Charles' University Blog

Bath Time

2012-02-06T22:00:00.001Z

So since exams have finished, I’ve spent my time catching up on fresh air. Firstly with a trip to my sisters for grandma’s funeral. It’s never a good reason for seeing someone, but it was really nice to see my sister and James again so soon as I’d kind of resided myself to the fact that I probably wouldn’t see much of them for at least a couple of months.

What else has happened? I’ve bought a new amplifier for my speaker system. It didn’t come cheap, but the idea is that I can eventually buy new speakers and then have a pretty cool sound-system for whatever abode I end up in after university. I have dreams of a cinema projector, blackout curtains and a big comfy sofa… the day will come.

In other news, I have presented another MADTV video! This year we are producing a weekly news show to summarise the interesting goings-on on campus, and I present the 4th episode!

Listen out for my sign off at the end of the video :P

Last weekend Charlotte and I went to Bath, as in the place in Somerset. Despite the bitter cold and occasional snowfall, I fell in love with Bath. It’s such a small city, but packs a lot of character. And the rooftop pool at the Thermae Spa is ideal for washing your stress away after a busy few weeks of exams!

Today is the start of a new semester, in fact my last ever semester! Only two modules and a dissertation left and then I’m a free man… I’m already planning a holiday once all this university malarkey is over, and after that the world is my oyster :)

Happiness. 9 out of 10
Tiredness. 1 out of 5
Workload. 3 out of 10
Last Meal. Soup and fish
Song of the day. Civil Sound – More Than I Could Say
Thought for the day. Nostalgic times…
What I’m Doing Now. Getting food, because I have none :(

I’ve got 99 problems but exams ain’t one…

2012-01-26T18:37:00.001Z

Hello! Exams are over until the summer, my 4th and last one was on Wednesday and now I have a week before my new set of lectures start. It’s been a bit non-stop since I last wrote in here at the start of December, the jokes of Christmas and New Year quickly a distant luxury as coursework deadlines and exams loomed. But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t treat you to some of the photographs from the New Year celebrations…

The annual gathering of mine and Jake’s friends is fast becoming some sort of tradition, and good thing too because this year did not disappoint! All it takes is two dozen friends, some karaoke, alcohol and Who’s in the Bag to get things going! The cream carpet is still cream, and only one sprained wrist caused by a particularly flowery dance-off containing the “epileptic worm”…

There was also a bit of typical London touristy things going on during the days before new year with Jake, Sarah and Charlotte about…

The Science Museum, because there’s nothing wrong with being a geek, Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, and a secret cocktail bar in Liverpool Street :) good times.

The rest of the time was less interesting, but certainly more productive! With two big essays to write, and four exams to revise for it’s been a busy 3 weeks; but I feel it has paid off as my exams seemed to go well. I should get my results in a few weeks, so only time will tell… But with those done that marks the point of 70%. A whole 70% of my degree is now complete! And only a few months left until that figure goes the full nine yards… scary and exciting times!

I’m genuinely looking forward to my last semester at university. I’m ready to study my final tow modules, and progress further with my final project work.

Job prospects are still up in the air to some degree, but hopefully I won’t have any issues in that department…

So much to look forward too, and so much going on! I’ll aim to keep you guys in the loop with everything from my project, modules, MADTV, holiday plans, work prospects… and I guess I should start thinking about what to do when all this university malarkey is all said and done. Knowing how quickly the last few years have gone it’ll be over before I know it

Happiness. 8 out of 10
Tiredness. 1 out of 5
Workload. 5 out of 10
Last Meal. Nibbles.
Song of the day. Paolo Nutini - Last Request Piano Instrumental
Thought for the day. 70% of degree done. Damn.
What I’m Doing Now. Visiting my sister and then travelling to Weymouth tomorrow… Seems like I spend my life travelling sometimes :)

InterRail video!

2012-01-15T17:05:00.001Z

Travelling around Europe by train, summer 2011. Sophie and I visited Copenhagen, Hamburg, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Split, Dubrovnik, Rome and Venice in a month!

I know I’ve been all up on the radio silence recently, exam season is upon us! I have devised my top 40 moments of 2011 that we have to count down together when these exams are over, and start talking about my final semester at university! It’s the beginning of the end!!!

Dinner is served

2011-12-05T14:27:00.001Z

On Sunday my parents came round for Xmas dinner cooked by my housemates and I. Complete with turkey and all the trimmings, mulled wine, champagne, Christmas pudding and charades…

Bring on Christmas!

Happiness. 8.5 out of 10
Tiredness. 2 out of 5
Workload. 8 out of 10
Last Meal. Mississippi mud pie
Song of the day. Parachute – She Is Love
Thought for the day. If you don't have any shadows, you're not standing in the light
What I’m Doing Now. Still procrastinating.

BBRRAAAGHHHHHHHHHHMMMM!!

2011-12-02T13:35:00.001Z

We left off with an imminent trip to Weymouth. It was such a relaxing weekend, especially going to Chesil beach a watching the waves come crashing in. From the photos you’ll also notice which one is the dancer…

It was quite surreal how high the waves were, and the perfect sound of them breaking onto the seemingly infinite shoreline. It kind of reminded me of the beach in Inception; powerful, but beautiful.

The last few weeks have also seen the start of a new tradition: “Friday Pints”. After a long week working, a few of us down tools for a couple hours and go to to pub for a few bevvies. Get’s the weekend veins working and has already, on a couple occasions, resulted in carnage. Not that long left of university now, but that’s no excuse not to still be students!

Last Friday for example when we went to Rubix and must’ve had one of the best nights I’ve ever had in there. The downstairs bar (called HRB to those of us who started uni before it was renamed to The Living Room) was playing MUCH better music than the main dance floor, Pendulum and Queen among others…

This week I’ve made some good progress with my project work and started on a couple of essays that have to be in around exam season… which is only a month away now!! I can see lots of coursework and revision in the crystal ball over Christmas…

Happiness. 8 out of 10
Tiredness. 1 out of 5
Workload. 7 out of 10
Last Meal. Cereal. In-joke?
Song of the day. Athlete – Beautiful
Thought for the day. “Chance favours the prepared mind”
What I’m Doing Now. Procrastinating.

ELROND #2: The Pipeline…

2011-11-27T19:28:00.001Z

The second post about my final year Electronic Engineering project to identify landmarks using photographs taken from a mobile phone in seconds.

Imagine you are walking around London and you come across a building that you want to know more about. You whip out your mobile phone and open up the ELROND app. By taking a picture of the building you want to know more about, ELROND returns relevant information in just a few seconds. The name and purpose of the facility, weather it is open to the public, the opening times, the phone number of reception, a history, appropriate web links… wouldn’t that be useful? Well that’s just one potential application of my project.

It could equally be used to display information about portraits in a gallery just by holding your smartphone in front of a painting, with relevant information overlayed on the screen in real-time…

Or just as an alternative to GPS to locate you when GPS is not available… such as indoors…

My project, titled Elrond, aims to provide the backbone or infrastructure to enable such apps to be written much quicker. But how does it work? how does that picture of a building turn into information?

The diagram below gives an overview of the process.

Once the Android application has extracted the features from the image of the building using a feature detection algorithm (more on that in a later post) the extracted information is packaged into an XML format and transmitted over a data network (3G or Wi-Fi) to a Linux web server.
The web server then parses the XML file into a format it can understand.
Each extracted feature is then compared to all known features by Elrond, hence gathering a shortlist of which buildings this is most likely to be a picture of. Because the number of known features is likely to be in the order of millions, a neat way of searching the set needs to be used, called a KD-Tree.
The searching returns a shortlist of images that most probably match the query image. The items at the top of the shortlist are the most likely, so the top 100 results are looked into in more detail. Elrond will look at all the features in both images, find ones that match, and store their locations. Then a homograph is calculated to see if there is a way to map the features from the query image to the stored image. A homograph is a matrix that describes the best way to map two sets of points to each other. If the homograph can map lots of points between the images, then that image is given a high match score.
After all the homographs have been calculated, the best matching image can be determined; or no match is found, in which case Elrond cannot return any information. Assuming a reasonable match was found, Elrond now knows what the building is! Relevant information about that building is maintained on a database, and so it can be fetched.
The database information is packaged into another XML file and sent to the mobile device.
The mobile device interprets the XML and graphically displays the information on the screen. Voilà!

I know that some people are reading this gormless, but for those that are interested to know more I want to write more posts about how specific parts of the application work and perform. So if you have any thoughts and suggestions let me know.

The next post will be about less techy things…

Acting Debut & The FUTURE!

2011-11-18T13:19:00.001Z

I’ve been part of the University of Surrey’s Student Television Station since it began a few years ago, but I’ve always focused on the technical aspects such as filming and editing… but this week, in a bizarre role-reversal between Mike and I, I presented and he edited. So I present to you my first (who knows their may be more…) foray into news presenting…

Charles Gray uncovers plans for the old bookshop to become a strip club after it's refurbishment... or at least it should according to one student. In a MADTV EXCLUSIVE we tell you what is actually to become of our once loved book shop.

In other news, that I haven’t presented to camera, I went to London last weekend and saw some mates from way back when in Sixth form. Brought together with our love for Nando’s free whole chicken, we sat, gobbled and gobbed for hours. It’s always interesting to stay in touch and see what all your old friends have achieved with their lives. Ben, who has already graduated from an Accounting degree, has found himself working in the Pensions department at Wandsworth Council… I wonder where I’ll be in a years time? Back at Sony? Another broadcast company? McDonalds? the street? Like recycling, the possibilities are endless…

But that’s a while away yet, what about the immediate future? Well I’m off to W-hey-mouth this weekend to see the lovely Charlotte :D After that?

4th December. My parents come to Guildford for Christmas dinner cooked by my housemates and I.
15th December. Going to see Matthew Bourne’s Nutcraker in London!
22nd December. The usual trick for Christmas commences… up to my sisters in Chesterfield for the festivities and prevailing jokes.
29th December. The usual trick for New Year… Jake and I hit up London for a ‘small’ party with friends while the parents are away…
January. Exams, coursework, projects… back to normality, for my last year at University!!!

Some of you may have heard that I made a new years resolution for 2011 to not buy any chocolate for the whole year, and those people will also know how impossible this challenge should prove to be… well I’m still at it, but the going is getting tough with just 6 weeks to go! I started the year with a chocolate stash (below) to get me through, but this week that stash was depleted to zero. So now, as Boyzone once said, the going gets tough…

Happiness. 8 out of 10
Tiredness. 1 out of 5
Workload. 6.5 out of 10
Last Meal. A hobnob.
Song of the day. Ed Sheeran – The A Team
Thought for the day. I thought love was only true in fairy-tales, meant for someone else but not for me…
What I’m Doing Now. Packing for the weekend

Taste the Rainbow

2011-11-15T00:22:00.001Z

Settling back into the slow life is so comforting knowing that you are doing something for your future, and living the present the best way you know how.

I want to inject a bit of nostalgia into this post, knowing full well that this blog has started to show its receding hairline this year with the lacklustre modicum of posts. As the new year beckons, and lets be honest its already on the horizon, I usually turn the content switch to “past” and start idolizing the perfect moments from the year gone by. And this year will be no different in some respects, but I want to start early because it’s been such an incredible year!

January

My best memories from January lie scattered amongst many weeks spent in Switzerland, as in fact most of my memories from the year. But there’s another theme for January, random lols. If it was Sophizzle offering words of comfort to her triffle on the bus home from Tesco, Frazer and I contemplating the benefits of nipple cups, or Sophie getting a super-low voice over serious Skype discussions about housing… it was a laugh. The best moment however?

Walking around an empty Zurich airport in bare feet. Like the set of a film…

February

Another month filled with Swiss air, but also featuring a couple of trips to London to see Maroon 5, Mr Scruff and Lifehouse. And while going dressed as Sherlock Holmes into Guildford town was the best fun ever, the Lifehouse gig at the Roundhouse has a special place in my heart…

March

Sometimes life hands you fragments of perfection, that second when the world stops and you feel that despite the worries you may have, and the challenges you face, you’ve actually got it pretty good :) One particular Friday afternoon, sat outside Lugano airport in the gorgeous sunshine waiting for a plane back home after another great week at work, and the fragments just seem to fall into place. You know you’re doing the right thing and you should never stop being who you are.

April

The last one for today… April. April. Where do I start… There are two things that stand out about April. One was the house boat trip, possibly the single most hilarious, drink-fuelled, best times of my life – spent on my dad’s narrowboat with my then-future-now-current housemates. Initially a bonding weekend to get to know each other better, but once we’d got the formalities out of the way it was all about having the time of our lives. The week was so good we are still quoting from it now, in fact we have a book of quotes in our living room from that trip that goes some way in recreating some of the hilarity: everything from carnivorous geese to gooches, heart-attack sandwiches to the helm of insobriety. This is undoubtedly not the last you will hear from this trip in the run up to the new year. And as for the second thing about April, that will have to wait :)

I want to finish the post with a few pictures from the start of the year that you hopefully haven’t seen before…

Even as early as January the temptation to buy chocolate (against my new years resolution!) was staring me in the face… I walked past this particular idol in the Zurich terminal building every Friday on my way back to Heathrow…

Jake comes to Guildford, and we find the FREE Guildford museum to be worth every penny…

Doing the speed limit in a Mercedes convertible on the Swiss motorway…

The sign outside the building next door to our hostel in Amsterdam. It was ideally located for our needs… there was a supermarket and bus stop nearby.

The boat trip provided lots of time to relax and take it easy, and have cider at every possible moment.

Charlotte’s birthday party had a “what did you want to be when you were younger” theme… obviously I chose geek.

Next time I promise I will talk about my current housemates and give you a tour of the grounds. I just need to be writing in here when it’s light outside!

Until next time…

Charles x

ELROND #1: Feature Detection in Computer Vision

2011-11-10T10:30:00.001Z

The first post about my final year Electronic Engineering project. I introduce you to the topic of feature detection and what my project is about.
Feature detection is an important problem in computer vision. Computer Vision is the study of extracting information from the real world and somehow use it as an input to computer programs. A simple example of Computer Vision would be how Gollum was created for the Lord of the Rings films…

The creation of Gollum used motion capture from real world camera shots to digitally create the character.

Feature detection is the process of computer algorithms detecting interesting, or “perceptually interesting” locations of an image. Early feature detection worked by detecting edges within an image, but there were several problems with this approach.

^ from Wikipedia
One of the biggest uses of feature detection is a process known as Image Registration, where a computer can find similar images and determine that they are actually of the same building/object/face/landscape/tree/etc. And this is the basis for my project.

^ from http://ils.intel-research.net/everyday-object-recognition
The premise of my project, titled Scalable Landmark Recognition on Mobile Devices, is to allow anyone with a mobile phone to take a photograph of a landmark and be told what it is, where it is and some interesting facts about it. For example, you could take a picture of the Eiffel Tower and phone app would recognise the landmark and return information about when it was built, how tall it is, how much ticket prices are today, opening times etc.

^ from http://mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl/2011/10/10/app-review-google-goggles/
This will be a downloadable mobile app for Android phones, and it will use feature detection to find similar images in it’s database and return information about the closest match. The app will require internet access to communicate with a server that will run the query and holds the database.
The project was dubbed “ELROND” by Anne, who I lived with in second year, because it’s close to SLROMD (which is what the actual abbreviation would be) and it also has Lord of the Rings references, which I’m all for!
So far I’ve got most of the feature detection working, and it should be quick enough to identify a match from 1000’s of images in under a second… but only time will tell. I’ll explain more about how my current solution works in a later post, but for now here’s a screenshot of it working on my computer…

On the top-right you can see the query image, this would be the image taken on the phone.
Below it is the image matched to it from the database.
The white lines are lines between features matched between the query and database image (using a process called FLANN matching).
The green box shows where the query image would fit onto the database image if you were to stitch them together in a panorama (called a homography).
The top-middle window (with the red circles) shows the features found in the query image. The features are found using the SURF algorithm.
The left of the image shows the code output, showing the progress of the database search and how the query image matched to the other images in the database.

Dressing up

2011-11-02T11:20:00.001Z

First off I forgot to mention that last weekend in Cardiff I also was in London to see Bruno Mars:

Despite the long bus journey from Cardiff to London, and closures on the Victoria line, it was well worth it!

By the way, all this travelling the last year has taught me a few top travel tips to save:

Check MegaTrain a few weeks (ideally 4-6) before you travel and see if they are offering your journey for less than the rail operator.
Also use MegaBus if you can bare the thought, it’s a fraction of the price, and on Sundays it can actually be quicker thanks to Sunday trains stopping at every station under the sun.
If you’re still drawing a blank, or would prefer to use the train, then you can still save money by using your Tesco Clubcard points to get triple discount on rail tickets! I know, epic. Just follow these instructions and you are quids in!

Anyway, back to last weekend:

I went out as a mad professor for Halloween on Friday night!

The house as a whole was looking pretty dapper… except Will, he looked like death :D

On Saturday night we had a cocktail party at our house. 5 cocktails: Martini (gin), Daiquiri (rum), Cosmopolitan (vodka), Margarita (tequila) and Old Fashioned (whisky). It was a very classy evening… until we all ended up pissed and rolling around all over the place…

All in all a mixed weekend, but certainly one I won’t forget in a hurry :)

Happiness. 7 out of 10
Tiredness. 3 out of 5
Workload. 6 out of 10
Last Meal. Chicken Korma curry (not fish and chips!)
Song of the day. Skylar Grey – Love The Way You Lie
Thought for the day. I must try using a head massager in the bedroom…
What I’m Doing Now. Working before going to see the King Blues tonight at the Roundhouse in Camden! Yes!

Rum and Coke, Myfanwy

2011-10-28T16:55:00.001+01:00

Hello all,

Yes I am still alive… very much alive in fact. I’m back to normality now after 4 weeks at university. Lectures and coursework and not a flight to Switzerland in sight! I still haven’t spent two consecutive weeks sleeping in the same bed yet this year! It might happen before the years out!

Other than that I’ve been keeping myself to myself and taking things as they come. Last weekend I was up in Cardiff to see Jake for his girlfriend’s birthday… much fun and rum was had by all :D

Getting involved in MADTV once again…

Celebrating Halloween in style tonight for the first time ever! And then the house is having a private ‘invite only’ cocktail party tomorrow. Good times are ahead :)

Happiness. 7 out of 10
Tiredness. 5 out of 5 (sleep is a struggle…)
Workload. 6 out of 10 (but it’s all really interesting at the moment)
Last Meal. Fish fingers and chips (i know! 2 posts in a row!)
Song of the day. Ellie Goulding – Lights (Bassnectar Remix)
Thought for the day. I could be a pilot!
What I’m Doing Now. At Sony for a day to catch up with people :)

The Final Countdown…

2011-10-06T09:24:00.001+01:00

Final year is here! This has been my first week back in lectures for a very long time, but so far it’s been very exciting, and even fun at times :D

I’m very happy with my switch from the Digital Media Engineering course to Electronics and Computer Engineering, since it is far more established and has more specialists at hand to answer questions. Overall, the course change is almost arbitrary, since they are so similar, but it has allowed me to choose the modules I want to study in final year.

The last few days of the InterRail trip in Venice were amazing, it’s such a crazy place. The small canals and busy grand canal just ooze beauty even during rush hour!

Coincidently, you can see more of the InterRail pictures on Facebook:

Copenhagen to Vienna and Budapest to Venice

This is the first time since last September that I can safely say I will be in the country for the foreseeable future, and it feels good! Getting to live with my housemates and already having lots of good times and banter. Which reminds me I haven’t shown you round our house! That’ll come very soon :D

Finally, I’ve started my final year project! The “dissertation” of the Electronics department where you take on a technical project and ultimately write about your findings. I want to dedicate a bit of space for explaining what it’s all about, but it’ll wait… OK, here’s a sneaky peek :p

Until next time,

Charles

Happiness. 8 out of 10
Tiredness. 1 out of 5
Workload. 3 out of 10 (the return of the workload!)
Last Meal. Fish fingers and chips :)
Song of the day. Athlete – You Got The Style
Thought for the day.
What I’m Doing Now. Heading off for a 4 hour lecture/lab combo!

InterRail Post #11: All roads lead to…a Pizzeria…and a fountain

2011-09-23T13:32:00.001+01:00

Sophie here, giving you the second instalment about our time in Rome.

If you are planning to visit Rome, you may want to get a travelcard for the metro or bus; as we decided to walk everywhere. There are a lot of sights to see in Rome, and they aren’t as close together as a map may lead you to believe! After a month of walking everyday, Rome really took its toll on us, one day we even had to admit defeat at 5pm and head back to the hostel before dinner for a 2 hour nap because our eyes just couldn’t stay open any longer.

On Monday we took a visit to the world famous Colleseum, getting a live guide to help us understand some of the history.

Charles took a quick look at St Peter’s Basilica as I was denied entry for not being covered up enough, boo.

The Roman’s seem to have an obsession with holey roofs.

We grabbed some dinner at a touristy restaurant that evening and everything was fine until a suspicious 4 Euros with a squiggle for the description turned up on our bill. Upon asking the waiter what this was he told us it was a cover charge for the napkins, tablecloth and bread (which we didn’t even eat). This promptly turned into a massive argument where we refused to pay the extra charge and even got kicked out of the restaurant, needless to say we won’t be going there again!

I then had to get my theatre fix as it has been way to long since seeing any production. I got a ticket for an African Contemporary dance show but I was thoroughly disappointed as what I saw wasn’t exactly dance. Think lots of running around, shouting in French and a very hairy naked woman in a long veil, not really my cup of tea, oh well it felt god to be cultured.

On Tuesday we headed over to the Vatican Museum and were herded like sheep around the rooms including the room of maps, the room of tapestries, halls of numerous roman sculptures and modern religious art. Our visit ended in the beautifully hand painted inside of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo we salute you!

We couldn’t resist

The Last Judgement

The ceiling depicting Creation and Noah’s Ark

This one is for you Charlotte

The last thing to note about Rome is the abundance of Ice Cream on sale, everywhere you turn there is a Gelateria with amazing flavours such as ginger and cinnamon, caramel meringue and nutella. Needless to say Charles and I took full advantage of this fact.

5 Interesting things about Rome

1. Sales assistants and waiters have no time for tourists, the Italians could really learn a thing or two from the English about customer service!

2. When there were fights held at the Colleseum the crowd used to be asked towards the end of they wanted to stop the fight and keep the contender standing, they would signal this with a thumbs up. However if they wanted the contender to be flattened they would signal with a thumb to the side.

3. Italian drivers are crazy, you risk your life at every road crossing.

4. Roman restaurants don’t have toilet seats on their loos, I have become a pro at squatting and am building up some good thigh muscles!

5. In many shops they never have change for a €20, be cautious when paying with one!

Rome wasn’t built in a day, so don’t try and see all of it in one!

We are now on our way to Venice for the last two days of our trip before heading home! That’s all from me, I hope you have enjoyed reading my parts of the blog for the trip.

Sophie

InterRail Post #10: MARIA!!!!!!

2011-09-21T22:52:00.001+01:00

After a really cool 7 hour ferry across the Adriatic sea from Dubrovnik, the southern point of the Dalmatian coast in Croatia, to Bari, a small harbour town half way down Italy’s west coast; Sophie and I had already realised one unmistakable fact about the Italians: They are loud. With an average speaking volume over 50dB higher than all other European nations, it’s no surprise that our Ferry journey was abundant with shouts and cries such as “MARIA!!!!!!!!!!!”. Despite this, Sophie and I got chatting to a very interesting traveller with a motor home from south England who had just spent the last 3 weeks taking in all the sights along the Dalmatian coast that we had wizzed past in just 5 hours on a coach… It’s evident that Croatia has far more to offer than any salient traveller could visit in just the 5 short days we spent in the country. I also found out the reason why the Croatians had a street in every major city named after Nikola Tesla, inventor of the tesla coil and, hence, AC power as we use today… he was born in Croatia. Interesting fact I didn’t know.

Anyhow… Bari. Not much to say about this small town, mainly because we were there just long enough to get a bus to the train station, hunt for somewhere to eat (and finding a place selling Focaccia) and watching The Lovely Bones on the laptop waiting for our overnight train to Rome. The overnight train, on the other hand, I could talk about for hours…

Without a bed reservation, because they were all taken when we tried to reserve them a week earlier, we had to make do with seats. We shared a cabin with 4 other people in 2 rows of 3 seats facing each other. After getting on the train we turned the light off in our cabin and tried to get some resemblance of sleep on the 6 hour train. Unfortunately several factors prevented this: the aforementioned seat layout meaning the person opposite me constantly kicking my shins, the ticket inspector choosing 3am as the opportune moment to check our InterRail passes, the ticket inspector then arguing with 2 guys just outside our cabin for what I can only assume was not having a valid ticket, the aforementioned inherent loudness of Italians and the heat of the cabin after 20 minutes of 6 people trying to sleep and breathing heavily… it was most definitely an experience!

6:30am, finally in Rome sweet Rome… but without a map and only cryptic directions to our hostel. After one long hour we discovered it was only a 10 minute walk from where we started. 20 minutes later the receptionist finally checks us in (slowest check-in ever!) and Sophie and I make full use of the included breakfast :)

And then we napped… for 2 hours.

First stop: Well, lunch… but then: Fontana Di Trevi. The most famous fountain in Rome, and believe me there are a lot to choose from!

For some reason every tourist in Rome must visit this flight of steps… and when I say every tourist in Rome, that is a lot of tourists! Even at the end of September Rome’s small streets were packed with every Tom, Dick and Harry you could think of. I’d hate to think what it’s like during peak season!

The Pantheon.

Still the world’s largest unsupported concrete dome, it really is a sight to behold. And what’s outside this amazing monument… another fountain!

Some run-down theatre…

Up to Gianicolo for sunset and an amazing view over Rome.

Just before leaving England a month ago I went to my bank to sort out travel things and the assistant recommended a pizzeria in Rome, so we did!

Local, traditional pizza just off the tourist track… I’d recommend it to anyone who’s going to Rome. www.pizzariapanunto.com Thank you Richard Hill!

The next morning we ventured over the river to a Sunday Flea market, and it was huge! An hour of walking continuously and we hadn’t even found the end! Littered with clothes stalls, jewellery stands, electronics, bags, books, food and everything else; it was a good place for us to get a few souvenirs, as long as you were prepared to barter!

It was HOT!

Ancient Rome… Incredible.

Sophie’s feet after a long day of walking around 2500 years of roman history!

Sophie will fill you in on the last 2 days in Rome which include more of that old theatre, a ceiling and table tax! Stay tunes!

InterRail Post #9: Just In The Dubrovnik Of Time

2011-09-17T07:19:00.001+01:00

Dubrovnik is a sight to behold, with its stone beaches, fabulous sunset watching spots and terracotta tiled roofs of the old town. It was the part of the trip we were looking forward to the most, and it has been a nice release being able to head down to the beach everyday and relieve our feet from the miles of walking we have already done this month.

The journey to Dubrovnik took 5 hours by coach from Split, with the Adriatic sea to our right and the old houses to our left. On arrival Charles called the man at our hostel who came to pick us up 10 minutes later, with maps, directions and recommendations, we felt like we could then make the most of our time there. Arriving at the boarding house we felt glad that we had booked somewhere in Lapad, which was 20 minutes from the bustling old town, as we were 3 minutes walk from a quiet beach, got a double room for the same price as a 4 bed shared dorm and had this view:

This day was also Charles’ 22nd Birthday so after hitting the beach for a sunset swim we went to the main promenade for dinner, coincidently we bumped into my manager from the nursery Sarah and her friend Clare on our search for cheap cocktails (who were holidaying in the Dubrovnik for 10 days) and enjoyed a relaxing evening drinking whilst sitting on swingy chairs, win!

Charles and birthday pancakes!

He’s got the whole sun in his hands!

There’s nothing like an early morning swim, with only you and a few brave others venturing out into the waters, this is what we did on Wednesday before heading off to the old town. We walked the walls in the blistering heat, taking in views such as this:

That’s a lot of ginger houses!

Then Charles and I found the Buza bar, overlooking the sea where you can jump from the rocks!

That evening we had planned to meet up with Sarah and Clare for dinner and ice cream in the Old Town and then headed back to the cocktail bar from Tuesday (because of the ridiculously cheap deals).

Charles, Clare, Sarah and I

Now we are on a Ferry to Bari, where we will grab dinner before getting on another overnight train to Rome, unfortunately there were no beds left only seats, so an uncomfortable nights sleep awaits us. We are unbelievably excited about Rome, that post will come in two parts as we both wanted to write about it and I have a feeling there will be lots to say!

5 Interesting things about Dubrovnik

1. Stray cats are everywhere, there are even boxes for donations for cat food. One even sat on my bag when I stopped for a rest!

2. There are some very large men in Dubrovnik, however all the weight seems to convene in their bellies making them look pregnant, this became a game of spot the pregnant man (especially on beaches).

3. If you are wondering around bus or ferry ports with luggage you will be approached several times by old women asking you if you need accommodation.

4. It has had a boom of tourism in the last few years, now being a prime holiday spot, meaning you can’t move for tourists (especially in the old town).

5. Turquoise is a common stone to Croatia, the jewellery stands are full of it, and obviously me being me I couldn’t resist buying a turquoise necklace.

Sophie

InterRail Post #8: Let’s Make Like A Croatian & Split

2011-09-14T11:00:00.000+01:00

The adventure continues into the sunny coast of Croatia where the temperature during the day reaches 32 degrees! But before we got there, we had to get there!

We took an overnight train from Croatia’s capital Zagreb to Split. We had about 3 hours in Zagreb to grab dinner while waiting for our train. We got pasta from a cheap Italian restaurant (about £10 for 2 meals and drinks!) and then went for a quick look around. We found the main square, cathedral, funicular and another church before having to head back to the station.

The overnight train was an experience, I actually got a really good nights sleep, but that might be down to the fact the train ended up arriving into Split 3 hours late, so basically got a 3 hour lie in – which by this point on the trip was much appreciated! All that walking is definitely taking it’s toll!

Sophie and I have been waiting for the Croatian segment of our trip for a while for one simple reason: Beaches. And on our second day we made the most of the skin-cancer inducing weather, took a ferry to a nearby island and spent the day in the sea :)

Sophie enjoys one of the local delicacies, Burek, for a very late breakfast. Essentially a light pastry filled with pork mince, very tasty!

The awfully hot weather made stalls like this irresistible!

Sophie grabbing a cheeky cocktail… the first of a few that day…

Sophie, not content with just a cocktail, nomming a banana split… in Split (this one’s for Charlotte :p)

The view from the top of the town’s campanile

I’m on a beach!

Enough said :)

Next stop, more sun and sea in Dubrovnik!

It’s My Party & I’ll Split If I Want To

2011-09-13T22:02:00.001+01:00

It was almost three years to the day that this blog started, and what a three years they have been. On my 22nd birthday, it seems very apt that I am spending 5 hours on a bus in Croatia from Split to Dubrovnik, because my life as a 21-year-old was dominated by travel.

It all started on my 21st birthday last year when my job sent me to Amsterdam for the day. Waking up at 3am has it’s obvious downsides, but it was a great day visiting one of the largest broadcasting tradeshows in the world. I even got a birthday shout-out on the plane, thanks to my colleagues who persuaded an air hostess to do the honours. I got back to Guildford at 10pm where my housemates were waiting for me with cake and presents :) Not your traditional 21st birthday, but certainly setting a trend for the next year of my life…

I’ve done a lot of travelling, all thanks to my placement year at Sony that saw me working in Switzerland for most of the year. In a typical week I would fly out of Heathrow first thing Monday morning and return on Friday evening… in total flying on over 80 planes! I also took the opportunity to spend a weekend in Amsterdam with some friends instead of flying home. Some weekends I opted to stay out in Switzerland, and that allowed me to make a couple of day trips to Milan, since it was only an hour away by train. I also spent a weekend in a hotel overlooking Lake Como with Charlotte, something I would never have been able to do before.

And that’s the other travelling tale of the last year… I have taken the train to Weymouth for the weekend several times to see Charlotte. Now you can start to see how travelling has shaped my year: Flying to Switzerland on Monday, back on Friday, then going to Weymouth on Saturday, back to Guildford on Sunday then back to Switzerland on Monday… And that’s before you mention Cardiff, London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and the boat trips…It’s been a hectic year, but I wouldn’t change it for the world!

Having a 9-to-5 really takes up more time than you think, especially after 2 years at uni when you got used to a timetable with enough space in it for long lunches and late nights out without worrying about getting on the 7:45am train. But then add on to that job the flying, the packing and being away from home and you no longer have time to do the little things: laundry, buying stamps, etc. I’m looking forward to the next year at uni resembling some sort of normality… It’s the middle of September and I’m yet to sleep in the same bed for more than 2 weeks at a time! It’s been a different year, but I’ve still been able to stick to my new years resolution of being true to yourself…

My life has changed, but I’m still the same person. I’m doing what I try to do best: living life to the full by taking every chance. After all we only regret the things we don’t do, the chances we didn’t take and the choices we hid from - for fear of doing the wrong thing… stop making excuses and do it!

And that’s the reason behind this InterRail trip. Do it while you can. And so far it’s been unbelievable; so many cultures, landscapes and people! I recommend anyone to do it, you won’t regret it! (It’s funny how as I write this, the bus we are on is driving along a coastal road – cliffs to my left and the blue waters of the Adriatic sea to the right, the small terracotta roofs of the local shops and houses reflecting the glorious sunshine beaming down from an endless blue sky)

So now you can see why I might not have written in this blog as much as i would otherwise like to! But by far the best thing I did this year was buy a new camera – capturing the experiences so I can remember them for years to come :) Who knows what I’ll be dong in a years time, but if it’s anything like the last year, it’s really not even worth guessing!

InterRail Post #7: When Hungary strikes…

2011-09-11T19:03:00.001+01:00

I’m writing this post on the six and a half hour train from Budapest to Zagreb, before taking an overnight train to Split in Croatia.

We have spent the past three days in the Hungarian capital of Budapest and what a tasty few days it has been, taking recommendations for restaurants and local foods from our guide book and fellow travellers meaning it’s been the best city for food so far. The only downside to these restaurants is that people are still allowed to smoke indoors in Budapest, meaning your lovely roast duck is tainted somewhat by the smell of four people smoking in close proximity.

On our first night we went out with the four other people in our dorm room for drinks and shisha, which was good because we weren’t going to wake anyone up coming back late at night.

(Rio, Tom, Charles, Beth and I)

The next day, carrying on the tradition we took a free tour, exploring sights around Buda and Pest such as St Stephens Basilica, Deak Square, churches and the fisherman’s bastion.

Check out this view of Pest taken by Buda Castle

We then walked 45mins back to Pest for dinner and ended having some yummy Goulash (which was totally worth the walk)

And Charles got a bit too happy about the triple chocolate cake

And I forgot to mention the awesomness that is Truro Rudi, who’d have thought that cottage cheese covered in chocolate could be so delicious?

Yesterday we visited the public baths, which apparently no trip to Budapest is complete without. The baths are spread out over a massive ornate building, all being different temperatures, some outside even had rapids and bubble pools. The steam rooms reached 55 degrees and there was even an 18 degree pool to dip in afterwards, which only Charles had the guts to do. Once you get over the fact that there are hairy men everywhere in not a lot of clothing the baths are really relaxing and refreshing.

Oh and one last thing, Langos, deep fried pizza dough covered with sour cream, cheese and onions, need I say more?

5 Interesting things about Budapest:

1. The yellow metro line is the oldest in the world (that explains why it’s three carriages long, shaky and very loud alarms ring every time the doors open

2. The city is split into two districts: Buda and Pest, by the river Danube.

3. The man who created the telephone exchange was from Budapest, he used the word ‘hallo’ when answering the phone, meaning ‘can you hear me’? Where our hello comes from.

4. The man who invented the Rubiks cube was Hungarian, he still lives in Budapest today and walks around with a tiny dog.

5. If you say ‘thank you’ in a bar when paying for your drink it means you want the barman to keep the change.

We have looked at the weather forecast for Spilt, 32 degress, clear and sunny, beach here we come!

Till next time!

Sophie

InterRail Post #6: Ohhhhhhh Vienna!

2011-09-09T22:05:00.001+01:00

Next stop after Prague was Vienna, Austria’s beautiful capital! Charlotte was still with us and we had a laugh exploring. Our hostel was right next to a famous market in Vienna called the Nashmarkt, which is a great place to wonder in an get cheap pasties and falafel for breakfast!

The weather was great in Vienna and we got so hot we had to find a lido to chill out in. Next to the summer palace is a large public baths, perfect. One of my work mates from Sony just happened to be in Vienna at the same time as us, so we met up and went to a great steakhouse! After two weeks of walking around, the meat cravings were definitely setting in.

One thing that we haven’t really mentioned yet is that in Berlin we met two girls who were staying in our hostel, and it turned out that they were also travelling on to Prague and Vienna! So we met up with them in Prague for some traditional food, and then we met again in Vienna since they were staying in the same hostel! The words world and small come to mind!

Our hostel had a really nice bar and one night we ended up in a cool little group of travellers, two of them had even just graduated from the University of Surrey! It really is true what they say about small worlds and friendly people :)

Vienna has many drinking stations situated all over the city centre and the locals are very proud that Vienna has some of the best water in Europe as it comes directly from the Alps to the city in pipes. The tap water here is better than mineral water.

Sophie eying up the local hotties from her specially designed vantage point, St Stephens church.

No trip to Vienna is complete without a trip to the Opera at the Staatsoper! You can queue on the night for standing tickets for as little as €3 so it would be rude not to! Another thing ticked off the list!

Charlotte’s face after she got left behind by the metro train while trying to run down the train and get on a less crowded carriage, calling the now infamous words “why get on this door when you can get on…”

Next stop, Budapest!

InterRail Post #5: Bridge over the river Danube…

2011-09-05T21:31:00.001+01:00

I don’t write blogs. So this could be interesting!

I am a blonde female known as Charlotte, graduated from Surrey uni in Dance and Culture and have flown out to join Charles and Sophos on their InterRail trip. Some of you who read this might know me, but for the many that don’t, here is the low down. We have all been friends since the first year of uni, I am training to become a teacher, I love the arts and pancakes. These two amazing people are my best friends who I cherish and love so much. When I realised that I would be able to join them on their trip of a lifetime, I literally jumped at the chance.

Flying out from Gatwick and arriving in Prague was the easy part, getting to the hostel however…not so much. After walking around in circles, I finally found the right street and saw Charlesies and Sophos waiting for me. We decided to dump our luggage in digs and head on out to explore the drinking areas of Prague, finding an Irish pub (yes, typical Prague pub here guys).

Our first full day in Praha (as the locals would say) consisted of a whole lot of walking and tradition. We went on a walking tour with our guide Michael, who showed us the astrological clock – apparently famous across the world as when it chimes on the hour, 12 apostles rotate around in an opening and other figures come to life. Awesome sights were seen and a whole lot of history was learnt. The last theatre that Mozart himself played at is in Prague!!! I thought that was awesome being very much into music and all.

Charles Bridge was an uber attraction of the day as we have a photo of Charles on Charles Bridge. It was a blooming beautiful structure with hand carved stone statues guarding the edges. One being [INSERT ACTUAL NAME] where there were three rubbing points where you could: a) make a wish b) improve your fertility c) get bad luck.

Alice and Kirsty were in Prague and I had heard about them from the guys time in Berlin so was quite looking forward to meeting them. We all met up for a traditional Czech dinner of Svičková, which was a little like mushed up beef and dumplings.

As a three, we decided to take a romantic trip on the pedalos along the river Danube. This gave us wonderful views and we were able to explore around little islands in the middle of the river and relax on the water. A great way to start the day before a castle tour…trekking up the long path to the castle. It was just stunning, the views from up the top of the grounds were phenomenal, a breathtaking panorama of the amazing city which we had been ambling around for days. The castle grounds were vast and the buildings were beautifully made with intricate designs.

Find Sophie…

Charles exploring the climbing walls in Prague…need I say more, apart from yummy!

Us exploring around the lost islands where we bumped into a few massive barcode babies (Charles wanted this one up)…

Took a gander at the John Lennon wall, promoting peace and unity…(and love)

Taking a trip up the funicular railway and not getting so lost in a mirror maze…apart from Soph who got lost in her own reflection!

Charles and I ended up in The PUB where we were sat at a table with pour your owns. Soph and I ended up eating Ice Creams. The street market was awesome and sold lots of unusual items. Charles with the pretty wooden flowers…

Prague: Do yourself a favour and Czech it out!

Thanks for putting up with me and my awkward style of writing.

Love Charlotte xxx

InterRail Post #3: You think it’s wall over…

2011-09-02T19:28:00.001+01:00

Sophie again, writing about our stay on our third stop: Berlin.

Probably our favourite city so far because it’s steeped in history and there is a real ‘feel’ for the place that we didn’t get with the other two. We wandered around the city on our own on Monday seeing such sights as the Brandenburg Gate, the Holocaust memorial and the Reichstag Parliment Building. We took the amazing free sandermans tour on Tuesday, learning loads about German history, Hitler and the Berlin wall. Louie, our tour guide was probably the best so far, making loads of jokes about David Hasselhof and rabbid dogs (very amusing) making the history seem not so grim and definitely worth a large tip.

A cousin of mine Gregory has a friend called Thorsten who lives in Berlin so I got in contact with his girlfriend Norina via the wonderful world of Facebook to see if we could meet up during our sojourn in Berlin. On Tuesday evening we were taken out for dinner at the Augustiner restaurant where Charles ate his own weight in pork and the Strudel made you stop and take a moment to adore it. We spent the rest of the trip meeting up with them for lunch and dinners, even going to the top of the Humboldt box for cocktails. A lovely, generous couple who were great fun to spend time with!

(Charles abusing the Holocaust memorial)

(The iconic Brandenburg Gate)

(Us with Norina and the amass of pork)

(Cocktails are good at any time of the day, this being the first of four I had that day)

(Norina and I at the top of the Humboldt box)

(Panorama from the top of the Humboldt box)

(Charles promoting world peace at the East Side Gallery)

5 Interesting things about Berlin:

1. Michael Jackson hung his baby from a window at the Hotel Adlon, opposite the Brandenburg Gate. Said hotel also costs you €15,000 to stay in for one night, without breakfast.

2. The fall of the Berlin wall arose because of one Man’s failure to turn up to a very important meeting and the unfortunate use of the word ‘immediately’.

3. If you are caught jay walking by the police you could be fined €5.

4. The green men to cross the street in east Berlin are larger and walk with an arm out and the red man stands with his arms out to his sides much like a crucifix. This is not the case in west Berlin where they favour the normal green and red men.

5. If you order a hot chocolate in a cafe you will have to stir the chocolate with the milk yourself.

Sophie

InterRail Post #3: Moin Moin!

2011-08-29T18:39:00.001+01:00

Hello, back to Charles again for this post about our last few days on the trip. We’ve now left Copenhagen and have nearly finished our time in Hamburg already!

On our last day in Copenhagen we took to the streets the Danish way and got bikes :) I say got because the city of Copenhagen has a city bike scheme where for a returnable 20 kroner anyone can get a bike at over 120 locations across the city, and then use it to get around, or in our case, have a goosy gander!

We went around Christianhavn, the free town, and ventured up to church spire to get a better view of the whole city!

I’m becoming a bit of a sucker for these panorama shots!

Then off to Hamburg… home to the 3rd largest port in Europe, it’s only a 5 hour train journey away from Copenhagen. There was a weird moment on the journey when our train boarded a ferry for 45 minutes…

A train on a ferry… true story.

And then we arrived in Hamburg. With only a day and a half to get the town down, we had to hit the ground running!

Between Hamburg’s 2 large lakes and the fleets running to the River Elbe, Hamburg has more bridges than Venice and Amsterdam combined!

Sampling the local food, currywurst!

Found northern Europe’s largest funfair, it was pretty big.

Hamburg is home to the pointiest building in Europe.

Hamburg’s red light district, the Reeperbahn, is heaving on a Saturday night! Got in a few drinks :)

Hamburg boasts the world’s largest miniature railway… it’s actually massive!

Things to note about Europe so far:

The green man walks the other way to the UK.
Sandermans free tours are good!
No-one ever checks your underground ticket!
Starbucks is everywhere.
Every city has had a great fire.
Londoners are very messy in comparison to other Europeans, their streets are immaculate.

So we’re off to Berlin for a couple days then to Prague! Stay tunes!

InterRail Post #2: Ice Cream for dinner? I think so!

2011-08-25T22:02:00.001+01:00

Sophie here, writing in the only blog I religiously read. My involvement in the trip was very on and off for a while, I was unsure whether I could make enough money to go on the trip and not be severely lacking funds for my final year of Uni. Luckily I did make enough money, by working 5 jobs and curbing my spending (well other than trips to the theatre of course which are an absolute essential). Charles and I set about planning in February and since about April our weekly Skype conversations have been solely about the trip.

We arrived in Copenhagen on Monday 22nd August, flying in from Heathrow Terminal 5 and took the very clean and spacious metro to our ‘Sleep in Heaven’ hostel. We went round exploring the town that evening, ending up having a Scandinavian buffet for dinner on Stroget, the main shopping street. The past few days have been full of Amusement parks, meeting up with my Danish friend Julie, canal tours and Ice cream for dinner. Tomorrow we will hopefully hire some bikes and explore the botanical gardens and Christiania, the free town, before getting up early on Saturday to head to our second stop on the InterRail trip, Hamburg.

(A fountain in the middle of Stroget)

(Julie and I with a pretty Elephant in town square)

(Charles and I outside the museum we didn’t go in)

(Charles being a very creepy toy vendor in the museum we did go on)

(Ice cream! Need I say more!)

(Tivoli gardens, amusement park in the heart of Copenhagen)

(Nyhavn, touristy spot and home of fairytale writer Hans Christen Anderson)

(Most well known character from a story by said author)

5 interesting things Charles and I have learnt about Copenhagen:

1. You have to wait for the little green man to cross a road, even if no cars are coming (something us Londoners have no patience for).

2. Danish Ice cream comes in awesome flavours like ‘Kinder Surprise’ and ‘Muffin’

3. Everything is really expensive (even bananas)

4. It’s a very clean city (with even the homeless collecting bottles off the street to claim money back from the recycling bins)

5. Words are pronounced very very differently to how they are spelt (apparently you drop every third random letter)

Sophie

InterRail Post #1: Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

2011-08-23T20:08:00.001+01:00

Welcome one and all! This is the start of a great adventure covering no less than 7 countries, 5 currencies and 10 hostels! The journey actually began a long time ago when I set my sights on the idea back in the summer before going to Unviersity. At the time I was going out of my mind with boredom and my dad suggested that InterRailing, the idea of getting a single train ticket that covers all of European’s railways, was a great way to travel on a budget and with little planning needed. However at the time, I was lacking the funds, friends and confidence to get the impetus to just do it. Then the first year of uni came and went and the summer went even quicker. Before I knew it I was in second year before the idea crept back into my head, but this time the barriers were lowered. I started mentioning it to a few friends and several ideas were formed, but still nothing concrete. The money thing was still a concern, but after getting the placement at Sony I decided that there was no excuse to not do it before final year, and it was possibly my last chance to take on such a trip before going into full time employment once I graduated (fingers crossed!)

It got to February 2011 before finally finding someone who could actually bear the thought of spending a month with me, and had the money (or at least the stupidity) to join me. And that person is…

Sophie Dean! Ex-housemate from first year halls and all-round good friend :) Sophie may not have all the qualities one looks for in a travel companion, but if she’s one thing then that’s organised! Take it as a blessing or a sin, but it made planning the trip a lot easier.

The next step was to decide where the hell we were going to go! After all, Europe is a big place, with 30 countries covered by the InterRail pass! We set about, as I can imagine all avid travellers do, with great expectations of ventures in Rome, Spain, Denmark, Greece, Croatia and France to name a few! But after much debacle and prolonged debate, our expectations were contained and we approached the beginnings of a plan! See below:

View Inter-rail Trip in a larger map

This turned out to be our final route, now we just needed to decide how long we’d stay in each place… Here’s the lowdown:

Day 1 to 5: Copenhagen
Day 6 to 7: Hamburg
Day 8 to 9: Berlin
Day 10 to 13: Prague
Day 14 to 16: Vienna
Day 17 to 19: Budapest
Day 20: Train
Day 21 to 22: Split
Day 23 to 25: Dubrovnik
Day 26: Boat
Day 27 to 30: Rome
Day 31 to 32: Venice

Now all that’s left is to pack and go! And that’s exactly what we did…

Today (Tuesday) is day 2 of the trip and I am writing this from Copenhagen! Sneaky peak at the next post? Oh, go on then:

Another day, another mountain. Literally.

2011-08-07T23:12:00.001+01:00

My last weekend in Switzerland. So we decided to go up the highest thing we could find, which just happened to be Monte San Salvatore…

How is this year so awesome! Lugano, Amsterdam, Como, Milan, Edinburgh… and that’s not to mention the 2 epic boat trips!

Happiness. 8 out of 10
Tiredness. 3 out of 5
Free Time. 0 out of 5 – final report joy & inter-rail planning
Last Meal. Chicken and chips
Song of the day. The King Blues – I Want You
Thought for the day. There are no rules, only consequences.
What I’m Doing Now. Ready for my penultimate week at work.