Escape to Veneto

A great few weeks have passed - packed with fun stuff, good times and cool things. I'm not in the mood to waffle on, so here's a bit of a round-up:

First things first - a very happy birthday to my old muckers Matt and Mark (who were born a day apart). Sorry I couldn't be there to share the celebrations, but we'll make up for it soon. 

A long awaited and much needed week away came around for C and I. Having left booking to the very last minute we headed off to Veneto in Italy. Based in Lide di Jesolo, just around the lagoon from Venice, we had a top week of relaxing and doing stuff. Lido is without doubt the largest 'resort' I have ever seen - 17km long with a main strip just as long parallel to the beach. Not really our sort of thing, but a decent enough base to explore the region. One good thing is that Lido is where the Italians tend to go for their hols, so it was relaxed and lacking in drunk Brits. The food was amazing too and we met some cool people plus quickly scoped out the only bars with live bands worth a mention. On our travels we went to Venice (amazing place - love it), Verona and Lake Garda (both equally beautiful) - all brilliant. Felt recharged, a stone heavier and ready to face the world again. Look a load of photos and videos. 

Read a brilliant book whilst away - 'Once while travelling' by Tony Wheeler. In a nutshell it's the Lonely Planet story about how Tony and his missus Maureen travelled across Europe and Asia to Oz in the early 70s on very little before there was any sort of travel infrastructure, wrote a guide on how to do it...then went from there. A fascinating read and made me inspired, but green with envy and wanting to go travelling again...one day. On the subject - Bon Voyage to John and Rhainnon who are about to embark on a year long trip of a life time - be safe guys, take every opportunity, enjoy every moment and be good ambassadors for Yorkshire!

On our return we celebrated C's 30th in boozy style down at The Holy Drinker on Northcote Road - very long, happy, boozy night and cool to catch up with so many people. C was a happy bunny (though slightly and temporarily stunned by leaving her 20s behind)! A fairly hellish week back at work followed for both of us, punctuated by seeing Bloc Party - my anniversary present to C. Good gig - they played well, though not sure about the new songs. I wasn't on form at all and didn't really get into it - sorry C! 

So that's up to date. A great weekend beckons which I will no doubt blog when the mood takes me - apologies for laziness in advance. I want to write things more meaningful, than just a round up of my daily bobbins, but at the very least this will be a diary I look back on to remember such bobbins. Feeling a bit out of sorts again at the moment and disillusioned by things - the bigger picture keeps flashing in front of my eyes when I get side tracked and fretted by daily blips. Need to keep focused. Sure it will pass. Oh look, there it goes...

Top tunes recommendations: The new GlasVegas, Mogwai and Kings of Leon albums. The first two are great, the third is effortless genius - I love that band.

For now...

Bad Lands

Just finished a brilliant book and had to blog a wee review:

A long time fan of the Lonely Planet series of guidebooks (they've seen me right on many a beaten (and unbeaten) track, I was really excited to hear it's c0-founder Tony Wheeler's new book was out. Bad Lands charts his travels through many of the countries he originally visited when LP was in it's infancy in the 70s. Some countries were new to him, but others were re-visits and had dramatically changed politically, environmentally and socially. The main theme is to visit countries in the so called 'Axis of Evil' and report what mainstream media doesn't. 

This is a fascinating and very well written book - Not surprisingly the picture Tony paints is quite different to the preconceptions the general public might have, though some are obviously confirmed and often amplified. What is so refreshing is his experiences with Joe public in these countries and their warmth, humour, generosity and happiness to be ambassadors for their countries, despite the regimes they live or have lived under. The changing fortunes of countries due to the discovery of oil, collapse of communism, war or fall of a dictator have much impact on it's people and the restraints it's governments put on them. For example in Cuba there is relative freedom for tourists (assuming you're not American or a Guantanamo inmate) to search out culture and a real view of the country, whereas in North Korea it is impossible to even get in the country without having a designated 'guide' the show you what they want you to see and brush everything else under the carpet.

He charts a kind of cheesy Evil Meter in the book, scoring countries on human rights, mad leaders, the treatment of it's people etc. which sounds in slightly poor taste, but brings up some surprising results. The most alarming being that the country that has supported terrorism the most is actually the US. Just look at their support for various regimes in Central America and the Middle East to aid their manifestos. I guess terrorism emotes a very different response depending which way it is aimed i.e. one man's terrorist is an other's freedom fighter. Not giving opinions here, but food for thought.

Anyway, if you love travel books as I do and are fascinated by other cultures, people and their politics, it's a fine read. 9/10