Posts made during October, 2009
Karaoke World Tour – Austria
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
It’s time to jump back on Brian’s Karaoke World Tour and for Chapter Eleven we’re off to Kirchberg in Austria. When I worked as a tour leader for Top Deck dragging drunk 18 to 30s around Europe (the stories from that became my book Rule No.5: No Sex on the Bus) the itinerary would often include a couple of nights at Club Habitat, a traditional chalet in the heart of the Austrian Tirol. The quaint old wooden chalet had squeaky floorboards, squeaky beds, squeaky stairs and squeaky doors, but it certainly wasn’t squeaky clean. Club Hab (as it was affectionately known) had possibly the most debauched karaoke night in the world. The bar itself was nothing special. It was tiny with a low ceiling and the walls were covered with framed photos of the bar in full swing. And in full swing it certainly was. Most of the photos showed large groups of girls standing in neat lines at the bar with their breasts out… (read more)
And on your left is a kangaroo scrotum…
Sunday, October 25th, 2009
I’ve been playing tour guide for the past two weeks with my American girlfriend Beth dragging the poor thing around a big chunk of all the big ‘tourist’ sites around Melbourne. We did Federation Square, the Aquarium, Victoria Street for Vietnamese, Royal Botanical Gardens, the Restaurant Tram, Crown Casino, the Caulfield Cup, St Kilda beach, Daylesford and Hepburn Springs, Healesville Sanctuary, a Yarra valley vineyard and, of course, the Penguin Parade at Phillip Island. And lots of souvenir shops. As a local you don’t spend a lot of time in Australian souvenir shops and fair dinkum do they sell a lot of weird crap. And I mean that literally… (read more)
Warm memories of Ubud.
Saturday, October 17th, 2009
I miss Ubud. I miss the warmth of the people and, well, just the warmth in general. It’s bleedin’ cold here in Melbourne at the moment. But, it is great to be home and I’ve got a wonderful two weeks of playing tour guide to my girlfriend Beth who is visiting Australia for the very first time. Except, the poor thing brought along bikinis and summer dresses because I told her that it is warm in Australia. A ski jacket and mittens were probably a better idea. So, to make me feel warmer here’s a few photos from my time at the Ubud Writer and Readers Festival… (read more)
The role of Bintang in Australian Literature.
Sunday, October 11th, 2009
Sadly, I’m at the end of my stay in Ubud, but I have had a wonderful time at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival. All my ‘events’ went well – people turned up, no one fell asleep and I didn’t mumble too much. It really is the most fun writer’s festival I’ve attended. As well as the great sessions there were amazingly lavish writer’s dinners every night and one party that was straight out of Hollywood. The party took place in a ridiculously flash four storey mansion. I arrived late and there were folk lounging around on giant cushions around the pool, people swimming in their underwear in the pool, couples making out by the pool and normally conservative writers going crazy on the dance floor. Unfortunately I had to… (read more)
From kartoffelpuffers to nasi goreng.
Thursday, October 8th, 2009
My liver survived all the beer in Germany and I’m now in Ubud, Bali for the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival. I ended my German Beer Drinking Tour, I mean Book Tour, back in Stuttgart to meet up with a bunch of couch surfers to attend Canstatter Volksfest (basically a big fun fair with huge beer tents in the middle). It was a Saturday plus a public holiday in Germany, so the place was packed with Germans in lederhosen. We queued at one beer tent for two hours and it looked like we weren’t getting in anywhere when another couch surfer found tickets for us into another tent. So, with ein mass (a litre of beer) in hand and half a grilled chicken I joined the throng standing on their chairs singing along to… (read more)
If it’s Friday, this must be Hannover.
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009
I’m nearing the end of my book tour around Germany for Couch Surfing: Eine abenteuerliche Reise um die Welt and scheiße am I tired. The tour has been going very well, though, and the book events have been well attended, my couch surfing hosts have been wonderful and I’ve eaten and drunk my body weight in wurst and beer. So far I have been to Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Leipzig and Rendsburg and I’m currently in Hannover. I think.
Here’s a brief run down of my trip so far: (read more)