and two new people will come up. They'll say that they are undercover police and the person you just ran into was a person of interest. They'll then ask for your details so they can file a witness report and when you open your bag they'll snatch your belongings. The website I was reading warned to make sure the badge they flash is legitimate and to be wary in any case since it is very unlikely a plain clothes officer will have to come out of cover to talk to you.

So on the day we went to Park Guell we were to meet up with our Spanish friend. Running late and having gotten off at the wrong stop, we pulled out some maps to check the right way and went back down into the metro. A young man dressed in shorts, sneakers and with a shaved head then runs up to me and says "stop, I policia" and flashes a badge. I keep walking and when he persists and starts grabbing me I tell him to f*#k off. He persists: "Four men just tried to take your (Erica's) bag, we need you to open your bag". Hmm...sound familiar?

We're like: "erhm...no...we did not see any men and we have our bag and everything is in it" (which was true). He then calls over another man dressed casually and he says "we policia". Great mate, we don't believe your friend, what makes you think we're going to believe you?

As we move away and try to go up the stairs a bunch of people in metro uniforms now appear and block our path and we're surrounded by about 7 people. One points to the wall and forcefully says "Sit down!" WTF?

Anyway, to break a long story short they turned out to be real police and, as our Spanish friend (who had come over to rescue us) explained, they needed us to make a witness report so that they could keep in custody these four Romanian guys that they had arrested. The scary (and ironic) bit is - we didn't see a thing, despite apparently being surrounded by four burly guys!

Nothing like a bit of drama to make your holiday more memorable eh!

14th July

For Bastille Day we decided to be clich© tourists and watch the Champs-Elys©e procession in the morning and the Eiffel Tower fireworks at night.

On the way to the procession we ran into some cavalry making their way to the Champs-Elys©e

which was fortunate because the actual Champs-Elys©e was packed and we could barely see a thing.

Halfway through the march a bunch of planes did some fly-bys. The first was impressive

but then it got rather repetitive.

The skies then opened up and people went scampering for shelter (except for a very old man behind me who, singing along to the marching band, pushed his way forward as everyone else ran back).

We made our way back home and saw a tank on the way, as you do.

After the rain stopped we made our way to the Mus©e D'Orsay which is a converted old railway station. Along the way we saw more military might on display.

Musee D'Orsay

We then went wandering around the medieval Marais district, saw Place des Vosges and got a kick-ass kebab.

Places des Vosges

The Marais

Kebab

We then headed to the Eiffel Tower where we met up with a friend who just finished a semester at the university in Sweden that we're going to. We got some tips and quite frankly it sounds like it's going to be the most amazing time ever. Can't wait!

We then waited, with the rest of the packed crowd, for the fireworks.

15th July

After a much-needed sleep-in I made my way to P¨re Lachaise cemetery (Erica had gone to the Louvre). This was one of the few famous places that I had not yet been to in Paris (I did a short exchange here during high school) so I was really looking forward to something new.

The cemetery is host to Moli¨re, Edith Piaf, Eugene Delacroix, Chopin, Oscar Wilde, and Jim Morrison, among others. It was surprisingly relaxing and soothing to stroll around it for a couple of hours.

Oscar Wilde

Chopin

At 7PM I met back up with Erica at the Musee des Arts et Meti¨rs. The permanent collection chronicles the development of technology and communication and is dead boring. There are only so many brass and bronze gadgets that you need to see before you've seen them all. The temporary exposition however chronicled the development of games; video games in particular. SCORE!

For dinner we went to this North African/Moroccan restaurant for some couscous and tajines.

16th July

For our last day in Paris we met up with a friend of mine from my Paris exchange. For lunch he took us to this self-service cafeteria place which was a welcome break from baguettes and paninis.

We then made our way to Musee Grevin, a place not too dissimilar to Madame Tussauds in London, though I don't think they use wax at this particular place.

Me with Zidane

Me owning some old-school fish

Upon exiting the museum we found ourselves in this pretty little arcade that looked like it came straight out of a cartoon.

To finish our week in Paris we had a quick look around the Louvre.





By this point though my feet were so sore and blistered that quite frankly I did more sitting than I did looking. It was kind of cool having a look at the Ancient Roman stuff though, knowing that I'll be seeing the real thing in just a few weeks in Rome and Pompeii.

For dinner we walked around the Latin Quarter looking for a suitable restaurant.



One of the first streets we came across had about six French restaurants all with pretty much the same menu. Their point of differentiation? Their store keepers, each of whom had their own way of haggling you into their restaurant.

The first, Mr Presumptuous, tried to lead us to a table as soon as he saw us looking at the menu. The second, Mr Generous, offered us a free glass of Australian wine if we came in. The third, Mr Vigorous, grabbed my arm and tried to manhandle me into his restaurant. The fourth, Mr Honorable, launched a scathing verbal attack at Mr Vigorous for his aggressive tactics and told us to eat at the first restaurant or at none at all. When we didn't seem too keen to walk back down the street (understandably I think), he offered us a free dinner just to make sure we didn't eat at Mr Vigorous's!

In the end we decided to avoid the commotion altogether and made our way to another restaurant-filled street where we eventually settled upon an Indian place. French food just comes with too much hassle!

And that's all for Paris!

Next, Barcelona!!!

* * *

10th July

We touched down in Paris on the 10th in the early morning. After a day on a plane a sleep would've been most welcome but we arrived too early to check into our rooms so we left our bags at reception and went for a wander around Paris.

Walking south from our hotel we soon found ourselves right in the middle of the Axe historique. This section of Paris is almost Vegas-like in its who's who of sights. It stretches out from the Arc de Triomphe at one end and ends at the Louvre at the other. It would've been nice to walk from one end to the other but, being right in the middle, we had to make a choice: Champs-Elys©e or Jardin des Tuileries? We decided on the latter.

When we got to the Louvre though we decided to see the Champs- Elys©e anyway so we caught a metro back up to the top and walked back down to halfway.

Back at the middle we took a right turn towards the beckoning gold of Les Invalides and Pont Alexandre III. Along the way we saw a random museum whose name still eludes me but it made for a pretty picture.

We then caught the metro to Hotel de Ville

and made our way to the Pompidou Centre where we watched a mime artist perform for the crowd.

I ordered two drinks from a street vendor and didn't bother with any French since my rusty French had been met with English responses so far that day. The drinks cost 3.60 Euro so I gave him a 10 Euro note and he gave me 1.40 Euro change. After confirming with myself that I had indeed given him a 10 Euro note I said "I gave you a 10" in English. He gave me a puzzled look. I then said "I gave you a 10" in French and he instantly produced a 5 Euro note without any question or hesitation. LOL. Lesson learnt.

By this time it was 6PM so we returned to our now available rooms for a quick nap before dinner.

We woke up at 8AM the next day.

11th July

After a quick breakfast of bread, pastries and cold meats, we made our way to Pigalle (the red light district) to see the Moulin Rouge.

Funnily enough, right across the road is an Australian bar. I wonder if this is a reflection of the clientele of the area?

Walking up the hill towards Sacr©-Coeur, we came across numerous stores selling bread, cheese, meat, fruit and seafood. Damn it looked good...

After turning a corner we saw a huge procession of people filing up the street. Instantly we knew we had arrived at my favourite place in Paris: Sacr©-Coeur!

Some choir singing on the steps


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After a quick look around the Diagon Alley-esque Montmartre at the top, we returned to the area around the Pompidou Centre for a well-needed lunch.

We then entered the Pompidou Centre where I thought a Vegas-themed exhibition awaited. Unfortunately, Vegas played only a small part in the exhibition, though it did get honoured as the "pinnacle of urban collage". I'm sure you already knew that of course. I mean, why else do we go to Vegas but for the architecture?

The other feature exhibition was a collection of works by the grandson of Sigmund Freud. It basically featured a lot of nude self-portraits...

After a token visit to Notre Dame

we met up with a couple of friends to watch the World Cup final at a Scottish Pub. There was a huge Dutch contingent in the pub (or maybe just a really loud one) so the place was pretty despondent after the Spanish win.

At midnight we marked my birthday with a round of Mojitos. A lot of people in the street seemed very happy that it was my birthday since car horns were blaring and people were shouting everywhere.

I appreciated it.

12th July

The forecast for the day was rain and thunder so we decided to spend it inside at the museums. Unfortunately we forgot that everything except the Louvre is closed on Mondays so after arriving at an empty Mus©e Rodin we went to the Louvre where, as expected, we were greeted by a particularly massive line.

Deciding that returning on another day would be wiser, we made our way to the Eiffel Tower for those quintessential Parisian pictures.

We then caught the metro to St-Germain-des-Pr©s where we had our first actual French meal and engaged in what apparently is a favourite Parisian pastime: sitting outside a caf© and watching people go by.

Egg with fois gras



Steak tartare





Afterwards we went to the Jardin du Luxembourg which is this beautiful garden/park filled with people reading and relaxing. There are areas for chess and tennis and from memory there's a children's theatre as well but the central feature is the pool in the middle in front of the Luxembourg Palace where kids commandeer their little sailboats.

For dinner we went to a nearby seafood restaurant. It's famous for its oysters and seafood platters but since you can basically get that anywhere we decided to go for what apparently is the best Bouillabaisse (French fish soup) in town.

It was horrible.

13th July

With the sun shining brightly we decided to head out to the Palace of Versailles. It's famous for its Hall of Mirrors, for being the pad of Louis XIV (The Sun King), and for being the location where the Treaty of Versailles was signed to end WWI. What I really like about the place though are its incredible gardens. I had been here before but that day it was overcast and sprinkling so the photos were really glum and gloomy. Not so today!

Erica gives up in the massive line

Afterwards we dropped into this enticing little laneway but, upon inspecting the menus, it was clearly just a tourist trap.



So we made our way back to the hotel, grabbing some Quick (a French fast food chain with much better burgers than Maccas) along the way. Before going out to soak up the festive atmosphere of the night before Bastille Day, we decided to have a quick nap at 9PM (it's light until 10PM here so everything starts really late). Unfortunately I just woke up then (at 2AM) and am writing this blog now instead.

Damn jetlag!

Introduction

You hear so much about New York City that, before you set a foot in the place, you already feel like you know it inside out. The sites, the food, the people, the culture... you've already lived it vicariously through sitcoms and films and stories from your friends and family. The one thing though that you hear over and over about New York, and the one thing that you can't experience without actually going there, is the electric feel of the place. You hear how you feel alive as soon as you walk into the city - this heaving metropolis full of energy and excitement. This was the New York that I had to discover...

Touchdown!

While we were at PCA all the news channels were talking about the "Arctic Chill" that had swept over NY and much of America. Being from Australia, this was a rather frightening prospect since we scarcely had clothes suitable for a normal NY winter, let alone "the coldest winter in decades". If we ran bad with the weather at PCA though, we certainly made up for it in NY. From the moment we touched down, it never snowed again until we left and the temperature never dropped below -5 Celsius. Given the talk of -15 to -20 on the news, I cannot overstate how much of a relief this was!

Cross Streets

We were staying at the Helmsley on 42nd and 3rd - the room was a bit small but the location was great, two or three blocks from Times Square and right at the heart of Midtown. We always joked that one block closer to Times Square and we would've had the best location possible (pretty much right where the Hyatt is).

Speaking of 42nd and 3rd, is it just me or is it quite thrilling to get in a taxi and say "42nd and 3rd please". You just sound so cultured, so suave, so in the know. At first I was quite taken aback that I couldn't give the exact address of where I wanted to go.

Me: "767 5th Avenue please!"

Driver: "?"

Me: "Sevennnn Huuuuundred and Siiiiixty Sevvvvven, 5th Avenue please!"

Driver: "What's the cross street?"

Me: "????"

But once I got used to it, each day I genuinely looked forward to giving the taxi driver a new intersection to go to.

Settling into a Routine

The first night we wandered around Times Square and hit up an Irish pub at what we thought was the suitably and fashionably late time of 9PM.

The place was absolutely dead.

Upon asking the bartender why that was, he dutifully informed us that we were 3 hours too early. Huh?

After checking out some other bars we verified that he was, indeed, telling the truth. The city that never sleeps doesn't seem to wake up either!

From that moment on though, we perfected our routine. We would wake up at 12, eat brunch at Pax deli at 1 (pastrami roll and OJ for me!), sightsee until 5, shower/watch TV/sleep/lose 5K until 9, then order room service for dinner (invariably a steak or a burger) and finally go out at 11.

Rinse, repeat, awesome!

Sightseeing

A trip to any major city would not be complete without a catalogue of photos at each major landmark, so here's mine...

Times Square

Rockefeller Centre

Great view from the top, cool ice rink at the bottom.

Central Park

I never realised how big Central Park was. It has such a nice tranquillity to it and it's a great place to get away from the noise of the city.

Guggenheim Museum

The Met

I'm big on Ancient History so the Met was easily my favourite museum...the place was massive so I stuck to my guns: Ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt...

American Museum of Natural History

This was a pretty big disappointment. It had a cool science show in this dome-thing (the Hayden Planetarium) narrated by Whoopi Goldberg where you look at the ceiling and it zooms you through the Universe but the rest of it was pretty mundane. A lot of exhibits were just plastic models of cavemen and mammoths etc. rather than bones or the real thing (understandable, but lame).

MoMA

I love modern art. The artistic craftsmanship that goes into such fine pieces as these is just unfathomable.

Ground Zero

Ground Zero Memorial

Surprisingly moving. I assume I'm allowed to put these up but if not, someone let me know!

New York Library

Wall Street

I think I speak for everyone when I say I was surprised that Wall Street is a tiny little lane that cars can't even go through!

Statue of Liberty

Doesn't get more clich© than this...

Broadway

We got to be in the audience for a taping of Letterman which was pretty cool. Before you go in they have these guys give you a pep talk to get you in the mood and laughing at every joke like it's the funniest thing you've ever heard. What I actually found funny was that they have to recite their pep talk line-for-line each and every night. You'd think this would drive them nuts but these guys were crazy happy. I remember how one guy's face completely lit up when he saw us arrive: (eyes widening) "HEY GUYS! HOW YA DOIN!?" Once seated we were treated to some music and the clapping and dancing continued. It was like being at a Hillsong Convention, but lots of fun nonetheless.

We also saw Wicked which I really liked but I already had the album and knew the songs so I was probably a bit biased.

Empire State

View from the top at night.

NYU Law School

Just had to take a photo of this .

Grand Central Station

FAO Schwarz

Piano from the film Big with Tom Hanks.

Abercrombie & Fitch

One thing you must do when you're in NY is go to the Abercrombie & Fitch store on 5th Avenue. I remember being greeted at the door by two guys who I thought were male models. Then, as soon as I walked in, I realised that every employee in the place was ridiculously good looking. The store was actually ridiculously overstaffed and basically a dance party. Music is blaring and all the staff are dancing, including the people fronting the cashiers (which unfortunately meant very slowly lines, but the eye candy more than makes up for it!). There are even dancing girls stationed at the top of each staircase to greet you as you arrive on each level!

Being good at helping customers was obviously not part of the job description however as my question about the whereabouts of an item was met with a pointed finger and an "over there somewhere".

Nightlife

The one thing that we learnt from Vegas is that everyone in clubs in America is really old. So rather than hang out at expensive and trendy joints with presumably 30+ year olds, we decided to hang around Greenwich Village (where NYU is) and, on the recommendation of a friend I met at PCA, Lower East Side. We tried most of the bars around those areas but ended up returning to two places each and every night: Off The Wagon in the Village and Pianos on Lower East Side.

Off The Wagon is meant to replicate a typical college bar, complete with beer pong tables and all. Pianos is a bit more groovy and "dancy" and ended up being my favourite place. It was actually kind of funny how we came across it. That same PCA friend told me about it but I didn't think too much of it other than mentally making a note of the name. I didn't know where in Manhattan it was at all. Then one night we took a cab from the Village to Lower East Side, without specifying where in particular to go (since we didn't know), and as soon as I got out of the cab and looked up, staring me right in the face was Pianos! Destiny!

Off the Wagon

Pianos

Another cool place we happened upon was Spitzer's, also in Lower East Side. More of a restaurant-pub, it had a huge selection of ridiculous strength beers and awesome food to pick on: the Truffle Mac and Cheese was amazing!

My only gripe with the nightlife in NYC is that everything is dead on weekdays, and everything closes at 4AM. The former is completely acceptable for most cities, but not for a city that is meant to never sleep! And the latter is of course also completely normal for most cities, but come on, this place doesn't start happening till midnight! A four hour window is not enough!

In hindsight I kind of wish that we did try a classy martini lounge or a proper nightclub just once, but overall I definitely don't regret doing what we did. Meeting lots of fun people, having late night lamb gyros and Philly Cheese Steaks, and drinking the night away as we hopped from one hole-in-the-wall bar to another - those are the memories that will stay with me forever.

Conclusion

I went to New York with so many expectations and I can honestly say that it far surpassed them. The sites were amazing, the atmosphere was electric, and the nightlife was buzzing. The best thing is, there's a little bit for everyone. When I got back from NY I tried to describe it to a friend who's going there later this year (come to think of it she's probably there right now) and soon realised that she probably would not like it for remotely the same reasons as I did. I personally will remember NY mostly for the bar-hopping and the sightseeing (hence the structure of this blog). Others probably will remember it for the food or the Broadway shows or the shopping or the music.

What's patently clear is that, if you haven't been already, you should definitely put it to the top of your list. You won't regret it .

So it's been a week since I finished exams and a pretty eventful week it was! It started with a friend's farewell party (unlike us Europe-bound exchange students she's smart enough to be going to Harvard!) and a law party on the Friday.

Then on the Saturday it was my two-weeks-early birthday/farewell party! Here's some pics of me plus a general 'action' pic at the end which I really like for some reason.

Sam (from PCA) came up from Melbourne for my party and stayed with me on the Sunday so that we could grind the Sunday majors the next day. I was still self-excluded on FTP unfortunately but I played about 6 tournaments on Stars and the UB major and went my usual 0 cashes. I staked Sam in some $100+ ones too and he went 0 for in all of them as well. Awesome...

He did however manage to go deep in some random small one by which time I had to go out to dinner with some friends and so I left him in my house to fend for himself! Good host I am .

I've been trying to grind some spending money for Europe this week but it's been really hard since absolutely nothing has been running. Even when the Sunday majors were on the games were pretty quiet and, in the days since, I've woken up pretty early to play and literally only 1 to 3 10/20 games have been running (across all sites). It's quite frustrating and the last few days I basically haven't even bothered to play and have just gone out shopping for clothes and the like for Europe instead (I got an iPhone today!). I'm hoping the state of the games is just because of summer and the WSOP; otherwise I'm going to have to rethink my goals for next year...

So I leave this time next week for a 6 and a half month adventure to Europe. As I mentioned previously I am going to take my RSA tokens with me and give myself the option of playing while there but in all honesty I doubt I'll be able to get many hands in. Even if I could overcome my tiny laptop monitor and the slowness that HEM would induce, I'm pretty sure that I'd rather be making the most of the opportunities that exchange will bring. So, save for one more fruitless Sunday majors grind in 2 days, that's basically it for this year! So here's my sort of pre-emptive year in review.

Online Cash: 124K






Online MTT: -9K

Everything Else (live cash, live MTT, rakeback, bonuses, staking, cost of poker software/training site subscriptions, purged 1/2 HEM hands, etc.): -4K

TOTAL: $111,000

I'm glad I hit six-figures, but all in all it's been a bit disappointing. Halfway through the year I'm up less than half my total profit for last year, and that's despite playing 2x the stakes. I also didn't finish my 10/20 goal 6-max (100 buy-ins), stalling massively since the 100K mark, though 3/4 through isn't bad (the 10/30 hands are mis-imported 10/20 hands where someone posted a small and big blind).

I don't really have too many highlights for the year other than being able to say that I've now played 100/200 NL with durrrr, albeit ludicrously briefly. I'd probably say the 40K pot from a few blog posts ago was my genuine highlight for this year.

Next year I'm going to be a lot more conservative with my game selection. I have one year to make a lot of money and set myself up for a house and I want to make it count. So I won't be thrill-seeking 100/200 games unless I sell off some action or have a genuinely big edge/bankroll. Nor will I be wasting any more money on HU. I think 40K is a fair enough investment for that learning experience...next year I have to turn it to account in the 6-max games!

I hope to finish my 10/20 goal this year in Sweden (25 buy-ins in 6 months can't be that hard right?) and begin next year playing 25/50+ (if it still runs lol), the major online MTTs, and whatever live events fit my schedule. I just hope that the game doesn't pass me by in the time I'm away. Raptor came back fine (even I will admit that I considered taking shots at the 'rusty' Raptor, but I'm glad I didn't lol), so there's a bit of hope for all of us.

Anyway, my blog is going to take a new direction for the rest of this year. For the first time I'm going to show it to my friends and it's basically going to be a photo blog of my trip and I imagine very little poker at all. If that doesn't suit, feel free to stop reading, but I hope you guys enjoy it and will come along for the ride .

That's all for now...in my next post I'll finally do the NYC portion of my PCA/NYC trip report and then hopefully the next time you hear from me after that I'll be in Paris! Good luck at the (non-existent) tables!