A new life in a month...Life in London - 4th September to 16th November

And so the next instalment begins... well it has been sometime since our last update and by the title it has been quite a journey. By new life we mean; house, bank account, job, mobile phones and learning the transport system aka. the tube, overground and limitless double decker buses that trawl the streets day and night!

We arrived back on the night of Thursday 4th Sep to head to our base for the next 10 days at Streatham Hill, located in the outer southern suburbs of London, where we were dossing (sleeping on the floor) at Michelle's house (Dee's sister). During these 10 days we were registering with numerous agencies where James came to realisation that the job market over here was very bleak with the current "credit crunch". It took nearly a month before James found work, and Dee a couple of weeks... which leads to another story...

Dee was called the day after registering with her OT agency by her consultant informing her he had a role within Acute/Neuro..... (rehabilitation although this was not clearly specified). This conversation took place at Victoria station which is a busy, loud and overcrowded place that doesn't help when speaking on the phone. After telling her consultant she would be happy to speak with the hospital manager about the role her phone began ringing 30 secs later and it just happened to be the manager from Royal Free Hospital, which is located in Belsize Park in the northern suburbs of London. Before she could even blink an eyelid Deanne had a new job beginning Monday the following week....which she was not all to rapt in considering she had zero experience in rehabilitation and with Neuro being one of the more complex areas too! Fortunately for us both, Dee was able to find work easily that pays well, however the hospitals tend to be a little distance out of London. Since her initial post Dee has begun work at Epsom Hospital which is located roughly 1 and a half hours from where we live... 6am wake up calls can be rough and the UK health system is somewhat ‘interesting’ to put it nicely however it’s all about earning the pounds for the next trip!!

James, whilst not quite what he expected commenced his employment within a telesales role at Haymarket Publishing. Even though the pay was terrible, the location (Hammersmith, 15 minute walk from home) and the people he worked with, being a young office with mid 20's people, made it easier to do the job. The London economy can be brutal and this contract only ended up lasting a month, so after another week of job searching (now he knows how the unemployed feel and it is not FUN!) he again landed back in Haymarket Publishing doing administration work for two weeks. Week 12 in London is job number three; however it is an ongoing role with Her Majesty’s Court in customer service.

Our other major task in London was finding a place to live. Fortunately for us, this exercise was pretty quick and not to painful. Gumtree the website of all websites to find rooms delivered us four different houses that we were interested in. We had decided on the Fulham or Putney areas after one weekend of visiting both locations (most people decide on places close to where they work, however we decided we would rather live in an area that has everything we are looking for eg. close to shops, tube, pubs and of course a good room). Our main dilemma is that most houses like to exclude couples because of the "added person" factor and so that effectively eliminated two third of the ads we were looking at, coupled with Dees one request of having an ensuite, our search became quite limited. Our very first place we looked at in Fulham met what we were looking for in the ad... until we saw it in person... run down, located on a busy road and not great on the eye, it was a quick NO. The following night we visited three places, one in Putney and two in Fulham. Putney place was a no, small house with too many people, the first Fulham house of the night was nearly on the mark except for the small bedroom and finally our last visit of the night landed us at 37a Niton Street, Fulham. Like a street out of Toorak, with big maple leaf trees lining the sides of the road, we met with Hunter who was one half of the couple that was leaving. 37a is a two story house that has a large lounge room, good size kitchen/dining area and enter the bedroom, large bright room with built in wardrobes and great ensuite, all for a fairly reasonable price... Dee’s eyes that night lit up on arrival. We both agreed on inspection this is our place for the next five or so months. We agreed on a moving in date on Sunday 21st September and also that we would doss for one week before that date.

Our housies, Bec who is in marketing, Allyce a PA, Renee in HR and Scott an Electrician are all great and we couldn't ask for better roommates. We welcomed our arrival by having a Saturday BBQ one weekend on our webber in our spacious backyard by London standards anyway (great cricket pitch), this was before the cooler gloomier weather really hit so it was a great sunny day.

October was a great month for the big reunion for Deanne & Michelle as Ian & Linda arrived at the start of the month for their month long visit. During their stay we all managed to pack in plenty of sightseeing of London and surrounds and numerous Sunday roasts and home cooked dinners. Deanne went on an Evan Evans tour to Oxford and Shakespeare country with them as well as a ‘west end’ theatre show Buddy (chosen by the parents of course) which was great.

Since we have been in London we had made use of every weekend that has come and gone, its incredible how much there is to do in London and surrounds. We have been exploring the Camden & Portobello Markets, been rowing on Hyde Park lake and just recently went to Bath for Guy Fawkes Day celebrations. We found a little gem of a place at Bath Uni to see the fireworks in what was a wet and blustery night which sadly our umbrellas did not survive! The town is famous for the Roman Baths and Pump room.. and course of we visited them. The hop on, hop off bus was a great way to explore the city also with the like of The Jane Austin house, Nicholas Cage’s 4million pound home and famous bridges that are in and around town. We also made a daytrip out to Stonehenge the famous pieces of rocks that appeared from nowhere... in the middle of nowhere. No one really knows how they got there all those many hundred years ago, but it was fairly interesting even if it was freezing out there.

James also ventured back to Munich for the celebrations of all celebrations.. Oktoberfest. Pictures tell it all... an amazing time, with alot of beer, pretzels and weiner sausages (strangely they also love whole chickens and these were sold everywhere).

In the coming weeks and months we plan on visiting Cambridge, Wales, Ireland, the French Alps for Christmas and Scotland (Hogmanay festival) for New Years. But most interestingly and most randomly, James is going to be on BBC’s Bargain Hunt (if you are bored one day watch Channel 9 at 5:30pm to get an idea of the show!!!). A friend from uni is over and rang him up one day to ask if he wanted to go on the show with him.. so why not remember London by going on the BBC. He has NO IDEA how to shop in a flea market, but by god he is going to give it a go! He has £300 between the team (for which there are two teams of two competing against each other) to buy three items and then it will go to auction two weeks later. The idea is that you have to gain the highest profit from the three items that are sold, beating your opposing team. Fingers crossed!

There has been so much more that has happened, but we think that we have said enough for now.

Hope all is well back home and enjoy the upcoming Christmas holidays.

Nice (France) including Monaco – 1st to 4th September

Our final stop on Busabout was completed arriving back in Nice where it all began 10 weeks earlier. It was quite a sad day, however our European adventure wasn’t over yet, three sensational nights were still to be had!

Our first night was spent with a crew from Busabout at the Irish pub for dinner and trivia. It was quite an interesting trivia night as it was compared by both a French speaking and English speaking host. One of the questions which was hilarious to be heard in French was ‘which cartoon do the lines Yabba daba do come from’ the French didn’t get it at all!!

Our second day was spent exploring the local markets for some fresh produce for lunch and happy snaps from the lookout across the bay. We also went on the Busabout excursion to St. Tropez and Port Grimmaud along the French Riviera which is a 2 hour bus ride from Nice. The boat cruise which coincidentally offered bottomless beer, wine and punch also passed through the famous Millionaires bay where the likes of Paris Hilton, Bruce Willis, Geri Halliwell, the Beckhams and Denzel Washington holiday. The cruise also included a tour guide who pointed out a few of the mansions along the Riviera including the holiday homes of Bryan Adams, George Michaels, L’Oreal, Chanel and a notorious importer/exporter who hosted a Red Hot Chilli Peppers gig on his front lawn for his girlfriend...wonder what he imports and exports!

MONACO - As Monaco is only a 30 minute bus ride away of course we needed to make a visit, but first we stopped by Eze Village. Eze Village is a quaint little town famous for its French perfumes and aftershaves. Needless to say our credit card got a work out in Fraganauds perfumery! With bags in hand we made our way to Monaco, the second smallest country in Europe behind Vatican City. It is also the home of the infamous Gimmaldi’s Royal family, flash cars and of course the Monte Carlo Casino. Basically everything in Monte Carlo comes with a price tag! After spending the afternoon exploring the town via a road train we ventured into the Sun Casino (one a little more affordable to us). However, it still came at a price as playing Roulette consisted of a minimum 40 Euro ($AUD 60) buy in and if playing on the outside boxes it was a minimum 25 Euro ($AUD 40) bet! If you were wondering we didn’t leave the casino with fat wallets, but we also didn’t leave empty handed.

Travelling on Busabout has been amazing, we met heaps of people and explored countries, cities and towns we had never seen or even expected to see.

Well that finishes our European summer of a life time, now onward to London town to commence the next chapter of our adventure...

La Spezia for Cinque Terra (Italy) – 28th August to 1st September

Cinque Terra is known for its five fishing villages that are stretched along 9km of Mediterranean coastline. Beginning with Riomaggiore this is the first of the five villages and also where we stayed for the first 2 nights. On the day of arrival we were greeted at the hostel reception to find out there were three sites and that we were required to trek our way up to the peak of the hill with 20 kgs worth of baggage each in heat in excess of 30 degrees, where we would eventually find our place. After recovering from our climb we were amazed to find that the place we were staying at was an Affittacamere (in English it means private house) with balcony and an amazing view overlooking the bay included. We had our private room, or parents room as some would say, while the other six Busabout crew (including Adele who was with us) stayed in one large dorm room, trundle beds included. This place turned out to be a gem as the people we were sharing with were friends we had met in Florence on Busabout. The place was ours to enjoy some drinks and do what we wanted in it, so that’s what we did, within reason of course. We found some hidden rooms with chairs, a spare trundle bed and lounge chairs and setup camp on the balcony for a night in to drink and watch the sunset.

The following day was the Kakota trail of Italy. Beginning at Riomaggiore we set out on the trek along the coast, passing through the other four fishing villages; Manorola, Corniglia, Vernazza and ending at Monterosso. Whilst the walk/trek was quite gruelling at times with endless dirt tracks and countless uneven steps it was all worth it as the views were incredible!! Needless to say we consumed countless bottles of water to rehydrate as it was another scorching day and Dee acquired some nasty blisters as a trophy of completing the trek. As a reward we finished off the day with a swim at the final town Monterosso with a swim at the sand beach (yep not pebbles)!

The following days were spent lapping up the sun lazing on the beaches between the five towns but this time we took the train! A great investment of 3.50 Euro ($5.50 Aussie dollars) was also spent purchasing a blow up tyre to float about in the sea, James also explored under the water snorkelling.

To mix things up our last two nights we stayed in La Spezia (larger town about a 10 minute train ride before Cinque Terra). It was here in La Spezia that we experienced breakfast in the true Italian style. Breakfast consisted of croissants and coffee standing at the counters of the little coffee shops. We felt a little like confused tourists here as the staff didn’t speak much English all adding to the experience. Great strong Italian coffee though!
Cinque Terra was definitely up there for one of the best places we have visited and a must for anyone doing Busabout or travelling Italy in general.

Florence (Italy) – 25th to 28th August

Firenze as the Italians call it, is an Italian pearler of a city! The reason being the camping ground we stayed in was like a little communal Busabout village. We all had cabins that were all grouped together so meeting new people wasn’t hard. The other thing that was funny about this camping ground (particularly something James thought was great) was that to swim in the pool you had to wear a swimming camp... James’ thoughts: ahhh brings me back to my Bondi lifesaving days... anyway this meant the pool was really clean, one it stops hair from floating about in the pool, which did happen at the Venice and Rome campsites and two it prevented alot of people from swimming as you had to pay for a cap. This meant a quite pool to relax, swim and bake in! The other rule to the pool was that you couldn’t wear any footwear, inc. thongs, around the pool. Firenze’s have some funny concepts!

So Florence town, well the main attraction is of course ‘The statue of David’. David has nothing on James, but it was absolutely incredible and well worth the 12 Euro ($AUD 18) to get in to Galleria dell” Accademia where it was located. Michelangelo designed what has to be the best statue in the world as the attention to detail is incredible, you can literally see David’s veins (he has really big feet and hands aswell, not sure why because it doesn’t show... for those interested check our blog pictures!) The other big drawcard for Florence is The Ponte Vecchio or the Old Bridge. This bridge is a famous medieval bridge over the Arno river and is known for having some 60 shops on it, with nearly 50 of those jewellery shops specialising in gold. This is also the only bridge in Florence that wasn’t destroyed during the war, rumour has it when Hitler visited before the war began he loved it so much he told his SS pilots to bomb everything, minus The Ponte Vecchio...

The final, and one of the most important drawcards to Florence for Dee and girls alike, is the leather markets & shopping. Dee could finally buy her long awaited leather handbag, for those who were travelling with us they are all too familiar with our “Schmanbag” which was our security conscious, slash proof, over the shoulder, you beaut travel bag worn by both he and she... you may have noticed it in such pictures as “Deesa and Jimmy do Berlin Wall”. The other purchases made that day were scarfs, belts, wallets and other delights. Gelati capped the day... just to full the addiction of a gelati a day.

Siena (Italy)– 23rd to 25th August

Sienna was a stop we hadn’t planned on originally, however we decided a few weeks before we visited, that we would stop on in. The 2 nights we spent there were enough, Siena is a town you can do in a day really. We did manage to check out a few sights of course, mainly the town square. Siena has one of the most famous town squares in Italy as it is massive and shaped like an amphitheatre that slopes downwards towards the town hall, it was pretty amazing. It can be hit and miss sometimes when you stay in 2-3 star hotels, some can be great, others can be like this one that is more like a convent or grandmas house with floral bedspread, a desk and that talcum powder smell that always seems to waft around in the room.

A stop to an Italian city wouldn’t be complete without three essential things; pizza/pasta, gelati & a visit to a church... so naturally we did all three. Also of course, travel around Europe in August wouldn’t be the same without running into another festival. We think this was a political festival as there were banners and posters up (in Italian of course) mentioning about the candidates, oh and the fact there were more geriatrics at the festival then there are in my grandmas hostel! Amazingly however, Italy will always surprise and the festival turned from cheap dinner and drinks (one litre of wine for $AUD 3.00) to a battle of the bands concert. Pearl Jam, Muse and The Killers were all tunes belted out by some of the bands. A few too many drinks that night and we were off to Florence the next day, fortunately it was a day stop which meant a 1:00pm pickup, enough time to catch up on some sleep.

Rome - 18th to 23rd August

Roma as the Italians call it didnt let us down and certainly wasnt built in one day either...

The history and architecture of the city is amazing, from the old ruins to the Colosseum, the Vatican city and all the basilicas (churches) the eye can see. If you are looking for greenery, you are in the wrong city as Rome is more of a dust bowl then the garden of eden... never the less you wouldnt have it any other way "when in Rome"!

We stayed in another camping ground, which is the norm for Italy accomodation as it is expensive to stay in town. We like to call this camping ground, the "poor mans resort". It has everything a backpacker could possibly want or need including aire conditioned cabins with ensuite bathroom and a FRIDGE, yes cold water again! Two pools, two spas, poolside bar, a pub, restaurant and supermarket all in the grounds... good times! The two pools were a great escape from the heat which was averaging 33 degrees a day (a bit different from what we hear the weather is like in Melbourne).

So the sites you ask, well we had 4 full days to see them all. A great way to do any city is via a walking tour and so of course this is where we began. The American guide had extenisve knowledge on ancient Roman history so it was really interesting. We visited the "mouth of truth" which is an old sewerage lid with a face and open mouth that attracts many a Japanese tourist... quite funny! Other sites included the massive Pantheon with its hughe dome roof (it was the biggest dome until the New Orleans ball park was built) measuring 43 metres in diametre. Other sites included Mussilinis balcony, the site of Julius Caesers assasination site and of course the Colosseum.

The next day we visited the Vatican! Popey wasnt around as he was out of town, as we went on the Wednesday he normally does his service to the thousands of people waiting in the square. The Sistene Chapel was incredible, painted by Michaelangelo who wasnt even a painter and as a result after finishing his work he became blind and crippled.

Venice (Italy) - 15th to 18th August

After a one night stop over in Munich we arrived in Italia to see the sights of Venice. Italy is most definitely our most anticipated country, with cities including Venice, Rome and the costal towns for some warm weather.

So our first stop was Venenzia (Venice)! We stayed at our second camping ground which was a 25 minute bus ride into town, as the accomodation closer in town was damm pricey, which of course means less money for the essentials eg. drinks. The camping ground was a great change as it allowed us to relax and feel like we were on a holiday and not just a trip... not that we are complaining but we have been backpacking for 2 months now and it catches up to you.

Venice, city of the endless canals, venetian glass and of course Gondolas. Travelling by foot and boat is the only means of transport within the city. No cars or even motorbikes roam the small cobblestone alleyways and streets as there is simply no room. We werent sure why we were given a map because in this town following a map is simply impossible. The fun of venturing through Venice is getting lost in this maze of a city... but we did manage quite sucessfully to see the sights of Saint Marks square, with Dee quite sucessfully avoiding another phobia BIRDS, pigeons this time, the dirty flying rats were everywhere. We walked across the Rialto bridge, one of the three bridges that crosses the Grande Canal. Of course a day in Venice wouldnt be complete without a Gondola ride. After some bargaining power we managed to barta our driver Fabio down to 20 euro each for the 30 minute ride. It was definitely worth the price tag as going through these canals in simply amazing. Fabio pointed out a few sites including Marco Polos house... fish out of water!

Nightlife in the campsite was pumping, made even more so by the Toga theme party that night and a game of F$^k the dealer a card drinking game we learnt from a Kiwi bloke.

Day two was a little slow after our escapades from the night before, never the less we summoned the strength to get back on board for a ferry ride out to the islands of Murano and Burano. Murano the island of glass blowing and venetian glass, unfortunately it was a Sunday and that meant no blowing displays, but the glass in the shops was pretty spectacular all the same. A few purchases were made including glass bottle pluggers, butter knifes and a few suprise gifts. Another ferry ride landed us on Burano island, home of lace. This island wasnt as exciting, perhaps add on 30 years to our age and we might appreciate it more, but all the same it was small and quite little island that filled with boutique lace shops and italian restaurants.

The day concluded with Venice by night, something not to be missed. Suprisingly the city is quite different by night as the hussle and bussle of the small alleyways by day turns into a series of quiet tourist shops and happening restuarants for which we made a stop at. A dinner is only completed with a stop to the gelati shop for some icecream relief. St Marks transforms from tourist trap to a almost pigeon free (to dees delight) haven for some musical performances coming from the ever so expensive restaurants. A water taxi down the Grande Canal gave us the ultimate finish to an amazing city.

Next stop, Roma!

Vienna (Austria) 11th to 14th August

This is just a short one for Vienna, running out of internet time...

Vienna was a great place that we never expected to enjoy so much. The city is clean and the attractions were great. Our first travelling day was to the Palace, yes another palace, a maze and the zoo. We also visited a carnival in which James and Adele risked there lives.. and lunch.. to go on a sling shot ride that reaches 115km an hour, Dee was nervous just watching hence some of the blurry pictures. The day was finished with a roast chook, bottle of wine and mozart balls (a specialty chocolate from Vienna, what a name!) by the Danube river for the sunset.

Gastro struck the hostel and took down two of our crew, so we were both on quarintine alert, specially with Dees vomitting phobia. We did a wine tour that day which took us away from the hussle and bussle of the city to the vineyard region. Many a white wines were tasted, along with one of the best BBQs we had had for sometime, pork steak, sausages wrapped in bacon and a big salad. Beach volleyball and swimming was done in the afternoon, along with schnaps, chocolate, chutney and jam tasting.

By the end of the day we were pretty stuffed, but found room to squeeze in one last schnitzel and beer for a farewall dinner for Katie and Claire who left us to go to Budpest.

Next stop Italia for some pizza and pasta...

Cesky Krumlov 9th to 11th August

Cesky Krumlov was not originally part of our itinerary however following the word on the street we were told its a little city not to be missed. We hit the jackpot alright!!! First of all we were quite shocked by our accommodation. After staying in 6 bed, 8 bed and 10 bed dorms for the past couple of weeks we were ready for some privacy. You get a little tired of sharing rooms with people who are pigs and leave their belongings everywhere, or wake up to someone spewing or like Dee experienced come home to find someone has decided to move your bed... Anyway enough complaining all was forgotten when we arrived in our rooms, well you could call it a mini apartment even!! It was run by a local lady who really didnt speak much english however was very welcoming and keen to learn english from us. We even had a tv and lounge suite!! Awesome!!

Cesky Krumlov is a little town lined with cobblestone streets with a beautiful river running through perfect for rafting. The entire town is heritage listed and rightly so you would not want to change a thing. Throughout our stay we went horse riding through the bush, walked through the local palace and gardens and the highlight above all would be the booze cruise along the river. The 7 of us hired our own raft and floated along the river stopping at the river side pubs for jager bombs and beers. Needless to say there was not much rowing done and the trip became a little more adventures towards the end. One of the boys had the great idea of going backwards down the rapids.... the rafts are not designed for this hence we got a little wet but luckily our boat still kept a float, empty beer cans and all!

After a refreshing stay in Cesky Krumlov we were now recharged! Next stop onward to Vienna!

Prague - 6th to 9th August

Prague in all its fame and status lived up to expectations, although the city was pretty filthy it had some great architecture and of course history.

The hostel we stayed at had every tour company possible, Contiki, Topdeck and of course Busabout, staying there so this meant it was a pretty happening place with a huge bar and also an indoor pool. Prague has an old Palace, which most cities have of course. It was a bit of a let down compared to most palaces, however it still did have its good points with a large church and old cobblestone roads. The bridge to access the palace is called the Charles Bridge. This is a tourist nightmare with heaps of people everywhere (hold on to your bags and pockets), however the bridge did have some really old sculptures which caught our eye. Dee bought some drawings in the main market square and James food of course. The afternoon was spent in the beer garden enjoying the fine Czech beer.. or not as it was Budvar (Budweiser) beer which tastes different to the normal one.

To see a bit more of the city we did an audio bus tour through the Jewish ghetto, the Palace and the city square and also found a nice irish pub to watch the opening ceremony of the olympics in the afternoon.

Next stop Cesky Krumlov, a small little town....

Berlin - 3rd to 6th August

The home of Hitler's reign, great beer again and an ever changing city... that's the city of Berlin. We arrived the week of the annual Berlin beer festival, streets full of marques with beer tents and schnitzel. Of course our pilgrimage around Europe and having a drink every night continued.

The next day we had arranged to meet with our local Berlin friend Mira. For those who don't know, Mira was an exchange student who became friends with Michelle (Dee's sister) when they were both in France. She took the day off from work to take us on a free tour guide of Berlin. She took us to the sites of Checkpoint Charlie, The Berlin Wall, Postdamaplatz, the German and French churches, aswell as the area of the Zoo (which contained a shopping district called KaDaWe with a 6 story shopping centre with views of Berlin).

That night involved a pub crawl jumping from 3 bars to end up at a club. Between jagermesiter and absynth shots, we had a great time.... except the fact the tour guide left half the group at the third bar and we had to navigate our way to the next place in no state to do so.

We hopped on a bike tour the following day, well we missed the 10:30am one because of the pub crawl the night before so instead chose the 3:30pm one instead. As Berlin is so flat it is great way to get around town. We explored many of the same sites we had done the day before with Mira, however we did take the fastest lift in Europe at the Daimler-Chrysler building which ascends the 90 metre building in 8.5m a second. Good views from the top to be had.

The unexpected highlight of our trip was when Mira told us she had arranged to show us the hotel she worked in after her shift finished that night at 10:00. Hotel Adlon, yeah so you might think just another hotel... not really... this is the hotel where the who of the who stay, so much so that Barack Obama had stayed just a week before when he made his speech to 200,000 plus Berliners in the main square of town. This is the infamous hotel that Michael Jackson stayed at when he dangled his baby of the balcolny in 2002. George Bush, Sharon Stone and more... and she showed us the Presidential suites and standard rooms (a little trivia for you, Obama only stayed in a standard room and refused the presidentai suite). Prices for standard room 350 Euro (AUD520) a night, Presidential suit with bullet proof glass and butler 12,000 Euro (AUD 18,000) a night. At the end she organised a drink drink at the bar for us both, which involved both of us ordering a 17 Euro (AUD25) cocktail and James eating a wasabi bean and nearly throwing up with the taste, all this as a posh lady was walking her poodle on lead through the lobby just next to us.

We enjoyed Berlin, however Prague is calling and that's next our next stop!

Amsterdam (Netherlands) 30th July to 2nd August

Amsterdam - We arrived in the city of drugs, sex, canals to find out yet again we arrived the weekend of Gay Pride once again!! It was now becoming hillarous, if there is a festival in town we seem to come across it!! First stop was a quick tram ride into town to visit the famous 'Bulldog' coffee lounge for some drinks and some freshly baked bakery products.... According to the crew who consumed these items they were perhaps a little tame. So night number two was a little more adventures with some 'organic' vegies if you get my drift. Once again for the participants who were game to trial these food items the result this time was a hillaroius colourful adventure!

In regards to sight seeing Amsterdam is definetley a very scenic city filled with canals, cafes, restaurants and bike riders galore. Sites visited included the Anne Frank house, Van Gogh museum and another walking tour for a guided historic tour of town.

Off course we could not miss the gay pride march, it was everywhere. Dee rated the parade much better than Madrid as the floats were actually real floats along the canals and there were actual correographed dancers, drag queens and spectactular costumes....some also not so spectacular ...leather pants!

Last of all we can not ever forget our visit to the world famous red light distric. Now travelling in a group of 10 we were game enough to enter the seedy bars to watch the live sex show... quite funny yet disturbing with one of the male participants of the show jumping into the crowd to greet one of our female crew members I will leave it to your imagination... Perhaps this was a once only event for the female crew amongst us anyway!

Ok so you will be glad to know that we survived Amsterdam, now off to Berlin!

Bruges (Belgium) 28th - 30th July

Bruges - Following a 20 minute hike to our hostel with our back packs nearing 20kgs we were greeted with a not so pleasant steep climb to our room up a rather narrow spiraling staircase, defintely not meeting Australian standards code 1428 (rather deadly actually)! After surviving the stair case we set off for the local Brewery as Belgium amongst many other European countries in known for their excellent beer. The beer here wasn't too bad, a little fibourous as they don't filter all the hops completely (its meant to be much healthier this way).

Belgium would of course not be complete without tasting the world famous chocolates. The old cobblestone streets are lined with chocolate stores and rather affordable too! Unfortunately the hot chocolates and milkshakes are perhaps a little more pricey at 4Euro ($6 AUD) and 6.50 Euro($10 AUD) respectively but still well worth it with our cafe of choice offering a selection of 42 different varieties!! The waffles are great too... it really sounds like all we do is eat and drink!

We also visited the local market and purchased some fresh meats, bread, salad and fruit for a picnic in the park which was a welcome change from our sandwiches we normally "take" at breakfast!

On or last day we lost our first item (not bad considering we have been travelling for over 5 weeks now). In a frantic rush before catching the bus we decided to put our photos onto a CD and unfortunetley we left the memory card there... oh well it could of been worse we still have the photos.

Next stop Amsterdam,,,,

Paris 26th - 28th July

Paris - Our return to Paris was just as exciting as the first time round, there is just so much to do here. Firstly we met up with the others who joined us for our next month of travel, we now have a group! Upon recommendation from our busabout guide to see something a little different in Paris, we visited the Catacombes. In the late 1700's in Paris the cementries were becoming overfull so in some inventive yet weird kind of solution the people of Paris decided to dig up millions of bodies and arrange all their bones into a museum in an underground old quarrie...it has to be seen to be believed! Its situated below the metro line and sewers...we got a little wet from something dripping in the tunnels at times.

Our visit to Paris also coincided with the last day of the Tour de France which was spectacular timing once again! Amongst the thousands of others we found our position at the 1km mark to the finish line and waited 2 hours to catch a glimpse of the remaining 140 riders out of the original 170. The speed at which they ride is amazing! After a few laps we worked our way through the crowds to the finish line to watch the last sprint and the podium presentation from behind the stage. It was amazing to be there and see it all live.

Paris was still not yet to be completed until we climbed the Effiel tower and that we did, 700 odd steps and then a cable ride to the very top. Apparently the effiel tower actually sways slightly at the summit and you can actually notice this...maybe it was the wind,,,,or heat exhaustion it was bloody hot!!

Last of all and certainly not to be forgotten was the Moulin Rogue!! Fantastic, Spectacular, Amazing, even James enjoyed it. His favourite performances were by the side acts in between the dancers including the juggling musical man! Dees facourite was the Can Can with all the dancers dressed in french colours.

Next stop Bruges (Belgium) for chocolate and waffles...

Germany (Munich and Stuttgart) 21st to 26th July

Munich - The City of beer and sausages! More wet weather too :( nevertheless we had an awesome time. We begqn with a free walking tour (you tip the guide what ever you wish to) around town. Here we saw a cheesy glockinspeil clock tower, the beer hall where Hitler rallied at his first public speech sparking the Nazi rebellion which ultimately led to WW2. We also saw the site of the failed assasination attempt of Hitler prior to the commencement of the war, his body guard was shot 11 times protecting him, amazingly he too survived! How different history could of been if the assasination attempt was successful.

We also partied a little harder in Munich, James in particular! We met some American University graduates at our hostel who assisted with this! The beer crawl was a must on our agenda (Munich beer halls are the home of October fest) and it met our expectations drinking plenty of one litre steins qnd jager bombs (Jagermeister is very cheqp in Germany, so to is red bull). There is also a purity law in Germany defining that only five ingredients are included in beer, none of which includes preservatives therefore you can drink litres of beer with little hangover effects. Unfortunetley the same can not be said for Jagerneister!

Following a rough start to our second day(for James anyway) we visited Dachu concentration camp. The camp was set up in 1933 and was the longest running camp upon which many of the other camps were modelled upon. Thankfully the gas chambers were not utilised at this camp however, thousands of people still lost their lives here. There was a very sad and eiree feel to the camp knowing the tragedies that occurred in the very locations we stood. In particular the crematoriums were confronting.

Stuttgart - After some hard nights out on the booze in Munich we were ready for a quieter chilled out time. This wish was granted in Stuttgart. Firstly our accommodation was perfect, a quiet qnd quaint hotel with very friendly staff and great breakfast (always a plus). We also indulged in some sunbaking in the park, a visit to the local swimming pool and of course a few more drinks in the beer gardens. Once again we also hired bikes to explore the town.

Stuttgart is the home of Mercedes too so of course we visited the Mercedes museum which was great. Finally we finished off by visiting the sky beach bar, located on the roof top of a department store. The bar is only open in the summer time and is created to resemble a beach, 8 tonnes of sand is brought in to create this. Well worth a visit!

Signing off from Germany for now and on to Paris for the second time round!

Switzerland (Lauterbrunnen & Lucerne) - 16 to 21 July

LAUTERBRUNNEN - Upon arriving in Lauterbrunnen we were greeted by perhaps a more Melbourne feel with wet and wintery weather. We stayed in Jungfrau camping ground with two other busloads of Contiki travellers who showed their true colours in the 'Bunker Bar' on arriving by throwing up on our Busabout guide as soon as she walked in...

We stayed in a cosy wood cabin and while the facilties were basic, we finally had a kitchen to cook again (minus a fridge). The town was smaller then we expected. Set in a valley which you could walk from one end to the other in 15 minutes. Due to Swiss law the town dwellings all remain the same and new houses have to abide by the same rules. All new houses require bunkers to be installed under the homes and even look like they would have 50 years ago.

Our time here included white water rafting in the glacier waters (very cold), plenty of waterfalls, a day trip halfway up the mountain to Murren. Unfortunately that day was overcast and we couldn't make the trip to the Schilthorn summit (which had the purpose built lookout made for one of the Bond movies). Dee was thankful we didn't climb to the top anyway because the summit was only 0 degrees and she had forgotten to take her jacket!

Some shopping time was also spent in the much bigger town of Interlaken, with some essential purchases including an umbrella and of course true Swiss chocolate. Our last night was capped of with James experiencing a traditional Swiss dinner called Rosti (stewed fried potatos with ham and onions).

LUCERNE - Our highlight of Lucerne would have to be our daytrip to Mount Pilatus. The day we arrived the whether was great and we had learnt from Lauterbrunnen that when it is sunny you make the most of it. The trip to Mount Pilatus included a 10 minute sprint to the ferry (we were in a hurry again!) which we made, for a 90 minute cruise along the lake to the bottom of the mountain. This was then followed by a funicular ride (old fashioned cable train designed to climb steep gradients) directly up the face of the mountain to the summit. At one stage the incline is 46 degrees which is the steepest in Europe. The 360 degree views from the summit were spectacular. Unfortunately it wasn't cold enough for snow, being 15 degrees at the summit and a much warmer 30 degrees at ground level. The return trip included a 20 person gondala ride, then a smaller cable car trip to the bottom. These and a bus ride home meant we had covered nearly all forms of transport known to man in one day!

In the evening we stumbled by the annual Blues festival (yes another festival). They had the likes of Macy Grey, Shaggy and K.D. Lang playing there over the two week festival. Some more drinks that night, however Dee did decide to pass on the 20 Franks (AUD 21) champagne glass that was being sold and stuck to the Heinekens.... we were warned that Switzerland is expensive and we now agree.

Other sights we visited were the famous Lion monument that symbolised the lives lost in the civil war and a hike to the fortified tower wall, that still has 8 remaining towers from the old ages.

Next is Germany for some beer hall action...

Paris - 13 to 16 July

Well this city deserved a whole section to itself...Paris! Yet again we managed to arrive in a city for a festival, this time of year right across Europe its festival crazy and in Paris it was Bastille Day (French day of independence). Its incredible how much you can fit into 2 full days when you get your mind to it. Bastille day started of with a trip to the Arc De Triomphe (with no cars allowed to enter as it was closed of for the parade). It is the most dangerous roundabout in Europe with 12 roads leading into it and an accident every 8 minutes and to top it of cars that enter are not covered under their insurance.

That day also included a window shop down the Champs Elysee, no purchases for Dee although a visit to Louis Vutton explained why.....500 - 2000 Euro for a purse alone! It was a massive store and probably 1 in a 100 people in there were actually legimately shopping and not checking out the prices.

Next on the agenda was the Louvre Museum to catch a glimpse of the Mona Lisa. Good day to pick to as it was Bastille Day the museum was open for free which meant no lines for tickets. Every man and his dog was taking a picture of Mona, flash and all. James managed to catch a photo aswell, as you can tell by the pictures. Following on from there we went to Notre Dame Cathedral. Dees highlight of the day was fullfilled when we ate Crepes perched on the bench over the Seine river. The day was finished with a picnic of salami, cheese and wine under the Eiffel Tower to watch the Bastille Day fireworks with 500,000 others!

Day Two was a little less jam packed, but never the less busy. With a visit to the Sacre Couer (holy church) with a climb to the top of the very narrow 300 step spiral staircase, to see some spectucular views of Paris. Following our hiking efforts we ventured through the cobblestone streets of Montmarte where we shared some more drinks and watched the portrait artists in action, amazing! Our visit to Paris was capped of with a night time bike tour with a crazy Texan tour guide. As he would say we 'dominated' the streets and perhaps pissed off alot of french drivers with our pack of riders crowding the streets. The ride also included a night cruise along the Seine with yes once again more alcohol, this time red wine.

We return again to Paris on the 26th July, hopefully to see the end of the Tour de France...

London & Spain - 28 June to 12 July

LONDON - we made it into London on the 27 June, after we had a 3 and a half hour delay due to engine problems and having to switch planes at Changhi Airport. Michelle (Dee´s sister) greeted us at Heathrow to show us the way to her home town Tooting Bec. Due to our late arrival we needed to get of the tube and on to the night bus. This meant we got of at Piccadily Circus and right into the nightlife of London... you know you have made it to London once you walk onto the Piccadily streets. Neon signs, people everywhere and the smell of London, ahhh our home for 6 months. This was also quite an adventure with 40 something kilos worth of luggage and Michelle being so excited to show us the sights as we navigated our way to the bus. We made it onto the bus safely and michelle insisted we sit on the top floor of the double decker. This was great until James smacked a not to happy passenger with his pack not once but twice!

During our next four days, we did the touristy stuff like visit Greenwich Park (where the GMT line is), Westminister, cruise down the Thames, Big Ben and The London Eye passby´s and the Tiger Tiger nightclub in Piccadily Circus. James reunited with the Melbourne crew and the rest of the night was history.. good times!

On Monday we made it to Wimbledon, and when we say made it, it was just like that. Trains, buses and queues. They make you line up in the park for 2 hours and then you walk through the Wimbledon Royal Golf Course. 3 hours later we were in. Strawberries and cream, PIMS and tennis on the hill. It was a great day for some aussie action: Hewitt, Dalacquoa, Pratt, Stosur... oh and Woodbridge just standing in the outer courts waiting for people to greet him [its in the past Woody, move on]. Saw some great tennis and some English sunshine, we have sock marks to prove it... well Dee a "flip flop" mark!

NICE - We left to officially start our 2 months of travel around Europe on the 1st July. A fast train to Luton airport, and easyjet flight and 4 hours later we were in Nice. Not a bad city (I guess people are right when they compare it to the Gold Coast), minus the pebble beach. Had some Italian (I know not French food) for dinner and a few drinks at a bar in the main square that night. One night only in Nice and we were off to Barcelona the next day.

BARCELONA - Our 12 bed dorm was awaiting us the day we arrived. It is a bit of fun sharing with others as you get to meet heaps of people, however one toilet & shower per dorm can get a little painful (especially for those people that blow dry there hair most mornings...), the city is amazing though. That night we experienced our first tapas bar and sangria (legitmate as it had heaps of fruit in it and plenty of red wine).

On our second day we did what was called a fat bike tour. For 20 euro you go on a very casual bike ride around Barcelona (it´s a flat town) and the guide points out all the sites and talks about them. This helped us for the next few days to decide what we wanted to do. A bit of department store shopping for Dee that day also. That night we went to the Magic Fountain. The fountain by night is a mega light show with some of the corniest music you can imagine, but it was worth the 5 euro bottle of white wine we took down there for consumption. We left at midnight and James was positive he was heading in the right direction back to the hostel, however we managed to walk further north instead of south. This lead us to end up in the ghetto part of town next to the local jail. A bit of orienteering advise from a local and we were soon back on track to the hostel after our 90minute walk which had originally took half an hour on the way there...

During the next few days we ate more baguettes, more tapas and drank more sangria (James more beer then sangria, still not a huge fan of red wine).

MADRID - This would have to possibly be our biggest eye opener city on arrival... two words, Gay Pride! We arrived right in the middle of the march!! Our bus was unable to access the hostel as the streets were closed off so the bus load of us jumped on the packed underground train to our hostel. We were sprayed with something.... as we walked up the stairs onto the street to people partying everywhere. Madrid is a vey busy and perhaps more dangerous city in comparison to barcelona. You couldn´t walk further than 20 metres without seeing police. I think this was particularly true around our hostel as we were in the heart of the city. A few prostitues also liked to hang about our street too!

Over our three nights in Madrid we did the touristy thing and visited Real Madrid´s home stadium, several museums and Retiro Park (second bigest park in europe). The stadium was huge with a capacity crowd of 80,000 seats and are classified the most successful ´football´team of the 20th century according to FIFA. It was pretty interesting however we managed to get told of twice by the security guards, once because James jumped the barrier... and a second time for sitting on the seats, tough security! We also had trouble with our backpacks again with Deanne managing to knock an entire bowl of coco pops onto the floor meant for all the hostel backpackers when rushing past the breakfast table....very embarrasing the spanish lady at the hostel wasn´t very impressed but strongly declined assitance with the clean up!

SAN SEBASTIAN - 5 nights in total was spent here our longest stretch in one place yet. Three nights of which was spent on a busabout tour for the running of the bulls festival. The festival is located in Pamplona which is about an hours bus ride from San Sebastian. The bus also departed at 4am which meant a 3.15am start to the day, ouch! You have to arrive early as the bulls run at 8am. The festival is amazing, the spanish people go absolutely crazy and party non stop for 9 days, day and night the street rubbish also reflects this! We all dressed in our whites which is essential to be part of the spirit of it all. James and Matty defied all warnings not to run but made it safely to the arena, thank god!! James´comments: The biggest adrenaline rush of my life, the frantic run around dead mans corner, up the hill where you wait for the bulls to pass you and then another frantic run into the arena so that they don´t lock you out.. for the record matty beat me in with a time of 2:31 and me 2:45... not really they don´t time it, but from start to finish it´s 800 metres. They can now tick this off their´life to do list´. Each morning they release 6 bulls each weighing in at around 600kgs in a stretch of road that takes only 3 minutes from start to finish for the bulls to run! Once in the arena the bulls run straight through to the others side and so you think all is safe until they then close all doors and release another 5 bulls, one at a time into the arena. However to some relief they are smaller however never the less much more fiesty!

San Sebastian prooved to provide us with our best and worst weather yet! Its an amazing place and perhaps a favourite so far. We spent 3 days relaxing on the beach working on our tans, hit the pubs and made a mistake in drinking cheap and nasty vodka ($AUD6 bottle) can´t even remember what it was called and nor do we want to. Our last 2 days were mucher cooler and brought some rain however we still braved the elements and visited the lookouts. Not the best for photo taking though!

So finally we are off to Paris tomorrow for some Tour de France action hopefully.

This is adious from Spain...

Singapore - 24 June to 28 June

So we stopped over for 3 nights in Singapore. First thing we noticed is how damm good the public transport system is over their. $AUD1.20 for a one way trip into the city, trains every 5 minutes and easy to navigate. Singapore is also a very clean city, you aren't even allowed to eat or drink at the train stations or you will get hit with a $500 fine!

The Singporeans also drive very nice cars (Mercs, Volvos, BMW's etc.) because they only have a 10 year license, after that they have to apply for a ballot and only 12,000 licenses are given each year. This means most of them get rid of there cars and also only the rich can afford to drive. With a population of 3 million, that is ridiculous, but it also keeps traffic congestion and pollution down.

We went to Sentosa island on Wednesday and took in the sights. A bit over rated (maybe because our tour guide was stressed to the max and rude, a forthcoming south african lady was fed up with her and told her to lighten up and smile...she was shattered!) because they have turned it into a theme park island. Have to pay for everything if you want to ride it, unlike dreamworld which is just an entry ticket. Our tour included entry to an underwater aquarium, luge ride, chair lift and cable car to access the island (its a bit of a scam because you can also enter the island via a bridge)!

Thursday was a city tour and night safari. The night safari was good, highly recommended. It takes you on a road train around the park, except when you get idiot's taking flash photography when the guide keeps telling you not to. It also included a couple of interesting shows with the animals and fire breathing performers.

The food in singapore was also great. We ventured into china town and the heart of singapore to eat the local food. Alcohol on the other hand was limited to beer, wine and spirits was quite scarce, tiger beer was the drink of choice....with a mix of red bull at times.

The weather in singapore was a much appreciated change from wintery melbourne, time to laze about by the pool, catch a few sun rays but not too humid and steamy, must be the dry season.

We are now in London and catching up with the crew. Check the pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/aussiejimmyw

Until next installment... this is Deesa & Jimmy signing out!

Leaving Oz

Two weeks and counting...