Veronika Wild

Roof garden in the New Hostel overlooks the city For my last few nights in Portugal I was in a different hostel since my original one in the nunnery was now booked out. This was just as well, as my last bed up on the Third floor was more like a coffin in that it was enclosed on all sides and far from a window. Until now there hadn't been much point in booking ahead, because I really didn't know what I was doing other than flying back to Germany on the 14th and so far it hadn't mattered either, because I could just book another night, but not this time. The new hostel was at the Louis Vuitton end of town where the theatre and the plastic surgeons were, and much newer. All the bathrooms worked. There were lifts to every floor and there was roof garden with a bar on the 7 th floor.   The bed and the room were nicer too – little curtains instead of plywood panels and a table and a couple of chairs – all minimalistic, modern and in shades of white and grey and much less claustr...

Here stood Megalosaurus Broomensis - a smaller version of the Stegosaurus, about 155 million years ago. Hope it didn't have as much trouble getting here as I did Eventually I must have slept regardless, because when I came to, it was daylight. I still felt a bit rumpled and grumpy especially without my morning coffee. Though I‘d brought a little for the plane – I hate aeroplane coffee, I couldn’t find a cup or a drop of milk and sorely wished I’d saved a couple of those little milk shots they are usually so generous with on planes. I then set off on the long trek to the supermarket about two Km away. The bus stops are few and far between. Broome is a sprawling place and even several bus trips later, I am still totally confused as to its layout. Just as I was about to buy a cup and a bowl, annoyed that they would only get four days use, another hosteller told me I could hire them at the hostel.   Cable Beach stretches out before me. What I thought were Broome...

Yay! I'm back. Apologies for the long delay between posts. My computer suffered a nervous breakdown after I loaded up the 2,000 photos I took. It has now been restored to prime condition (thanks Clu) and has stopped saying weird things like" would you like to change the colour scheme" or interminably trying to install update 1 of 1 whenever I log on so the story continues.... More awesome Waterfalls From Pucon I ventured south to Puerto Varas in Patagonia where there were said to be more volcanoes and more waterfalls.  Alas, it also had real West Coast rain - it rains 200 days a year there -and was freezing cold. There was no breakfast and as it was Sunday everything was closed. Ended up eating half a stale lukewarm empanada with a slightly off filling for lunch followed by some of my packaged soup. There was still a lot of soup mix left and a few carrots, so I offered to make soup for everyone in the hostel that night. This proved to be an excellent idea as other h...