Sweden was excellent! It was an instant favourite and the best part was the people there, who are amazing! I say that because they are warm, smiling, friendly, down to earth sortswho really bought me a lot of food and beer! (thanks heaps to Hono people!!!) Cheers especially to the toppest sorts you could hope to meet, Sarah, Maria and Carolina, who really looked after me heaps.

  In Sweden I mainly spent my time hanging out at beach houses, riding around islands, checking out castles, theme parks and the most picturesque lakes you could imagine (unless you are actually Swedish).

  Theres fun to be had, and stuff to see in old London. I dunno if I could live there, but its really a cool sort of place and the dance rave we went to was heaps of fun, (though Ive never been to one before that kicks of at 3pm, and knocks off at ten). Anyway, the Aussie type pub we hung out at was cool too, but nobody there is impressed by my accent.

  Anyway it was cool to catch up with my friend Helena there. Plus I met heaps of other Swedish, New Zealand and Aussie people, although that was pretty hard to avoid. In fact I dont think I met any real poms there at all. How lucky is that! (just jokes)

  The Parisians themselves were really the most friendly, helpful and warm people I could hope to meet anywhere. My French is really terrible, but everyone seemed to be stoked that I gave it a bash. Just dont ask people how to say something in French if youre in a serious hurry, cause theyll be all smiles bailing you up for half-an-hour writing down grammar.  

  Everyone says Paris is expensive and it is if you hang around in the tourist cafes. Luckily though, all the best things to do in Paris like buy a baguette, a bottle of wine, meet up with a girl and go sit on a bridge beneath the Notre Dame with all the locals and have a picnic whilst watching a band performing Pearl Jam and Cat Stevens next to the Seine as boats roll lazily by are for everyone.

  Also, people like Quarrell and my brother will probably not be surprised to know that I decided to save 6 Euros by running up the Eiffel Tower rather than catch the elevator. It was worth it though. Everyone else has to wait for 2 bloody hours, and that was at 11pm! The view and feel of the tower was spectacular! However, if you wanna see it, you have to go there yourself or look it up on the web, cause my camera is crap.

  One of the best things I knew that I absolutely had to do in Paris was visit the Louvre. After 6 hours of wandering around viewing renaissance art, I finally managed to collect photos of art by all four Ninja Turtles! Leonardo and Michelangelo were easy of course, and I got to get right up to the Mona Lisa. Raphael was a bit more difficult because he paints small, (his art was my favourite), but all in all I covered those guys and most of the Louvre in 4 hours.

   Unfortunately I then had to spend two hours running to all corners of the museum, (its bloody huge), to try and find my favourite Turtle, Donatello, who somebody had tucked away in a remote corner downstairs. Not even the attendants who spent ages going through their maps could locate him!

  Apart from the Turtles, there truly is some great art theyve got there, (of course I guess), and that Diamond Rose really is pretty big.

and oh yeah, apart from the Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triumph and the Louvre, I also saw  that Invalides place where Napoleon is buried, a few Palais, a lot of Cathedrals, the tunnel where Princess Di crashed, (I found it by accident, I wasnt looking), the Bastille Opera, and a lot of other things that I either forget or I would just butcher the spelling of.

PS Sorry for all the bad French spelling in this one.

  On the first night I joined a cool crew of young people and loitered around the back streets in various cafes and pubs. Then on the second night I hung out at an ace club called La Paloma with a couple of Americans I met.  

  Like I said, Barca is a party town and this club didnt even open til 2:30am in the morning! When I got in, there were great djs playing dope Latin beats and a bunch of guys in a circle cutting sick with some dope break-dancing action. It was enough to keep me entertained til 7am, but on my way out I even got handed a ticket to a Morning Club that opens at 9am if you still wanna keep going!

  Apart from the first couple of nights, I spent my time in Barca at the coolest hostel with the best bunch of people ever! They were mostly French, (French people kick ass) but I also met some Canadians, Americans, Aussies and Italians. Every night wed just kick back at the hostel together until it was going out time, (which in Spain is like midnight), and then hit a disco, a pub or even the beach.

  I guess the other best things about Barcelona is the feel of it. Maybe mates at home will remember Expo 88 and Barca is a bit like that cause it just feels like something is going on. Especially so in La Ramblas where the street performers are everywhere. Some of the acts were lame, but my favourite was the guy who sits on a toilet and pretends to do a poo when you give him money. Best 2 bucks I ever spent!

and of course besides from all that I also saw heaps of Gaudi in Barcelona, like Park Guell and La Sagrada Familia which is some of the most original architecture Ive ever seen, (and Ive viewed work by such masters as Dixon Homes).

Plus I also climb a mountain with cool views, hit the beach a few times, checked out some Cathedrals and went out the FC Barcalona stadium.

LA TOMATINA!!!!!!

  This was the best, most stupid and intense festival ever! To get to the La Tomatina me and some mates jumped a party bus at 4am and here's the important stuff about how the day goes...

11pm  Go to hang out on the beach and at a disco with friends from the Barca hostel .

4am     We sprint and just make it to the bus in time to get to the festival.

4-8am  No sleep on bus cause some seppo chick keeps yelling into the mic that we should get it on and get ready to rumble and stupid stuff like that.

La Tomatina Bunol

(For the lowdown on the festival and heaps of good pics, look up top and go to LA TOMATINA PHOTOS!!!!)

Final bit

  Here's some messages for people who may be reading this...

...If Dragon, Eve, Julio, Magali or Awielie or any of those Barca French guys are reading this, pity I didnt get any of those crepes but I will still cook you a vegemite sandwich or something if you ever get to Australia, (where we have the real nice BEaches).

...And special thanks also to mag and eve for getting me off the roof.

...If you are Andy reading this, how the hell did you end up in Paris 'on your way' from Barca to Portugal!?

...And as for the Holmbergs, I asked a London DJ about that song and Sarah totally owes me a drink. Plus I never did meet the princess in Nice, so I probably wont get to be your king after all.

  Thanks heaps to everyone who helped me out with places or fed me and gave me beer and stuff! You guys really made the whole holiday and if you ever get to Australia you'll get looked after!

  Ok that's pretty much it. It was a great holiday, I'm going back sometime soon, and if you are still reading this I really admire your commitment. Either that or you have a really slow internet connection and you were just waiting for the photos. Either way, hey.

Cheers to all, from Justin