Team Oz in London

Farewell

2006-04-24T12:00:00.000+01:00

Well this is it. Tammie and I have decided that its time to go home. Its a sad day but we have plenty of great memories. And what would any farewell be without having a farewell party. It was a tough choice, but we decided to say goodbye in style at Clapham Tandoori. The guys there had looked after us so well for so long, it would have been technically illegal for us to have our farewell dinner elsewhere. Thanks to everybody who came along to our farewell and to all the people who we have shared our time with over the past 2 years or so.

London - The End is the Beginning is The End?

2006-04-21T05:41:00.000+01:00

Here we are back in London - 50 days, 17 countries and 26 cities later, and I thought it might be prudent to provide an overview of the trip.

Visit the interactive map

Favourite Airline: This is a tough one - for cost and number of destinations I really can't go past easyJet.
Favourite Public Transport (inter-city): This is based on price and quality of service. On these criteria, France misses out as their trains are too expensive although nice. The trains between Bulgaria and the Czech Republic are very nice and cheap too, but the leader would have to be Greece as the new train line to Thessolaniki was great, fast and cheap.
Favourite People: Everybody in Europe is great, but the good people of Finland should probably get the award as they were definitely the most helpful - we only had to look slightly confused and several people would be offering their help.
Funniest Moment: Whilst Tammie not being able to wake up due to a hangover on day 1 was pretty funny for me, the winner has to be the kids on Naxos practicing their English on us.
Favourite Country: Greece - if only for the food :p

Edinburgh

2006-04-19T22:55:00.000+01:00

Days 48-49

The drive across to Edinburgh was short and sweet. Luckily we have some very nice friends here who were kind enough to let us stay with them for a couple of days. So thanks Graeme and Clare!! Walking around the city made Tammie and I question why we were only getting up to Scotland now. We really should have come up previously so we could have seen more. But alas it wasn't to be.

Glasgow, Scotland

2006-04-17T22:54:00.000+01:00

Days 46-47

Finally back on UK soil - just, I thought for a minute that Immigration wasn't going to let us back in, but then again who could turn away such a pretty face as mine :p First stop was Rowallan Castle. For those who don't know (and I am guessing that is most of you) this is the Muir (or Mure) family castle - the Mures of Rowallan. Apparently there is some relation to royalty there, via Robert of Bruce. Anyway it just happened to be on the way from Prestwick Airport to Glasgow. Good excuse for a side trip. As a result Tammie had to follow me around as I rediscovered my Scottish roots and purchased anything emblazoned with the Muir family name, crest or tartan. Oh we also did some sightseeing! Glasgow University is very impressive! And you have to love a Scottish accent. Its so chumpy you can carve it!

This is the entrance to the castle - unfortunately it is apparently privately owned so I can only really show you the gatehouse.

What the hell! Its Sydney in Glasgow!! Someone should sue.

Oslo, Norway

2006-04-15T22:52:00.000+01:00

Days 44-45

Spent most of our time just walking around Oslo. We were staying just around the corner from the the palace. We walked down town and laughed to ourselves heartily re the McKylling burger. We also took a stroll around the park with the Stages of Life statues. Other than that we just took it very easy.

Stockholm, Sweden

2006-04-13T22:52:00.000+01:00

Days 42-43

We decided to splurge a little here (mainly because there is nothing that cheap in Stockholm) and stay and the Nord Sea hotel with the famous ice bar. The highlight however has to be the viking longboat museum. This viking warship was raised from the harbour after it sunk there on its maiden voyage before it had even made it to the open ocean. The cold water preserved it almost perfectly and it was definitely a site to behold.

Copenhagen, Denmark

2006-04-11T22:51:00.000+01:00

Days 40-41

The country of Australia royalty. Unfortuately going around saying you're Australian doesn't get you any special attention. You'd think having a princess from Tasmania would count for something.

Berlin, Germany

2006-04-09T22:50:00.000+01:00

Days 38-39

We were both looking forward to Berlin, probably both thinking there would be obvious differences between the former east and west sides. But from what we could tell since reunification the progression has been phenomenal. There is just so much that we wanted to see but couldn't due to time constraints. The information points around the city telling the story of the wall are great, Checkpoint Charlie and other flashpoints which created the great divide were very good and was great to be able to put it all to a specific location. Must come back!

Tallinn, Estonia

2006-04-07T22:48:00.000+01:00

Days 36-37

The ferry that we took across to Tallinn was a meat tray giveaway from being a floating RSL. It had bingo and everything. Unfortunately it was only being called in Estonian and Finnish. I was actually a bit surprised by Tallinn. For some reason I was expecting a run down former Soviet country, but in fact it is just an extension of Scandinavia, and about as expensive. We did find an excellent hotel which had free internet in every room!! Excellent - you'd think we'd be able to keep up to date with the blog a bit better.

Helsinki - eventually

2006-04-05T22:44:00.000+01:00

Days 34-35

The flight to Helsinki was an interesting one. We took off from Prague at 12:45 and landed in .... Prague - where the local time was 90 mins later. Apparently there was a problem with the navigation system - so i guess it was comforting that we found Prague again at all. Eventually we got to Helsinki where the weather was less than welcoming. Lots of pictures of snow - which they seem to have in abundance at this time of year. Helsinki - the home of snow, and Tex Mex for some reason!?

Prague

2006-04-03T22:41:00.000+01:00

Days 32-33

Re-visit to the old home town. This was the first real chance to unwind and relax for a change. Who would have thought that holidays could be so tiring! Prague was in the grips of moderate flooding and the normally soft rolling river was bursting its banks.

Also Tammie finally got to go to the legendary Bombay Bar!

Brno, Czech Republic

2006-04-01T22:40:00.000+01:00

Day 31

Like Prague but not quite as engrossing - like a little brother, it looks kind of like the big brother, looks up to him, but will never be him. And neither should it. It was pity that we only stayed for a day, as it would have been great to explore this city more.

Bratislava, Slovakia

2006-03-31T22:39:00.000+01:00

Days 29-30

I really liked Bratislava, it kind of reminds me of Prague, but unspoilt by drunken yobs. It was a bit cold and it had been raining a bit before we got there. But we managed to get a hotel right next to the castle, and found ourselves an excellent Slovakian pub to settle into for the night! Late the next day we ventured out and found ourselves eating again, this time from a UFO perched high atop the bridge. Whilst a bit unusual, the food was great and the views were too.

Sofia, Bulgaria

2006-03-29T22:35:00.000+01:00

Days 28-29

Arriving in the very cold light of early morning, nothing really looks it best. The dodgy people at the dodgy station, and along the dodgy walk to the hotel. But after a quick nap at our rather nice hotel, and the sun higher in the sky, the city is actually quite nice. Plus the police cars are Porsches - what more could you ask for.

Travelling - Athens to Sofia

2006-03-28T22:27:00.000+01:00

Day 27

Spent the day in Athens, finished of our site seeing. Get on train for 6 hour trip to Thessaloniki. We spent the next 3 hours talking to our new found Anarchist friend before boarding our communist era sleeper train to sofia. Seriously, this train was straight out of 1960 soviet Russia. It had beds though and we were tired. Pity that, as we got very little sleep between the screeching brakes, sudden stops (the brakes seemed to have only on or off - there was no gradual slow down) and the nice 1 hour interruption for a border security check in the middle of the night. So tired.

Athens, again

2006-03-27T22:26:00.000+01:00

Day 26

Spent today travelling on ferry - 8 hour trip back to athens, arriving in at about midnight. One night stopover here before travelling to Sofia via train tomorrow.

Santorini

2006-03-26T22:22:00.000+01:00

Days 23-25

Satorini is the postcard image for the Greek Islands and was created from a volcanic explosion several hundred years ago. The city is perched high atop the cliff face, the white houses looking like snow caps. We hired a smart car to drive around the island, which was again covered in small postcard image villages. One question about Greece - what is with all the stray dogs?

Naxos

2006-03-23T11:40:00.000Z

Days 20-21

The largest of the greek cycladic islands, is like all the others, full of quaint villages. Accessible by winding roads, mopeds are the order of the day but since it looked like it would rain, we hired a car to visit said quaint villages. Highlight of the trip so far has to be walking thorough the narrowed cobbled streets of a mountain top village, and having a bunch of greek school children come past and practice their best english on us. Having 10 kids yell "What's your name?" at you is quite funny.

Athens, Greece

2006-03-20T23:17:00.000Z

Days 18-19

We had to get the early morning flight from Rome :( We were so no used to waking up that early, but sometimes these things have to be done for the greater good. We managed to find a reasonably cheap hotel in the old area of town, and they were good enough to give us a room with views of the Acropolis. After about 2 hours, I have discovered that I absolutely love Greek food. I think that we ate Souvlaki and gyros every day. And best of all, its very cheap! We have really managed to get good weather so far (excluding that one day in Rome) and once again its sunshine all round. We walked up the acropolis to check out the Parthenon and Temple of Zeus, but like the rest of Europe is it under construction at the moment. They are refurbishing it back to its originial splendour or something. Its still amazing though.

Vatican City

2006-03-20T12:14:00.000Z

Day 17

When in Rome ... go to the Vatican. The smallest independent state in the world, or something like that, we though it could be sacrilege if we didn't go pay the Pope a visit (plus they apparently have some arty type stuff to look at). The line-up stretched for about 500m from the entry to the Vatican museums. The museums' content is amazing and is also home to the Sistine Chapel and the famous ceiling. Like the Mona Lisa, taking pictures is forbidden, but that didn't stop most people from having a go. St Peter's basillica is amazing too, but I still found the church in Florence to be more inspiring. One question though, what is it about praising dead popes with lavish monuments etc, I thought that they were supposed to be humble!

Rome

2006-03-18T22:07:00.000Z

Days 15-17

After taking a pleasant train trip through the Italian country side we arrived in the splendour of Rome. Unfortunately it was raining when we arrived, not a good omen. However this was soon forgotten after we had managed to find our way to our apartment. Absolutely amazing - despite it being quite small and requiring a quick outside dash from the bedroom to the kitchen/bathroom across the rooftop terrace. It was a pity it was raining and winter, it would be absolutely amazing in summer to sit on the terrace, drinking wine and soaking in the view.

We were also lucky to find an excellent restaurant around the corner that had a set menu for 14 euros, that gave us about 5 courses with drinks included! Rome has too much stuff to look at and talk about but we got to as many as possible including, the Colosseum, ancient Forum, spanish steps, trevi fountain, various obelisks, Piazza Venezia. Trying to describe them is impossible, look at the pictures, or even better pay them a visit yourself. Also little electric busses are cool!

Florence, Italy

2006-03-16T12:03:00.000Z

Days 13-15

Most of Tuesday was spent on the train from Nice to Florence via Milan. About 8 hours in total. But was worth it. Florence is spectacular. Couldn't belive the number of tourists there even though its still winter. Thousands of them. Lines about 30 mins long into everything. Hate to think what it would be like during summer. The big church was the first time I have been amazed by a building in a while, the sheer size of it is staggering.

Monte Carlo, Monaco

2006-03-13T17:00:00.000Z

Day 12

Seeing as it was just up the road we decided to take day trip from Nice to Monte Carlo, as its just too expensive to stay there. It was funny being able to walk around the streets and feel like I had been there before. Then I realised that it was because I had seen them all before on Gran Turismo. Weird.

Nice, France

2006-03-13T13:00:00.000Z

Days 10-12

Apart from the dodgy location of our hotel, Nice was nice :)

Our guidebook mentioned that the beach was a "must see", so we wandered down there with images of sand and sun. But when we arrived there was no sand in sight! We felt somewhat cheated by the fact that the beach was made up of pebbles, but it was still a nice place for an afternoon stroll.

Food in France has been tasty and plentiful, but I must admit I am getting sick of ham and cheese!

Marseille, France

2006-03-10T22:58:00.000Z

Day 9

Not really sure what to write about Marseille. I'm sure it's a really nice place, but our first impressions were that it's a bit dodgy. Of course our first impressions are usually under the cover of darkness, but the next day it didn't really look any better.

But we ventured on - the harbour was quite nice and the church on the top of the hill was very nice also, if a bit windy - Tammie was nearly blown over! There was also quite an impressive fortress type thing at the entrance to the harbour. Other than that though there is little to write about. But then again I wasn't there long - I am sure if I had stayed longer I would have found its hidden charms.

Montpellier, France

2006-03-09T14:49:00.000Z

Day 8

Montpellier was a lastminute addition to our already tight schedule, but we were glad we took time out to explore this cute little town. Full of old buildings, cobblestoned laneways and even some Roman ruins, we found it easy to just wander around and see the centre of town in a day. A large proportion of the town is occupied by the university, and the university buildings themselves are pretty cool - some look like old churches and castles!

At the edge of the town centre we found a ginormous aquaduct. We tried taking photos of it but they really don't capture the scale and length of the thing.... or maybe we are just crap at taking photos...

Dotted around the town we found these odd looking tiled space invader-esque things stuck to the side of random buildings. Haven't quite figured out what they are yet.

Barcelona, Spain

2006-03-08T20:57:00.000Z

Days 6 - 8

We flew into Barcelona from Madrid late on day 5, hoping for another stamp in the old passport, but to no avail *sigh*. I guess we're in the EU now which means they don't really do the whole border control thing anymore. Oh well.

Our hosts at the apartments where we stayed were eager to help us with sightseeing tips, and suggested that we have a look at "La Sagrada Familia", apparently one of the seven wonders of the world. We were a bit dubious of this "fact" since we thought the seven wonders were actually naturally occurring landmarks, but we thought we'd check it out anyway. Turns out it's a massive stone church which is and has been under construction since the early 1900's. Quite an impressive building, but since it was largely covered by scaffolding, we couldn't really see all of it.

Wandering through Las Ramblas in the centre of town later on, we couldn't help but notice all of the construction work going on - repairing footpaths, roads etc. They must be preparing for summer. We're a couple of months too early!

On our second day in Barcelona we found a cool cable car, which starts above the port and dangles high above the marina until it reaches the park below the palace. Not for those afraid of heights! From the park at the bottom of the hill, it's a long windy walk up to the palace, but the views from the top are pretty cool. Whilst walking up to the palace, we rounded a corner to see an oncoming skateboarder zigzag-ing down the hill. Followed by another skateboarder. Followed by a another one - except this one was sitting on the skateboard, with one hand in a glove scraping along the road, and the other hand holding a video camera! Crazy but true. I guess you just had to be there.

Madrid, Spain

2006-03-07T13:26:00.000Z

Days 4-5

Spain - home of paella and Conquistadors. We arrived early in the morning on our overnight train from Lisbon. It was my first experience on a sleeper coach, and I must say it was a bit smaller than I expected, but still it was nice to go to sleep and wake up in another city (also they served one of the best steaks that I have tasted!!)

Tammie had managed to score us accomodation Hostal Tijcal (I think its pronounced tickle) just off the Puerta del Sol which was a real hive of activity. We dropped off our bags and began our sightseeing. It is unfortuante that we are on such a tight itinerary and that we could only really spend one night in Madrid, as I am sure it has much more to offer than we experienced.

Paris, France and Lisbon, Portugal

2006-03-04T13:37:00.000Z

Day 1

Well we are finally on our way. Our European odessey begins. And its a pretty busy day to start. We were up before the crack of dawn to get to London Waterloo for our Eurostar to Paris. This was just a quick stopover to climb the Eiffel Tower. We had been to Paris 3 times before and had never done it, so we thought we'd better before we left for good. Going in winter is a good idea, as the lines for everything are much shorter. We only had to wait for about 5 mins before heading up. Sweet. Had a bit of a look around. Good view to be had from up there. After about an hour we got tired of Paris and decided that we should make our way to Lisbon.

Days 2-3

We had managed to score accomodation just of the main street which was great for sightseeing. Unfortunately the weather chose not to co-operate fully and it was raining, windy and quite chilly. We hadn't planned on our raincoats being put to use so early in our trip but they sure came in handy. Of course come the next day the weather was perfect, so we took the time just to stroll around the city and soak up the sun.

Vail, Colorado

2006-02-26T21:59:00.000Z

What a difference the snow makes! It was a long flight over, but after settling into our comfy apartments in Vail on Saturday night, we got right into it on Sunday morning.

Our first run was unbelievable. Never before have we felt so good on snow! We were feeling a little apprehensive after the bad snow in La Plagne in December, but it didn't take long for us to build confidence and to realise that falling over didn't actually hurt... well not as much as usual anyway!

We had an amazing and fun-filled week. Vail is absolutely HUGE. And it's not crowded at all. At times you feel like you're the only one on the mountain. It really has to be seen to be believed. The front side of the mountain is a good mix of green, blue and black runs. Over the other side are the world famous bowls and the Blue Sky Basin. Personally I found the bowls a bit strange at first and take some getting used to. The tree runs were fun though :) At the peak of Blue Sky Basin is Belle's Camp, where we cooked up our own BBQ lunch on Tuesday. Yumbo!

But it was not all fun and games... During the course of the week, our group experienced:
(1) an allergic reaction ending with a hospital visit;
(2) a sled down the mountain for altitude sickness; and finally,
(3) a sled down the mountain following a bad fall, also ending in a hospital visit. Luckily there were no broken bones this time. Nancy - you're a trooper!

The week absolutely flew by. We have improved in leaps and bounds, and I have never enjoyed snowboarding so much. I still can't believe it's been a whole week! It was well worth the transatlantic journey, and if we ever get the chance we'll be back for more.

La Plagne, France

2005-12-31T15:44:00.000Z

Finally! A white Christmas! In the French Alps! Yayyyyy!

Arriving at our chalet in La Plagne on the Christmas eve, we began a week of snowboarding on Christmas day. How's that for a Christmas present? :D

The snow wasn't fantastic, but things were going fairly well at the beginning of the week. The mornings tended to be better than the afternoons. Somehow I think those hot lunches weren't doing us any favours, plus it got cold and icy in the afternoon which didn't help our confidence or (lack of) ability levels.

Our chalet was cosy and comfortable, and with cooked breakfasts, afternoon teas, and dinners, we were all very happy campers. We were also given unlimited(!) wine over dinner, but we were suprisingly well behaved. :)

By Wednesday, confidence levels were up, but unfortunately the slopes were getting icier and icier. Shane took particularly bad tumble into a patch of ice, and unfortunately his collarbone and a couple of ribs came out a little worse for wear. Ouch! He was stretchered down the mountain, into the medical centre, and then ambulanced down to a hospital in Albertville, some 60km away!

X-rays revealed a broken collarbone and one, maybe two, fractured ribs. :( Luckily for us, the health system in France treated him well and he was able to go back to the chalet the day after, with his upper body wrapped up in some kind of brace contraption. Better than a plaster body cast with one arm hanging out sideways!

Shane and I spent a couple of days bumming around the resort, but by all reports, the snow conditions were pretty bad anyway. But then, on the final night, it absolutely DUMPED down about a foot of snow. Typical hey? If only we had arrived a week later!!

Prague - xmas party in a palace!

2005-12-17T21:29:00.000Z

Ever walked into a room and felt like you've accidentally wandered into a grand party that you're not actually invited to? Well that's exactly how I felt when we stepped into Zofin Palace for the DHL IT christmas party!

I didn't really get a chance to check out the outside of the building before we entered, but the inside was absolutely amazing. The party spilled from room to room to room, all spread out over three levels, packed full with a few hundred, maybe a couple thousand people.

The evening's program was jam packed - with a live band, numerous smorgasbords of food and dessert, unlimited drinks, a crazy fashion parade, lucky door prizes, and finally a DJ to take us into the wee hours of the morning.

At about 2am we decided we'd had enough and headed home to change before heading out again.

After a short cab ride we found ourselves wandering the streets with some patchy directions from one of Shane's colleagues. We ended up at Solidni Nejistota, a cozy bar which strikes me as being a bit of an expat hangout. Playing some old 80's and 90's tunes, they kept us happy for the next couple of hours until our weary selves decided that we were getting too old for this sort of thing and headed home. Paul, however, had made some new friends and kicked on a few hours longer.

The next thing we knew, we were woken up by Paul coming home and asking us for phone numbers of banks back home. The poor guy had been pickpocketed outside a club somewhere! I won't go into details but if you ask him I'm sure he'll be more than happy to tell you the whole story :p

Open air ice skating

2005-12-10T20:04:00.000Z

... at the Natural History Museum.

Happy birthday to me!

2005-12-09T20:37:00.000Z

The above photo is of Tai's handywork on the wall of the restaurant where we had my birhtday dinner. Cool hey?

The festivities began at the Porterhouse, where as usual, it was PACKED! Luckily a few of the early birds managed to snag a quiet(ish) corner downstairs.

A couple of hours and a short stroll later, we ended up at Zizzi's on The Strand for pizza and pasta. The original plan was to have Tapas but we couldn't get into any of the Tapas bars in the area this close to Christmas. Damn Xmas parties! Never mind, we'll just have to go for Tapas in the New Year. Any excuse to dine out will do :)

Melbourne - Wedding #3 - Mel and Bruce

2005-11-19T22:59:00.000Z

The third and final wedding for our trip brought us back to Melbourne, one of our favourite cities. This time I was a bridesmaid, and I had so much fun as a result! The pampering began on Thursday, with a manicure and pedicure during the day, followed by the rehearsal and dinner in the evening.

On the day of the wedding we were up bright and early for hair at 8am, then makeup at 10am. The morning seemed to drag on for ages, but once we got back to Mel's parents house for a quick bite and to get dressed, it was just one big whirlwind of photos in various locations!

We arrived at Sky High just in time for a few last photos before all of the guests were bused up to the mystery location. We witnessed a beautiful ceremony in the gardens of the restaurant, and topped it off with drinks and dinner as the sun went down over the city. The views from there are absolutely amazing. After dinner we danced the night away to some absolute classics. I had forgotten how tiring the "nutbush" is! I must be getting old!

NZ - the Land of the small white hire car

2005-11-11T15:01:00.000Z

After Mark's wedding the next stop was NZ to visit my parents, who had recently moved back there after almost 19 years in Australia, to purchase a fish and chip shop (the best in town ;P). Somehow I could always picture them owning a fish and chip shop.

We picked up our hire car - a small white Diahatsu Sirion. It was definitely different. Not the biggest car in the world but a very high driving position. Strange to drive but you get used to it. Following the directions from my parents "drive into town you can't miss it" we surprising had little trouble finding the shop. It was good to see the parents again after a couple of years.

The rest of the time was spent driving around checking out the sights of Timaru (no indy kart this time - see previous post) and catching up with the girls (Mum's sisters) and their kids. Its surprising to see how much they have all grown in the past 2 years (I am starting to sound old).

Also Tammie took the opportunity to pick up a snowboard, boots and bindings at a bargain price for our upcoming trips to La Plagne, France (Christmas) and Vail, Colorado (Feb 2006)!! Excellent!

After 4 days we'd had enough and drove back to Christchurch for our trip to Melbourne and wedding #3.

Bundaberg - Wedding #2 - Mark and Monique

2005-11-05T23:34:00.000Z

After enjoying a few days chilling out in Brisbane, we drove up to Bundaberg for Mark and Monique's wedding. The morning of the wedding looked a bit grey, but by the time we ceremony rolled around, it was a balmy 37 degrees and sunny. Handheld fans were given to guests at the ceremony in case the heat got too overwhelming!

At the reception we were entertained by various members of Monique's family. Talk about a musically talented family! Even Monique got up and sang (and did a very good job of it!), which is probably not easy when you're wearing a corseted wedding gown! Being the best man, Shane got up to say a few words and did a good job of both embarassing Mark and keeping the speech G-rated.

It was a wonderful day - we danced until we could dance no more, and drank champagne until the last guests left.

Sydney - Wedding #1 - Linda and Ian

2005-10-22T21:05:00.000+01:00

It was a shock to the system to have to get out of bed before 10am, but it was well worth it. The sun was out, it was a beautiful Sydney day, and my childhood friend Linda was getting married.

The ceremony was short and sweet, made all the more entertaining by watching Ian stumble over the same line in his vows three times, followed by both of them giggling the rest of the way through. They made it out to the convertible bridal car, posed for a few photos, and drove off with the doof-doof music blaring.

An hour or so later, the "young" people gathered once again for the reception at The Wharf Restaurant. With the Harbour Bridge as our backdrop, we sipped wine and nibbled on beautiful canapes for the rest of the afternoon. It was such a lovely day, and looking over the harbour even made me slightly homesick!

2005-10-19T19:11:00.001+01:00

We had a similar experience in Little India, whilst in search of curry for lunch, we came across some street vendors and cafes that looked just a little too much like food poisoning waiting to happen. If we were going to be around for more than a couple of days we might have tasted some of the more authentic street food, but seeing as we had another nine hour plane trip ahead, we decided to play it safe!

Our final day turned out to be rainy and hot (ie. humid!) so we stuck to the air conditioned shopping malls. A lot of the malls close to our hotel were underground and joined via underground passageways, meaning we could shop for hours without having to brave the humidity! On walking between two of these shopping malls, we discovered several art displays lining the passageways - one of which pointed out the fact that you can drive across Singapore in about 38 minutes. It was only then that we realised just how small the city is - and they have a population of over 4 million - how crazy is that?

Singapore

2005-10-19T19:11:00.000+01:00

Blergh! British Airways is terrible, if you ever have the choice between BA and Qantas, try and get Qantas! Anyway flight aside, we landed in Singapore at about 5.30pm and it had just finished raining and it was 33 degrees. Nice. We decided to catch a shuttle bus from the airport (figuring it would be easier if we were dropped at the hotel door) rather than catch the train. I think the train would have been quicker. It took about an hour of sitting in a rather cramped van with 6 other souls, one of them seemed to have a serious lung infection as he would not (or could not) stop hacking up phlegm, lungs, spleen for the entire trip (no sign of a hanky either!!).

Ahh air conditioned bliss! The hotel is situated right next door to the (famous?) Raffles Hotel and as it happens right on a train station. Once sufficiently cooled, we set out to explore the surrounding district, find a bite to eat and plan our remaining days in Singapore.

Being tourists, we decided to stick to the tourist traps: China town, Buffalo Road (Little India), Orchard Rd etc. Tammie and I really have to get out more - being the seasoned travellers that we are you would expect that we would jump at the chance to experience cultures, foods etc. But upon finding a particular food court in Chinatown, we decided that the experience would be just a little too authentic (plus we could not read any of the menus and there were no pictures).

3 Weddings and a ...

2005-10-16T08:06:00.000+01:00

(Or We're off to the Parents, our wonderful parents in OZ)
After about 20 months abroad Tammie and I are taking a 6 week trip back to Oz (and NZ) to catch up with family and attend 3 weddings. Of course we couldn't go home without taking the opportunity to stop off at other countries on the way there and back...

Oktoberfesssht

2005-10-03T20:44:00.000+01:00

In a word "Crowded". In a few more words "really crowded, huge, lots of beer, lots of food". This is Oktoberfest!! What I was envisaging as a homecoming or pilgramage turned out to be more of a wash out. It was cold and wet and near impossible to get into any of the big beer "tents". (We have to use the word tent loosely as these things are 3 stories high and hold 10000 people). However one cannot put a dampener on the atmosphere. It really is quite a party complete with amusement park!

Tammie and I were up bright and early on Saturday morning to depart from London and Prague respectively to arrive in Munich as early as possible. We had managed to score a hotel just around the corner from the festivities so we only had a short walk once we had checked in. To behold the Weis'n is quite something. So many people, so many tents, so little time. After a small scouting mission we managed to get into one of the smaller beer halls, where we were seated with some natives (germans that is) and after a brief moment of silence, and a few loosening ales the conversation was flowing in some sort of broken German/English hybrid.

Fast forward 3 similar hours and we decided to bid our new friends farewell and venture on to one of the bigger tents - there in lies our first error. We trudged over to the Hoffbrau tent to find a queue about 20 people deep and 4 people wide infront of every door and showing no signs of moving. We waited for about 30 mins in which time the only forward movement was brought about by other people leaving the queue. A short while later we too gave up - and decided that maybe we'd had just the right amount of alcohol, coupled with the lack of sleep the night before and the lack of food during the day, to warrant a short nap back at the hotel - there in lies mistake number 2. We had our kip and woke up to our horror to discover it was actually midnight and that the day was over, so proceeded to sleep again till the early morn.

Day 2 - the reckoning. Well we were a reckoning that we would get into a hall today. But we were wrong. We got there early (11am) but already the no vacancy signs were out and queues forming. We sat outside in the rain at a smaller tent again and had half a chicken each, which was really good, and a couple of beers, before going off to join a queue. After waiting in the rain for 2 hours we gave up again and managed to get a seat in a smaller beer hall again and talk to a few more germans. Around this time we decided that Oktoberfest was not going to be our friend and that we would be better experiencing the original Hoffbrauhaus beer hall in the city. We ate, drank and talked to some locals (who actually turned out to be Czech SAP practitioners, what are the odds!!) before retiring at a reasonable hour (11.30pm) as we had flights to catch the next morning.

Day 3 - Monday 7.20am. Bugger. We were late - very late. Tammie has approx 20 mins to make her flight. No Chance. After the initial shock of somehow sleeping in, Tammie managed to secure herself another flight later in the day as I packed as fast as I could, and jumped a cab to the airport (I still had an hour). I managed to get to the check in counter with seconds to spare only to be told "No need to hurry your flight has been delayed by about 2 hours". Bugger.

Vienna - home of Sacher Torte

2005-09-25T18:46:00.000+01:00

Once again I was lucky enough to be sent by my work to the annual SAP TechEd conference, this time in Vienna. Over three days I crammed as much new stuff into my tiny brain as possible, and strangely enough I quite enjoyed it.

In our spare time, my colleague Gill and I did a bit of sightseeing, taking in some of the local Art, and trying out the local cuisine. Shane joined us for the weekend and we packed in as much sightseeing as we possibly could over two days.

Seeing as Vienna is famous for its Opera and Opera houses, we bought some last minute tickets to see The Sound of Music at the Volksoper. Ok, so it's not exactly an opera, but we enjoyed it nonetheless. Somehow I was able to pick up bits and pieces of German (the whole thing was said/sung in German) and could tell that the translations of the songs weren't quite the same as the words made famous by the film!

Being the chocolate fiends that we are, we couldn't pass up the chance to try Sacher Torte in its home town. Better yet, one of the places where we sampled it was the hotel where it was originally made!

On our final day, we visited the Prater, the world's oldest amusement park. It's an old school fun fair, complete with all the usual "House of Fun"-type amusements, but also some newer, shinier roller coasters. The park is also home to one of Vienna's most famous landmarks, the Reisenrad, a huge ferris wheel which has some of the best views of the city. Given its age, it definitely gives the London Eye a run for its money!

Cruising around Holland and Belgium

2005-08-30T17:03:00.000+01:00

We set sail from the "beautiful port of Harwich" on a Friday afternoon on our Weekend Affair cruise, and quickly settled into the cocktails and endless supply of food! It was our first cruise and we were easily impressed by all the entertainment, food and drink on board. Oh and did I mention the food? It's probably a good thing that we were only on a short cruise, because I would seriously put on so much weight if I had buffet breakfasts, lunches, and dinners every day for more than a few days!

First stop Amsterdam, and what an interesting place it was. People tell you about the sex and drugs, but I didn't expect it to be quite so public! Just one turn off the main street and you are walking through a maze of sex shops and women in windows. As you walk through the streets you can't help but notice the clouds of "smoke" wafting out of the cafes. Bizarre stuff. On the other hand we did see a more cultural side of Amsterdam at the Anne Frank museum. The museum is quite small and has been built into the house where Anne Frank and her family once lived and hid.

Brugge was our second and final stop, and it was a fantastic way to finish off the weekend. The city has a real charm about it, with all its colourful flowers, narrow streets, canals, and beautiful old buildings. We spent the day following a self-guided tour through the streets and canals, stopping only for lunch and then at the end of the day for some Belgian beer and chocolate. Hmm.. chocolate...

What was meant to be our last night on the ship ended up being our second last! Whilst having dinner an announcement came over the loudspeakers saying that there was some problem with the engines and that we wouldn't be sailing back to the UK that night. Later on whilst we were in the nightclub, another announcement was made saying that we wouldn't be setting sail until the following evening! A huge cheer erupted on the dancefloor for those wanting to party on just a little longer, but others looked quite distraught. Ah well, the next day was a public holiday anyway so who cares? We danced the night away and spent the next day just chilling out on the boat.

The wonderful world of Disneyland Paris

2005-08-07T23:11:00.000+01:00

You would think that Disneyland is full of rides just for kids, but Shane and I found out that there's plenty for big kids to do! There were definitely heaps of kids-only rides, but there were enough rollercoasters to keep us entertained for the day.

Space Mountain was by far the best one. So much so that we went on it twice. We tried to go on it a third time but as we lined up again, the ride was shut down due to some technical hitch. Ah well, I guess twice was probably enough anyway.

The park itself is smaller than the US versions, but we still had a great time there. Our mission now is to visit all Disney parks around the world :)

Hungarian Grand Prix

2005-08-01T18:17:00.000+01:00

It's been a long wait, but Phoebe's dream of going to the Formula 1 finally came true this weekend! Arriving in Budapest on Saturday morning, we welcomed the hot weather after having been deprived of a real summer in London. Strangely enough, our bodies decided that it was almost too hot, and we quickly sought refuge in one of the many bars along the main cafe strip. It was nice to just sit down and watch ~~people~~ the world go by. Pity about intermittent sewage smell coming from the gutters along the street mall!

Race day was even hotter than the day we arrived! Our seats were at the start of the main straight, just after the last turn, and we were fairly close to the front too. Armed with earplugs, hats, and sunscreen, we sat back and enjoyed the show. About halfway through the race, Kimi Raikkonen came through to first place and from there it was all over for everyone else. We had just about fallen asleep in the heat by the end, but ever-faithful Phoebe sat bolt upright with her eyes glued to the track for the whole race. Talk about dedication!

One of the best parts of the weekend was stumbling upon a bar called Buddha Bar. Right beside the Danube River, the bar has a HUGE dancefloor and the music worked a treat on us, pumping out all the old 90's tracks that we could all sing along to!

Race for Life!

2005-07-25T12:18:00.000+01:00

After training solidly.... Okay, maybe not so solidly, for our 5km Cancer Research fun run. Sarah, Beth, Zoe and Nikki finished before us but Geri, Nancy, Tammie and I completed the run in 40 mins! The morning was cold and wet and alot of mud ended up on our shoes and legs but we powered on and finished (I think) in the middle of the pack! We were so proud of ourselves! This is the first offical run for Geri and Myself! Thanks for all those who sponsored us for the Run. We made it and it is for such a good cause!

Prague Again!

2005-07-21T12:17:00.000+01:00

Tammie, Jody and I went to Prague to visit Shane! His place is absolutely huge!! It was nice catching up with him over German MTV and hearing him sing all the words to the Mariah Carey song :p. We drank Pina Coladas, and had walks in the rain (haha literally). We also saw some bouncer beat the crepe out of this drunk british guy in Old square! Did the normal Castle/bridge sights that I think Tams and Shane had already done before. Went to this pub where Jody had some absinthe (brave girl!) and where we chatted and drank with heaps of ex-pats! Was such a great weekend, that I didnt want to leave! Unfortunately Jody didnt get to leave that sunday afternoon, because her STA 'Trainee' Agent, booked her flight incorrectly for Monday evening instead of Sunday evening. She had taken the Monday off already to spend with her parents, but instead spent it in Prague with a cold. She has the worst luck sometimes!

Ola Chicos & Chicas!

2005-07-20T12:14:00.000+01:00

After coming back to London I was on the move again! I organised a trip to Ibiza with some of my workmates as we all HAD to go to a work conference later that week in Barcelona! Ibiza was SO much fun but it probably was more to do with the people that I went with over anything else! The usual suspects were, Geri, John, Angiolo, Prakash, Adam and two of Prakash's mates from Singapore, Justin and Gerald. The first afternoon we arrived we treated ourselves with a 3 ltr Sangria pot that was just enough to get us giggling (or it could have been just the weather). The first night we went to a club, it was kind of ordinary. The second night however, we went to this club called Space, which was SO much fun! Groove Armada were playing and the atmosphere was amazing!

We then went to Barcelona where we really just chilled out and also ate heaps of Paella *YUM!* I also went shopping (of course!) in the city and picked up some GREAT bargins! The academy was good too, we spent the days in 'class' and the first night we went to this RNB club called bikini bar. We arrived there at midnight, but the party did not get started until about 2am! By that time I was really showing my age and desperately needed some sleep! The second night at the academy there was alot of drinking and dancing going on at the Gala Dinner. On the friday we had a guest speaker, olympic gold medalist, Rower James Cracknell. I also managed to get a photo with him! He's such a babe! On the friday we checked into our apartment on the beach and it was amazing! We ended up playing cards all night and drinking it up! The next morning we went to see the Sagrada Familia (Amazing!) and the Gaudi Apartments. The next afternoon we were so sad to have to leave! but it had been such a memorable (and tiring) week that I'll never forget! Adios Amigos!

Home Sweet Home

2005-07-16T12:13:00.000+01:00

Went back to Australia in June and caught up with Family and friends and realised... there really is no place like home!! The weather was so perfect, even for a cold winter's day. The sky was blue, the temperature was 20 degrees and the SUN WAS SHINING!! Kinda freaked me out a bit since I hadn't seen the sun in so long! I dont think I have ever enjoyed a better winter in my life! BUT in saying that I am not done with travelling or working overseas yet... so watch this space! :)

London blasts

2005-07-11T13:28:00.000+01:00

Thank you to family and friends for the concerned phone calls, emails, and text messages. The bombings that took place in central London last Thursday will haunt us for a long time, and fortunately we are all ok. Phoebe and Shane were both out of the country for work, whilst Paul, Jody, and I were at least a few miles away.

Traci Lords

2005-07-02T22:19:00.000+01:00

Actually nothing to do with Traci Lords but I am just trying to get more hits on our blog :P

This is about cricket - not just any cricket match either - but a cricket match at Lords! The home of cricket - full of gentlemen and the british. I was lucky enough to be offered a ticket to the One Day final between England and Australia by a friend who managed to purchase 2 in the ticket lottery, so of course I hightailed it back to London from Prague. England won the toss and put Australia into bat and despite a great start Australia slumped to be all out in the 49th over for 196. This put all the British supporters into a ferverish chorus of pride, but then again they do it a lot better than most. It didn't look good for Australia, and a few overs into the England innings they were 5/33 and Australia looked home and the British supporters were decidedly quiet. However England batted on and managed to amazingly score an unexpected TIE (as rare as hen's teeth in cricket). By the reaction of the crowd you would think that they had won the world cup or something. But all credit to England to get to the position when they should have lost by 100. Just to throw up the obvious cliche - Cricket was the real winner here.

And in other news - the mighty All Blacks once again trounced the Lions to win the second test by 48-18

Manchester - Joy Bangla

2005-06-26T16:10:00.000+01:00

Was a very big weekend, with a lot to go through, not necessarily in chronological order:

Sport
Australia is currently in England on the Ashes tour. As a bit of a warm up they are also participating in a triangular one-day series with the might of Bangladesh. That said we got tickets to the Australia v Bangladesh game at Old Trafford. When we purchased the tickets we thought it was going to be a total pillaging by the Aussies, but it would be worth going none-the-less just to have a few drinks. Then a week before, to our total horror, the most humiliating and humbling defeat happened in the history of international One-day cricket when Bangladesh overcame Australia to win only their 10th game in history!! Australia was not playing well and we were maybe a little worried. But we needn't have worried as order was restored and Australia put Bangladesh to the sword on this occasion! Australia reached the target of 140 in the 18th over without loss. Symonds was the destroyer taking 5/18, but he wouldn't come join us for a drink.

As usual the highlight of the game is the crowd! The bangladeshi supportors were cheering every ball that was hit when batting and every dot ball when bowling and made the game that would have been otherwise dull quite entertaining. In our area we had our own fun matching wits against local Poms who came to the game. Needless to say it wasn't difficult and then Coops made a little boy cry. That was definitely the hightlight of the day!

In other sporting news - earlier in the morning the All Blacks totally humiliated the British Lions by 21-3 in appalling weather conditions in Christchurch. NZ should have put 50 on them though!

Nightlife
Manchester is a party town and doesn't really try to hide it. We hit the town shortly after arriving. I can tell you know that age definitely does not weary them up here. In the pub there were 60 year olds dressing like 18 year olds with the short skirts and plunging necklines. Some of the ladies also have decided that being 120kg and buying a size 12 top is totally normal. Its not something that we will soon forget.

Prague - Part 3

2005-05-30T19:03:00.000+01:00

After rushing to Gatwick Airport after work on Friday, I pushed my way through the long-weekend crowd to check in just as my flight was being called. Raced through security, and then found out that my flight was delayed. And delayed. And delayed. And then I had to line up for half an hour to get Maccas for dinner. On the upside though, I got to do some duty free shopping and ended up with some new makeup and a new pair of shoes :)

It was a sweltering weekend in Prague, with temperatures reportedly as high as 38 degrees(C)! Saturday and Sunday were hot and sunny, but in the space of about half an hour on Monday afternoon, it turned into hail and torrential rain! After the rain, we just about had to wade through ankle-deep water to get across the main street on Wencelas Square, which was still covered in hailstones that looked more like snow.

Since it was my second visit to Prague, Shane and I had the luxury of sleeping in and having a lazy breakfast before wandering out to town to meet the others for lunch each day. This time we were lucky enough to have our own personal tour guides Gabriel and Katarina. They showed us around some of the less-touristy areas of Prague, where we indulged in dirt cheap beer and meals, and found ourselves at a really cool beer garden in the middle of a park just outside of the city. It's always good to see a city from a local's point of view, and we think Gabriel should write a guidebook!

Once again a wonderful weekend was had, and I can't wait to visit again.

Prague - Part 2

2005-05-23T17:38:00.000+01:00

On the spur of the moment I decided to go to Prague and spend the weekend with Shane! We were going to meet up in a random European city, but in the end we decided that it would be best to explore Shane's new home away from home first. And I'm glad we did.

Armed with a map and phrasebook, we explored the old and new town squares. Prague really does live up to its reputation for being a beautiful city. Despite being warned off the touristy areas by several locals, we decided that the buildings must be seen and photographed. The old town square was absolutely packed, as it turned out that the Prague marathon was on this weekend. Towering over the old town square is a church that kinda looks like the Disneyland castle. At night it is absolutely stunning when flooded with lights.

We crossed the river and walked towards the Prague Castle. Having done almost zero reading up on Prague, we didn't realise just how far the castle was, and after walking uphill for what seemed like ages in 30 degree heat, we later found out that there's a tram that takes you up the hill and behind the castle!! The castle is a huge complex of buildings, with a grand cathedral that rises above the rest of the buildings. From the inside of the cathedral you can see some of the most amazing stained glass windows.

Over the weekend we ate ourselves silly, sampling some traditional czech dishes and beers. Beef goulash seems to be one of the more popular dishes, and you can see why once you've tried it! Goulash is usually served with "dumplings", which are like slices of steamed bread. Speaking of bread, people in Prague seem to eat loads and loads of bread. We were at a supermarket and noticed that everyone was walking around with dozens of bread rolls. Shane was sure that everyone was looking at him with puzzled looks because he had only picked up a single bread roll, whilst everyone else was carrying at least 10 rolls!

Prague - Part 1

2005-05-17T19:13:00.000+01:00

Well its happened and I have taken up locale temporarily in Prague. Therefore there is likely to be quite a series of posts about Prague, as Tammie will more than likely take a few trips here. I am here until the end of Sept (or sometime around there - could be shorter).

I am my own place close to the centre of the city. Great location really.

What can I say about Prague - absolutely lovely city (and I have only seen from the airport to the office at this point).

Stay Tuned

Iceland

2005-05-02T23:35:00.000+01:00

A land of sweeping contrasts, mountains and plains, lakes and (presumably) forests, fire and ice etc. In most aspects its like the New Zealand of the north where as luck would have it they also speak english about as well!

After picking up our car and sitting there for a bit just making sure that we had the whole drive on the right, sit on the left, change gears with your right hand procedure down we set off. Immediate confusion ensued, as we thought we had landed in Reykjavik when in fact the international airport is in Keflavik some 45km south of Reykjavik. Once we had our bearings we started the drive to Fluðir. It becomes apparent that on the beaten track Iceland doesn't have that much to see, endless views of grass-like covered lava fields giving way to impressive mountains in the distance. Small settlements dot the highway off to the left and right, but it is largely uninspiring. We arrived in Fluðir late in the afternoon at around 5pm and it may as well have been midday. The sun was still beating down (well shining - it was a balmy 3 degrees) and continued to do so until around midnight.

Fluðir itself is a nice little town which many people use as a base to set off and explore the "Golden Circle" - large sections of free roaming canned fruit. After the 5 mins scouting around the town yeilded little, we resigned ourselves that we would see little until tomorrow.

As I mentioned, when on the beaten track there is not a lot to see, but once you get off the road a little and follow the little tourist attraction signs Iceland has a lot of spectacular beauty to admire. Having a car was the ultimate in freedom and we could do what we pleased.

We visited most of the popular sites - Geysir, Gullfoss and other various landmarks and all were definitely worth the time. But driving around we managed to see other less well known attractions (that means they weren't mentioned in the Lonely Planet) also.

The highlight would have to be the visit to the Blue Lagoon. If we had realised just what this place had to offer we probably would have come there earlier and lounged around in the geothermal spas for longer. Oh well there is always next time.

Birmingham - Its not as bad as you've heard

2005-04-24T23:16:00.000+01:00

Seriously, you should have heard all the snide comments, sniggers and 'Why are you going to Birmingham?' comments that I received before I went there, so I wasn't expecting anything special. But really its not that bad at all. We were staying in the city that is under going an urban revival with bars and cafes surrounding the canals! (Yes that is correct, canals! Apparently Birmingham has more canals than Venice - and they smell less)

That aside, we went to Birmingham to catch up with some friends and swap photos from our recent ski trip. We also found time to go and watch our first real life soccer (sorry football) game between Aston Villa (home) and Bolton. And to be fair it wasn't that bad, thought it wasn't probably the best introduction to the highest echalons of the sport. But it was quite amazing at how silent 30 odd thousand people can be when they are scored against. For the record the game finished at 1-1 (Bolton scored an own goal). That night we hit the town and had a very satisfying time. I would do it again - but there are other places to go first!

Midnight in the Living Room of Good and Evil

2005-04-03T23:09:00.000+01:00

Ahh.. another house party, and another cracker of an evening! This time we went all out and picked a theme:

Good = dress in white.
Evil = dress in black.
Tortured souls = dress in black and white.

Looks like we have more evil than good friends! :p

The beer, wine, vodka, etc flowed well into the early hours of the morning, and by the end of the party, we had signed up a rather large contingent of people for a couple of upcoming events: School Disco and The Church. Yes I know, all class... and we love it :)

Piste-ing it up in Switzerland

2005-03-28T23:58:00.000+01:00

Finally... the long awaited ski trip arrived and it was well worth the wait. The mountains in Davos were spectacular to look at, and it's pretty cool to finally ski somewhere above the tree line! And for those of us who aren't so great on the skis/snowboards, no trees = less chance of injury :)

We have now officially been higher than we've ever been before. In fact we've now been higher than you can possibly get in Australia! A big "thankyou" to John for organising the trip!
Highlights of the weekend include:

all of us shitting bricks at the top of the mountain at the first run on our first day, and then Shane being the gentleman sending the women down the mountain first
watching Inde perform on stage with the Piano man
watching Phoebe and Jody getting up close and personal with the ski racks (yes ok Jody, for the record, Phoebe crashed into you first, and then the ski racks)
seeing the looks on peoples' faces as they walked past us while we all played cards with our socks on our heads
finding random Aussies and Kiwis, absolutely everywhere
going out late every night and then waking at 6:30 every morning for breakfast... nice...

Gordon Ramsay

2005-03-04T22:38:00.000Z

Well we can now say that we have enjoyed a very fine dining experience. Exactly a month ago, Phoebe jumped on the phone early in the morning and waited patiently to get us a table at Gordon Ramsay at Royal Hospital Road (you know the famous chef guy's epinomous restaurant).

We could only get a 6.30 sitting, so we turned up and straight away the service is exceptional. At least 5 people pounced on us, and volunteered to do almost everything for us (in all seriousness I thought at one point, one of them was following me to the bathroom). We chose to eat from the set "Prestige Menu" which had 7 courses of exquisite quality. Personally my favourite was the lobster tortellini - mouth watering stuff! Interlaced into these 7 courses were actually about 4 other mini courses - we were stuffed!

At the end of the night came the bill - lets just say it was about the equivalent of the GNP of a small island nation. But we would do it all again!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

2005-02-25T12:14:00.000Z

By Wednesday morning, the snow from Monday night had all melted away. It was all over the news that there would be "extreme snow conditions" overnight on Wednesday night/Thursday morning. We awoke on Thursday expecting everything to be covered in white. But no. Not even a smattering of white stuff. Apparently it had been 1 degree too warm for snow. *grrr*

But then, just when we had just about lost hope for more snow, it started falling again last night. And it's still snowing now... hooray!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

2005-02-22T15:18:00.000Z

Just thought I would drop a blog and tell everybody out there that it is snowing in London. Its been a disappointing winter up until now, but the sheer enjoyment of walking around in the twilight whilst being peppered by large flakes of snow, more than makes up for it. Last night (Monday) it left a nice covering over the ground. It actually makes you feel like you're in Europe for a change :p

Venice, Italy

2005-02-06T22:38:00.000Z

In the immortal words of the great Indiana Jones - 'Ahhh Venice'. And what a lovely place it is. Although on a hot day I think you would be forgiven for thinking that they had just forgot to cover the sewers. But that is fleeting and you are soon lost (both figuratively and literally) in the maze of cobblestone streets, piazzas, bridges and canals. We were lucky enough to be visting during Carnivale where everybody likes to get around in some elaborate masks and costumes to celebrate.

Alas Tammie and I did not find the time to partake in a gondola ride - so we will definitely have to go back at least once more :)

2005-02-06T22:13:00.000Z

This is definitely a place where you can get lost even if you DO have a map. There are just so many tiny alleyways that I guess they just can't cram them all onto a single map. Not that it was a problem to get lost, because we always ended up finding a familiar sign or place. Mind you, some of the signs are a bit misleading because they take you all around the island and back, just to get to somewhere that is probably only a few blocks away... kind of like signs in department stores that take you through all the merchandise when all you want to do is find the lifts or stairs.

But anyway, what else? On Sunday we took a "bus" out to the nearby island of Murano, which is famous for its glass-making. And as we found out soon enough, when they say "bus", they mean "boat". Go figure?! Jody, Phoebe, and I managed to kill a few hours wandering in and out of all the glass shops. Once again we had to restrain ourselves from shopping up a storm, because there's only so much stuff we can take back to Oz with us eventually...

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One Year On

2005-01-18T11:04:00.000Z

Well its been a year and without sounding to cliched doesn't time just fly when you're having fun! And it has been fun. We've seen more of the world then we probaby ever could have hoped for. And there is only more to come. We have a few trips planned already this year, so be sure to check in regulary to follow our adventures!

New Years Eve 2004

2005-01-01T12:16:00.000Z

Well what a bit of let down actually - can you believe it, Tammie, Phoebe and I were all struck down with the flu. Talk about your bad timing. Oh well, I am sure we didn't miss out on too much other than a nightmarish trip home in the wee hours and an equally nightmarish hangover. We did stay up and view from our windows the fireworks across the city however so that was nice. Until next time!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL

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Christmas Day

2004-12-25T01:24:00.000Z

So this is Christmas, and what have we done?

We have cooked a turkey :) What a beaut! And we have erected a little Christmas tree and gathered around and sang carols. We exchanged gifts and had several heartfelt moments which we will all cherish (except for Paul as he only received several lumps of coal - although one was shaped like a PS2). Though for all of us it was just a little different this year, as for everyone of us, this was the first Christmas that we had spent away from our respective families.

Bristol, Bath and Beyonce

2004-12-12T22:56:00.000Z

Well its December, which means Christmas lights and shopping. The girls had heard about the Christmas markets in Bath and thought it would be a good place to do some shopping. We also thought it was a good excuse to go on a bit of a road trip. So we ventured out one cold Saturday morning and went west. The trip had a bit of a misfire right as we set off, as I mistakenly followed the A3 instead of the M3 (one goes south, the other goes west). We had been driving for about an hour when we realised, so we had to circle around.

Anyway we finally were on the right track and made Bath around midday. No sooner had we arrived, we were involved in a minor traffic accident when a bmw ran up our rear, whilst we were all clutching our necks and pulling over they drove off ... bastards. Luckily though we weren't actually hurt and we continued on our way. Bath itself is a very nice town that takes its name from the baths there (go figure). We found the markets and they were crap ... and I don't use that word lightly, but they were crap. Full of all this kitch crap that could have been made by pre-schoolers. After about an hour of my life that i will never get back we decided to head on over to Bristol where we were staying that night. We circled around Bristol a couple of times and finally found the place before dusting off the skates and catching a bit of ice. We were lucky (well actually the kids were lucky) that we didn't catch a few fingers with it!! That evening we celebrated TAMMIE'S 27th BIRTHDAY at a very nice seafood restaurant. We ordered a few lobster seafood platters and capped it off with a nice drop.

Day 2 - and knowing that we weren't going back to the Bath markets in any hurry we decided that we should spend the afternoon outlet shopping in Swindon. As it happened, Stonehenge is on the way to Swindon (in a round about way). It also just so happened to be the coldest day ever in the history of the world. Not really the best day to pay £6 each to go and look at big rocks. At least now we can say that we have done it. On to Swindon and some shopping before heading home.

Oh and the mention of Beyonce in the title? No matter how hard we tried we could not get away from her music.

The All Blacks and the Baa Baa's

2004-12-04T22:51:00.000Z

Not as insidious as the title may suggest. It is the autumn internationals series in rugby in the UK at present and since I went to watch the wallabies play (and lose), thought it wouldn't be right if I didn't go and watch the All Blacks round out their tour by playing the Barbarians at Twickenham. The Barbarians team this weekend was a who's who of southern hemisphere players including approx 9 Aussies, 5 South Africans and also strangely enough 2 All Blacks.

Paul, Tammie and myself had front line seats, and I mean front line. The playing surface was a mere 5 m in front of us. There is a something to be said about being close enough to smell the sweat, but when they play is down the other end you tend to miss out :( Overall the game was a bit of a let down given the quality of both teams, there was just not alot to get excited about even though the right team won by a handy margin.

On the upside Paul and I are closer to our quest of visiting the home stadiums of each of the 6 nations teams. 2 stadiums down, 4 to go.

Final Score: New Zealand 47 df Barbarians 19

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January 2005 >>

The BEAST - New addition to the family

2004-11-20T22:47:00.000Z

After months of saying that we didn't need a car, we finally succumbed to the dark side and bought ourselves a £300 car! Bargain!

Birthdays in Paris

2004-11-14T23:27:00.000Z

November marks the birthdays of Jody, Shane, and Phoebe, and what better way to celebrate then spend a weekend in Paris? Incidentally, Australia and France played Rugby on the Saturday night in Paris and we had tickets to the game…

The weekend got off to a bad start at the Eurostar Train terminal in London, where Phoebe was not allowed to pick up train tickets that she had booked three months ago. Never mind that she was able to produce her Passport, Drivers Licence and several other cards as identification, but because she wasn’t carrying the credit card that she had made the booking with, they would not issue the tickets. What if her credit card had been stolen? Not good enough apparently.

So anyway, after arguing with the staff for quite some time, Phoebe and Jody were forced to purchase new tickets, and we were able to board the train. But that’s not all. The new tickets did not have seats allocated to them, and all the economy class seats on the train were full. There were however, some seats in First Class, where Phoebe and Jody sat for a while and enjoyed a free meal. They would have sat there for the whole journey, but unfortunately they were found out and relegated to the Luggage cabin. Standing. Not a good way to start your birthday weekend! :(

On arrival in Paris, we met up with Paul, Sean, and Dave, who we partied the night away with at some crazy bar we found near Moulin Rouge.

Saturday was shopping day! And did we shop! Phoebe, Jody and I spent most of the day in Galleries Lafayette and Printemps, two of the bigger department stores in Paris. So many beautiful things to buy, and so little time *sigh* and so little money *bigger sigh*

At the end of the day, we donned our yellow jerseys and crammed onto some very crowded trains for the Stade de France stadium, the biggest sports stadium I’ve ever seen! The Wallabies started off well, but in the end it was victory for France.

On Sunday we did a quick tour of the major sights, including the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, and the Latin Quarter. Not enough time to climb the Tower or wander around the Louvre, but enjoyable all the same.

Guy Fawkes (Cracker of a Night)

2004-11-05T01:12:00.000Z

Ahh - the memories come flooding back. Its been a while since I have been able/allowed to experience the wonder of staging my own pyrotechnics show, but in England either the children don't blow off as many fingers or they just don't care if they do - Guy Fawkes or Cracker night is alive and well. We settled in on the roof of our house and watched the fireworks spectacular across the road on Clapham Common. The crowds were out in force for the display as well, and reports have that 20,000+ people came to Clapham to watch. And it would have been well worth the trip for anyone who made it.

Needless to say later that night, it came time for the Top Flat fireworks display, some 25 skyrockets set of in succession to the sound of Queen's "We will rock you" (Ok i made that last bit up). It had all the neighbours looking out the back window cheering us on. Either that or just making sure that we weren't blowing up the neighbourhood, as they were very loud with sound bouncing of all the brick buildings. After about a minute of brilliant colour and loud noise we were able to hold our heads high and retreat back to the house. £20 well spent.

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December >>

Munich

2004-10-17T23:15:00.000+01:00

Work sent me to Munich for the SAP TechEd conference, so we took the opportunity to do some sightseeing on the weekends either side of the conference.

Before the conference started, we took a trip out to Dachau to see one of the concentration camps from the Second World War. It was quite a depressing experience, especially walking through the rooms where people had been tortured, and worse still, killed.

On the lighter side of things, we spent a lot of time wandering through the town centre, visiting many a shop and beer hall along the way. Throughout the entire week we ate enough pork and potatoes to last a year! At night we were lucky enough to meet up with a few other fellow conference-goers and discover Munich by beer hall.

Venturing out to the Great Unknown - Rome/Florence/Venice

2004-10-07T16:41:00.000+01:00

My first stop in Italy was Rome. It was truly beautiful. The Colosseum, Vatican City, Trevi Fountain (Made a wish of course!) and the Spanish steps were all a part of the agenda! It was just breathtaking how ginormous these monuments were!

Next was Florence where I definately had the most fun, mainly because of how amazing the shopping was! I bought my first leather jacket here and other assorted leather goods... To be honest I think I just went a bit nuts! Of course I saw the magnificent David (a MUST see!) and ate lots of pasta and chianti! I also visited Pisa (Not much there except for some wonky tower).

Venice was amazing! The city itself was a bit muggy and heaps of mosquitos but the beauty of it made me forget everything else! I also went to Verona and saw Juliette's balcony.

	At this stage I was also very excited about heading to Munich because I would be meeting up with Tammie and Shane! And so ended my long trek alone. I definately had heaps of fun, met heaps of cool people and learnt heaps about myself. A trip I will never forget.

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November >>

Venturing out to the Great Unknown - Avignon/Nice

2004-09-29T16:14:00.000+01:00

Avignon was absolutely gorgeous! It was literally this city surrounded by city walls. The main attraction in Avignon was Palais Des Papes, the Palace of the Popes. It was very grand and kinda spooky at the same time!

Nice was absolutely amazing! It was so different from Avignon, in that Avignon was a very beautiful village and Nice was full of summer and fun! Nice reminded me most of home, with the beaches and the boardwalks (although the 'sand' on the beach was really just pebbles - but thats european beaches for you).

Ate lots of cheese and baguette and drank lots of wine, what can I say, but I had the best time! Whilst I was there I also took a day trip to Cannes (more gorgeous sun and boardwalks) and Monaco (home of the Monte Carlo Grand Prix!). Monaco itself seemed like a shrine to Princess Grace, where everything from the street names, monuments and absolutely everything in the royal palace was a tribute to her.

Venturing out to the Great Unknown - Madrid/Barcelona

2004-09-20T15:23:00.000+01:00

Travelling alone wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be, although it was lonely at times!

My first stop was Madrid! Very much like a capital city but still very beautiful. I realised very quickly that I wasn't in Kansas anymore and that my Spanish phrasebook wasn't going to cut it! But I did survive on the few words I did know - Gracias, Olla and Uno Noche (I knew 98 degrees was good for something!). The best part of Madrid was visiting the Palacio Real De Madrid (The Royal Palace). It very beautiful with all its gold trimmings and very different to all the palaces here in England.

Barcelona was SO much fun. I was very lucky to be there coinciding with the Festes de la Merce festival.

I stayed at a hostel near La Rambla which is the main walk towards the 'beach'. I saw more museums, drank Sangria, and had Tapas and Paella! What could go wrong! The best part of Barcelona was the street festival we experienced one night. It was a parade of large wooden statues, lots of congo drums and streets full of dancing people.

My only wish was that I could have stayed there longer. Unfortunatley I had more places to go and things to see, but I will never forget it!

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October >>

Brussels

2004-08-22T22:36:00.000+01:00

Brussels was all about the food. The Moules Frites (mussels and fries) are amazing, and the chocolate is to die for! And the flavoured beers! Hmmm...

The town itself isn't very large, but the town square, known as Grand Platz, is surrounded on all sides by some rather tall and grand old buildings, all with brightly coloured flowerboxes in the windows.

Not far from Grand Platz stands one of the biggest tourist attractions, the Mannekin Pis. From the amount of fuss made about it, we were expecting a huge statue, but it turned out to be a small statue of a peeing boy, probably only about two feet tall! We also ventured out of the town centre to visit the Atomium, a huge steel structure left over from World Expo '58.

Paris

2004-08-15T19:16:00.000+01:00

Ahhh.. the city of love. Eurostar rocks! We left London after work and arrived in Paris only 2.5 hours later. Loving the whole proximity to Europe thing over here!

It's pretty amazing to finally see the Eiffel tower with your own eyes. Personally I think it's even more spectacular in real life than in pictures. We didn't really feel like lining up for a couple of hours, so we skipped the climb to the top of the tower. Over the course of the weekend, we visited a few of the famous sights - the Arc de Triomphe, Les Champs-Elysées, the Louvre, and Notre Dame.

The Louvre is much larger than I had ever imagined. We spent an hour in there and probably only saw a very small part of the gallery, but we managed to fit in the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. Even though there was a sign telling people not to take photos of the Mona Lisa, it didn't seem to stop anyone, so we tried to take our own. Unfortunately we were interrupted by a security guard who yelled "NO PHOTO" in Shane's ear, so our photo is a bit blurry...

On Sunday we decided to do a spot of shopping, but of course, as we NOW know, the shops in Paris are closed on Sunday :( Oh well... better luck next time. Instead we found our way to the Latin Quarter and spent the afternoon wandering through the narrow cobblestone streets, lined with cafés and shops.

Cornwall

2004-08-01T18:33:00.000+01:00

Once again we jumped onto a weekend bus-tour organised by Karen, holiday organiser extraordinare :)

The drive down to Cornwall wasn't too bad (straight after work on a Friday night), but coming back, we copped the afternoon sun, and in a mini-bus without air conditioning, it wasn't nice at all!

We visited several sandy beaches, tried a few cornish pasties, walked to Lands End (the easternmost point of England), and even spotted a few pirates at Penzance :p

The highlight of the trip was the Minack Theatre, an outdoor ampitheatre, carved into the side of a cliff, overlooking the ocean! Pretty amazing stuff. It was designed and mostly built by a woman. She had a few helpers along the way but she did most of it with her own bare hands.

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September >>

Warsaw

2004-07-25T17:56:00.000+01:00

Last time we visited New York, cousin Amy mentioned that she would be presenting at a conference in Poland, so we jokingly said we'd meet her there.

Turns out we were able to find a cheap package deal, so we decided to spend a weekend in Warsaw! Not knowing quite what to expect, we spent most of our time eating and just lazily wandering the streets of Warsaw. There are some parts of the city that still show some scarring from war, with buildings that look like they had been shot at, but other parts of the city are quite colourful and busy. The old town is quite charming, with a beer garden (or five) at every turn.

The food was fabulous. Being the dumpling freak that I am, I loved the Pierogi, which are traditional Polish dumplings which come in a variety of flavours. Hmmmmm...

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August >>

Hampton Court Palace

2004-06-19T17:31:00.000+01:00

Once the home of Henry VIII, this historic palace is absolutely massive! We wandered through room after room, all of which were lined with ornate wallpaper and filled with grand pieces of furniture and art. If we weren't given a map we would have easily lost ourselves in the maze of bedrooms and kitchens. Now the kitchens were really something - apparently they were built to cater for around 600 people at a time!

Surrounding the palace, there are acres of lush green gardens, filled with roses, ponds, and perfectly manicured trees. Apparently one of the ponds turns into an outdoor ice skating rink in winter. Enough said!

Sex and the City

2004-06-08T22:36:00.000+01:00

Well not exactly sex, but a wedding and that is pretty damned close. Back again in the big apple this time for a week to help celebrate Tammie's cousin Chi and his lovely wife Regina's wedding.

It was the gala event of the week, set in the most amazing house in Brooklyn, overlooking manhattan and it had all the trimmings. Best of all of us interlopers were invited back to stay 'anytime'. We will be sure to take him up on that :)

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July >>

The Housewarming to end all Housewarmings

2004-05-15T22:41:00.000+01:00

... aptly named 'The Heat Is On'. Cram about 50 people into our living room and you have no choice :p

We lost electricity about an hour into the party, only to discover that we are living on 'pay as you go' electricity (I know - what's all that about?), and we had just run out! Luckily there's a shop just down the road where we can get it topped up, and we got the power back about 40 minutes later. Meanwhile the party kept going in the dark and no one seemed bothered by the fact that you couldn't see anything.

All in all it was a huge success and we will definitely have more house parties!!

Ireland

2004-05-03T19:26:00.000+01:00

We began the weekend with a feast of burgers and buffalo wings (yeah I know - how very Irish), followed by dancing at a sweaty sweaty nightclub somewhere in Dublin. The following morning we piled onto a bus and embarked on a three day tour through the countryside to visit castles, ruins, boglands, and some sleepy Irish towns.

Probably the most famous of the castles we visited is Blarney Castle, home of the Blarney Stone. Legend has it that if you kiss the Blarney Stone, you will be blessed with the gift of the gab. Unfortunately I was blessed with no more than a nasty case of the flu after kissing that stone! It was wet and goo-ey... ewwwww...

One thing that really freaked me out was the Cliffs of Moher. It's about a 200 metre drop to the ocean. Apparently the thing to do is to lie down on your back with your shoulders resting at the edge of the cliff, and tilt your head back until you can see water. It didn't bother me to lie down and look down over the edge, but sitting down and hanging my feet over the edge of the cliff was a totally different story. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I'm not normally afraid of heights but this was just totally bizarre.

And for the record, the Guiness really does taste better in Ireland.

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June >>

The Happy Clapham Common House

2004-04-20T23:19:00.000+01:00

Well we have found one finally! After 6 weeks of searching we have finally found a big enough house. And what a house. Its on the main street and is a mere ten metres from the subway station entrance. At present it will be us 3, as well as Dave and Jethro (friends of Tammie and mine from Australia). I think the plan for later is to get Jody (Tammie's sister) and maybe Paul (if he comes). Be sure to stay tuned for the housewarming.

Brighton Beach

2004-04-10T19:10:00.000+01:00

Go down to the beach with a bunch of Aussies, and at some point, somebody will get buried in the sand.

No sand? No problem.

Bury them in whatever you can find...

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May >>

Last stop Vancouver!

2004-03-03T18:59:00.000Z

We reached our final holiday destination early in the morning, just in time to find somewhere in the city for an early morning crepe. Vancouver ended up being a shopping destination, since it would be our last chance to shop before London!

Vancouver somehow reminds me a lot of Sydney. It could be the proximity to water, or the size of the city, or even the hilliness of the streets. Whatever it was, it was nice to be there, and it was refreshing to be in a place where we didn't feel the need to do touristy stuff anymore!

Through the Rockies

2004-03-02T18:30:00.000Z

The last leg of the train journey was the most picturesque part of the trip. At Jasper we had an extended stop, where we even saw some deer walking alongside the train tracks.

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April >>

Edmonton and the world famous shopping mall

2004-02-29T23:48:00.000Z

When someone says to me "world's largest shopping mall", I'm thinking: "I'm there!", but if I had known exactly what it was going to be like, I might not have been so enthusiastic.

While it holds the world record for being the world's largest mall, the West Edmonton Mall is hugely overrated. True, it holds a water theme park, an amusement ride theme park, a casino, a 10-pin bowling alley, a mini-golf park, an ice-skating rink, but I'm not here to play, I'm here to shop!

The shops themselves are nothing to write home about either. Same old shops, and in some cases, there's more than one branch of some of the chain stores, at opposite ends of the mall.

In a word? Overrated!

A village where the sun shines and the snow falls

2004-02-26T23:27:00.000Z

Tracking down a couple of our IT-consultant-turned-snow-bunny friends provided us with an afternoon of entertaining cold calls to various departments of a certain Ski village, but at the end of the day, we found them, and all was well :)

We enjoyed a day of snowboarding on real snow, on real mountains. Talk about a change from the hills we have back home! Phoebe tried her hand at snowboarding for the first time and managed to stay on her feet for at least half of the day :p

At night we were taken to the only pub on the mountain, and discovered that Dave is a really talented(?) karaoke singer, and that Dave and Joel's room becomes "Club 106" after the pub shuts.

Calgary - home of the '88 Winter Olympics

2004-02-24T23:03:00.000Z

Calgary is a booming city - suburbia has spread far beyond the "Welcome to Calgary" signs on the highways, but it still has that "growing city" feel about it. We spent two days hanging out with my cousins (who I haven't seen since 1990), and had an absolute ball.

Our highlight of the visit would to be the Skeleton at Olympic Park. Think Olympic Luge (that event where they lie down on a sled and slide down an ice track at break-neck speeds), but lying face down on your stomach.

When your face is two inches from the ice and you have no idea where you're going, it really gets the adrenalin going! We did two runs down the Junior track, and I would love to come back and do the full run.

48 Hours - Toronto to Edmonton by rail

2004-02-20T22:35:00.000Z

After another early morning start we were finally on our way across Canada by train. The scenery was amazing - frozen lakes, snow-covered trees, and rustic wood cabins in the middle of nowhere.

I never thought I would tire of the sight of snow, many hours worth of snow covered trees, we eventually turned to scrabble and card games.

Our first night was a real test of sleeping while seated, half curled up, with legs resting on the seats opposite. Imagine sleeping on a plane, two nights in a row! Oh well, I guess that's what you get for going budget and deciding not to spring for sleeper cars :p

Toronto

2004-02-18T21:21:00.000Z

Toronto was our first introduction to really really cold temperatures. And we thought it had been cold in New York!

Didn't really do much here, except visit the CN tower, walk around Chinatown, and walk around the city centre. The observation deck at the CN tower has a cool glass section of the floor, which feels kinda weird to walk on, even though they assure you it is perfectly safe!

From the CN tower we spotted an outdoor ice skating pond. That became the mission of the night - to find out where it is and to get there! By the time we found the pond, it was dark, and temperatures were probably subzero, but it was worth it. The pond was huge and even had some slightly uneven hilly bits in it. And what's more - it's free. You just bring your skates and hop on.

Later on we found a place to have dinner and washed it down with some giant glasses of beer...

NYC to Toronto

2004-02-17T22:12:00.000Z

The train trip from NYC to Toronto was very scenic. Snow everywhere, frozen waterways, and even a fleeting glimpse of the river that feeds Niagara Falls.

New York New York

2004-02-16T17:49:00.000Z

I keep saying this, and I can't say it enough. I love NY! 10 days just isn't enough :(

We did and saw SO MUCH. Some days were busier than others, but we managed to pack everything in, thanks to our own personal hosts and tour guides, Amy, Henry, Susan, Chi, and Regina.

We did the usual touristy stuff, like museums, galleries, Times Square, Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty (from afar), and Central Park. Seeing Ground Zero was a spooky and saddening experience.

Ice Skating at Rockerfeller Center was a big highlight for me. Those who know me well will know that I have a thing for ice skating outdoors. We also found that we loved shopping in Soho so much that we went back a second time to make sure we didn't miss any of the shops :p

On top of all of that, we also saw the NY Philharmonic Orchestra, a Knicks game, and a Yankees game.

So much to do, so little time...

We'll be back!

Coast to Coast - LA to NYC

2004-02-06T17:41:00.000Z

Another early morning! Not good for a notoriously non-morning person like me! Leaving LAX was a mission... we lined up to check in, checked in, then lined up to get into a queue, went up some escalators to join another queue, then into another queue to get through the security gates!

Arriving in NYC we were greeted by Amy and her Dad. It's so nice to be greeted at an airport! We stopped off at Amy's parents' house for the full Chinese experience - soup, sticky rice, and then oranges for dessert.

Hollywood

2004-02-05T17:21:00.000Z

Today we found out where the action is - Hollywood!

We took a bus tour down to Hollywood, and saw all the famous sights: the Chinese Theatre, Walk of Fame, Sunset Strip, and most importantly - the Hollywood sign. Apparently the sign was originally erected as an advertising stunt to get people to move to Hollywood. You learn something new every day :)

BUSINESS CLASS BABY

2004-02-04T17:13:00.000Z

Our long awaited Business Class flight finally arrived, and to say that we were overwhelmed would be an understatement! Twice the amount of entertainment, heaps better food, L'occitane goodie bags... and talk about leg room! Definitely worth the 40,000 frequent flyer points (and numerous phone calls to Qantas :p)

Eleven hours later, we arrived at LAX, ready to live the 4th of Feb all over again! We thought we were wide awake so spent the morning wandering around downtown LA, only to discover that we were REALLY REALLY tired about 2 hours later. Back to the hotel for a quick nap.

Downtown LA turned out different to what I expected. Basically the city centre is a purely business centre, and people only go there to work. So after dark, we were left with a ghost city. As we soon found out, you have to travel out of the city to do the fun stuff...

Auckland... kind of like Sydney but smaller

2004-02-03T19:11:00.000Z

We spent two and a half days in Auckland, where we had yum cha for the first time since leaving Sydney! Auckland feels a lot like home to me, only less hectic and not as polluted. We spent our time wandering through the city and surrounding areas like Newmarket. We had a very relaxing few days here, which was nice after being on the go for the past few weeks!

From One Tree Hill, you can get a fantastic view of the city. There's a story behind the "one tree" thing, but I can't remember. Anyway, there is no longer a tree on top of the hill, but a memorial, and lots of sheep! Where else can you find sheep in the middle of a city but New Zealand?!?

Nestled in a leafy pocket of Auckland, we stayed with Shane's relatives, whose house is situated halfway down a very steep hill! As a result we did a whole month's worth of exercise just walking up and down the stairs to and from the house :p

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March >>