Hilarity100

Now that the trip is well and truly over the hilariteers have spread back all over the UK to celebrate Christmas in their own ways. Which is partly why the Hilarity100 site has gone so quiet. That and we're busy washing everything we own, sleeping in non-bunk beds and enjoying showers that don't requiring the pressing of a button every thirty seconds.

But we still have an unpublished back-log of highly amusing anecdotes, photos and indeed videos. And since this website is our record of the trip, we will continue putting up a few bits and pieces whenever we get bored and want to re-live our adventures. To kick this off, I give you a Christmas photo from everyone's* favourite post subject: Plopsaland.

Merry Christmas from the world's most realistic reindeer and sleigh

It's our way of thanking everyone who was playing along at home via the website and made the trip even more amazing then it would have been otherwise. Cheers.

*"Everyone" may or may not include Simon.

Posted by Matt at 1:19 AM | Permalink

It's our last day and we're currently driving towards Calais to board the ferry that will take us back to the UK (where the hilarity shall officially end). But as we were just beetling across Belgium we saw a turn-off from the motor-way for none other than Plopsaland. Much excitement erupted in the car, originating mainly from myself.

Some of you may remember Plopsaland from earlier in the trip. I certainly do.

So yes, the excitement built as we followed the signs and, sure enough, we arrived at the shiny gates of the promised Plopsaland.

Matt arrives at his happiest place on Earth

...and still finds it unnaturally hysterical.

Now I officially feel that the Hilarity has reach a natural end. I've achieved all that I came here to do. Good times.

Posted by Matt at 1:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

We're on our last full day here in Bruges, Belgium enjoying the waffles, beer and frites. Tomorrow (Sunday) we pile back into the car and drive to Calais, catch a ferry across the Channel to Dover, then drive back to London, where we'll officially end the hundred days of hilarity.

In case you're wondering where we've been, we've made a helpful map showing our merry path across Europe. The little dots indicate places we stayed, and everything's divided up by colour:

• Green lines and dots are for everyone travelling together;
• Red lines and dots are for Mot and Ness;
• Blue lines are for Matt and Si (with bonus guests Steve and Loren since Lyon, France).

Check out the map and marvel at the silly back-tracking Matt and I did around Germany.

Posted by Si at 6:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Across Europe we've been dropping into old, old churches and cathedrals filled with stained glass and big blocks of stone. And we've noticed that there's usually a little sign somewhere pointing out that the church was built over longish period of time, usually starting at about several hundred years, sometimes a lot more.

So Barcelona's iconic Sagrada Familia, by the city's own Gaudi, is a chance to see one that's still under construction.

Posted by Si at 1:00 PM | Permalink

One of the basic rules of using colour is that placing opposing colours next to each other makes both colours stronger. For example, orange and blue are opposite each other on the colour wheel, but if you use them next to each other the blue seems bluer and the orange appears, well, orange-ier. This also makes them both a little painful to look it.

Simple, right?

Witness our hostel room in Valencia, Spain:

Red wall + purple dots = hideous painful headache.

There are possibly fewer colour combinations less conducive to relaxing, happy-place sleep than red and purple. Especially when the room is lit with red-tinted light.

My retinas are still burning.

Posted by Si at 10:10 AM | Permalink

The view from Park Guell looking out across Barcelona to the Mediterranean, with the plaza unusually empty.

Barcelona wouldn't be Barcelona without the whacky organic buildings by Gaudi which are scattered across the city. They're organic, they're kinda bulbous in a less-pretentious-than-Gehry way, and they're usually covered in crazy-bright mosaics.

Continue reading "Barcelona is Gaudi" »

Posted by Si at 10:09 AM | Permalink

After 95 days I finally joined the Hilarity gang, ready to enjoy the remaining 5% of the fun. Myself and Loren (sorry, Loren and I) flew out from London to some obscure place "in" Barcelona - of course in mainland Europe "in" is roughly translated as "waaaaay out." The security at the airport was somewhat intense, including pat-downs and shoe x-rays. By the time we actually got on the air vehicle I was feeling very safe until I heard a strange sound and an odd smell. Looking to my right I noticed the girl across the aisle playing with her lighter - flame goes on, flame goes out. When she noticed that several people were staring at her, she put it away - realising the flight-cancelling possibility of having a lighter on board.

After arriving in Spain and waiting a few hours for Matt and Si to pick us up we made for the border. After a brief pause in France we are now hanging out in Switzerland, land of the unsecured wireless internet points.

Posted by Steve at 9:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Posted by Ness at 1:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Yep, another lazy day in the Mediterranean.

Those who are observant sidebar followers will have noticed that my Mediterranean Swim-Count has today gone up from zero to one. Oh yeah. Another Hilarity-long goal that can be ticked off. The resulting flirting with hypothermia wasn't an overt goal as such, but was unavoidable as can be easily seen in the following equation.

ocean + december = freezing

Note that this only holds for special cases of 'ocean' that are elements of the Northern Hemisphere set.

Continue reading "Going swimmingly" »

Posted by Matt at 6:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There are many thing I like about Spain; it's a country full of sun and relaxed people. The locals are always out later than the tourists and it's the first country where the natives have out-numbered Australians in every hostel we've been to. But what really floats my boat is the country-wide acceptance of siestas. I can't think of many things better than institutionalised afternoon napping. I'm actually about to have a siesta myself right now, just like I've been doing daily for a while. The first 90% of this holiday has really worn me out.

In fact - a word of warning for when I get back home - from now on don't try to contact me between the hours of 5:30pm and 7pm, for during that time I shall be contently unconscious.

Posted by Matt at 3:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

You may have noticed that almost without exception, all of our videos are somehow car-based. In case you were wondering, this is because I'm a lazy, lazy man and cannot be bothered carrying a video camera about. And so it just lives in the car. If you want documentation of hilarity occurring away from the vehicle, you'll need to check out Si's photos.

Anyhow, today's video answers the question of how we manage to find valuable 'computer time' while still participating in a full and rewarding trip around Europe experience.

Posted by Matt at 6:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The other week we dropped by Bilbao for a couple of days so I could go quietly drool over Frank Gehry's whacky design for the Guggenheim Bilbao. And yes, it's amazing.

We're now in Barcelona and I'm psyching up for a Gaudi tour tomorrow, and will also be stopping by still-under-construction La Sagrada Familia before the week is out.

Cool architecture makes Si a happy man.

Posted by Si at 2:38 PM | Permalink

Simon and I had a quest this morning, and that quest was to locate the Holy Grail. Search for it, if you will.

Sure this involved noticing in the Lonely Planet guide that the only supposed Holy Grail with the Vatican Tick of Approval™ was in the church a short walk from our hostel in Valencia; but it was a quest all the same. There was even suffering involved. We had to get up really early.

Early as in before some shops are open. In my world, all shops are open from some theoretical origin point and then just decided to shut at some stage during the normal day. That shops have a finite opening hour, and the possibility of me arriving before that hour, is a concept I've never really been confronted by. But there I was - pressed up against the glass window of a closed breakfast outlet, whimpering out of pure desperate need for orange juice.

Once that was sorted we walked the short distance to the cathedral and went in. At this point we failed in our quest, in a traditional Hilarity100 manner. Can you guess which of the following was the cause of our quest's demise?

1. Unable to defeat the dragon at the entrance to where the Grail lay.
2. Incorrectly answered one of the three questions to prove our worth.
3. Grail display closed for maintenance.

Most pathetic ending to a quest, ever.

Posted by Matt at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

While enjoying the south coast of Spain where there was very little internet, Si and I finally got around to messing with some of the video footage we had kicking around.

Posted by Matt at 7:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)