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Iberian Spring: Day 5 Lisbon to Seville
Soundtrack: “Cross the Border”, Icehouse Portuguese trains are confusing. Well not so much the trains themselves, just the systems in place for catching them. Yesterday we had a the adventure of the identical tickets that didn’t work identically (what’s possibly even dafter is these tickets are apparently rechargeable, but it seems that once the get pre-loaded with one type or another that’s it). I may have found the Paris metro annoying from the challenge of finding the right station entry with the ticket machine, but once I had a ticket at least it seemed to work okay everywhere. Portugal, not so much, and that was just an introduction to trying…
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Iberian Spring: Day 4 Lisbon
Soundtrack: “Swimming Horses” Siouxsie and the Banshees Our last full day in Lisbon, and we’d booked a food tour to make sure we got a taste of just about everything that one muse consume in Lisbon. It was a walking tour, a mix of history and culture with stops for food, and we were promised at least 17 different tastes of Lisbon (to be honest I can’t count to 17 in Portuguese, so if I go through listing stuff and you count it as less than 17, please don’t tell me). The tour info said to eat a little something before the start, as the first couple of stops were…
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Iberian Spring: Day 0-1; Perth, Kuala Lumpur, Karaburun
Soundtrack: every song by every band about spending time in airports and travelling (on repeat) So it begins again. Having spent 4 months back in the real world of day jobs, traffic, kicking against the pricks and generally just doing what has to be done these days, it’s time to dust off the passport. It’s been a long few months, so this break is very welcome. It’s a crazy old world out there. Flight tracking maps have a couple of vey obvious gaps, and we’re heading right through those to the other side. We’ve had to do some last minute flight changes to keep out of the way, including changing…
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Buns2025: Days 14-18 – Belfast > Singapore
Soundtrack: “Departure”, R.E.M. Filling in the last few gaps from a couch in Nyungar Boodjar, home at last. My final morning in Belfast was full of rain. I had a plan: check out of hotel, take my case down to the Central Train Station and store it for a couple of hours, go get breakfast and last minute souvenirs, then head back and take the bus straight from the station to Dublin airport. Nothing that a little rain would affect. Belfast Central Train Station doesn’t have luggage lockers. Nor does it have a nice and easy ramp to get to it, just steps. For all I know the lack of…
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Buns2025: Day 13 – Belfast
Soundtrack: “Down among the dead men”, Flash and the Pan Titanic. But first, the quest for breakfast. I wanted to find whatever a traditional Northern Ireland breakfast was, to collect the full set. With no handy potato cake company to be found, I went seeking a pub or traditional looking café, though hindered by my eSIM being slow and crap. I was further hindered by NI licensing laws, that mean pubs don’t open until 11.30am on weekdays, something I learned from a chap who was tidying the footpath seating of a pub I found. He told me that the couple of Aussies they had on staff also thought the 11.30am…
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Buns2025: Day 13 – Dublin > Belfast
Soundtrack: “Teenage Kicks”, The Undertones One last morning in Dublin, time for breakfast and last minute shopping. I made the rookie breakfast mistake of trying somewhere different, and not the Potato Cake Company. The result was an okay, but definitely not as good full irish, that lacked personality and character. It’s a travel dilemma, do you keep going back to a place that you know is good, or try different places to get a feel for what the food is like in general. I like to try mixing it up most of the time, but admit there are risks. Saw a very tall spire, called “The Spire”, though not sure…
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Buns2025: Day 12 – Dublin & Cork, mostly Cork
Soundtrack: “Irish Rover”, The Pogues Miraculously awoke with functioning hearing. Dublin’s public transport includes buses and trams (there might be suburban trains too but as I’m not needing to go to far haven’t looked into these). It also has two major train stations for Irish Rail services to other towns and cities, if you want to head south it’s Heuston, north is Connolly. Both stations are named after folks who fought in the 1916 uprising, where while the Irish lost, the UK leaders were basically assholes and their heavy handed response improved support for the independence movement. Today I’m heading south, so Heuston it is. It’s a pretty station, not…
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Buns2025: Day 11 – Dublin
Soundtrack: “To here knows when”, My Bloody Valentine Well I kinda managed to take it easy today. Started off with breakfast near the banks of the Liffey at the Irish Potato Cake Company, who even though they were flat out (apparently South African rugby fans like potato cakes, who knew) put together a decent full Irish breakfast. Potato cakes filled with beef and bacon and cheese, black pudding, grey/white pudding, fried egg, soda bread, beans, accompanied by a pot of strong tea. Not bad indeed. While I’m yet to sample a full Northern Irish breakfast, I will say that I think across the British Isles the full Scottish is the…
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Buns2025: Day 10 – Paris > Dublin
Soundtrack: “Army of Me”, Bjork/808 State Woke early with a mission to get my laundry done before hotel checkout. Part of the reason for picking this hotel was the close proximity to the laundromat, as clean underwear for me is as essential as nicotine to the locals. I felt like a seasoned traveller being able to navigate the weird central payment thing without assistance, which is good because, aside from a small gang of school kids who were using the space as shelter from the morning drizzle, I was the only one there. It was an untidy pack, the clean laundry bag just went straight into the case, but there’s…
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Buns2025: Day 9 – Paris
Soundtrack: “Red red wine”, Neil Diamond Last full day in Paris, a day to madly run around the Ile de la Cite mostly. The sore throat turned into an irritating dry cough without much effort, certainly not helped by it being pretty frigid cold (daytime temps hitting a balmy maximum of 6 degrees) plus never being more than about 1 metre from someone smoking. Time for evaluating a couple of stereotypes. Does everyone in Paris smoke? Pretty much. Certainly more than many other places I’ve been. Vapers carry a powerbank so they can recharge their suckers. Smoking seems to be banned from inside public buildings, so every doorway is crowded…
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Buns2025: Day 7 – Paris
Soundtrack: something old and French It’s another day for cool art, this time from the last 200 years or so at the Musee d’Orsay. I’m finding my French comprehension to be a little better when I see things like that and don’t bother to pause at the apostrophe, so it’s Musee dOrsay, and he apostrophe is just for show. Speaking of just for show, the Musee d’Orsay used to be a train station. When they decided they didn’t need it anymore, there obviously weren’t any rich property developers around to turn it into a bunch of overpriced shoebox apartments, so they put a bunch of art in there instead. With…
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Buns2025: Day 6 – Paris
Soundtrack: “Never can say goodbye”, The Communards I have Louvred. Somehow I managed to get up early (probably due to my body not yet knowing what time it’s supposed to be) and headed down to that big old museum. Stopped for breakfast at an artisanal boulangerie, where I couldn’t decide if I wanted the croissant or the the pain au chocolat so I went for both. And they both were very nice, either dunked or undunked. I’m still not converted. Does dunking add something to the croissant? Not really if it’s fresh. Does it add anything to the coffee? Nope. I booked a 9.30am admission so when I wandered to…
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Buns2025 – Day 1.1 Melbourne
Soundtrack: “Pink Pony Club”, Chappell Roan Mick Thomas wrote, “There’s no point writing postcards on your bad days” (and I probably owe him a fiver for the number of times I’ve quoted it) and as far as bad days go, today is on the list. But I have time to spare, a need for a distraction, so I’m going to write this about yesterday instead. Welcome to Buns2025, the next trip. Perth > Melbourne > Sydney > Paris > Dublin > Belfast > Singapore. A trip of much food, music, sights, sounds, smells, and much entertainment as I attempt the French language. In looking for a theme to tie it…
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7NNT25: Day 37 – Singapore & home
Soundtrack: anything and everything by Lady Gaga; “Without a Trace”, Soul Asylum “Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,Do not go gentle into that good night.” — Dylan Thomas Figured I’d mix up the quote, as I know I tend to use the opening from Sylvia Plath’s “Two Lovers and a Beachcomber by the Real Sea” at the end of trips a fair bit. I’m writing this from the relative comfort of my home, over a day after arriving back in Noongar Boodjar, a contented dog snoring softly beside me. I say “relative comfort” as, after 5 weeks…
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7NNT25: Day 36 – Singapore & Monsterville
Soundtrack: “The Edge of Glory”, Lady Gaga Today is the most important day of the trip, because today I had laksa. Noodle 13: Katong Laksa (Sungei Road Laksa) Right or wrong, I’ve always considered laksa to be more of a malay/indonesian dish, so have not had it in Singapore (despite Singapore’s malay heritage, yeah, I know, I never said I thought everything through) but today I decided to change that. After reading several lists of the best laksa in Singapore, I found a place within walking distance of my hotel that is claimed to do some of the best laksa around. There’s no menu, all they do is laksa, though…
