... so a few words from me.

So I've finally managed to pull out that nice web cam of mine...



There's my little chat for now, you might have to turn it up after 20 seconds... I didn't get around to fixing the audio levels.

The random vid of the week is:



Eisblume - "Eisblumen"

My new friend - Buses

It has been quite some time since I’ve managed to get around to thinking about doing all this stuff to do with the blog. After being either stone walled or being told that advertised jobs didn’t exist I got pissed off and left the joyous town of Sankt Anton and travelled to Bern in Switzerland with no real idea of what to expect considering I hadn’t even heard of the city until then – it’s the capital of Switzerland by the way. It was a nice town...very old and had a cool museum and stuff. I enjoyed my quick stay and moved on after a couple of days with the intention of going to Lyon in France.

I got myself to Lyon and it was a bit of a drab day.... and I was far from in the mood for actually caring about it, I got myself a train ticket to Paris straight away and got there around 7pm at night.... after spending an hour finding an internet cafe I managed o get online and find a hostel that I had recommended to me. It wasn’t that good and was probably the worst “included” breakfast I’ve had so far. The day after getting myself to Paris I was still in a shit of a mood and I didn’t like the vibe so made my way along to the bus station (my new friend). When I got there I had a choice of going to Rotterdam, Brussels or Amsterdam. What do you think I chose?

Amsterdam was the way to go.

The bus there was pretty par for the course, until we almost left some one behind in Brussels, I thought it was hilarious at the time but in retrospect it wasn’t but it all sorted itself out in the end. On the trip there I got chatting with a group of American art students who where based in Paris and were tripping it up for a couple of days. Managed to work it so that I could stay with them as they had a hostel organised with an extra bed in the room and that way the overall cost was less. Ended up spending the next two days hanging around with them and they are by far the best people I have met in my travels and it made the days that much better. To be honest it was the most fun I’ve had since I got over here.

After spending a couple more days in Amsterdam I figured it was time to move on again, I was going to hop on another bus and go somewhere....but they weren’t being cooperative so I ended up having to catch a train. Was going to go to Dusseldorf but that changed when I saw that Köln (Cologne in English) on the list of destinations after that one so I paid the extra few Euro’s and went there.

The main reason for me wanting to go to Köln was to go to the Cathedral, the Dom. It was opposite the main train station so I got to see it in all of its glory pretty much straight away...and it was fucking awesome. Got to the hostel and did my usual part. The next day I went into the cathedral and had fun with my camera, and then I paid to climb the tower..... Fucking hell is that thing massive. After that I wandered around for a while.... there are Christmas markets every city I’ve been to and all of them are cool....great food too which is always a bonus.

After much walking I made my way to the bus station again and got myself ticket to the destination that looked different, so I got on a bus to Krakow, Poland.
At this point I should mention that it cost me less to go from Köln to Krakow by bus than it did to go from Amsterdam to Köln by train – buses are my new friend.
After spending 17 hours on a bus I got to Krakow.... got to my hostel about half hour after that (10.30 am) and got myself a bed ASAP. This is the bit where this hostel is one of the best so far. Normally at a hostel they have a lock out from around 11 am through till about 2 so they can clean up and stuff....this place didn’t. I got in, got my bed and then after making it....crashed for four hours.

Did a free tour around town yesterday which was good, got to see a ton of stuff I wouldn’t have even known was there. Last night was fun....it was shots tasting night.... between four people we polished off a big bottle of vodka and I had already had three beers so I crashed out before I got too messy. Today I got up feeling very fuzzy around the edges but I still managed to get myself on a bus and out to Auschwitz....it was hard to describe, moving is one word but it doesn’t quite give it justice.

Tomorrow I was going to go to a seven hundred year old salt mine.... but Daniel happens to be in town so we’re going to some random markets in the morning which should be cool.

The fun topic of searching for work which I have been avoiding is no fun at all. In Sankt Anton I’ve applied for about a dozen jobs and gotten a few negative replies and a more no responses, which gives me the impression that the entire fucking town doesn’t check their fucking emails which I'm not liking very much. I’m going to go back to Innsbruck soon and try searching a bit more. If I have no luck there I’m probably going to move on to a German city and search there.... and if all of that fails I’m thinking that I might go and lean on my relatives in England and try and get myself a job over there....I’m just not sure....with the way my money is burning through I’m probably going to run out soon... failing at this endeavour is not what I want to do.

In a wrap....since last time I chatted to you I have been to Bern- Switzerland, Lyon and Paris- France, Amsterdam- Netherlands, Cologne- Germany and now Krakow- Poland.

Who knows where I might end up next...it's awesome.

I'm trying to stay positive in all of this.

-CJ

Jobs a searchin'

It’s time for another update, I’ve made my way to St Anton which is a ski resort in the Alps, and it is the awesome. Yesterday I spent the bulk of the day walking around to different hotels that had advertised vacancies only to find almost all of them were closed, bit of a piss off but I can manage. I was going to catch the train last night to Zürich or where ever the train would take me...but once the sun goes behind the mountains it drops another 5 degree’s and the wind starts – it was already a nice 0oC when the sun was out. Found myself a cheap hotel and got a room...nice enough, staying here again tonight and possibly another night after that...

Today I woke to it snowing and it still is; great thing to be able to see out of your window in the morning. I’ve dropped my resume off at two different places and am hoping to get a response from at least one of them.
I was assuming way too much back in Oz in thinking I could step into a job but I will persevere and something will come up... the season hasn’t really started anyway... once it does apparently the amount of jobs around will go through the roof. Meh, after writing this I’m going to the net cafe to chuck it online along with a couple of pictures and then I think I might look at one of the ski schools....I’m here so I may as well start learning now...

Till next time...when I hopefully have free wireless to leach off.

-CJ


Theme song for this post – “Until The End” –Breaking Benjamin

I'm here

Another update here...when I actually get it online is a good question but I’ll worry about that later.
I’ve made my way to Innsbruck in Austria after my short stay in Frankfurt. Now that I have something to compare it too I can say that Frankfurt isn’t that nice a city, sure it functions and is a good starting point, it is in the end...boring....it is a collection of buildings and a fucking big airport. Good for a few photos but in what I was able to see in my short stay...not one to specifically go out of your way to go and see.
The nice train ride from Frankfurt to Munich was to be honest a bit dis -en-heartening (Word is telling me I’m making up words again) for the bulk of the journey my view consisted of either towns, light industry or farm land. I guess being an Australian I am used to being able to see vast stretches of empty land that has seen no use at all in all the time we have been there, it just came as a bit of a shock to see not one empty stretch. The only bulks of land I could see that weren’t in use were the occasional hilltop that was covered in a thick picket of local trees – pines I’m guessing. Fortunately the second train ride was, in some regards, a bit better. The surroundings did change significantly when I was heading towards Innsbruck from Munich, more snow and surprisingly a good chunk of random light forest or something like it...good to see...that and seeing so much snow was awesome.
Once I managed to get here, Innsbruck, I had the wonder of walking in the dark – it was only 5.30 pm and it was completely dark – and the walk wasn’t too bad, managed to find this abso-fucking-lutely awesome hostel that I’ve got myself into. I am so glad I managed to find this awesome place on the net before I left Frankfurt, its smaller, and just a better vibe than I think I would have had at the only other option that the internet told me I had.
After meeting a couple of the others staying here and dumping my shit I took my ass onto the street and walked about 50 meters to the local markets that are on every night apparently at this time of year, there were people everywhere and more importantly (especially compared to Frankfurt) they were almost all around my age, and god were there some cuties in the mix :P. Had a random dinner of sauerkraut, potatoes and sausage and a couple of cups of “Glühwein” (hot/warm wine) and then crashed out at the hostel.... I really didn’t realise how much the trains had taken out of me.
The breakfast this morning I get the feeling will kick the shit out of almost every other breakfast I’m ever going to get at a hostel. The Hostel/B&B is above a cafe which is run by the same people – breakfast was a pair of fresh-ish rolls, homemade jams, a bowl of cornflakes, coffee/tea/hot choc, and a slice of Cake. While most of that is standard for hostel...the cake... to die for, the cafe has its own section for selling cakes and an entire floor above it for making them. So yeah... I started with an awesome breakfast.
After that I plotted out the rest of my day...which was pretty much: go to the Olympic ski jump whilst also going to the Arbeitampt which was on the way, walked to both, got a list of jobs at the job centre and then made my way to the Olympic ski jump which they have here.... rather big drop that...gah....there are a few pictures and they are awesome.... great view of Innsbruck and the mountains. Had a coffee up there with an American and a New Zealand couple before heading down and going our different ways.
After all of that I proceeded to walk around town for around three hours....crossed two rivers and got a good bit of air, and also failed to find any free wireless... bugger. Eventually made my way back through town to near the hostel, bought some essentials – hair brush, gel, shaving cream – came back to the hostel and have been killing time ever since.

On a side note: I have managed to find both a beret and gloves over here.... pity they essentially cost as much as I budget for an entire day and then some....whoops.
Now I’m going to try and tally all of my expenditure up and see where I stand.
- CJ

Theme song for this post – “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” – Dropkick Murphys

first night

It’s around almost 7.30 Adelaide time and I’m about 3 hours out of Kuala Lumpur. The flight has had a chunk of turbulence but for the most part has been fairly uneventful. So far I’ve read my book for a bit, had a meal and then watched one movie and I’m about 20 minutes into the second.
Thoughts on the flight are reasonably positive. Staff are as distant as almost every single other flight attendant I’ve come across, the food was actually reasonable for a change and the fact that cocktails are free is fucking awesome – even if the range is distinctly limited.
Meh, another three hours and I’ll be on the ground in KL and I can hopefully post this by leaching some internet, if not... so what, just a bit of a delay.
The freaked-out –ness I’d been suffering from has worn thin to the point it’s gone essentially, now I’m just sticking to the fact that I’ve already come this far and it’s way too far to go home again. That’s made even better by the fact that I can really enjoy the super-fucking-excitedness – gotta love making up words – which I’m riding hi on a fair bit....but for now I’m going to get another free cocktail and watch the rest of this movie.

That was written on the plane and that has long since passed. Got to KL, got online, then got something to eat...twice, and after waiting and hating the humidity I got on the plane. The second plane ride was distinctly less full than the first, total of 4 out of 8 people so I had a giant chunk of space next to me which was a bonus I guess....lack of anyone to talk to but meh...this is me, ever the social person.
That flight was the fucking gay.
I ended up watching another 4 movies before it was late enough to consider sleep, which is better known as it was sleep time for Germany instead of Australia, I’d been up for over a day before I let myself doze of finally....god those seats are uncomfortable.... I’m kinda wishing that the fat Asian chick on the other end of my section wasn’t there so I could have lain across the entire thing, like many another person did around the plane. I think I managed to get around 5 hours of sleep on the thir-fucking-teen hour flight. All in all....so fucking boring it wasn’t funny, but nothing will beat the feeling of cold as I got off the plane onto the aero bridge and the 1 degree weather had seeped in a bit.... I really do love the cold.
Got into Frankfurt and after some confusing times with ATM’s and train tickets I got my ass to the hostel, its reasonably good I think, but I don’t have anything to compare it too I guess... give it time. The day has consisted of random walks and looking in stores and taking photo’s and shit. Discovered that I really need to buy some gloves and a beret, but I figured that was coming. Now I'm waiting for a few hours to pass so I can crash out at 10 pm-ish.

Tomorrow will involve some copious amounts of walking as I see the rest of the sights in this fair city before I move on to another...haven't figured out which yet....any suggestions?

oh...and it's 5.34pm local time and its already dark, and it's 3.04am Adelaide time, and I'm up to my 4th 2euro Becks.

I'm almost out

I'm almost out of here.... but before I go...


Vlog post number 1-


and the theme music for today is -


Sunday I'll Be Gone - VAST

A status updade

With the count down until I leave this fair country of mine rolling ever closer to that fateful day I know that I must place another status update into the system, even if I do doubt if I have very many followers at the moment.

I can say for a definitive fact that I now have my tickets and my passport. I have yet to officially acquire a job but my tentative contacts appear to be moving in the right direction which is a reasonable start.

The one main problem I have been having is a distinct lack of money... about three months ago we had a “management adjustment” which to all that actually live in the real world, unlike our CEO, is better known as the venue manager getting pole axed. Since that fateful event took place my hours dropped to a pitifully low amount, I was averaging 35 hours a week before the change, I dropped down to 15, which is barely enough to live on, let alone save the thousands that I intended to have before I leave.

Fortunately this is beginning to change back to the positive, I managed 35 hours the other week, and the week ending Sunday I managed to score my largest week to date – a Massive 56.25 hours, that is 10 hours more than I have ever managed to get before and is going to make my bank balance that little bit nicer.

Now comes for the fun bit, the description, my last week was a combination of bar shifts which are always fun....and for the most part preparation for a massive end of season/grand final celebration for a local sports team.

The entire inside bar was going to be a members area which could attract up to a thousand people if they all turned up, the outside section had four beer outlets and a wine/spirits station along with two pie/pasty/sausage roll van’s and a barbeque/ hot-chip outlet.
This is mostly shown in the picture below.

For all of these nice venues that we were putting on we got a little bit of alcohol and other drinks.
This is better known as:
_
• 7 entire pallets of beer, with a pallet holding about 80 cases and a case holding 30 cans

• 2 pallets of spirits, not certain on the numbers, but they were flat packs which held 24 each and there were at least 110 flat packs in all.

• An entire pallet of soft drink cans, 30 cases of Coke, 20 boxes of PowerAde, another 16 cases of other assorted other soft drinks.

• A separate pallet of water which was picked up from the supplier after the fact, which was a solid 60 cases.

• An additional 20 keg’s of our ranges of beer, on top of the roughly forty we had sitting spare already and the 17 already tapped into the system.

It should be noted that none of this includes the alcohol that we already had on premise which was quite significant.

But I was still kind of freaked out that I signed for about $50,000 - $70,000 worth of stock over the course of three days.

The big day came on Sunday and it was a long day for me, starting at 8 am after finishing a 10 hour day at 9 pm the night before. As per usual for a day like that all of the massive things had been done already so my morning jobs consisted primarily of small run around jobs that needed to be done, four hours later I was done for a while and had a break for an hour and a half. Upon returning I was quickly put to work with my offsider who is getting primed to take my job and we rearranged a couple of the outside venues and then moved the mobile cool rooms into place, after that (two hours later) we slowed down and took the chance to watch the game that was being televised, we WERE playing well at that point, we did some more run around and then they were playing like shit.

Then the fun times began as our external staff began to arrive and we had the joy of priming them on what to do that was specific to our venue. I took this time to go to MY canteen and get it ready to run, even if my staff were half an hour late. I delegated the role of cook to the first person to turn up and ran it from there as my staff quickly turned up over the next 15 minutes, only including one person who I had worked with before. Got them running and then I did what I had intended to do the entire time... I walked away to go do other stuff.

The night dragged on, the team lost and the ten thousand that we had catered for on the chance that they were going to win, turned into a fucking pathetic two and a half, we ended up closing half the external venues early. Eventually the major presentations and the bands had done their part and we closed all of the external venues sorted it the way we wanted and did what we could elsewhere....it was now 11.30 at night and the day was over. I got a stubby of beer and left, I had to be back at 8 am the next day –another day another dollar.
In all it was fucked, almost all of the beer was untouched and had to be brought back and unloaded today, I don’t even want to think about how bad the wages for the night was going to end up, while inside may have done a booming trade...the outside was a fucking joke and a money hole.

Glad I won’t be here if it happens again next year...

Tired and drained but still raring on.

-CJ

Now to the real thing

Eventually care of YouTube as a host and blogger as my outlet this will become a full fledged video blog, but I get the feeling that won’t happen till I’m a little closer to leaving this fair country of mine. For now all you can get is text and the occasional picture.

Who am I? I’m CJ, my friends call me a host of things but for the most part that’s what people know me as, what do I do with myself...I’m a barman... and have been for a few years so far and to the looks of it I will be for some years to come.

My opinion of Hospitality...you know the barman thing....it sucks...

• the hours are shit
• the customers expect the world
• you get next to no credit for anything you do
• you eat shit
• you drink too much
• your social life goes to shit unless you put so much effort into it that it’s not funny.

So often I have heard the joy that is hospitality described as a gateway job, the same way weed is a gateway drug, it’s a stepping stone to something else, whether that’s a uni degree which you’re working through or just another field that you need job history to get into.... unless you absolutely love the industry you don’t stay in it forever.

For the most part people like it for two reasons....

1. the money and,
2. the people you work with.

The money in this job is awesome compared to so many of the different jobs that are available to those with little experience, as a junior (under 18) I started on $12 an hour roughly...a far cry from most of my friends working at KFC and Coles; supermarkets and fast food joints, starting at a pathetic wage of $6 an hour.
(this is in Australia at least, I know that in other countries their governments don’t enforce the minimum wage rules, like America where the wages for waiting tables is abysmal)

Now that I’m a full barman I get $22.25, before tax at least, which is an awesome wage for someone who has no specialization training etc. The money is a major part of what has kept me in this trade for this long.
The other thing that keeps me here is the people I work with... in no other job that I have ever heard of is the dynamic and broad spectrum of people that you work so massive. You can chat to the patrons and the regulars...but in the end they are always customers, not friends. When you are forced to work with some of these people in such massive and at times high pressure environments the bond and friendships that you form with your fellow workers is huge. Not to mention that these are usually the people you have one or five beers with after your shift is finally over.

The people I work with vary from the 15 year old glassie to the 55 year old bar wench who has been here for years and I can say with some confidence that most of them I can consider friends.

On the same token however...there are always people you work with who will drive you fucking insane, whether they be management or fellow pleb’s there is always someone who will drive you up the wall. But like so many situations you just have to bear through it. It usually ends up better for it, if you can put up with some of the idiots you have to work with you can put up with anyone.

Now to take a slightly different look at it, and to change the subject....

Where do I work....

I won’t say a specific name while I’m still here and working stupid amounts of shifts, but I will say that it’s in Glenelg, Adelaide. It’s recently had MASSIVE renovations; it has a function centre and three other rooms that can be hired for all manner of random functions. It has a gaming room, a main bar and a bistro which is pretty awesome. It also has a rather large chunk of green stuff that people, some of them paid, play aussie rules football on.... now with all those hints I’m almost certain people can figure out where I work....but I’ve covered my ass when it comes to being liable and all that pleasant stuff.

The items to come in future issues could include:

• the Golden Rules
• the 10 commandments of Waiting
• the big list of DO NOT DOs

-CJ

Now for a bit of an introduction

Now that the initial bit of making a first post is done and over, its time to put the list of stuff I’m packing out into the open.

· There’s the laptop

o A small upgrade on my last one, and even then it’s a few years old
IBM T43

• 1.86GHz
• 2Gb RAM
• 60Gb HDD

It’s not the best, but it’s better than some, and I have it so tweaked that most people can’t touch it.

· There’s the webcam

o Logitech quickcam Pro 9000

It’s a good webcam, as most people will discover when I start posting using it. The one problem I have with it is the fact that I had to install and uninstall the drivers six times to get the software to work properly, no other qualms with it yet.

· There’s the headphones

o A $60 pair with mic. and inline controls, the best pair I’ve come across in some time

· There’s the pocket drive

o Seagate Freeagent Go 160Gb

Brilliant little thing that adds space and gives a separate spot for all of my music and movies.

That’s my run down of my hardware. Other stuff will come in future, till the next post.

The Beginning is here

For my first step into the world of Web 2.0 I finally post something onto a Blog that is distributed en mass.

Now for the Essentials, you know; the explanation of why I’m here and all that delightful stuff.

For the most part it’s pretty simple- I’m going to be in Europe on November the 26^th of this year and I’m staying there for what I’m hoping to be a good year or more with the hopes of working and travelling around at the same time.

My target destination is St. Anton, Arlburg, Austria. A ski resort where I’m aiming to work in a hotel/bar, but if things don’t work I’ll make something work.

I’ve got a long list of other places I want to visit, but until I make it a little shorter I won’t post it.

The purpose of this blog will be to keep my friends and family apprised of what I'm up to, along with providing an insight into the differences between the different types of service and other hospitality related issues in Austria, Germany and Europe in general.

This will be a mixed format blog combining this simple text, pictures and video. Which I use will probably entirely depend on what I’ve been up to and the amount of sleep I have or haven’t been getting.