Almost forgot, spent a couple of days last week stringing together a frag video for Team Fortress 2. I went from 2 hours worth of spy playtime to 25 hours, and my skills improved a fair bit. It did better than my previous videos, clocking up 2500 views in 3 days, 58 ratings (average of 4.35) and 8 favourites. Not bad at all, definitely motivated me to make another sometime soon.
Enjoy!
Today has been one of the first sunny days in a fair while. I swear it’s been about 4 weeks since I last went mountain biking, thanks to constant rain and cloud. Next time weather forecasters predict an ‘Indian’ summer, I’m not even going to humour them. End rant >:(. It has given me the oppertunity to get on with some indoorsy stuff, that I hadn’t planned on doing over the summer break.
My PHP is coming on leaps and bounds, determined to master it by the time uni starts because it’ll be one less thing to learn next semester. I’ve also been digging my way through the wordpress docs, and watching some really awesome tutorials. I’m aiming to try and re-hash my whole website shortly, as soon as I can knock out a decent mock up in photoshop.
Happy coding!
Tags: photoshop, update, web-development, wordpress
My exam results came out yesterday, great stuff. Passed everything so don’t need to re-sit in August, and my marks were high enough to be able to do the modules I want next year. Results were:
SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT 69 (2:1)
WEB DEVELOPMENT TOOL 78 (1st)
COMMS + TELEMATICS 69 (2:1)
PROF+PERS DEVELOPMNT 69 (2:1)
So I was 1 mark away from a first in 3 modules. That’s just taking the piss. But I’m not complaining 
. Looking forward to getting stuck into some serious stuff in September.
It’s been a looooong time since I last posted. To cut a long story short, I was enjoying myself so much on my travels that I didn’t find much time to blog. That and the poor wifi provided at the hostels meant that I didn’t post anything for the second half of my trip. Bad Nick. Evidently I made it back though 
. Lot’s of things have happend since then.
I became a student at university in the lovely seaside town of Aberystwyth about 10 months ago. I’m studying for a degree in Computer Science. Just about done with my first year, and hopefully moving on to my second in September. I’m planning to resurrect this blog for the foreseeable future. I’ll probably use it to post my ramblings and some geek stuff. Not sure what I’ll be posting exactly, all the more reason to stick around.
Prague wasn’t that great for me in all honesty. Don’t get me wrong, it was worth a visit, but everything can be done in a day. Everything. It’s not a very big place so I found myself walking everywhere. Once I’d walked Charles Bridge a few times, seen Prague Castle and been to Wenceslas Square I found myself struggling for things to do.
Prague Castle
Prague is also very toursity. You can’t look anywhere without seeing a) A currency exchange place, b) A souvenier shop, or c) a mob of tourists clambering their way over people when trying to follow their walking tour guide. It got quite frustrating. The hostel I stayed at was filled with people only there for drunken weekends, meaning not much sleep, was glad to move on and I’ll post about Vienna in a bit.
Tags: Backpacking, Prague, Travel
What a city, Berlin is now one of my favourite places in the world, even though some things didn’t quite go to plan. Went on a free walking tour on Saturday, which was very good and went around most of the main attractions. Bradenburg tor, The Reichstag, Holocaust memorial, Checkpoint Charlie and plenty of others. Learnt loads about the cities history. That day was also America day, a big party to celebrate the opening of the American embassy. Lot’s of shows, bands and beers. Spent a good few hours there. Two cool guys from the states moved into the dorm that day, they’ve been studying in Stuttgart, and have done my route in reverse so I picked up lots of tips.
The Brandenburg Tor
Did my own thing on Sunday. Started off on the far east side taking in some modern art at Treptower park, Molecule man which was a weird metal structure, standing in the middle of the Spree, of two men fighting or hugging? Worked my way over to Alexanderplatz along East Side Gallery, which was pretty cool. Didn’t see any graffiti artists there though. Walked past lots of open air markets today including an art one. They had taped a long line of paper along the length of the market on which people were encouraged to paint, pretty cool. Finished the day in Pergamonmuseum on museum island. It’s filled with artifacts from Babylon including sections of the Pergamon alter. It’s only a temporary exhibit so I’m glad to have seen it.
East Side Gallery
Started today horribly, getting fined for not having a ticket on the metro. I was heading up to the next station to get a day pass because my nearest one won’t take notes or visa. Bleh, I’ve probably gotten away with 40 euros worth of free rides anyway so karma restored. Wanted to climb the Reichstag today so headed up that way. The views from on top were cool, but the dome had closed today for repairs, sods law. Made my way back through Tiergarten and stopped for a beer at the beer garden. Going to relax and pack for the train to Prague tomorrow.
Tags: Backpacking, Berlin, Travel
The last thing I said yesterday was no rain please. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that, because I had the mother of all soakings today. Woke up really early for whatever reason and took the S-Bahn up to Tiergarten at about 7. It was picking a bit but not enough to get wet. Made my way through the park which is massive to try and reach the Reichstag. Upon reaching the other end, the heavens opened and they did not close again until 2 hours later. Unlike Paris there is little cover in that part of Berlin. Took me ages to get back to the hostel (my map was a mushy ball by then), by which time I was soaked through even with a coat on. Waiting for things to dry out right now, need to wash my jeans because they got very muddy. Had a mini-crysis where I lost my wallet for a while, only to find that it was in my coat all along. Going to spend the rest of the day relaxing. Oh and the next few days are also meant to be rain, I would say it can’t get any worse but reminding myself of the title of this post, I won’t.
Tags: Backpacking, Berlin, Travel
What a nightmare day. Getting down to Orly was easy enough, and I was there with 30 mins to spare. I wanted to get to the departure lounge early so I could have a late breakfast. Bloody unattended luggage. Some prat had left their stuff lying around and before I knew it some heavily armed guards were pushing us out of the way. Half of the south terminal was cordened off for at least 20 mins. The easyjet line was manic after that and I spent an hour in line without moving very far. They kept the check in open longer though. The flight was very bumpy, starting to dislike easyjet. The plane banked so close to the ground that I thought “shit the wings going to touch that lake”. Glad I don’t have another one for a while yet.
The hostel was easy to find, and the S-Bahn and U-Bahn networks are very similar to Paris’ Metro system. Berlin seems like such a beautiful place. I went for a pizza a while ago and sat in a small park around the corner. I was suprised to see loads of wild rabbits and mice running around, in the middle of a major European city! They were chased off by dogs seconds later lol. I’ll have to remember my camera tomorrow. Will possibly do The Reichstag, Brandenburg gate and Tier garten tomorrow as they are all close together. No rain please.
Tags: Backpacking, Berlin, Paris, Travel
I used my final two days to try and get around the bits I hadn’t seen. I went on a trip down the Seine on Tuesday which was beautiful. It went past most of the central attractions so good way to see them when your on the clock. That lasted about an hour. Also went in the musee de Orsy while I was in the neighbourhood. It has loads of Vincent van Gough and Claude Monet paintings there. The museum itself is contained within an old train station which was spectacular! Felt worn out then so went to get an early night. The smallest things cheer you up when your that exhausted. There were a group of string players at the metro station which lifted my spirits. I love the spontnaity of the metro system.
Musée d'Orsay
I did not feel like getting up the last day. I had the onset of a cold, not good when you have a flight the next morning. But I still had loads to do, so I set out to climb the eiffel tower. It had been scorching the previous two days, so shorts and a t-shirt seemed the best option…NO! It pissed down, a lot. It wasn’t so bad while I was getting a ticket (hours wait), but you couldn’t get a decent photo from the top without getting drenched. It was really busy there too, especially under sheltered bits, so I moved on to the Arc du Triomph. It was very fun dashing between buildings to get out of the rain. Bought a bagette and relaxed under the arc. Felt very ill at that point so went back to the hotel. Sorry Notre Dame, you’ll have to wait until next time 
Sacré-Coeur from The Eiffel Tower
Tags: Backpacking, Paris, Travel
It seemed appropriate to open with a Monty Python quote as I’ve had to endure so many from my programming books the past year. The flight was good (bit bumpy), and I managed to get into the centre of Paris eventually at 19:15, so not bad for my first try. Had a few disasters along the way. The airport scanner messed up my ipod, but left me 6 songs to last a month. Yeah thanks. Also my backpack is breaking on a certain bit of the strap but it’s manageable. Apart from that, all’s good.
Had a room with some nice people yesterday, couple of people from the states, one from oz and some other randoms. The noise was quite bad, it was to be expected with a bar under the window though. Lucky I had mosi spray with me, I wouldn’t have thought there’d be that many in Paris. In a different dorm tonight. Nice girl from Sweden in here, but haven’t had a chance to speak with any others yet.
Today was my first full day and it was scorching. Thought I’d get The Louvre over with, air conditioning being a major factor in that decision :-p. Spent nearly 3 hours walking around, but it was worth it. Saw some famous pieces like the Mona Lisa and the Venus Demilo. Might go back there if it rains on Wednesday because there was just too much to see today. Had to be back at the hostel to check back into a different room at 6, what a waste of a metro ticket.
Went straight back out to try and find the effiel tower, big mistake! I’m not familiar with the southern metro’s yet so I just went to The Louvre and walked the rest of the way ( you could see it from there). It was miles, 50 minutes walking maybe. My feet haven’t thanked me for that, and I’ll probably have to take it easy tomorrow. Possibly a trip on the Seine or an open top bus tour, something without much walking .
Better get to bed, not looking forward to lugging that bag around tomorrow!
The Eiffel Tower
The Venus Demilo
Tags: Backpacking, Paris, Travel
