Random pics from Seattle cause my memory card's stuffed

Red sculpture that looks like a cats rear end

Got to see a free game of Baseball at Qwest Field

Who's that?

Wales 2009, and see if you can spot the one photo from Camden Town.

This is a bit of a summary of my last trip up to Wales, finally got the photos on at minicab/internet cafe... haha I paid for 2 hours and the guy gave me 10 hours, i'll be back.

Mark.

The end of a cold walk up Snowdon

Welsh sheep, similar but different

Made it to the top of Snowdon, or did I, you'll never know

The Crib Goch ridge

On top of the Crib Goch in the snow

Not too bad coming down

Lots of cool lakes and mountains to be seen in Snowdonia

The castle from the West-side yo'll.

A ghost in the castle

Scouting out from the top of the Eagle tower

Sunset in the square after the tourist have left

Looking for a nice place to setup a tent and this is what I found

Looks comfy

Welsh beaches

Caernafon

Me, guess where?

Seriously.. don't feed the birds

Or they'll crap on your car

The Caernarfon skyline

Maes Cadnant, number 18 I believe

The Caernarfon town square

The inside of my tent after a few stellas

How relaxing after a long walk...

Gotta Job

Almost recovered from the Contiki trip, just starting to find all the bruises that I earnt bombing the slopes in Hopfgarten. The brutal reality of living in London is starting to hit home, it's such a contrast coming from such a beautiful wild place like the Alps but that's what it's all about I supppose, it's all worth it if you can get to cool places like that so easily.

This week has been going really fast as most seem to, I've been out with a Brisbane mate, Marnie seeing the sights of London again and we managed to score some cheap tickets to go see "We Will Rock You" on the West End last night, pretty cool. I'm starting to build up a bit of a network of mates from the Contiki trip which is cool, most are Aussies and Saffers but I've got a Pommie mate who I snowboarded with who wants to take me surfing in Bournemouth....in summer.

The next phase of my trip starts tomorrow, I got my police check this morning so i'm just waiting to find out where I need to get my but to so I can start my London teaching experience, bit of a bummer really coz I was just about to book a real cheap train ticket to Wales and go climb Snowdon. On the bright side though it's a reassuring thing to know that my bank balance should stop plummeting like the U.K. economy.

Gotta Flat

Found a place to rent in Bethnal Green, 85 pound a week. It's pretty simple, basically a room, bed bathroom and kitchen. There's 2 other guys living there too and it's in one of the housing estates. The place is pretty safe though, it has a security gate and it's on the second floor, just gotta watch out for the drug dealers and gangsters that are in the 'hood, but that's like everywhere in London. After visiting some real dodgy places, this looks like the best, plus it's only a half hour walk into the city.

2nd Impressions

Well it's been over a week now and im beginning to tick a few of the boxes towards getting some work and a place to sleep. The most success has been found on the job front with just a few hassles left to overcome (police check from OZ). I've scored a bank account with HSBC over here so i can get paid and the Anzuk Teaching guys should have me in work Monday week. The biggest hassle has been finding a room, today I went to check out a place but the guy ended up coming 2 hours late. The house im pretty sure was a dealers house and had steel plate windows with holes drilled in it to allow the light in plus i later found out that the guy wasn't renting the house, he was squatting in it....kinda makes sense though considering how much of a dump it was. He also wanted me to pay him 85 pound/w in rent if i moved in, no thanks. So the house hunting continues, can't wait to find a niceish <100 pound/w place.

There has been some positives to come from the hunt, i've been able to vist the mosques and islamic centres in whitechapel, play spot the English person in Stepney Green and work out where i don't want to live, anyway the seach continues.....

London

The first impressions....

Arriving in at the airport was a great relief, the trip over gave me a chance to get rid of the worst leg cramps ever, my calf still hurts! The snow storm in London had cleared by the time I landed but there was still a lot of snow around the place. The next challenge after landing at Heathrow was to clear customs..... should i declare the 100kg of drugs in my pack or not? In the end I didn't need to worry, no x-raying of bags and no checking of bags, how convenient! That challenge overcome, the next was to catch the tube to the hostel to dump my pack, the tube is fully sick, no problems there, it's just bloody expensive as I'm starting to find out.

The hostel I'm staying at is OK, it's cheap and clean and gives you breakfast in the mornings. You just gotta watch out for the naked dude walking around the dorms, he's been freaking out some of the girls but I think he left this morning. The sleeping patterns are only just starting to return to normalcy but it's hard to get used to the fact that it's dark at 5pm after coming over from daylight savings.

London's main sights have been seen, but I'm looking forward to getting a better understanding of the city and how to get around by taking short cuts, a bike will definently be the best way around town than the tube plus it doesn't cost anything. This is a stance that I've taken after catching up with Delia, he reckons a bike is the only way to travel... as long as you have a big mother of a lock and chain to stop it getting nicked.

Gotta go coz i gotta sort out work stuff and setup a bank account.