OMG Update!
Apologies for the lack of updates, but as I'm sure you can imagine I've been a touch busy. Here's a quick summary of what's happened so far:
June 9 - Flew out from Sydney airport and arrived in Singapore after a 7-hour flight before making a quick change to a direct flight to Zurich.
June 10 - Arrive in Zurich and make my way to the hotel at around 7am local time. By this time I've been flying for roughly 20 hours and have been awake for roughly 27 hours. I spend a bit of time getting familiar with the area and convincing myself that I feel fine and can stay awake to watch the afternoon's World Cup matches. Then I crash and fall asleep in my room, to be awakened a few hours later by my parents arriving from Rome.
June 11 - Day out in Zurich. Unfortunately virtually everything seems to be closed on Sundays aside from the railway stations and surrounding shops. Zurich is a gorgeous and relaxing city though - I'll no doubt comment more on this at a later time (and if I don't feel free to nag me).
June 12 - Make an early morning train trip into Germany with my father to see Australia play Japan in Kaiserslautern at 3pm local time. European trains are awesome, Australia has a lot to learn. Beating Japan with three goals in eight minutes is also awesome and worthy of great celebration. We eventually drag ourselves back to Zurich and our hotel by 12:30am.
June 13 - Awake at 5am to make an early trip to Zurich airport for an 8am flight to London. Arrive in London a little after 9am local time and I'm in Heathrow and through passport control by 9:30am.
The last few days have merged largely into one here in London. I set off into the city from Paddington station to try and find my hotel after the local information and railway people were less than helpful. An hour of wandering about led me to my home for the next five days. It's an old-fashioned English hotel - the rooms are tiny and not the sort of place you want to spend much time, but there is a great bar and restaurant. I've spent quite a bit of time in the bar watching World Cup matches and chatting with all manner of people.
During the days I've been on tours of the city and have stopped to sample the sights at the Tower of London, the Dungeon of London, Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square. Along the way I've seen Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace. I've also seen the inside of many, many English pubs where I've experienced the atmosphere of watching football in a country where it is the main sport. I even stopped in a Macca's the other day for a cheap drink and found that they were showing the games as well.
Tomorrow I'll see some more sights before catching an early flight back to Zurich on Sunday morning, hopefully in time for a connecting train to Munich to see Australia play Brazil. If anybody wants anything here in London, let me know as I plan on doing some more shopping tomorrow afternoon.
June 9 - Flew out from Sydney airport and arrived in Singapore after a 7-hour flight before making a quick change to a direct flight to Zurich.
June 10 - Arrive in Zurich and make my way to the hotel at around 7am local time. By this time I've been flying for roughly 20 hours and have been awake for roughly 27 hours. I spend a bit of time getting familiar with the area and convincing myself that I feel fine and can stay awake to watch the afternoon's World Cup matches. Then I crash and fall asleep in my room, to be awakened a few hours later by my parents arriving from Rome.
June 11 - Day out in Zurich. Unfortunately virtually everything seems to be closed on Sundays aside from the railway stations and surrounding shops. Zurich is a gorgeous and relaxing city though - I'll no doubt comment more on this at a later time (and if I don't feel free to nag me).
June 12 - Make an early morning train trip into Germany with my father to see Australia play Japan in Kaiserslautern at 3pm local time. European trains are awesome, Australia has a lot to learn. Beating Japan with three goals in eight minutes is also awesome and worthy of great celebration. We eventually drag ourselves back to Zurich and our hotel by 12:30am.
June 13 - Awake at 5am to make an early trip to Zurich airport for an 8am flight to London. Arrive in London a little after 9am local time and I'm in Heathrow and through passport control by 9:30am.
The last few days have merged largely into one here in London. I set off into the city from Paddington station to try and find my hotel after the local information and railway people were less than helpful. An hour of wandering about led me to my home for the next five days. It's an old-fashioned English hotel - the rooms are tiny and not the sort of place you want to spend much time, but there is a great bar and restaurant. I've spent quite a bit of time in the bar watching World Cup matches and chatting with all manner of people.
During the days I've been on tours of the city and have stopped to sample the sights at the Tower of London, the Dungeon of London, Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square. Along the way I've seen Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace. I've also seen the inside of many, many English pubs where I've experienced the atmosphere of watching football in a country where it is the main sport. I even stopped in a Macca's the other day for a cheap drink and found that they were showing the games as well.
Tomorrow I'll see some more sights before catching an early flight back to Zurich on Sunday morning, hopefully in time for a connecting train to Munich to see Australia play Brazil. If anybody wants anything here in London, let me know as I plan on doing some more shopping tomorrow afternoon.