Cowboy Country (March-May '14)

Hot on the heels of the first, comes travel blog the second.  This time its America based, and is going to detail my time away in Albuquerque.

Last spring people that know me in real life will have noticed that I happened to not be around for a while.  There was kind of a Phil shaped gap where I would normally be.  And every now and again there would be some crazy photos appearing.  This is because I spent two months working in New Mexico, and not at home!

I'm not going to go into the details of it all, and I don't want to list everywhere I went, everywhere I saw.  I'm just going to go through my highlights.  And just because I was based in New Mexico, didn't mean I couldn't go elsewhere

Monument Valley
Every Western you ever see looks like it's set here.  Driving towards it makes you feel like you're on the surface of another world; the landscape is that alien.  Giant structures appear out of the earth, dwarfing you in their majesty.  It's a Navajo tribal reserve so everywhere you go there are people peddling their wares.  Meant I got a few people some cool birthday presents - about as authentic a dream catcher as you can get!  I also got the full Forrst Gump view in my wing mirror as I drove away from it.  Had to pull over and get a picture.

Bandelier National Monument
Bandelier stands out to me for a few reasons.  It was the first place I went when I was over there.  It has some history attached to it; its some native american ruins, and is a lot more advanced than I thought they would be, and there was some really good hiking there, that would be down to the Rio Grande if the paths were in good condition.

Grand Canyon
Any list would be incomplete without mentioning this place.  Everyone I know who has been there says that it is just incredible.  Normally when that is the case, it tends to be overhyped.  But not this time.  If anything it is underhyped.  By a long way.  The only thing I feel like I can compare it to is the Large Hadron Collider.  They are both so huge that pictures can't do it justice.  Consequently you try to describe them using numbers.  However those numbers are so big they quickly become meaningless.  I can't visualise a 27km circumference circle, or a ditch a mile deep.  You have to go to them and see them.  Can not recommend them enough.  Hiking down the canyon is the stuff that dreams are made of.

Roma! (May '13)

It's been a while since I last wrote anything, and I feel like I should share something.  Normally you get my views on films and TV that I'm watching or something sport related, but today I'm going to try something different.  I'm going to give you a bit of a travel blog.

Now to do this properly I should have written it at the time, or maybe just afterwards.  Not a year and a bit late. But someone suggested it, and I thought why not try.

I class my trip to Rome as arguably my first real holiday.  It was the first time I went away with money I earned from working.   I went away by myself, did what I wanted to do, when I wanted to do it, ate where I wanted and I had an absolute blast.

The reason I wanted to go was the history.  I love the old style Roman and Grecian architecture, the columns, the lines, the symmetry of it.  Without knowing anything at all about it, I enjoy looking at pretty buildings.  I loved it in Oxford, a great advantage to living there!  I wanted to see the Colosseum, the roman forum, the Vatican, everything!  Another reason was the cuisine.  It's something I eat a lot of anyway, and to have it there was pretty special.

I was there for about 5 days, when you adjust for travel time.  Hindsight, I think I got that about right.  Maybe a touch long; by the end the art galleries I was looking at weren't hitting home the same way they were at the start.  I think I just had too many in a short time, and some were incredible.  I think I did all the major sights, and got a couple of extra ones in.  I think the more uncommon one was the Stadio Olympico.  I want to try and collect Olympic stadia, having been to see the London games.  This was my second.

There are two things that summed up the city for me.  The water fountains.  Everywhere and such a great thing to have.  And narrow streets that open out onto something amazing.

While the city was really cool, and the food was amazing, what made the trip for me was the people.  I stayed in a place called "Yellow Hostel".  Everyone I met was really friendly, really cool and great fun.  I got a ton of recommendations, shared quite a few beers and made some good friends.  Even met people from my home town that know people I went to primary school with!  Very small world.  So Kyle, Emma, Mike, M, Renee - huge shout out to you guys!

I'll leave you with one memory, and its arguably my favourite from the trip.  First evening, I went for a walk around the city.  Didn't look at a map, I just took the turning that looked the most interesting.  And it led me everywhere.  The PMs house, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Dajan Column, the Colosseum, the parliament building, the Fountain of the Four Winds.  Best way to see a city.