Bonjour from Brussels

Bonjour from Brussels, Belgium – the home of Tony-lookalike Tintin – who incidentally turned 75 this year. Oh and The Smurfs – so I gave the French too much credit! Apparently, Tintin is pronounced “Tantan” in French, and his dog is called “Milou”. Weird.

Belgium, like Italy, … view full post

Amsterdam: the ‘City of Bikes’

There’s supposed to be roughly (source: Google@random) 700,000 bikes in Amsterdam – the ‘City of Bikes‘. I’ve only counted 592,045 so far. But besides that, I decided to hire one for the day instead of doing the tour, and see things at my own pace, using the basic map in my guide book.

I completed the route in under two hours, … view full post

Another day, another country

What’s worse than losing a long blog post when the PC decides to reboot itself, is that you were copying the post to the clipboard after each paragraph incase the dodgy browser crashed! Next coda.blog feature: auto-saving. Bleh! Free internet, I can’t really complain.

“Do it again, Danny!” (but better)

Ok, so here goes again.
I thought Berlin was festive. I thought Frankfurt … view full post

I got a tattoo in Berlin

I got a tattoo in Berlin, of a barcode that reads “coda” converted to the hexidecimal system. It runs across the back of my neck, so since I’ve started to grow a mullet it’s not that noticeable.

Not.

One month until Christmas and already Germany is in full festive swing. In Berlin they were still starting with the street decorations and market … view full post

Hallo from Germany!

Another week, another country: Hallo from Germany!

Before I continue, two special shout-outs. To Phoat in Athens and David in Berlin, who both took time out of their busy schedules (heh) to meet up and talk about their countries and geek stuff like web standards. Thanks to the both of you for your hospitality, and I hope to return … view full post

South Africa is, in fact, a country

My flight to Berlin is booked for Thursday night, hence the “just passing the time chilling” blog frequency of late.

I popped into a tiny side-alley, self-proclaimed market store yesterday afternoon for a snack. While mostly ignoring the ongoing conversation between himself and another bloke, I was caught out when the elderly shopowner asked me with an English tongue if I … view full post

It’s all Greek to me!

The most amusing thing about the language is the way English letters are combined with the Greek alphabet to form the words. Just when you think you’re figuring something out – BAM! – a Greek symbol. Luckily I don’t think I’ve encountered one local that can’t speak relatively good English.

We took the ATVs out for the day again on Thursday … view full post

A week in review, updated

A week in review, updated: visited the world’s smallest country, saw the Pope talk outside the world’s largest cathedral, did a walking tour of the Collosseum and surrounding area, climbed an active volcano, visited a city that said volcano destroyed in 79 AD, caught a night ferry to Greece and spent a day quad-biking (ATV Offroad Fury, yeah!!) … view full post

Just a quickie

With little over a month left to go, a week in review: visited the world’s smallest country, saw the Pope talk outside the world’s largest cathedral, climbed an active volcano, and visited a city that said volcano destroyed in 79 AD.Score one point for Italy… Naples is a great city, generally experience is proving that the smaller the city the … view full post

Venice, Rome, Florence and the Vatican City

The best smell when you’re backpacking? A clean towel.
Even better? A clean, dry towel.

Before arriving I had high expectations for Italy, infact I planned to spend two weeks here. After Florence I’m not so sure, but Rome is swinging the vote. (side-note: sux to be American right now)

Hmmm, what to say … view full post