Princess Ylana goes to Europe

Adrian Presents: London at last!

2006-11-01T12:11:00.000+01:00

Adrian here for my last appearance on this blog, with Ylana due to fly in tomorrow morning, so I'd better finish up my pics from London.

We arrived on the Eurostar train through the tunnel from Paris, and said a tearful farewell to our tour group before spending the night at Aussie hangout Earl's Court.
The next morning we set off on a whirlwind tour of London before my evening flight back to Sydney.

Big Ben

We started our tour with Big Ben and the houses of Parliament, before running off to Westminster Abbey, which was huge and holds the remains of the Kings and Queens of England.

Westminster Abbey

We couldn't take photos in here, so you'll just have to go see for yourself (and pay about twenty bucks to go inside) but it was really beautiful, those Kings sure knew how to get buried in style.
We had just enough time for a detour to meet up with some old school friends of mine, Joanne and Calum. They have both been living and working over in London for some time, and I was amazed how skinny they've gotten, until I realised how much food costs in London ;-)

Adrian Ylana Calum and Joanne

While having lunch in this park, we also made another little friend.

Cute Squirrel

These little squirrels were everywhere in the parks of London, and we saw loads of them eating out of people's hands on the way to the palace.
We stopped off at the Tower of London to see the Tower Bridge, and I regretted not having brought a hairbrush with me.

Tower Bridge and my messy hair

We stopped off at Buckingham Palace, but we didn't see the Queen. Maybe she was watching TV that day.

Buckingham Palace

On the way back to the hotel, Ylana said she had a surprise and made me jump off the train with my eyes closed. She led me up some stairs, and I realised we had arrived at the famous Harrods department store.
Owner Mohamed Al-Fayed takes his duties very seriously, and stands at the entrance to greet them as they come in.

Mohamed Al-Fayed

Ok, it's just a waxwork, but he looks very real.
Harrods is absolutely huge, and sells everything you could need, as well as loads of stuff you really couldn't need but might want anyway.
There was one thing we both really wanted, and that was icecream, from the fancy icecream shop on the lower level.

Mmmm, icecream...

We had some delicious sundaes, then went off to the airport, where I flew back to Sydney, and Ylana continued her tour of England. I'm sure she'll have lots of stories to tell when she gets back, but that, as they say, is another story.

Living the London Life

2006-10-20T13:16:00.000+02:00

Back in London again. My journey around this little island has come full circle and I once again find myself in the crazy, busy, culture loving London!! It is currently not raining but the day is still young...
I left Penzance in Cornwall after a few more Cornish pasties and another attempt at trying to learn some local Cornish words. They have their own language down there and although it's technically a ''dead'' language they still have street signs with the English and Cornish. Also the Cornish people are a little odd... But a fun filled place even though it seems that the rumour of Pirates in Penzance turned out the be false or else a very old legend!!
After Penzance came a little town called Salisbury, I have been looking forward to this part of England for some time now. I'm sure few of you have really have any idea what Salisbury is famous for and can't see the obvious reason why I would want to go there. Well it's not exactly Salisbury the town itself that I wanted to see but something more spectacular located not to far from Salisbury.....
....
STONEHENGE!!
Yes I saw the giant, mystical rocks!! It was actually quite amazing, this was something that has me fascinated for quite some time and it was quite an extrodinary experience to see them first hand. Yes the rock do look exactly like they do in all of the photos but there was just something almost magical about seeing them for real. I spent some time just staring at Stonehenge, well there really isn't much else to do out there, and then set off for a walk through the English countryside to try to find some more of the ancient sites there are around Stonehenge. There was quite a few ancient Barrows which were burial sites for ancient peoples and some ruins but mainly just a lot of cows, sheep and country pancakes :) While staying in Salisbury I also saw the cathedral, Old Sarum Castle, Amesbury (which is not to be confused with Avebury which was where I was trying to get to...) Woodhenge and lots of green English countryside.
Back in London now and yesterday I managed to catch up with Jayne and Michelle, our iteneraries managed to match up for enough time for us to get milkshakes and a hot chocolate in London!!! And you said we wouldn't so it Claire!!! It was nice to see someone from back home and exchange travel stories. I will be home soon and be able to share all my travel stories with you all!!

Adrian Presents: Amsterdam After Dark (and Before It)

2006-10-18T15:06:00.000+02:00

Adrian here again after a week's absence with the second-last of my photo updates. I should hopefully get the final pics from London up just before Ylana comes back to Australia and you get to see all her new photos.

After Germany, Amsterdam seemed quite chaotic and disorganised. Even the buildings there are crooked.

Crookedy Building

The streets are a wild jungle of bikes, buses, cars, scooters (people ride these on the footpath with no helmet and beep you if you get in their way) and trams all sharing space.

Crazy Streets

As if that's not enough, the city is criss-crossed with canals, which lack for any kind of barriers or railings. Every year, the council pulls thousands of bikes out of these canals, and I'm sure that half of them go in with someone sitting on them.

Watch the Edge

It was a hot night and the Chinese restaurant we went to didn't have any fans, but it did have these cute heart cushions.

What a cutie!

The streets of Amsterdam are busy all night and lit up with neon signs.

Busy Nightlife of Amsterdam

We beat the heat by going out for a night time cruise on the canals. The city was beautiful from the water, but a bit too dark for my camera to capture properly, so I'll leave it your imagination.

On our way to Belgium, we stopped off at this genuine Dutch windmill, isn't it cute?

Windmill

One interesting thing we saw was this bike bin, which is designed so that cyclists can go past and throw their rubbish in without stopping.

Bike Bin

Our next stop was the traditional Cheese & Clog Farm. The traditional Dutch Farmgirl here gave us an incredibly detailed speech about the cheese-making process and the huge variety of cheeses made there.

Cheese Factory

After warming us up with the cheese, she gave us a demonstration of the traditional clog-making process, starting with a special device for cutting the log to the rough clog shape.

Cutting Clogs

Once you have your rough clog, you have to carve out the foot-hole with this special tool. One of the guys from our tour group got up to carve the clog, and was rewarded with his own commemorative shoe.

Carving the Foot-Hole

We tasted some cheese, we tried on some clogs, and got back on the bus, on our way to Brugge in Belgium.

A Pirate's Life for Me

2006-10-11T19:22:00.000+02:00

Yo ho Yo ho
A pirate's life for me!!
Welll let me dust off the cornish pasty crumbs from my scarf as I am in Penzance the ''largest'' town in Cornwall in the South West of England. The sun has been shinning all day and there are people out surfing!! Not me though I have stuck to the shore and wandered up and down the coast here a bit.
First of all just fill you all in on how I ended up here and where I happened across along the way. I think last time I updated you all I was in Shakespeare country. Statford was very pleasant and nice for walking around I managed to check out most of the Shakespeare related houses and see some very cute thatched cottages.

Well after Stratford, I decided to take a scenic route before heading further south. I took a local bus full of old grannies and school children through the English countryside to another charming little villiage called Royal Lemington Spa (along the way on the bus we passed through some very green countryside and a little villiage called Gaydon hehe). At Royal Lemington Spa I checked out the town through the comfort of the bus window and then hopped off at the train station and jumped on the next train outta town which took me in the direction of Birmingham. There realy didn't seem much to Birmingham except a really big shopping centre and some office buildings so I jumped back on another train to Bristol where I changed again and headed south towards the lovely little town of Bath, a very pretty town with the compulsory English cathedral and really old buildings.

As my train pass is valid for a whole day I decided to spend the afternoon doing a bit more exploring of Great Britain and checked out where the next trains from Bath were heading. Turns out there was a train just pulling in that was heading for Cardiff in Wales and it would only take just under an hour to get into Cardiff. Imagine going from one country to another in under an hour.
So that's exactly what I did, jumped on the train in Bath in England and got off 55minutes later in Cardiff in Wales. I spend a lovely afternoon in Wales, saw the castle checked out some shops and tried to learn some Welsh!!
On return to Bath (in England) I was glad to have a warm bed. I spent a few days running around Bath and checking out all it had to offer. Saw a lot of the river house boats, that Aunty Norma mentioned, along the river. Looks like a grand life just sailing about in one of those!! Saw a few of the old Bath buildings where the hot spas and spring water were and did a walking history tour of the town. They were actually filming a Jane Austen movie while I was there, Persuasions, so there were lots of people dressed in old fashioned gear and what not!

After spending 2 sunny days and 2 rainy days in Bath it was time to move on and keep heading south to try to avoid the cold coming! After a few more train changes I arrived in Penzance to find the sweet smell of fish and chips and cornish pasty!! Dumping my heavy bags I was keen to once again make the most of my train pass and also see a bit more of Cornwall. After being told nice things about the Cornish villiage of St. Ives I could almost taste the salt and vinegar!! St. Ives was a tiny tiny villiage with a few fish and chips shops, more pubs than post boxes, a ''play beach'' and a real surf beach and streets full of Bed and Breakfast houses. So after wandering around the winding streets of St. Ives and checking out the surf beach, Yes there were quite a few people out on their boards believe it or not, I dined on a lovely serving of fish and chips covered in salt and vinegar (tell me is lemon really that hard to serve...) and ran back to the train station to catch the once an hour service back to towards Penzance.

Now I have been spending a pleasant few days in Penzance. It is fairly close to a few other Cornish villiages and yesterday I walked to St. Michael's Mount (or maybe Mount St. Michael...) which is a breathtaking island fortress. An island in the middle of the bay with a large castle on the top. Well it's only a ''part time island'' and I managed to walk across the water to it on the low tide and have a little wander around the grounds before it began to rain a little bit.
Mustn't grumble.
Besides English rain isn't real rain and after a few minutes it had stopped again only to start again a few minutes later. The process repeats itself several times on my walk back to my hostel.
Today I had another walk along the coast this time heading as far west as you can go on this island. Well actually not that far because I wasn't really sure how far 11 miles was and since I'd already walked 5 miles from Penzance to Mousehole (pronounced Mowsel) I thought that was far enough and 11 miles more to Land's End was just pushing it a bit far. Mousehole turned out to be a lovely quant little Cornish villiage mainly about fishing and arts and crafts shops. So I had a little wander around there before setting off back to Penzance where I have just had a little nap!!

Hope that is enough of an update for you all now. Coz I'm off to see if I can find some more of that Pirate's gold.
Yo ho Yo ho
A Pirate's Life for Me!!

PS. Adrian keep up the good work with our European pictures, looking good!! You all may have to wait a bit to see my pictures of England but just make do with my pleasant stories!!

Adrian Presents: Berlin

2006-10-11T14:08:00.000+02:00

Back in the Euro zone, we visited Germany for a second time as we stopped in Berlin.
The capital of Germany, Berlin was a focal point for the Cold War, with East Germany and West Germany each holding half of the city. The East was particularly keen to isolate the West's half, both to keep West Berliners from moving freely, and to stop its own citizens from defecting to West Germany, so they built the infamous Berlin Wall to keep the two halves separate.

Brandenburg Gate

The Brandenburg Gate stood at the border between the two halves, and was visited by American Presidents Kennedy and Reagan before the Wall was destroyed. It was through this gate that the West German chancellor met the East German prime minister as the Cold War ended.
The Wall was an ever-present part of life for Berliners, but the East German government tried to prevent its citizens from thinking about it too much. The road where we stopped to see the Wall once had a minimum speed limit of 80 km/h to prevent people from slowing down and trying to see the other side.

The Berlin Wall

You can see a section of the Wall here, along with a coachload of Aussie tourists.

Looking through the Wall

The Wall actually consisted of two barriers with a section of empty ground between them. Crossing over was extremely difficult, and people came up with a variety of methods for escaping East Berlin by tunnel, glider, rope or car. We saw a history of these escapes and attempts at the Checkpoint Charlie musem.

Ylana at Checkpoint Charlie

Checkpoint Charlie was the main point where people could cross between East and West, and was manned by American and Russian soldiers.
We crossed into the Eastern half to find the Fassbender & Rausch chocolate shop, famous for its delicious chocolates and its elaborate chocolate sculptures.

Chocolate Reichstag

This was delicious, but I couldn't eat the whole thing.

Chocolate Church

This chocolate church is modelled on the Kaiser Wilhelm Church, which was heavily damaged in the Second World War and left as a memorial.

Kaiser Wilhelm Church

Rather than fill up on buildings, we went upstairs to the chocolate cafe, where you can have anything you like, as long as it's chocolate. We tucked into some tasty chocolate mousse, chocolate cake and little chocolate bars, washed down with hot chocolate.

In the chocolate cafe

We walked off our chocolate meal in the Gendarmenmarkt, a square with two cathedrals not far from the cafe.

Gendarmenmarkt

It was here that we saw some of Berlin's famous Trabant cars. These little two-stroke vehicles were the only cars available to most of the people of East Germany before reunification, and most have been destroyed since that time. A few of these plastic-bodied cars have been kept and are now available for hire.

Row of Trabants

Trabant for hire

With a lot of ground to cover before our bus pick-up, we decided against using one of the notoriously slow Trabbies, instead using the much quicker method known as walking.
The walk turned out to be much further than we had thought, after a long trek through the botanic gardens, we reached the road and checked the map, expecting to be halfway through the park. It turned out we had only gone one block.
We hurried along, around the edge of the zoo, and narrowly made it to the bus stop before our tour bus rolled up and picked us up.

Next stop: Holland!

Adrian Presents: Budapest and Prague

2006-10-04T14:47:00.000+02:00

If you haven't done so already, be sure to read Ylana's post below, she's somewhere in England right now, but my photo tour has only got to Austria so far. Better do some catching up.

Leaving Austria and moving into Hungary, we had our first passport check. Although Hungary is technically within the EU, it still has its own currency and its citizens are not as free to move about as full EU member nations. A former Communist country, Hungary was the first of the Eastern European nations we visited (but they like to be called "Middle European").

Our tour of Budapest started with Heroes' Square, a national monument near the city's main park.

Heroes' Square

The sides of the monument are decorated with statues depicting the great kings of Hungary.

Heroes' Square

Our tour then went across the Danube to the old Buda side of the city, where we had a great view from the Fisherman's Bastion.

View of Budapest including Parliament

The Fisherman's Bastion is an elaborate building with seven towers and a statue of St Stephen, the first king of Hungary.

Statue of St Stephen

The buildings of Budapest are notable for their disticntive glazed tile roofs. We saw one such roof on the church above the Bastion.

Tiled Church Roof

Like much of Europe, Budapest suffered extensive damage in the Second World War, and the old Ministry of Defense had been left unrepaired in rememberance of this.

Ministry of Defense

On our free day in Budapest, we visited the Markets and looked around the local shops, filling in time before our cruise on the Danube.

Market Building

One of the grandest buildings in Budapest is their gothic Parliament building.

Hungarian Parliament

Our river cruise took us round the back of this building, which looks even fancier than the front.

Parliament River Side

The cruise stopped at Margaret Island, once the site of a convent set up for the King's daughter, but now a popular recreation park for the locals.

Margaret Island

Once on the island, we rented this adorable little pedal car, and took it for a spin.

Ylana in the Pedal Car

We then hopped back on the boat, and rode back to the shore. We continued walking around the city. This large church is St Stephen's Basilica, named for the first king of Hungary, who converted the local tribes to Christianity.

St Stephen's Basilica

Inside the Basilica

We walked toward the theatre district for dinner, and had a wonderful meal, before riding the train back to the hotel.

***

The next day, we left Hungary, made a brief stop in Slovakia for lunch (where I got 500 Slovak Crowns and then had to spend them all in the supermarket before leaving the country) and entered the Czech Republic.
The hotel in Prague was pretty hard to get around, both because it was huge and because it was organised as a bunch of Soviet apartment blocks that had been joined up on the ground floor but nowhere else. Finding the right lift took some time, and the tiny lifts could only take one person with a suitcase at a time. The staff of the hotel were also not the most helpful people, which seemed to be typical of the Czechs we met in money exchanges and ticket offices. Luckily, the staff in the restaurants were much easier to deal with, and we had an excellent lunch in Prague.

Our day out in Prague was pretty cold, so we stopped in a souvenir shop and bought matching tourist jackets.

Ylana in Prague

Ylana can be seen in this picture digging in to a huge red kransky she bought from a street vendor. I didn't dare eat one with my sensitive stomach, but Ylana loved hers.
Also visible in the background is the hanging toilets sculpture, part of a modern art display around the centre of Prague. In the background you can also see the Bontonland music store, where I picked up a CD by Czech pirate rockers Divokej Bill
The Czechs are very into occult and mystical ideas, so their town clock includes extra displays to show the phases of the moon and the zodiac signs.

Celestial Clock

Cathedral in Prague

The next day we left Prague and stopped off in the Terezin concentration camp from the Second World War.

Work Camp

While not as bad as the death camps in Germany, this was still not a place anyone would want to be sent to. The writing above the gate "Arbeit Macht Frei" means "Work Brings Freedom" and may have been intended to give some hope of release to the prisoners and keep them cooperative.

***

Crossing from the Czech Republic into Germany took much longer than the last border crossing, and the German border guards took all our passports away to a building for checking while we sat on the bus. Luckily all our papers were in order and we were allowed to travel onwards to Berlin.

Round and round she goes

2006-10-03T16:15:00.000+02:00

So I bet you are all wondering; where is Ylana now?
Well at this very second I am in Stratford-Upon-Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare. Somewhere in the middle of England about 1 and a half hours north from London.
What have I been up to up till now? Well I'm trekking all over the UK with my handy Dandy BritRail Pass. Essentially just jumping on the first train that pulls in and going for about 2 hours and jumping off and finding a bed!!
Right, lets start from the beginning!
After saying a teary farewell to Adrian in London, I spent 3 days just wandering around London and napping a lot to recover from our whirlwind Europe tour.
Then taking a train out of London ended up in Edinburgh in Scotland! Edinburgh was very pretty and was quite authentically gothic, saw the castle and ate some haggis!
After Edinburgh a 2 hour train trip south to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne!! The place (or nearby) where my Grandma Mavis was born and spent her formative years. A big former mining town now full of lots of shops and old monuments. Visiting her former residence was like a trip back in time. Your old house is still standing Mum!! Also caught up with some of her relatives, Bill and Nancy who took me to Durham to visit the cathedral and castle, stunning stuff! Also had to learn how to speak Geordie, a most complex language, whey aye!
After Newcastle was York, where I walked the city walls, checked out the castle and catherdral and had some Yorkshire Pudding! Stayed in a really fun place in York and met some of the long termers, we had some great times!
That brings me to Stratford now! Where I have seen many of the Shakespeare estates, including the house where he was apparently born!

See you all some time soon!
Round and round she goes where she stops next, nobody knows!!

Thanks for keeping the pages colourful Adrian, keep up the pretty work!

Adrian Presents: Vienna and the Schnapps Factory

2006-10-02T15:11:00.000+02:00

On our day out in Vienna, I was using my Dad's video camera to film the fancy buildings, so I didn't take many photos there.

Church in Vienna

We looked around some of the churches, and toured the underground catacombs, where generations of the local people were buried, sometimes just as piles of bones in a pit. I couldn't take photos down there so you'll just have to imagine it.

What I could take photos of was the Fischer Schnapps factory. Mr Fischer's family have been making schnapps for over one hundred years, and the front office has hardly changed in all that time.

Schnapps Factory Office

This cash register was made in 1915 by the IBM company, and still works today. The office is sometimes used for shooting historical movies.

Mr Fischer

Mr Fischer here still creates new flavours of schnapps by hand, mixing a variety of ingredients.

Ingredients

These liqueurs produce a wide range of drinks, including the Goldwasser, which contains tiny flakes of gold leaf, and the chili schnapps, which is as hard to drink as it sounds.

Variety of Schnapps and Liquers

After our tour of the factory, we were able to sample some of the drinks. I had some of the absinthe, which to me tasted exactly like Listerine mouthwash. The Goldwasser was nice, but the bottles were too big and heavy to get for souvenirs, so I had to leave with just a tiny miniature.

Tasting Absinthe

Having tasted all these fancy drinks, we hopped back on the bus and headed for Hungary.
On the way, we passed by dozens of these huge windmills, which were very common in this part of Europe.

Austrian Wind Farm

Adrian Presents: Munich

2006-09-26T14:18:00.000+02:00

Munich is one of the largest cities in Germany, and the centre of the southern area known as Bavaria. The cleanliness and efficiency of the city certainly made a change after Italy, with a transport network so organised the train stations only need one escalator, which changes direction depending on if people are waiting at the top or the bottom.
Another thing for which Munich is known is its huge beerhalls, such as the Hofbräuhaus where we had our dinner on the first night we were in Munich. If you ever wanted to eat a whole pig with potatoes and sauerkraut, this is the place to be.

Having been smart enough to go easy on the giant beers (the glasses are 1 litre in size), we were up bright and early the next morning at the Marienplatz, the main town square, outside the town hall, which the Germans call the rathaus (said like "rat house").

Munich Rathaus

The old clock sprang to life as we watched, little wooden coopers (barrel makers) doing their traditional dance, which celebrates the end of the plague in Munich.

Munich Rathaus Clock

The Marian column in the middle of the square is decorated with statues of men killing beasts such as lions and dragons, which represent the trials Munich has overcome.

Slaying the Basilisk

Munich is full of old statues and grand buildings, many of which were actually rebuilt after WWII, having been wrecked by the bombing. The churches of Germany tend to be less embellished than those in Italy, with less of the gold decoration seen in Rome.

Very white church

One of the highlights of Munich was our bike tour, run by Mike's Bike Tours. Our tour guide gave a brief instructional talk on road safety, use of bike lanes, travelling single file, and then we picked out our bikes.

Ylana on a bike

Adrian on a bike

We rode off into the streets of Munich, joyfully ringing our bells until we came to the National Theatre.

National Theatre

Our guide (pictured in a hat, above) explained that the golden mosaics on Munich buildings are always on the Western side, but I can't remember why. Probably something to do with the sun, I guess. ;-)
From here we rode on past many of the monuments and buildings of Munich, towards our lunch stop in the Englischergarten park.

Building in Munich

Statues in Munich

We rode on until we reached the giant beer garden in the middle of the park. We parked our bikes and shared a huge meal of pork, schnitzels and apple strudel.

Parking our bikes for lunch

Feeling much heavier, we hopped back on our bikes and rode on through the park, crossing back and forth over the fast-flowing river. As we were about to leave the park, we saw the river put to an unusual use.

River surfing

As the river enters the park, it runs over shallow spot, which creates a static wave. People actually surf on this wave, riding back and forth on the spot until they fall off and the next surfer hops on. This is about the closest you can get to surfing in a city nowhere near the sea, and we watched as about half a dozen people took turns jumping onto the wave.
From here we rode back through the streets of Munich, and dropped off our bikes as the tour ended.

The streets of Munich

That night we had a special treat - there was a laundromat a few stops away on the train line, so we were able to have clean clothes for the first time in a week.
The next morning we put on our clean clothes, and left for Vienna.

Adrian Presents: Neuschwanstein Castle

2006-09-23T15:15:00.001+02:00

In which the Travellers make a short stop that nearly becomes a long walk.

As we left Italy on our way to Munich, we made a stop in Bavaria to see the beautiful Neuschwanstein castle, built for King Ludwig II of Bavaria, a somewhat nutty individual who dreamed of having his own fairytale castle in the mountains. This castle would eventually be the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland. Unfortunately for the King, he was a bit too nutty for his people and they sacked him before the castle could be completed. Even today, only a few levels have their full furnishings and decorations.
It was as we headed into Austria that we saw these snow-capped mountains, which stay covered even in summer.

Snow-capped Mountains

Moving into Germany, we stopped near the castle, at the bottom of the hill. From here we could see the older castle where Ludwig's father had lived.

Old Castle

We boarded the minibus and rode up to the top, where we had a great view of the castle.

Neuschwanstein Castle

Ylana with the castle

Ylana and me with the castle

We waited for our tour of the castle to begin, then went inside.

Entering the castle

Unfortunately, we couldn't take photos inside, but it was all lovely, with paintings of fantasy and historical figures all over the walls and ceilings. From up this high, we could see all the way down to the little village where our bus was waiting, and with time running short, we decided to head back.

Remember where we parked

We waved goodbye to the castle and waited for the horse-and-cart that would take us back down. One left just as we got to the stop, but we were assured that another would be along in a few minutes.

Goodbye castle!

As a few minutes turned into a few more minutes, we began to worry, as we realised that if we didn't get back to the bus soon it would leave without us.
Just as we were about to run down the hill, the cart showed up, and took us down at a less than breakneck speed. Finally we reached the bottom.

Back at the bottom

But it wasn't over yet, the driver wouldn't let us off until we reached the allocated stop, and our deadline for the bus had just passed. As we slowly rolled to a halt, we jumped off just in time to see the tour bus roll up the road. We ran in front of it, waving our arms and shouting. Lucky for us, the bus stopped as it passed and we jumped on, relieved that we had not been abandoned to walk all the way to Munich.

Adrian Presents: Venice!

2006-09-23T04:56:00.000+02:00

The first stop for our tour after leaving Rome was the beautiful city of Venice, famous for its gondolas, canals and glassblowers. We stayed at a hotel in the outer part of Venice, firmly located on dry land, and in the morning we boarded a boat to the town centre.

Entering Venice

Central Venice is composed of over 100 tiny islands surrounded by narrow canals, and linked with about 400 bridges. Once we were off the boat, we headed for the central square, outside St Mark's basilica. Our tour guide led us to an upstairs glass shop, where we were treated to a glassblowing demonstration.

Venetian Glassblower

It's a horsey! (Who's that peeking out the mirror on the right-hand side?)

We spent some time looking around the shop at the lovely but incredibly expensive glassware and ornaments. Ylana was particularly taken with a huge golden glass horse statue (not the one above, a huge one), which she insisted I purchase for the bargain price of nine thousand Euros. Unfortunately, I had left my chequebook in my other pants, so we had to do without the horse this time.
Having left the fancy glass store, we strolled to the water's edge to our waiting gondola ride.

Choosing a gondola takes a keen eye

We boarded the prettiest one and took our comfy seat together.

Riding together

The gondola took us through narrow canals and under low bridges until we got out into the main canal, by the Rialto bridge.

Rialto Bridge

The bridge is extremely wide, with two rows of shops running along it. In one of these shops I bought Ylana a red and gold glass ring, which hopefully made up somewhat for the horse.

Rialto Bridge behind us

We went back through more narrow canals, passing by the local houses, some with their doors opening right onto the water for when you want to hop straight on a water taxi.

You don't want to leave this door open in a storm

As our gondola ride ended, we looked through the many souvenir shops, buying lots of presents for the folks back home. Luckily, most of these places only charged about half of the first store we had been in, so I was able to get necklaces for my grandma and aunty, earrings for my Mum, and a bracelet for my sister. Ylana picked up a whole range of little items for her family, but I won't ruin the surprise for you guys.

We finished up our shopping, ate some lunch in a waterfront restaurant (actually, they're all waterfront) and took a look at the Basilica of St Mark.
The Basilica of St Mark contains the remains of St Mark the Evangelist, who originally lay in Alexandria, until some clever Venetians stole the body and smuggled it back to Venice. To get past the Egyptian customs people, they used some dirty tricks and hid the body in a container of pork, which the Muslim inspectors would not touch. The Venetians were so pleased with themselves that they actually put a mosaic of the event on the wall of the church.

St Mark's Basilica

The next thing we checked out was the Doge's Palace. The Doge of Venice was an elected ruler who acted much like a king, and lived the rest of his life in the palace. On his death, a new Doge would be elected by the wealthy families of Venice.
The palace was a combination of a residence, parliament and courthouse. Those unlucky enough to end up sentenced by the court would be led directly from the palace, across the "Bridge of Sighs" to a prison on the next island. This prison once held the famous Casanova, who eventually escaped and fled to Paris.
As we wandered through the prison, we failed to notice the "No flash photography!" signs, and found ourselves locked in by the security guards.

Oh no!

Luckily, I had seen the BBC special on Casanova, and so knew where to dig for the secret escape tunnel. We disappeared into the narrow streets of Venice, occasionally getting lost and following tiny, handwritten street signs, which sometimes consisted only of a piece of paper pinned to a wall, with an arrow pointing the way out.

Goodbye Venice

So we left Venice, and the next day we left Italy as well, bound for Munich via Austria.

Adrian Presents: A Day in Pompeii

2006-09-22T15:26:00.000+02:00

Adrian here with the next thrilling instalment of our travels. Phew, we're still in Italy by this stage, a long way to go yet!

While still based in Rome, we joined up with the Kumuka tour group, and headed off on a day trip to the ancient ruins of Pompeii. A town of about twenty thousand people, the entire area was buried by hot volcanic ash in AD 79, and preserved intact until it was rediscovered in the 18th century. Since that time, archeologists have busied themselves digging up and cataloguing the buildings and artefacts found there. It is now possible to walk down the same streets as the Romans, and even inside the houses and shops that stood there.

Local Tour Guide

Our guide took us into the gates of Pompeii, and down the street to the main forum.

Main Forum of Pompeii

The large forum was once framed by tall pillars, with the temple at one end.

In the Forum

The streets leading out from this square have modern-style gutters to keep the footpaths dry, and even public drinking fountains which were plumbed into the town's water supply.

Road with Drinking Fountain

Most of the buildings of Pompeii retain their walls, if not their roof, and it is possible to look inside and see the frescoes painted on the walls, and especially the mosaics decorating the entrances to the larger homes.

Mosaic of dogs hunting a boar

Beware of the Dog!

Another dog I think

Inside the buildings, a huge variety of artefacts have been found, with some of the bronze statues still standing in place.

Statue of Apollo

Most of the artefacts have been removed to museums, or placed in this special storeroom.

Pots and Statues

By far the spookiest thing about Pompeii is that not only were the people's homes and possessions preserved by the ash, but even the people themselves. When a person was trapped and died in the fast-moving ash, it would solidify around their body, and as the body decomposed, a hollow space would be left behind, with only the bones inside. The people excavating Pompeii found that by filling this hollow with plaster, a very accurate cast could be made of the person, even showing their face at the moment of death.
They say that if you lean in real close, and listen very carefully...

Bodycast of volcano victim

you can hear a little voice...

Body cast

"Help me! Heeeelp meeee!"
Hehehe, no, they're quite safe, and provide a fascinating insight into the people of their time. It was amazing to be walking down the same streets and through the same buildings as those people of the Roman era.

View from Pompeii

Having spent a full day wandering around, we hopped back on the bus and returned to Rome.

Next up, Venice, and some very romantic gondola pictures!

Adrian Presents: Welcome to Rome!

2006-09-20T14:50:00.000+02:00

Following on from the success of last night's post, I now give you the city of Rome! We spent about four days in Rome, but I'm just going to lump it all into one long update, so don't think we did all this in one day.
We flew in from Bergamo just after dark, and the next morning, we set off for the famous St Peter's Basilica.

St Peter's Square

After a quick walk around the square, we went inside.

St Peter's Basilica

Above the tomb of St Peter

After looking round the huge inside of the Basilica, I decided to walk up to the top of the cupola on the roof. Ylana stayed behind, having already been up, and knowing what a long walk it was.

The cupola as seen from the roof of the Basilica

From the top I had a great view of Rome and the Vatican.

Vatican seen from the cupola

Rome seen from the cupola

Looking down the main road from the Square, you can see the Castel Sant' Angelo by the River Tiber. Once I had got back down, we went over to the castle to check it out.

My lovely assistant

This bridge passes over the Tiber and is decorated with statues of angels.

Angel Statue

Across the river is the Piazza Navona, with its three fountains, and some expensive restaurants, where we didn't eat anything.

Piazza Navona

From here we headed for the city centre, passing by the Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary which runs out of a Roman archeological site.

Cat Sanctuary in the Roman Ruins

We then proceeeded to the Vittorio Emanule Monument, a huge building, with a huge statue of a huge man on an equally huge horse.

Vittorio Emanule Monument

The building had loads of sculptures all over it, including these angels standing up on poles.

Angels on the Monument

We kept on towards the old centre of Rome, and the Colosseum.

Approaching the Colosseum

Pretty big

After looking round here, we walked through some more of the Roman ruins. This area was once a huge forum, and retains some of its big arches and buildings.

Roman temple ruins

My lovely assistant again!

Of course, no trip to Rome would be complete without visiting the romantic Trevi Fountain, and throwing in a few coins for luck.

The Trevi Fountain

Aww, isn't it nice?

Sitting on the fountain

We kept walking around, passing through the People's Forum.

People's Forum

After all that walking, we were both pretty beat, so there was only one thing left to do...

Yay! Icecream!

And so, with a cool gelato in hand, we bid a fond arrivederci roma!

Adrian Presents: Lago di Como

2006-09-19T14:57:00.000+02:00

Adrian here with some of my photos from our tour together.
After arriving in Milan and getting some much needed rest, Ylana and I caught the train up to the little town of Lecco, the birthplace of my grandfather and home to my great-aunt Adriana (yep, I was named after her as she was visiting the month I was born!)

The town of Lecco

Lecco is located in the mountains just south of the Swiss border, on the shores of the Lake of Como (Lago di Como to the locals). The town sits right between the lake and the huge mountains that sink straight into the waters.

Lago di Como

This wonderful view was just across the road from our hotel, and while we were there we took a boat ride to the town of Bellagio, where the Hollywood stars hang out.

Boat ride on the lake

Bellagio

View from Bellagio

The whole town seems to consist of souvenir shops, and I picked up a couple of silk ties for my Dad and myself. The skinny streets run up and down through the shopping district with little steps.

Shopping in Bellagio

The next day we went to the historic town of Bergamo, which was also the place where we would later catch our flight to Rome.
Bergamo is built around a Roman fortress on the top of a hill, with the old town at the top and the new town at the bottom.

Bergamo Town Square

Colleoni Chapel

Having stopped off for coffee and gelato (my aunty always stopped for coffee and gelato every time we went anywhere, yum!) we headed up the funicular railway.

Funicular

Once at the top, we had an amazing view of the area around Bergamo towards Milano.

View from the top

At the top, we took a look around the castle ruins and the gardens.

Old Fortress

That night we had a great dinner at a local restaurant, including meat on a stick (not a kebab, you'll have to wait for Ylana's photos to see what I mean). The next day we hopped on a budget flight to Rome (only after the airport was shut down for half an hour by a freak hailstorm) and the beginning of our bus tour. But that's a story for another night...

From Milan to Berlin

2006-09-10T16:57:00.000+02:00

Hi all!!
Currently in Berlin in Germany, just seen the wall and checked out Checkpoint Charlie. Had some really delicious hot chocolate and chocolate mousse at the Fassbender & Raush Chocolatiers at Gendarmenmarkt mmmmmmmm.
So not enough time to retell ALL of the travels from Milan to Berlin but in brief it went like this:
Milan: One day to see as much of Italy´s fashion capital and see some castles
Lecco: Meeting all Adrian´s extended family and acting as translator was a fun experience, Lecco is a pretty little town and much cleaner than all the other Italian cities I have seen
Rome: Seeing all the sites again for the third time, I have got to know the Trevi Fountain quite well by now. We also started our tour here and met the people we will be travelling with for the duration of our tour.
Venice: Everything I had dreamed of, Romance, bridges, pizza & pasta, Murano glass, pidgeons, gondolas, smelly canals, shops selling things I can only imagine to afford.... etc. etc...
Munich: Our first taste of German food, mmmm Wurst, Schnitzel, Pork and Beer. Also a very bike friendly city and we got to see the sites of Munich on the back of a big Cruiser bike.
Vienna: The German food continues in Austria with a slight Austrian twist. Palaces, Empress Sisi and her crazy royal family, creepy catacombes and lots of churches
Budapest: Hungary Eyes! Actually 2 cities; Buda and Pest (pronounced Pesht). We took a cruise down the River Danube and a bike car tour (like a 4 wheeled bike with 2 lots of pedals) around Margaret Island in the middle of the Danube. Tried Hungarian Goulash and watched some Gypsy dancing.
Prague: Wasn´t sure what to expect of the capital of the Czech Republic but it was surprisingly pretty and quite a romantic city. Checked out a few of the cultural sites that the city had to offer and the markets and of course enjoyed the culinary delights that the city had to offer.
Berlin: More German food!!

Next stop is Amsterdam where I´m sure we will also sample the local cuisine and indulge in the local cultural icons!! See you soon, Auf Wiedersehen!!

Satorini and the long trip back to shore

2006-08-27T12:15:00.000+02:00

Well by the time I got to Santorini I had come down with a lovely little cold and really didn't feel up to doing anything except lying around. But I also had to see the volcano which seemed to be pretty important to the island of Mykonos. It turned out to be a really big rock and really hot. We took a boat out to the volcano and climbed to the very top, we could also stick our hands into a big hole in the ground to feel how hot it was. It was very hot!! After climbing back down the volcano we were all extremely hot and in need of a good swim. The boat then pulls up about 50meters from the ''hot'' (warm) springs of the volcano and we have to swim through ''normal tempreture'' (freezing) water to the warm springs where you have the option to cover yourself in ''theraputic'' (smelly) mud. So I swam 50 meters to the warm spring and avoided touching the smelly mud and swam around the jelly fish the warm springs and the smelly mud was fun but I was glad to get back on the boat and away from the jelly fish. The climb back up to Fira town in Santorini as assisted not by the donkeys, who are a aparently mistreated and really quite smelly, but by the cable car, a scenic way to get back to the hotel.
The last night on Santorini, which was our last night on the Greek islands we had a huge Aussie style picnic watching ''The world's most beautiful sunset'' it was spectacular, there was Greek dips, pita bread, rice in vine leaves, stuffed olives, good wine and of course a lovely sunset. The sky gets very pink as the sun sets... very romantic!
The next morning meant 10 hours on a rocking big boat back to the mainland, we passed time by playing with Greek cards, watching the crazy Italians, telling baudy jokes and making some attempt to sleep on a moving vehicle. Back at Athens were all I saw was my bed and then the bus at 6am the next morning.
The flight to Milano was short, but not short enough!! After my plane touched down about 2 hours later another plane touched down from sunny Australia and another excited traveller has joined my journey!!!

Adventure in Ios ~ Greek Islands

2006-08-17T10:19:00.000+02:00

Well after 5 days of relaxing in Mykonos and Paros I figured it was time for a bit of adventure on what is notoriously known as the party island, Ios. Day 1 on Ios was an afternoon dip in the beach and then a bar hop around town to see some of the colourful nightlife. After the long trek home, I slept well in my little beach hut and woke up nice and late for a day of watersport adventures!! First up of course was some lazing around on the beach then came the FLYING BANANA!!! Ok when I put up photos of this you might want to turn a blind eye if you have a weak heart or you are from my travel insurance company!! In brief esentially I was pulled behind a speed boat on a giant floating banana and managed to get airborne a few times (well maybe more than just a few times). That was excellent fun. My hands are still sore from gripping onto the straps and I found a few new ways to wear my bikini!!
Next up was straight off the FLYING BANANA onto CANOE SAFARI. My shoulders are aching so much right now but it was so worth it. Rowing our canoes out to a little cove in the bay, doing some cliff jumping then rowing out to another little cove for some snokelling and a good old fashioned BBQ. The drift back into shore was supposed to be easy with the wind behind us but I'm not so sure that I took the most direct route...
Into town for dinner and shopping at night and an early night to bed.
Today we leave Ios and jump on another boat to Santorini where I hope to get some more relaxation and maybe some more adventure.

Sicilia, Napoli and Now Greece

2006-08-15T10:05:00.000+02:00

RELAX.
This one word decribes my whole time in the Greek Islands so far. This place is beautiful, the beaches are spectacular and the atmosphere is just too relaxing!

So after school had finished and I parted Firenze it was off to Roma to spend some time with my lovely little Roman family. A few homecooked meals and some hugs later I headed off to the Italian island of Sicilia. A 9 hour train ride in a rather uncomfortable bed. The train was about 3 hours late in getting there, but that was ok because I was a day early! After mistaking what day it was (I'm on holidays ok) and getting on the train the day before my ticket stated everything worked out just fine and I arrived in Palermo to crazy traffic and friendly people.
Palermo itself was quite filthy, the city was smelly and there was rubbish everywhere. There is a lot of history in Sicilia because it has had so much influence from other countries and the architecture was strickingly different from any of the other Italian cities I have seen so far. There are also so many churched all over the city, I think I saw about 5 in just one morning and they were all within about 10 minutes walk of each other.
I took a day trip out of Palermo into Taormini, a very pretty beach town, very much focused on the tourists but a gorgeous way to spend a day with a view of Mt Etna in the background and an ancient theatre overlooking the ocean. I went back to the hotel quite tired that day!
Departing Palermo, I checked my train ticket about 10 times to mack sure I had the right day, time, place etc! Palermo to Napoli was also an overnight train but a shorter journey.
After being told horror stories about Napoli and thinking the worst I was actually pleasantly surprised. The city is really dirty and the drivers are crazy but it was also quite a pretty city, rich in history and CASTLES. I saw about 5 castles just in town, I visited the Castel Nuovo and Castel Uvo. At both of them there were quite a few wedding parties there taking photos, I can see why they both made very nice photo backdrops.
There were regular boats leaving for the nearby island of Capri and I took off early one morning with my swimmers and enthusiasm so see the rocky island of Capri!
Capri was spectacular, the regular holiday hangout for the Italians and with sheer white cliffs and some very pretty grottoes all along the island. I took a "Giro dell'isola" boat and went right around the whole island. We saw some of the natural spectacles around the island but unfortunately Grotta Azzura was closing due the tides and I wasn't able to see inside but we did see inside the Grotta Bianca and some of the other smaller caves. The water was so clear blue and inviting so it was time for a dip. The water was also quite cold but refreshing since the day was so hot!! When I was done with Capri I thought to go back to Napoli via Sorrento for the afternoon. I was quite tired by this time and probably should have gone back to the hotel so Sorrento was a bit of a blur but I'm sure I probably had a gelato and checked out the view from one of the nice viewpoints on the top of the big hill!
My time in Napoli was cut one day short as I headed back to Roma to see some friendly faces and attend a special mass for Lola Gloria. I lit a candle for her in the church.

On the road again as I headed for Athens in the airplane. Leaving from Fiumincino airport unknown to me was that Italian airports are notorious for misplacing luggage and my bag was one of the lucky ones left behind! It just didn't want to leave Roma I suppose... So after waiting at the baggage carousel thing in Athens for what I thought was a decent amount of time I headed over the the "Missing Luggage" room knowing that my Greek consisted simply of Yasu which means Hello. The system for finding lost luggage seemed a little bit too systematic like this happens all the time so I was both reassured and also quite panicky. Right so now you are all wondering, what happened? Am I running around naked in the Greek Islands? What about all the presents I am bringing home? Well RELAX like I did and my luggage turned up, after a few phone calls and a day later my luggage and I were reunited. So yes I am wearing clothes on the Greek Islands but mainly I'm living in my swimming costume and my beach dress so I probably could have got by without my luggage but obviously I prefer that I got it back!!
First island was Mykonos famed for it's party atmosphere and gay Greek guys (by gay I don't necasisarily mean happy). I spent most of my time sprawled out on a deck chair in front of the hotel or paddling out in the sea. There are actually a lot of Italians there for holidays and I was able to continue to practice speaking Italian which was nice especially since my Greek vocabulary has only extended as far as Hello, Goodbye, Thank you and Goodnight!!
Well I am on a Greek Island hopping adventure so after 2 days on Mykonos we said goodbye to resort living and we hopped over to Paros where I am right now. This is where I have been able to relax the most so far. I actually fell asleep on the beach yesterday, don't worry I was in the shade and not on an airbed floating out into the ocean, although I'm sure that wouldn't have been too bad either.
The white square buildings found all over these islands make navigating ones way around quite challenging but they are actually quite pretty and make for nice photos, which will make their way onto my website once I remember to bring my USB cord with my to the internet place!
Today I farewell Paros and head to Ios for some more RELAXATION!!

My Nannay Rest In Peace

2006-08-10T18:19:00.000+02:00

As many of you may be aware my beloved Lola passed away on Monday 7th August.
This was a loss that will be difficult to bear for all and I pray that she is no longer without pain and with God in Peace, may she be reunited with our Lolo in heaven.

I will light candles in the churches all over Europe for her and will miss her terribly.

Farewell my Nanay and God bless to all, I miss you all now more than ever and long to be at your side holding your hand.

Lord, in our grief we turn to you.
Are you not the God of love?
Always ready to hear our cries?
Listen to our prayers for your servant
Gloria whom you have called out of this world
Lead her to your kingdom of light and peace.
And count her among the saints in Glory
We ask this through Christ our Lord

My Nanay, Lola
Gloria Bundalian Lumba Tan
Born: 4th November 1923
Entered Eternal Life: 7th August 2006

Laif is Nau!! Forza Italia!!

2006-08-07T22:36:00.000+02:00

Ahhh the World Cup. Such an exciting time for Italia and I was fortunate enough to be right in the heart of all the excitement. Gee Firenze really knows how to party. Here are some of the crazt shots from the night af the Great Grand Finale where me, Sara, Clarisse and Domenica watched the match from Piazza Michelangelo.
Everybody had an Italian flag or a shirt or a noisy horn thing or a carzy hat or something that showed their FORZA AZZURI pride!!

Once the victory had been done the party really began!!
The streets erupted into the grand parade and people were dancing, singing and doing all kinds of crazt things through the streets!!

Even in the Piazza Duomo there was a giant party

Some of the shots are a bit blurry, but the whole night was a bit blurry!!
Piazza Signoria was ablaze with excitement too!!

Don't worry none of these is anybody that I know

Siamo championi del mondo

Siamo championi del mondo

Siamo una squadra fortissimi

Siame championi del mondo

Girls just wanna have fun!

2006-07-28T15:56:00.000+02:00

Well having fun a a lot of giggles would not have been possible if it weren't for some of my new found ragazze. As we go I will introduce them. Please try not to drool over the gelati Sopra:

Nome: Clarisse

Nationalita: Belgium

Piacere: Gelato
Sotto:

Nome: Sara

Nationalita: Denmark

Piacere: VinoTrying to take a self portrait of all us girls....
A sinistra da destra: Clarisse (Belgium), Elsa (Belgium), Domenica (Poland), Sara (Denmark), Ylana (Australia), Teresa (Brazil)

mmmmm gelatoAt the calcio! Forza Italia
Playing hairdresser at the bar
Post calcio match relaxation
Patriotism to our new flagGetting some Italian sea, gravel and sun!
Locked in to watch the sunset

???
The Papamobile!
This mini car was so cute
Giant drink that was made to be shared
Lovely ladies at the window
Ahh yes everybody loves the little car ...
... especially Sara

il Ponte Vecchio

2006-07-27T20:38:00.000+02:00

These are a few of my favourite things

2006-07-27T19:30:00.000+02:00

Ahhh Firenze, there are way too many favourite things here. The fact that some of these buildings were built before Australia even had buildings makes me feel like I'm walking the same streets that Kings and Queens have walked down before me!

The giant Green, Red and White marble Duomo is the centre of all things Firenze and also happens to be a good reference point for me when I get lost because my apartment is on the same street.The Ponte Vechio.

A spendid example of all things Fiorentini. Built a really long time ago originally housed butcher shops and fish shops but when the Medici family built a passageway across the top they didn't like the meaty fishy bridge and demanded that gold and silver shops replace the smelly shops. So today the bridge is dripping with gold and silver shops, very expensive but very beautiful. It's nice to walk across the bridge and just dream....Davo.The Green doors to the Duomo. This Piazza is always full of tourists during the day and full of drunks during the night.Ahh Naked Guy. There are naked people statues everywhere. I do understand, it is quite hot!

The Boboli Gardens, a beautiful place to take a walk or do as this guy has done and jump on one of the swimming horses and go for a dip in the fountain.
The Medici family of Firenze left many great things in this city, I do especially love the palazzi and of course the courtyard gardens.Forza Italia!!

Siamo Campioni Del Mondo!!! Making friends from all over the world has been fun.

Here we have the Australian girl, the German girl, the Danish girl and the girl from Belgium having a picnic at Fiesole with the bella panorama of Firenze in the background.

Firenze

2006-07-26T11:09:00.000+02:00

Greetings all,
It has been a while since I have updated you!!
These last 6 weeks in Firenze have flown by so quickly, I feel that I have seen so much yet there is still so much more to see!!
To give you an idea of what I am doing, each day goes pretty much as follows:
I wake up at 7:38am, after navigating my way ot of the princepessa like mosquito net surrounding my bed, I fix myself a sweet breakfast. Breakfast in Italy is ALWAYS sweet; croissants, brioche, sweet bread or even cakes!! I get dressed for school and pack an apple for little lunch.
The journey to school takes about 5 minutes on foot, on the way I pass 4 gelaterie, one big church, 2-3 gypsies and 2 palazzi (palace). Also my apartment is right next to the Serial Killer Museum and the Duomo is at the end of my street (the church bells start at 7am in the morning and ring every 15 minutes!!)
School consists of 2 classes. First up is Grammar class where we learn the crazy rules of this beautiful language. The after a Pausa for little lunch it's time for Conversation class where we talk about everything from food to futuristic technology, from scary stories to what we did on the weekend, from ragazzi italiani to food to what we do after class.... etc etc. Conversation class finishes at 1pm and by this time I'm usually quite hungry especially if today's topic has been food or cooking. Depending on what I feel like eating or wha I have in the fridge, I either head to a nearby cafè for pasta or pizza, go home and cook pasta or make a panino or I can go to the local fresh food market to find a nice kind of pasta to cook at home!! Food here is good, eating out is a little expensive but i have found a few nice places to eat which are not too expensive.
After lunch comes the obligatory afternoon nap! All the shops in town close between about 13:30-15:30 and it's usually too hot to go anywhere during this time anyways. It is especially important to nap if we have been out late the night before or are planning to go out that night (or both).
I have visited many of the museums, churches and palazzi of which there are too many to choose from here in Firenze. Usually inside the churches it is fairly cool and if here is not too many tourists then it is a nice place to go and get some peace. There are TOO MANY museums and churches in Firenze!! To see all of them you would need years!
In the evenings it is usually still quite warm and the sun stays up until around 21:30.
The Italians love to eat and and they also like to have a drink with their meals. They have this brilliant thing called the Aperitivo. An Aperitivo is where the bars serve food usually in the evening, there is usually a buffet and once you buy one drink you can help yourself to as much pizza, pasta, salad, cold meats etc as you please (and if you know the right nights there are sometimes special themes such as sushi). One of the nicer bars that we went to a few times was Capocaccia, where there is a spectacular view of the Ponte Vechio and a nice selection of food and drinks. Of course I don't spend every night at the bar eating aperitivi!! But it is a nice night out!
During the Mondiale (World Cup) I went see most of the games (the ones with Italy or Australia of course) with some of the people from school. At the end of each game Firenze went crazy, with street parties and improptu parades of motorini and cars which filled the city with the obligatory beep beep and the waving of Italian flags!! At these matched I learnt a few baudy Italian songs and possibly a few words that we won't learn in class!!
On the weekends I have been getting out of Firenze a little bit or just exploring this beautiful city. I've been to Fiesole, Siena, Salviotino and Castiglioncello. Within Firenze I've seen the Duomo (inside and on top), the baptistry, many churches, the Uffizzi Galery (huge ass art gallery, lots of European, religious and generally old art), Acadamia Gallery (Davo), Pitti Palace (grand old palazzo full of artworks and history) Boboli Gardens (old Italian Garden filled with fountains, statues etc).
There are many cultural activities here in the city at the moment for Firenzestate (summer festival) so I have seen a few concerts, theatre performances and musicals. There is always something going on in the city.
I have fallen in love with this molta bella città and will be a little sad to leave. The linguistic, cultural, artistic, European, Italian and culinary experiences that Firenze has given me has made my time here very enjoyable.
For now ciao tutti !!! Please give me some time and photos will come, but like everything in Italy; Piano, Piano.....

My Roman Playground

2006-07-09T12:11:00.000+02:00

Ahhhh playing around in Roma. Seeing the sites and eating the food.

With good company.

Having dinner with my 2 aunties, Vicky and Lynda and my cousins Maricar and Nicole at the local Chinese resturant.
Nicole only wanted to eat corn soup and what ever was on everybody elses plate.

A big thank you to my Aunty Vicky for welcoming me into her lovely Roman home and taking good care of me.

Piazza Navona; famous for it's fountains, portrait painters and expensive resturants.

This guy was my favourite, look at him blowing thats horn.

PS. the water was inviting but was wearing shoes so no dipping ... today!
The view from San Ginocolo. A big hill in Roma with a PLAYGROUND!

A beautiful view.....
The ''tick'' face seems to be an international phenomenon.

What a stunning view of Roma.
Now, onto the PLAYGROUND. Where we go riding on the horsies yeah yeah...
Mother and daughter on the merry-go-round, very sweet.
Cousins on the merry-go-round also very sweet.
Nicole wanted to try all the different anymals in the playground, so there was the giant bug....
.... the horse

Ok, so those who warned me about ''the italian boys'' obviously underestimated the fact that italian girls are absolutely gorgeous.....

Look at this little italian poser.

And then it was time to go for a drive around....

... and around

... and around.

One more last shot of the view, it really is a lovely city!

St. Peters Basilica - Inside, underneath and on top

2006-07-06T16:25:00.000+02:00

The Vatican.

Inside.

Inside, above the tomb of St. Peter.

Outside, on top.

Inside, on top.

Inside, looking up.
Inside, on tope, the wall.
Inside, on top, Ylana.
On top, outside, looking at my house! You can see Vicky and Piero's house from the top of the Basilica!

On top, outside!

On top, outside, looking at Michelangelo's castle.

Yep, here is the money shot!

On top, outside, looking at the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chappel.

One more time, there is the apartment that I was staying in!

On top, outside, on my way down....

....down, down.

Underneath.

JP II (aka the recently dead Pope)

Underneath the tomb of St. Peter.

Underneath. More tombs of dead Popes.

The Pantheon and Gymnastics

2006-07-06T15:34:00.000+02:00

Ahhhh Rome and the Pantheon. A magnificent building....
also very pretty but a bit plain on the inside.
Now, onto something totally different from the Ancient Pantheon.

Kindergarten Gymnastics!!

It was quite warm outside and a lovely day for a bit of excercise.
The obstacle course was challenging but most kids seemed to get through it quite well.

Here is Nicole running up to the first obstacle.
And complete the balancing beam with a smile!
After the obstacle course it was time for a bit of dancing, singing...
... and skipping!

The the kiddies were awarded gold medalions for their top efforts!
That night, celebratory pizza was in order.
All the kids and mothers (and sisters and cousins) enjoyed a lovely dinner at a local resturant.

MMMMM Pizza!

Pack Girls hit the Vatican

2006-06-30T15:24:00.000+02:00

It was a lovely day in Rome when Kat, Min Jin and Ylana hit the Vatican Museum and the elusive Chappel number 16 (also known as the Sistine Chappel).There was sooo much to see in the Vatican Museum. Paintings all over the walls and all over the ceilings. Statues and monuments, many missing body parts were everywhere .
The ceiling was most impressive in the hallway full of maps.

There were some rather strange things in the hallway .... and lots of statues of heads!
The special effect of blurry ceiling were totally on purpose!
The ceiling was fantastic and a great preparation for the neck bracing activities in the Sistine Chappel
This is one of the maps of Italy on the wall in the hallway with the maps and the nice ceiling.

Kat dared me to take this shot, she said I wouldn't do it.

She also has one of me on the other side....
Unfortunately there was no photos allowed inside the Sistine Chappel, we all know what is on the ceiling in there.... so here is some other impressive ceiling artwork.
Right, back outside it was time to meet the Pope.
And with the magic of modern technology and the advantage of being taller than most people in the crowd, here is the Pope really close up.
Here he is having a little rest with his mates.

Ok, and this is evidence that I was actually within stones throwing distance of the Pope and his mates.
There were sooo many people

Ok so here we all are on our way out of the Vatican. There is the barrier that divides the country of Italy from the nation state of the Vatican and there is St Pauls Basilica in the background.
Then of course onto more important things..... LUNCH!
Just a few previous shots of the Pack Girls on their journey through Europe

Food is always an important element of the day!

Un Viaggio Nella Natura

2006-06-27T15:13:00.000+02:00

During my stay in Roma I was warmly welcomed by my Italian relatives into their apartment right next to the Vatican. Above is the view from the bedroom window....

Their 4 and a half year old (that's quattro anni a un mezzo) daughter, Nicole had a school play where she was a BEE. A very cute pre-school performance of ''Un Viaggio Nella Natura'' that I had the pleasure of attending.
There were Bees (yellow), Lady Beatles (red), Frogs (green) and Margherita Flowers (yellow).

The children were singing and dancing all about nature.

Afterwards, Nicole did not want to pose for photos. She just wanted a gelato (me too)
Here is the little bee and her sister, Maricar.
Remember, Nicole did not want to pose for photos....
.... but her mum, Vicky was having no trouble posing for photos!!

When in Rome...

2006-06-19T09:50:00.000+02:00

When in Rome there are many things that you can do, soooo many sights to see and so many photo oppurtunities. Let me share with you some of the things to do When in Rome....When in Rome you can visit the Piazza Venezia and use it as a monument to remember where the bus stop to home is!
When in Rome you must wave to as many statues as possible, especially ones of important people like Caesar
When in Rome you will notice that some of the buildings are a little run down, well ruined in fact.

When in Rome you will never forget your first sighting of the ancient Colloseum. WOW!

When in Rome you will never run out of things to photograph but be wary of the gladiators who will charge you to have your photo taken with them (up to 20 Euro)

When in Rome people will find it necassary to climb the Colloseum.

When in Rome there will be lots of people, mainly tourists. EVERYWHERE!

When in Rome the ruins will still be there, they have been here for thousands of years and will probably be here much longer that I will be

When in Rome you must visit the Fontana Trevi....
.... and make a wish when you toss a coin in
... and of course stick you feet in for a paddle

When in Rome you must visit the Piazza Spagna and pronounce it ''SPAG-NAH''...

... then you must pose repeatedly for as many photos as possible

When in Rome you will see many unfinished buildings

When in Rome you will get lost and think that you have found La Bocca della Verita and get a bit sad because it looks closed....

Of course then you will discover that you are in fact mistaken, and have found the wrong building!

When in Rome you must stick you hand in La Bocca della Verita and see if it bites your hand...... not mine so I must be true!

When in Rome you will fnd youself passing what seems to be the same building, twice.

Also, When in Rome you will see lots of cats. Fat ones

Welcome to Italia!

2006-06-18T13:05:00.000+02:00

The infamous square of miracles in Pisa needs no introduction, we all know what it is famous for and what a wonderful way to start off our journey in Italy. Keeping the tower from falling over was quite easy, even a teapot like me could do it. Of course pushing it straight was a little harder than it looks, trust me!Right, so I give up trying to push the thing upright and as I attepmted to push the whole tower over Min Jin came in to rescue it....Ecco, now it's straight

I tried again to push the tower back upright to no avail. And I thought that by doing it in the dark the tower wouldn't be expecting it ;)

My first view over the whole city of Florence, what pretty terracotta rooftops. This is a lovely city, I can see that I am gonna love it here! Florence fake David #1. This one is at the park with a lovely view over all of Florence.

Min Jin is excited to be in Florence and amoungst so many nude statues!

Fake David in Florence #2. This one is in Piazza Signoria. The baptistry of the Duomo, very tall and you can also climb to the top to check out the view.

Here is the plaque that marks the house where Michelangelo lived when he as a boy.

There are many houses/steets in Florence that have other similar signs for other famous Italians and various artists.

Kat, Min Jin, Hema and I enjoyed a very yummo Italian lunch in a cafè. This place is good and I will be definately visiting here often when I return.

A night out in Florence was the last chance we had to party with the whole group all together, with 10 of us departing in Rome. We enjoyed the local beverages in a pub called the Red Garter

Along the way to Rome we stopped at the historical town of San Gimiliano.

A very pretty town surrounded by a wall and full of many cobble stone streets, tourist shops, torture museums and bakeries.

The church in the middle of town.

Here is the very tall tower in the centre of town, which you can climb to the top of

On the way down from the little town there were some other picture worthy sites to be seen

Some kind of red Ferrari convention was going on, there were loads of them
Ahhh the rolling hills of Tuscany
We stopped at a Vineyard for some wine tasting, the views were even more spectacular than the wine
The wine tasting included a light lunch and some entertaining instuctions from the Italian speaking hostess

There were also some horsies...
... that could run very fast! It must be from all the fresh Tuscan air.

The Mediteranien and the rich and famous

2006-06-14T15:04:00.000+02:00

Cannes, the home of the Cannes film festival and many rich and famous people

WOooo who are these beautiful celebrities....

Let's zoom in for a closer look!

It's the celebrities from Australia!!

Seriously people were taking photos of us like they thought we were celebrities!

And here is me and Kat checking out the beach

Here is the beach in Cannes.

Voila!

Check it out I dipped my toes in the Mediteranian..... it was cold!! At least this beach had sand though. This is in Cannes where they actually shipped the sand in from elsewhere. This is the only free beach along the boardwalk the rest you had to pay about 15Euro or more just to sit on the beach!! Me and Kat on the beach in Cannes, just dipping our feet in the Mediteranian .... for the fun of it!
Check out the huge cruiser that just whizzed into Cannes! WOW
Returning to Nice we checked out the beach
Nice beach
Removing our shoes we headed down to see what kind of activities can be done down on the pebbles...

So you can sunbake, (but the pebbles are a bit hard and hot)
you can dip you feet in the sea (but it's a bit cold in the water),
aha you can cover each other in pebbles (which is more fun than with sand because you don't get sand in your pants...),
you can just take in the views and watch the crazy Frence people,
or you can just sit on the pebbles are look pretty..... :=)
Then time to scrub up and head to Monaco!!

The church in Monaco where Grace Kelly is buried and choir practice is held so we couldn't go in.
Ylana and Min Jin. Roomies from Paris to Nice via Switzerland
Monaco Views
The kids from Sydney scrub up well....
The views of Monaco from this lookout were superb, this is what lies just over that wall.

The view in front of the wall was just as beautiful....
We had a nice dinner in Monaco, here is our table.

Here is the Grand Casino of Monte Carlo. We paid 10Euro to get in but got it back in Casino chips. Confusing as it was I played Roulette and lost both my chips in 15minutes ahh well now I can say that I gambled in Monaco!!
This is the fancy toilet in the Grand Casino at Monte Carlo. After you flush, the seat spins around and cleans itself. This is luxury Monaco Style!!
This is how I got back to the hotel, only one way in Monaco and that is in STYLE!!

Kumuka European Escapade Tour

2006-06-11T16:30:00.000+02:00

The whirlwind tour that served the basic function of getting me from London to Italy (the scenic way) was an absolute blast.
Starting early in the morning from a London hotel on the otherside of town to where I was staying. I took the tube and arrived with plenty of time to spare. Setting off in the bus most of the rest of the tour turned out to be either Aussies or New Zealanders with the exception of one American couple. All in all a top group of tourists!
Taking the Eurostar from London to Paris showed us some beautiful English countryside, a tunnell and some equally beautiful French countryside.
Arriving in Paris we met our tour guide, Eleni along with my first experience of European gypsies.....
With the afternoon free in Paris I took off for the Eiffel Tower (see previous post) which we finished just in time for our first group dinner at La Periott Resturant. After dinner a lovely boat cruise down the River Seine was in order, taking in some of Paris' beautiful sites all lit up! The Eiffel Tower even put on a spectacular light show for us.

The after taking some more photos it was finally time for bed.

The next morning, although my feet, legs, buttocks, arms, eyes, head etc were sore from climbing the however many steps to the top of the Eiffel Tower, we went on a city tour of Paris learning the history of some of Paris' many landmarks. After the tour we we set loose in the city to explore. My quest was to see as much of this beautiful, old city in one day, here we go.

Starting off with a brisk stroll along the River Seine to the Notre Dame Cathedral, the home of the infamous hunchback Quasimodo and the equally famous Rose window. (Not sure which one is the Rose window but you get the idea).

Also went into the treasury of the Notre Dame and saw some very pretty and expensive looking church relic holders.

Onwards, after a brief snack, onto the Louvre to visit Mona. Yes she is quite small but also quite alluring, after pacing her room a few times I can confirm that her eyes do in fact seem to follow you around. Incredible. In the Louvre I discovered the Medievil Louvre to be quite interesting and as well the Greek statues. There was way too much art in this place to take in during the limited time we had but netherless I think I at least walked through most rooms.

The day was no where near over with a stroll through the park and a climb to the top of the Arc de Truimph in order. The views from the top of the Arc no where near matched those of the Eiffel Tower but did provide an amusing view point for the crazy French drivers zooming aroung the arc.

After a little nap on the top of the Arc and some more traffic watching I set off for Monte Matre and the Sacre Coèr Church, the setting for one of the funny scenes in Ameliè and a hill with a spectacular view of all of Paris. Getting a little tired I missed watching the sun set over Paris and headed back the hotel for a good night sleep!

The next day was Sunday and an excellent day for travelling into Switzerland. With most of the bus having a nap as we travelled we entered Switzerland quietly. We stopped briefly a few times for snacks and money exchange and of course also for lunch.

The hotel was the best so far with comfy soft beds and a beautiful view of the town of Interlaken. Dinner that night was with the rest of the tour group and was our first oppurtunity to try Swiss cheese FONDUE accompanied by the crazy owner Rob and his side kick Edgar we were full of cheese and entertained all night including some crazy Swiss dancing, bell ringing and of course blowing the big Swiss horn! With chocolate FONDUE for dessert we all went home giggling and extremely full, ready for a day of Swiss Mountain climbing in the morning!

After a very filling breakfast we set off for the train station and boarded the first of 3 trains that would take us to the Top of Europe! With the weather a little drizzly we were prepared for cold tempretures and cold it was! (see previous post for more on Jungfraujoch mountain top activites)

After a day of mountain climbing a well deserved dinner of Pizza and Pasta was comsumed, with most of the tour group finding the closest resturant to the hotel and enjoying the Swiss style of Italian food then finding the hotel and it's comfy beds!

Our last breakfast in Switzerland was just as good as yesterday and it was off to Geneva for lunch and shopping then onto Annecy for an afternoon of lakes, Alps, ice cream and strolling about the city.

A group dinner and a lesson in French pools was our activities for the evening. In the end I think we maybe taught the French a lesson in how to play pool Aussie style even attempting to explain the rule about what happens if you don't get any balls in the pockets....

In the morning it was another sleepy morning on the bus on the way to Nice in the South of France for hopefully some fun in the sun. When we got to Nice the rain was still following us about but with promises of sunshine tomorrow we discovered the streets of Nice. I took the oppurtunity to do some laundry and meet some locals at the laundrymat. After dinner whcih me and Min Jin had put together in the massive hypermart it was time for bed.

The next morning after discussing with a few other tour group members, a group of us set off to Cannes to do some STAR spotting and with the weather clearing up (finally) we hoped to at least get our feet wet in the Mediteranian Sea. Pretending to be super stars as we stepped of the train in Cannes we walking the promenade of Cannes watching the French people pay up to 20Euro to sit on the beach and sun bake! The last beach along was the only public free beach so me and Katarina took the oppurtunity to get my feet wet. It was COLD!!! After an ice cream and hote dog on the beach at Cannes we headed back to Nice to test the waters there (also COLD) and check out the shops. Then we headed back to the hotel to get ready for a night of GLITZ and GLAMOUR in Monaco!

With everybody dressed in their best holiday gear we dined in Monaco and strolled through the streets taking in the sites that Grace Kelly would have also seen, even driving past the place where she fell to her tragic death.

The Monte Carlo Casino provided me with my first oppurtunity gamble in Europe! Loosing all my chips within 15 minutes we checked out the architecture of the building, the most exciting feature though was the much talked about spinning, self cleaning toilet seat. Yep, you flush and it spins through a self cleaning device, only in Monaco!!

The next day was the long drive into Italy, stopping first at Fragonard Perfumery for a guided tour, sampling and some shopping. Then our first Italian AutoGrill experience, we were briefed beforehand on the crazy system of ordering and had it down pat when we put it intuse as we stopped! The lunch stop was also a good oppurtunity to watch the carpark. Crazy Italian drivers getting passionate about where they park their cars and at who ever parks their car and blocks them in. We were all astonished at the lack of any sort of order.

On the road again and in more Italian traffic we set of to the Square of Miracles in Pisa to see the Leaning Tower! Once again the carpark provided us with much fear but this time for its sellers of counterfiet products who chase you around trying to sell you all kinds of bling bling, bags, hats, souveniers etc. With our bags held close and our cameras held at obscure angles we got the ultimate photo oppurtunity holding up the leaning tower of Pisa and looking a little silly holding up our arms in front of the camera, but a brief look aroung the square showed most people making the same actions.

Back on the bus for the last leg into Prato (a suburb of Florence) where most of us were exhausted and ate dinner at a nearby resturant. Craving pizza and pasta were wanted prompt service and good Italian food. Well, we were to only get the latter as some of us waited up to 2 hours for a pizza... only to have more confusion once again when some of the orders came twice. Mamma Mia!! After sorting out issues with the locals it was time for a well deserved rest before a long day tomorrow exploring the beautiful city of Florence.

The day in Florence was started with a group picture and a local guided walking tour through the city where we saw the Piazza della Signoria, the Uffizi Gallery, the Ponte Vecchio and the spectacular Duomo. The was watched a leather demonstration and were warned about the difficulties of distinguishing real leather from fake leather.

After the tour and demonstration we were free to explore the grand sites of the city. Most people took this oppurtunity to see the Duomo and some of the galleries but after lunch with some of the girls I set off to find where I would be studying in a few weeks time. My Italian school in Florence is located right behind the beautiful Duomo!! Extremely central to all of Florence's many attractions. Strolling the cobblestone streets of Florence, it was quite a small city with most landmarks within walking distance or bicycle ride of each other.

The group dinner was in a traditional Italian resturant and there was never ending food. After dinner we headed to the Red Garter pub for some local beverages. We stayed for about an hour before heading back to Prato to go out to a local pub there and meet some of the colourful locals.

In the morning we were on the bus for my last day of the tour, Florence to Rome. Journeying through the Tuscan countryside we stopped at a Vineyard where we tasted some local wine and food. We were shown how to sample or ''pomp'' wine and to appreciate the way it made the food taste.

Next stop we San Gimiliano, a small medievil town famous for its long history, cannoli, torture museums and of course gelati!! I checked out some of the shops, took some photos and of course visited the Museo Storico della Tortura (Museum of the History of Torture). There were some pretty horrid ways in which people were punished back in the good old days... The stop in San Gimiliano was pretty short and sweet as we got back on the bus heading to ROME.

Arriving in Rome we said our sad goodbyes to the rest of the group who were staying on for the longer tours and went our seperate ways.

Farewell Kumuka

Ohh La La Paris

2006-06-03T17:05:00.000+02:00

Well the most distinct land mark of the Eiffel tower gives away my location here.
Paris an extremely beautiful city for a variety of reasons, mostly because of it's archetectural and artistic land marks but what I liked most was the symmetry of the whole city. Every archway and bridge had a symmetrical opposite. Sounds silly but it't totally true!

What a wonderful place to begin the Kumuka European Escapade tour! The tour group, funnily enough, consisted mainly of Australians and New Zealanders!

Here is one of my first views of the Eiffel tower, I was on my way to climb to the very top! Seeing it made me realise, whoa I am in Paris, France and on my way to climb the Eiffel tower. Powerful stuff!When we got to the tower, the line up was long and confusing. Choosing what seemed to be the shortest line me and one of the other Kumuka tour members, Anthony, seemed to have chosen the line that included a stair filled walk to the middle and then an elevator to the top.

During the line up I took a few photos Going up!! The view from the middle platform. Wait, the view only gets better as we approach the top!The middle platform provided a less windy area to take some happy snaps. Tired of the middle platform and dying to get higher, into the elevator we go.... Platform second to the top and it begins to get very windy, just look at my hair. But still not quite at the very top of the Eiffel Tower ... yet The views from the platform second to the top are making things on the ground look very tiny The view from the very TOP ain't it GRAND!! Ok for comparison, here is the same view from earlier just from a higher altitute.

OH LA LA
This is the carousel from the Amelie movie on the grounds ok the Sacre Coer Church. Very special

Swiss snow and French Lakes

2006-06-03T15:25:00.000+02:00

Welcome to Switzerland. The tour now goes a little vertical as we ascend high into the Swiss alps to the Top of Europe, the Jungfraujoch mountain which is the highest non mounteneiring point in all of Europe.

Above is your rescuer should you find yourself lost in the snow.

And below here is some snow!
Yes that is a blizzard .... with snow!
So I got very brave (and stupid) and ventured out into the Swiss blizzard

And we huddled together for a little warmth, we stayed outside only long enough to take a few photos and almost meet an untimely frozen death.
A husky ride through the Swiss Alps would have been lovely....

.... but the huskies were sleeping and apparently dont wake up untill summer, what a life!

I built an igloo with my bare hands.... check it out
Then I jumped inside the igloo for a bit of a nap, all that igloo building is tiring
Its the EU bear, see the European Union stars..

This little baby seal was a bit lost here in Switzerland
The quest that was set was to find a piece of ice wall that has NOT previously been licked. Well I didnt see anyone lick here....
Yes this is real snow, Swiss snow!
As the weather cleared a little we all hoped out of the train for some happy snaps
The views from inside the train were also quite nice

It was already raining so a little bit of water wasnt going to kill us, so Hayley, Cory and I set off to see the Trumbelbach Falls. They were water falls but inside a big cave. Beautiful. Kind of like an inside out blow hole, if you know what I mean. Absolutely fantastic! The droplets you see on the screen are actually the water droplets in the air because there is so much water around.

There were many other amizing waterfalls all throughout the Swiss Alps

After Interlaken it was off to Geneva, a well known Swiss city.

The San Pietro Church in Geneva, Switzerland
Yes I am holding the magnificent water fountain of Geneva
This is the monumnet in Geneva next to the bus stop where we were supposed to meet up. A very important land mark!

Annecy in the South of France was extremely beautiful and OH LA LA worthy!
Check out some of the scener, absolutely breathtaking

This is me eating ROSE and CREME BRULEE ice cream in Annecy outside a very pretty French house with flowers all over the balcony

Princess Diana

2006-05-25T18:46:00.000+02:00

To cememorate my last day in London (for now anyways) I visited Kensington Palace and Gardens. Famously known as the previous home of the late Princess Diana.

The Palace also hosts an exhibition of Royal Life and Clothes including many of the stunning dresses that the Late Princess Diana wore. A journey though the Palace is like a journey back in time as you see each room recreated to match the era of the Palace. The rooms dedicated to Lady Di are quite sad but also really stunning, she really was the People's Princess.

In the surrounding Kensington Gardens everything is so green (thanks to all the rain). There are plenty of places to sit about and look at the Palace and the huge lake in the middle.

Here are some of the green lawns of the Kensington Gardens with the Palace in the background. My cheeks may be a little bit round here but only because the sun is out and the glare is making me squint :) Wouldn't you know it, my last day in London and it finally gets warm...

Here is Queen Victoria, one of the previous royals to live at Kensington Palace

These little furry creatures are all over the gardens, quite tame too... this one came and took a piece of croissant right out of my hand !!! and I was going to eat that :)

In the nearby Hyde Park there is the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain which is very pretty and also interactive, you may not bathe in the fountain but you can paddle your hands and dangle your legs in.... a bit cold really

The Serpentine Bridge that crosses The Serpentine lake. Didn't see any serpents just lots of ducks and swans.

Well France is my next stop as I begin my first Kumuka Tour that will end in Rome in 10 days time.

Arriverderci....

Mates, Tates and Theater Dates

2006-05-25T18:06:00.000+02:00

Who would have thought that on the other side of the world far from home that I would run into my very own next door neighbours from sunny Sydney!

It was Doug's birthday and we had Japanese food at the Hare and Tortoise near the pub where Adam works.

One of the iconic art galleries of London is the Tate Modern, where there is an extensive display of contempory artists.

There is no photography permitted inside the gallery, so here are some shots of the entrance and the distinct builing which actually used to be a power station...... sound familiar?

The Tate Britain was actually more enjoyable from my point of view, there were more ''older'' traditional artists and many excellent works on art on display.

Once again no photography of artworks permitted but here is the entrance and the grand entrance hall

PHANTOM

Well I had a classic London night on Tuesday, attending the performance of The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theater. It was absolutely brilliant!!!

Even though all I could afford were ''Restricted View'' tickets (bah who needs to see the left corner of the stage anyways!) the performance was spectacular!! I really enjoyed it especially how The Phantom would just pop on and off stage.

I went back to my room humming the tune all night.

Out and about in London ~ Some Pictures

2006-05-22T22:05:00.000+02:00

I finally figured out how to upload some photos so take a peek at my first couple of days here in London.

The Big Bus tour was recommended to me by my folks and seemed like a great way to get a glimpse of the whole city.

The weather looked ''nice'' so I bravely took a seat on the Top Deck out in the open....

They did provide free raincoats!
St. Pauls Cathedral, the Big Bus stop closest to my room and an excellent place to start the tour.

The buildings here have such ornate features all over them, here is a very cute example.

The view of the London Bank from the Big Bus rooftop.

The Bank has no windows on the bottom levels because that's where all the GOLD is stored !!I SAW THE QUEEN !!!

HERE SHE IS AFTER JUST ISSUING SEVERAL PEOPLE WITH ''THE ORDER OF THE BATH'' AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

That's Prince Phillip with the hat on and the Queen is wearing the white gloves!!!!

As London is build on the River Thames there are many bridges that cross from the Northside to the Southside.

We cross a few of these bridges on the Big Bus
As we cross the Tower Bridge in the bus, we are advised that the next stop is a good place to get off and continue the journey via the River Cruise boat.
I am a little sceptical given that it is quite overcast and the Thames looks cold, but it's a good opurtunity to get off the bus and try the boat.

It got a bit cold on the River Boat cruise and began to rain.

Here is me on the top of the boat trying not to look cold with the Tower Bridge in the background

This is the view of the famous London Eye from the River Cruise boat

This is the Tower of London from the River Cruise boat

The Tower Bridge is called Tower Bridge because it has TOWERS on it!!The Tower of London is actually not just one tower and it't more than just a whole lot of towers, this place is like an ancient city. There are a few towers along it's perimetre, a large white castle in the middle and many other old buildings within it's moat and wall.

I spent a day very historic day here, accompanied by one of the girls from my room, Erin. We explored all of the accessible buildings and choose our favourite crowns from the prized royal jewel collection

Here is the view out of one of the towers.
This is the perfect juxtoposition of modern and ancient, here are some of the buildings in the Tower of London with the view of the very modern looking office tower (affectionately called ''The Gherkin'' by the locals) in the background.

The view of the Tower Bridge from inside the Tower of London is pretty spectacular.

London Pictures

2006-05-22T20:54:00.000+02:00

The entrace to the British Museum is guarded by some rather sombre looking Lions.

I spent all day at the British Museum, getting lost and finding new exhibitions.

The spectacular Great Court with the glass dome ceiling

The Clock exhibition in the museum was really pretty, here are some examples.

Sorry, please just tilt your head to the left as this Egyptian monument is a little askew

The Greek section of the musuem would have to be my favourite section, it was quite extensive. A little too extensive apparently as many of the artifacts removed by Britain are wanted back by Greece.
Some headless dancing ladies

As a few of us from the room decide to head out and try an age old English tradition of beer drinking. After ordering our beers we attempt to take a photo of ourselves and document this very important milestone.

Hmmm maybe we should try drinking the beer first then taking a photo.....

That's a bit better, no you can see all 3 of us, that's Erin the (English) Canadian on the left with the Old Speckled Hen beer and Katrine the (French) Canadian in the middle with the May Bee beer. I also attempted the May Bee beer, but in very unAussie fashion could not finish even 1 pint :(

Here's me pretending to like the English beer and Katrine seeming to actually enjoy it!

I spent a lovely rainy London morning in the Natural History Musuem and explored both the Life Gallery (which is funnily enough actually filled mainly with dead things) and also the Earth Gallery.

As expected the Natural History Musuem has a lot of old bones and dead things.

Here is one such example of a Stegasaurus skeleton fossil

This is the museums REAL LIFE T-REX !!!

It's seriously huge and quite terrifying, there were a few crying toddlers in the room, but I wasn't afraid (much)

The dinousaurs get a bit tired after a day of dinasouring.

Hehe if you look closely you can see my reflection!!

There was an extensive display of real life sized animals, these are African Elephants. You learn something new everyday and today I have discovered that African Elephants have large ears and Asian Elephants have small ears. Museums are grand!!

Yes this is a giant (life sized) Blue Whale

This is the entrance to the Earth Galleries at the Natural History Museum. There were a variety of exhibitions here on earthquakes, volcano eruptions and the like. There is even a ''realistic'' earthquake simulator (pfffft it was a pretty weak earthquake, I've fallen harder out of bed)
This is the grand entrance to the Victoria and Albert Museum where I spent a very pleasant rainy afternoon

These are some of the cute ''chubby children'' which are actually used on tombs of dead people This is the famous Bed of Ware. There were a variety of ''sordid stories'' that accompanied this bed but I won't go into that here :P
Hang on what are Michalangelos David and The Virgin and Child doing in London?

Acually these are ''fakes'' or plaster cast moulds made from the originals and they are on display in the Victoria and Albert Museum

Top Shopping, Tower of London and the British Museum

2006-05-20T17:01:00.000+02:00

So I have been in London 4 days now and I have fallen in love with ......Top Shop.
The place is massive, 6 floors of shopping it's like Sportsgirl on cocaine!!
I'm a bit addicted, don't worry I haven't spent any money there, just a lot of time :)
Ok so other sightseeing of the cultural variety, I went to the British Museum. Which is actually not very British but just a whole lot of stuff that the British have taken from other countries. They have a really excellent Greek section with some of the sections of the Parthenon.
I got lost within the British Museum quite a few times, but it was actually a really good way to find new sections that I hadn't seen yet. There were lots of statues of Lions, it seems to be a running theme here in London.
Went to the Tower of London as well. That place is older than Australia has been ''discovered''. The ''Tower'' isn't actually a tower, it's more a collection of castles and really old buildings. At the White Castle which is within the Tower of London, the Royal Jewels are kept. I went in and saw them, they are kept really secure and you can't touch them :( I really liked Queen Mary's coronation crown (please). From the Tower of London there is some really good views of the River Thames and all the bridges of London including the Tower Bridge, which is the most spectacular and personally my favourite London Bridge.
On that note, it's time to go back out and brave the rain.
Stiff upper lip love, this is London and it rains.....
Lots of love and kisses xxx

Bloomin' London

2006-05-18T19:04:00.000+02:00

Well I have arrived in rainy London!!
Safe and sound...
Landed in London's Heathrow Airport at 6:25am local time. The flight took about 21 hours in total, 7 hours Sydney to Brunei then 7 hours Brunei to Dubai (an unexpected but very quick stop) then about 7 hours again Dubai to London.
Proceeding through customs at Heathrow and was given the 3rd degree by the lovely customs officer. After just coming off a 21 hour flight my head was a little wooosy and I possibly came across as a possible securty risk to the lovely country of Britania. The exchanges happened as follows (roughly):
Officer: Passport and landing pass please
Ylana (hand over documents)
Officer: How long will you be here?
Ylana: 10 days
Officer: Do you have a return ticket, may I please see it?
Ylana: Yes (documents)
Officer: Hmmm your ticket is to return on 31st October, that is more than 10 days
Ylana: (getting a little nervous) I will be in London for 10 days then continuing to Europe
Officer: (getting suss) How are you planning to get around in London, what will you be seeing and where will you stay)
Ylana: Uh The Big Ben...
Officer: Right but how do you plan to get around
Ylana: (pulling out THE FOLDER - if you've seen it you will understand) This is my Britrail Pass, this is my Tour documents and here is my accomodation, here is the enrollment forms for my Italian School, here are my flights to Greece and the tour there....
Officer: (very impressed) Ok you are obviously organised, Florence is lovely you are going to love it (stamp passport) Have a pleasant stay.

Right well after battling the London underground during peak lugging aroung a 24 kg suitcase. My accomodation is very homely and the people here are quite nice.

So far I have been on the Big Bus Tour (very informative and I got a free rain coat), the Tower of London (very old and very pretty). Seen many of the sites including all the infamous bridges of London (the Tower Bridge is my favourite - very pretty)

I have been here 3 days and it has rained 3 times....

Missing you all heaps.
xxxxx

Farewell MagiNet

2006-05-08T14:02:00.000+02:00

So it is the last day of my first "real world" job. It has been fun working at the MagiCal Networks of MagiNet and I will miss all the fun and office gossip but it is time to move onto to bigger (and better) things!!

Check out some of the pics from my last day!

Goodbye Timbo, I know you will totally miss my disruptions!

Some of the boys are having a beer to celebrate my departure

It's always nice to see the Operations, Admin and Sales departments getting along

David, I will miss your crazy stories and freaky premunitions. Alex, you are strong but not stupid and that is ok

Awwww B1 and B2

Hey, it's all the media centre boys! Did you know I dated half the guys in the media centre, can you guess which one?

Sure hope you guessed this guy:

Some can't stop working, even during the party.

Allan and Todd look busy

Allo Allo to my favourite storeman!

I may have got a little something in my eye during that speech...

Thank you to everyone at MagiNet for making my time there enjoyable, shall miss you all and may see you when I return....

Glam at the Burdekin

2006-05-02T13:59:00.000+02:00

After the Hard Rock Cafe the party was no where near over...

Glam continued at the Burdekin on Oxford Street

Claire and Brigid looking very cute and very Glam

All smiles but Andrew is secretly plotting to release Jayne's balloons

Once were Jesus Christ Superstar and Macbeth Witch #2 and #3

Take a look at them now

Check out who's sleeping and who's peeping in the background

Do we look related?

Really?

I suppose we do have the same beautiful, giant smile....

And similar sad pout after watching our balloons float to the ceilingoh dear

Of course the balloon duo also both have excellent taste in boots...

These boots were made for walking!

Andrew does not look so confortable

These girls look more comfortable over on the couchLisa, is there anything that you would like to confess right now?

Antboy and Jeffro are here, yay!

Thanks for coming along John, but please stop that creepy smirking you're scaring the kiddiesOk before checking out the mauling, check out sneaky Jayno sneaking into the photo....

I don't think she realised that she was going to be in the shot, nice balloon honey

Please be more gentle next time Claire

Don't stop....

Tracy was a little overcome with jealousy and nearly dropped the camera,

sorry Tracy I promise it will never happen again, please don't hurt me

Are you pondering what I'm pondering Pinky?

Whuh I think so, Brain, but where will we get that many marshmallows and soft pillowy clouds?

It's time to take over the world

For those of you about to Rock we salute you....

Time for a nap.

Thank you to all you atteded, it was absolutely Rockin' to see you all before the big European Adventure

Glam Rock at the Hard Rock

2006-05-01T09:15:00.000+02:00

What better way to farewell Sydney than with a Glam Rock Party with all my buddies at the Hard Rock Cafe!

Here are some of the lovely Glam Rock ladies (Jayne, Claire and Tracy) at the dinner table, where they feasted on Pork Ribs, Open Face Sirloin Sandwiches and Potato Skins (Large potato shells fried golden brown, filled with Jack and Cheddar cheese, crisp smoked bacon, green onions, parsley and a side of sour cream for dipping.) MMMMMM

Ok Enough talk about food, let's see some of the other Glam Rockers.

AJ and Shannan.

Love those Horns AJ. Love those Fishnets Shannan

Brigid and Viv with Lucky guy Steve

Megan and Dale, are they wearing matching black and white outfits? How cute...

Glam ladies; Bec and Kenny

Alright now lets see some outfits.....

Woo woo who is this Rockin' Glam Rocker?

Nice super tight pants, Glam white shirt and totally out of this world Hair-do

Very exciting to see that we are never too old for dress up parties

Rock On!!

Adrian, Pete and Shannan

Aidy and Petey are competing to see whos pants fit more snugly, it's a pretty tight competition

Your pants are so tight, how do you get into them?

Well you can start by buying me a drink...

Lisa quit looking down my top !!

32 day till take off !!

2006-04-14T08:52:00.000+02:00

With 32 day till Ylana takes off for the big trip to Europe!!
Flights are booked, enrolled in Italian school (in Firenze), got a suitcase/backpack, quit the job and of course started a blog!