budapest

well the car made it to Budapest and i spent the past few days wandering around the delightfully city, the neogothic architecture is quit stunning and the Gellert bathes in Buda sat beneath the citadel and on the other side liberty bridge spanning the Danube from Pest make for a great way to spend an afternoon, relaxing and soaking up the Art Nouveau building while the aches from the previous day, spent crawling and squeezing through the labyrinth of the palvolgzi caves in the hill above Buda were washed away.

Budapest is a remarkable place with so much to do its impossible to know where to begin, just wandering the streets and the markets you can see the rich and varied history of Budapest, from the old three-level market hall in Pest up along the shopping precincts, past the Basilica and the synagogue with the memorials to the Holocaust and then to the Parliament building built just over 100 years ago and based on the British Parliament building, its white gothic form adorned by 88 statues of military leader, princes and rulers. sat on the banks of the Danube with yet another tribute to the holocaust, a line of boots along the bank of the river looking down to the chain bridge, which also has connections with London, being designed by William Tierney Clark who designed the Marlow bridge over the Thames which was complete some 17 years earlier.

Then there is the State Opera House sat just around the corner from the Music Academy which quite appropriately had the subtle tones from a piano drifting out through an open window.
Founded by Frank Liszt it has a great statue of him above the door as though he is inspecting his students as they walk in.
Also of cause the national museum, in typically neo classic architecture with its eight corinthian columns supporting a frieze and a large pediment with the figure of Pannonia sat holding a shield bearing the Hungarian coat of arms. even though the weather was overcast and it drizzled a bit it was delightful to wander the streets snapping a few photos and sampling the food.

I have now left Budapest with a group of Australians and headed up to Bratislava for a couple of days before heading over to the high tatras Tonight is one the guys birthdays so am about to head out for food and the obvious drinks that will follow. will post the pictures when i get to a pc that isn't quite so antiquated as the Siemens senic 600 which it struggling to keep pace with surfing the web.

in Zagreb, Ouch my head

Well got rained out of plaklenica, but not before meeting some folks from the London area and climbing some nice 6c's, then enjoying a really good meal of seafood, including sea bass, squid, mussels and longestines topped of with a few beers.

Went to Plitvice falling lakes yesterday which was magnificent but spoilt a bit by the bad weather, there was around a foot of snow covering the ground which fell on sunday whilst i was batteling in the winds on the coast, is really hard to get to grips with the contrast of weather and climates in such a compact area.

Today is beautiful sunshine and I'm terribly hung over as i spent a night out with some Americans in Zagreb and we ended up drinking lots of Johnnie Walker black label.
we went through a few bottles or so, outch my head hurts.

First real hangover of the trip and i can tell that i'v not been drinking that mutch of late. feels like i'v been run over again.
Have had a few pints of orange juice and several coffees and even managed to find somewhere that did a resonable equivalent of bacon and sausage butties but alas they had no idea what brown sauce was. o well such is life. am off to Budapest when i finally sober up but until then i need to drink more coffee and wander around the plethora of ornately decorated buildings feeling like Mephistopheles on a bad day.

latest from Osp, the rain has arrived,

well its take almost a month to catch up with me but unfortunately it rained this afternoon in Osp, i still got about 10 routes in before lunch and have just added a load of photos to the flikr site, see links on the right,

I spent a day at the start of the week at what is probably the best campsite as (far as facility's) go which i have ever stayed at, Camping bled. (I have seen much worse facility's at good hotels)
From there I had a couple of days R&R and went around the Vintgar gorge, I even went out for a meal in town, (thats twice in one week, i will start getting fat at this rate)
I then traveled down to the capital Ljubljana which has a really nice old town,

After a bit of book shopping a burger at the horse burger shop and frustratingly nagotiating the one way system, going north out of town to head south I ended up at the Postojna caves, which although expensive (€18) it was well worth the visit, even if just to see it`s inhabitance.

I now find myself in the pleasant little town of Osp with a horseshoe shaped lump of rock surrounding it, I was fortunate to find someone to climb with, who is a guide in the Triglav national park and has been climbing in this area for 20+ years, needles to say i spent the morning climbing quality routes,

After checking with some Czech climbers on the campsite am discarding the idea of climbing in the Czech Republic as its going to be way to cold, I plan to head down to Croatia atbefore the end of the week but hope to get another day climbing tomorrow,

Enjoy the photos and now i think its time i went for a beer, shame they dont have moonshine or Abbot ale out here.

CAMDA

Hi folks just a quick update with a link to my justgiving site.

http://www.justgiving.com/jamesmash

CAMDA,

Thanks.

Lake Bled

After a pleasant drive through the Dolomite's and Julian Alps I arrived in Bled last night.

The towering peak of Triglav casting its shadow over the Alpine meadows and villages as i wound my way along the quiet country roads headed for Bled.
This picturesque mosaic of landscapes is totally breathtaking and heightened more by the myriad of reds, amber's and green leaves contrast against the white limestone cliffs, alpine villages, crystal lakes, meadows with grazing cattle and the snow caped peak of Triglav standing high above all of these casting a wise watchful eye over the land.

Lake Bled itself is much smaller than i had imagined, and its picture postcard appearance is truly magical. I will probably spend another day resting and recovering from almost two weeks of non stop climbing before heading down towards Osp where I once again hope to find someone to climb with.

photos will follow.

the dolomites

Well after being fortunate enough to find Anna, who was happy to climb with this mad English man whilst waiting for her friends, Mark and Adam to arrive from the dolomite's, some good climbing was had, we even did a via ferrata as a rest day which provided magnificent views of the town below (Mori) and over to Lake Garda
A couple days after Mark and Adam arrived and with the prospect of good weather we all headed north to Cortina where the fantastic limestone peaks of the dolomite's rise out of the ground in majestic towers and pinnacles that cry out to be climbed.

Mark and Adam, both Exum guides in the Tetons had had mixed results with unfortunate weather and were hoping to vanquish this bad luck, Anna and myself were happy to get on unpolished rock and climb somewhere that wasn´t overcrowded.
Despite the good climbing in Arco most of the crags nearby have suffered from their popularity.

The first night involved the four of us camping out near one of the mountain huts so as to ensure an early start which was almost regrettable after watching the mercury drop to near freezing. fortunately i had no probs with the cold due to being prepared for weathering Siberia but the others felt the cold a bit more, especially Anna as she managed to leave her sleeping bag at Arco.

The first climb on the 8th was an 11 pitch arete on the Trofan de Rozes, and after a sucesfull and enjoyable climb mark and Adam decided that they would stop another night and climbed a longer and slightly harder adjacent arete, Anna and Myself decided that Cinqua torre looked like a nice climb which would remain in the sun all day so we camped a little further up the valley and had a spectacular day, I even got some crag snaffle on the way down.
After two nights of camping out it was a unanimous decision to head to a campsite for the next few days. I attempted a bit of Sport climbing but without a guidebook ended up climbing a 6c+ as a warm up and a 7a which felt much harder and had me resting on the rope with drained arms before i finally struggled up the rest of the route to the top.

the next few days involved an accent of Punta Fiames and Col de Bois both of which are higly recommended and comprise pleasant climbing up to about VS on surprisingly compact rock for the dolomite's.

Arco climbing

Hi all

have found an american lass to climb with who can belay me and who can also understand some of my english. well a bit of my english. but it's better than my german or italian so im on a winner.

did a heap of routs yesterday on rock which felt at times like climbing on glass. Hopfully can find a few routes which arn't to poloished for tommorow and can try to get a few good photos to add to the site.

Hope all is well at home and the sheaf view isn't missing my custom,

take care and have a pint of real ale for me. i thin high neb pump may me in order.

Later.

I made it to Arco

Well the car has done about 2000 miles and after a busy two days of driving around and sleeping in the car i'm now in Arco.

I was in Orpierre from the 26th to the 30th and got a couple of good days climbing in, I set of on Sunday evening and drove from Orpierre to Briancon, where i arrived to watch the last half of the rugby game between RSA and the US.
Then i got take out from the local pizza shop and slept in the car. the following morning involved a drive up to Emosson where i was disappointed to find out that climbing the artificial route on the dam face was strictly prohibited. despite this i tried in vain to find someone to climb this wall with as i had just done a detour of 200+ miles.

After that failed i ran off south down to Aosta where i chased the sun to lake Garda, dodging mad Italian drivers and trucks who seemed intent on trying to hit me, it felt like a high speed game of tig on a four lane motorway running through Milano as the traffic stacked up until most people where less than two meters apart doing upto 100mph.

I suppose that's why these folks have such faith in religion, because if God can't save them when they drive like that then their not long for the world of the living,

Also talking about religion when i was stood next to my car brushing my teeth this morning in a car park just outside of town a Jehovah's witness tried to sell the word of god to me, I was so outraged i almost spat toothpaste all over him. needless to say i'm not converted from my (sinful) ways, so i,m off to have a shower because after two nights sleeping tin the car i'm starting to pong a little and then hopefully some climbing,

Enjoy,