Running of the Bulls Opening Ceremony

WOW! I dont even know words to describe the last 4 days we have had. So Ill keep it brief. SO awesome that we got to reunite with Sarah, Bec Cotrell, Zoe, Lauren, Alicia, Brianna Powell and Simone Lees.  Not only them but Bobby.! Never seen a smile so big on my face then seeing people from home that you havent seen in months even years.! Wow doesnt that sound weird saying you havent seen someone in years when at home they are your closest friends. Well we began this little catch up by camping in bright orange tents. Not just a few tents but in our section there were 200 tents. Do you think we slept much these four days? NO!

We arrived in pamplona and got a taxi to Camping El Molino which would be our 'hostel' for the next 4 nights. We all met at our tents and ofcourse I realised that I left my sleeping bag in madrid so Sarah and I had to share a one man cacoon sleeping bag that gets narrow at your feet. It did the job so no complaining here. Anyways we went up to the camp bar and had a few litres of sangria to catch up on all the goss. That night Sarah, Sally, Bec and I stayed up late and danced the night away as the other tour companies joined in. So far night one bed at 2am. Up at 10am next day. The next day we went on a little excursion to spend the day in San Sebastian where we got our white clothes for running of the bulls and also went on a pinchos crawl. Sally and I loved being back here as the food is amazing!!

That night we came home and I met up with Bobby who I havent seen since I left Australia the first time. My god it was good to see him. Hes so much fun. So I was very happy to catch up with him, scotty and placek. That night we had an early night which still wasnt early but we were in bed by 1am. Next day we were up at 7am getting ready to head into Pamplona for what was the best day ever! The opening ceremony of running of the bulls! VIVA SAN FERMIN!

We got completely saturated in Sangria and Sarah, Lauren and I risked our lives and went in the Mosh pit that all girls apparently hate. Well from the beginning we thought there was nothing wrong with it. We were getting covered in Sangria, we were singing and pushing and shoving and life was good. Until 1150am. The clock was supposed to hit 12pm and that was when everyone waved there red scarves in the air and sung songs and went mental. But everyone got over waiting and things got out of hand. We were all fine then Boom none of us could breathe, Lauren lost her shoes, it was ridicuilously hot and people were getting squished like you wouldnt believe. We all of a sudden felt as though we were going to die and loads of girls were crying around us. SO we decided we had 5 minutes to get out of there which took us about 15minutes and alot of shoving and pushing. We seriously were praying to come out alive. It was every man for himself !! After we were out we continued to party and throw sangria (although mine was ripped off me in the mosh pit :( ) and then we met in the main town square where the party continued until 1am that night. We watched fireworks and drank alot of Sangria over the day and again Sarah Sally and I were the last ones home. We got to bed that night at say 2am and then GOOD MORNING! 430am we were up getting re dressed in sangria covered clothes for the first bull run. We got to the stadium and got our tickets and got seats right up the back and watch our first ever bull run. The bulls were HUGE!!! But was ana amazing experience. We watched this both mornings and thought it was awesome. The atmosphere was amazing. Every one was happy and laughing and you would never have though we were all surviving off such little sleep. Not many people got injured this year thank god although Bobby got headbutted and got a horn in his eye and has no skin left on his knees but other then that most people were all good that we know of anyway.

The first night we even went and watched a bull fight. Which we didnt realise was not two bulls fighting but it was a Matador killing./ torturing the bulls that ran that day. We watched bulls that weighed from 500kg up to 670kg get tortured by spears and then killed by having a matador spear a sword into its heart then shove a small knife into its spine so it was paralised then 3 horses come out and drag it around the stadiums arena then take it away. It was an eye opener and very cruel but thats there traditions and thats what we paid to see. Definately a once in a lifetime thing we will never do again.

The nexy day our four days were up and we had to say goodbye as we all parted our ways. It was sad but nice to know we will all be together soon back in Australia.

Rhodes

Oops I forgot to write about my 5 day adventure to Rhodes after Turkey Sail so here it is!

Shelley, Amie, Tess and I went to Rhodes Island in Greece to Relax and Soak up the sun for 5 days straight. We stayed in a beautiful apartment at Island Blue in Peftkos which had about 5 pools to choose from and it was located on the beach. It was beautiful and definately dont forget the Buffet breakfast that we over induldged in every single morning and even at lunch time seens we took half of it home for later.

We spent the week hanging by the pool and reading books and even having a few cheeky cocktails in the swim up bar. By night we headed out for nice dinners and even went to a greek night out where we had traditional greek food, ouzo and watched and got up ourselves and did some greek dancing. After that night we had met some people in the pool that day and decided we'd head out for a few drinks in town with them after. We went to a bar that had a huge rock in the middle that people would jump off and land in a really deep pool. We didnt jump though. The bar was really cool. What was supposed to be a small night ended up being Amie and I getting home at 5am after swimming at the beach and having a few too many drinks but Hey good thing was we didnt pay for a single drink!!!! YAHOOOOOOO!!!!

One day we hired a convertible and drove over the island. We drove to Lindos and went out for dinner and walked up to the castle and went the beach which was beautiful. We then drove to the other side of the island and went to the old town. Well actually we thought we went to the old town but later realised we didnt make it to the old town . But we had dinner by the port then headed back to return the car. I also attempted to drive a backwards car on the wrong side of the road and lasted about 200 metres before I pulled over and decided I wasnt trustworthy enough as we wanted to get all our money back . GOOD CHOICE BY ME!

The rest of the time we literally hung out by the pool and the beach and took silly photos. It was loads of fun for a girls week away :)

ScandiBaltic Tour

For Scandi Baltic tour I travelled with Lauren, Naomi and Dave. We had 8 days and travelled through 5 countries by bus and boat. We travelled Lithuania to Latvia to Sweden to Finland to Estonia and then back to Lithuania to fly back to London.

What an amazing week it was. We began the week by flying into Lithuania Vilinus and ofcourse arrived off the plane at 1240am and Wizz air had broken the wheel off laurens suitcase which we were sharing for the week which ended up weighing 30kg. So for the rest of the week we had to carry around a heavy broken suitcase that not only broke our hands but our back to. That wasnt going to stop us having a good time though.

Day 1 - We met our guide Dax and went on a walking tour around Vilinus town. We were late to the tour seens we had to trek across the city carrying our bag so we missed half the walking tour and had to meet the group half way through our walking tour. After lunch we got on the bus and started our drive to our first stop which was The hills of crosses. On the bus we all played musical seats and went around meeting all the other passengers on our tour. It was really good and an easy way to pick and chose who you like and didnt like on the tour thats for sure. We arrived at Hills of Crosses which was a place where locals placed all different size crosses to symbolise Independence and of course Religion. We wrote on our own cross and planted it amongst the other crosses on the hill just so people knew we went there :) after spending about an hour here we continued on the bus to the place we were staying in Klapeida. We all got showered and went for a BBQ which we got a ferry across the water to a little island that had a beach on the opposite side and set up a BBQ and the group cooked a nice little Aussie style BBQ and drank a few beers and Ciders and got to know one another. The sun didnt set until about 1030pm this night so that was surprising but after it did we all got the ferry back for an early night.

Day 2- We drove from Lithuania to Latvia today. Once we arrived in Riga and dropped our bags off at the hostel we went out on a walking tour of the city and even were lucky enough to stumble over somebodies used syringe in the street (WOW! that was an eye opener). The walking tour was really good and by the end of it we were starving for dinner. We went for a group dinner to a local Latvian restaurant called Lido. It was the most delicious food. I had chicken with tomato and cheese melted on top with lithuania style rice :) was delicious. That night we had to hurry back to begin our pub crawl. We had a free drink in 6 places and even sometimes we got more then one :) was really good we went from beer gardens to traditional latvian bars and dancing to a Kiwi bar and then to finish the night off we ended up at the Karaoke Bar where ofcourse Lauren and I showed off our many years of singstar skills by getting up and singing all our favourite songs that we know off by heart like professionals. Was an awesome night.

Day 3 - We had the day in Riga as we didnt get the overnight boat until late afternoon. Naomi and I went on a Soviet walking tour which was really good. In the tour we went to local markets and I nearly spewed in the fresh fish section it smelt so potent of Fish and with a hangover they definately dont mix well. The locals eat dried out fish as "fish chips" they dont have fish and chips there fishes are chips. GROSS!!! We continued through the markets which varied from Fresh fruit and vegetables to lollies and sweets to canned foods and toys. Was interesting. After the walking tour we headed back to meet the rest of the group and grabbed our bags and made our way to the port to get our overnight ferry to Sweden. Very excited.

We get on our boat which is about 9 stories high and a huge cruiser. It has duty free shops, bars, restaurants, money exchange absolutely everything. It even has a swedish schoolies on the roof top having a foam party from the night before and yes this was 4pm the next day. There were young girls and boys literally half naked partying covered in foam and slipping and sliding off the top deck. Was crazy to see at 4pm. They were very trashy thats for sure.

That night we met up with our group and then decided we would all do our own thing and just chill out and go get dinner and then meet when we were getting off the boat the next day.

Day 4 - We arrived in Stockholm at 9am and got off the boat after an amazing buffet breakfast. We dropped our bags off to our hotel and then we went off to our Viking tour which was awesome as we got to dress up as Vikings and do a walking tour all around the city and everytime someone stopped to take photos of us we all growled and pulled a scary face. It was really fun. After the walking tour we had free time and we roamed around the shops and as H+M is swedish we had a bit of a shop all through there. We walked through local markets and sat in the park in the sun and enjoyed the sun. We had dinner then went to the Beer Garden across from our hostel as they were showing the Soccer game of Sweden Vs France so that was really fun to watch and even more so that the sun didnt set till 1130pm so it felt like 4pm at like 10pm. Was really cool. After watching Sweden win the football game we went to bed.

Day 5 - We had the whole day in Stockholm as we were getting an overnight ferry to Finland that night. Today we spent the day on a bike tour around the alternative side of the city. The guide was lovely and the day was loads of fun. We rode up and down hills, over all different bridges and even stopped at a bar with the most amazing view of the city for a drink. Was really fun.

That night we got on the boat only this boat was bigger and we were on it for the longest day of the year. The boat was 12 stories high and had even more shops then the first boat. We wondered all over the boat then met up with thr group and had a traditional shot of schnapps and ate herring on rye bread (which is what the locals do for the longest day of the year) Was fun. That night we all splurged and went to the 30euro buffet dinner where we all dressed up nicely and had loads of food. SO much meat and seafood and cupcakes and icecream and ALL YOU CAN DRINK BEER AND WINE!!!! Heaven!!! haha After dinner we went up onto the deck and all had a big night drinking and watching the most amazing sunset at 1130pm. The day was amazing. SO much fun.

Day 6 - We all had buffet breakfast again and then hopped off the boat and went straight on a walking tour through Helsinki. Here we were all really tired and hung over so cant say we were all listening in depth but it was nice just to wander around the city. After the walking tour we got the ferry over to a little island and walked through a castle that was on one side of the island then we stopped for a drink and spent the afternoon hanging in the sun on the grass before getting the ferry back to Helsinki. That night we were all buggered from the big night before and the early start so we went out for dinner then back home for a good nights sleep.

Day 7 - Bright and early start to get a 2 hour ferry from Finland to Tallin in Estonia. Here we had yet another walking tour through the town and then we got a free Funky alternative bike tour. The bike tour was really good and we got to go in an old jail which only closed in 2004. It was really creepy but was cool cause we could walk through all the rooms and most of the stuff was left in there including paperwork and medical equipment. Was a bit dodgey but it was also on a private beach so the inmates had a pretty cool beach at the time. The bike tour didnt finish until 7pm then we went out and had a 3 course dinner for only 10 euros. Was so delicious. After we said our goodbyes to the group as we had a 5am get up to get at 7am flight.

Was a great tour and met some lovely people also.

Turkey Sail

From the 2nd June till the 9th June Sally, Amie, Shelley, Dave and I went on Turkey sail where we spent a week travelling down the west coast of Turkey. It was so beautiful and we had a really good group of people. We only pulled into 2 ports the entire week and the rest of the time we just sailed the coast. We stopped at Olunediz and Butterfly Valley and Smugglers Inn and The sunken city. I slept on the deck everynight and think I slept about 3-4 hours each night as we got woken up by the sun when it was rising. It was nice to sleep under the stars and see the moon everynight.

We had a couple of big nights. We stopped in Smugglers Inn where someone had built there own bar and made a dancefloor. The bar had really good old school music so we all danced and sweated the night away before getting the boat back to our boat where we continued to drink and party.

On the last night we also had a huge night where we had our last dinner and then got picked up and driven to the hostel bar where we watched a traditional turkish dance and belly dancer and then had a free shot and went to the night club after. We stayed up really late that night and had about 2 hours sleep before having to pack and get off the boat. It was a tough day. But the night was so much fun. It waqs sad to say goodbye to everyone and I hope in the future we get to catch up somewhere along the way.

The entire time we were on the boat we sunbaked, read books, listened to music, jumped off the edge of the boat, floated in the water and even got towed behind the little boat. We hiked up a mountain to the top where there was an old castle and watched the sunset.  We had plenty of personal jokes by the end of the trip and I think everyone only ever said "That shit cray" and "Thats what she said" was funny and iritating at the same time.

All in all was a great rest and relaxation!

Ottoman Tour

Our 2012 Travels begin with the Ottoman tour on the 25th May and goes for 7 days across 5 countries. We begin in Croatia and continue on to Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria and finish in Istanbul. This tour we are travelling with Amie and Shelley (Amies friend from home that happens to live in the shire and we have a few mutual friends. SMALL WORLD).

Our flight from London to Split was a 6am flight which meant Sal and I were up at 2am getting dressed and lugging our backpacks downt to the night bus for a 235am bus to Victoria tube station to get the 330am Gatwick Express train to the airport. My first meeting of Shelley was me sitting on a train eating a steak pastry. Im pretty sure she would have had a bad first impression whilst I was covered in crumbs. The train took 30 minutes and we met Amie at the airport around 430am! Never ever thought i'd be up that early in London. But we made it and checked in our bags which weighed a whopping 18kgs for me and Sally the big packer was 20.3kg this year!! We went and got a drink and sat and waited for our dreaded early flight. We boarded our flight and pretty sure I fell asleep before we even took off into the air. I woke 30minutes before landing to see we were flying over the Swiss Alps which were absolutely beautiful covered in snow but also had me worried as to what the weather was going to be like as I had only really packed summer clothes.

We arrived in Split and got the local bus to our hostel which is Split Booze and Snooze hostel. I can tell you now that one night we stayed there we did not booze and definately did not snooze as a girl in our room was extremely loud and coughed the entire night and a guy in our room snored the house down. (not a great start to the 6months of hostels I can tell you that much) The good thing was that we spent the entire day at the beach soaking up the sun and maybe getting a little too burnt as we forgot our skin had lacked Vitamin D and any type of pigment for the last 6months as we are normallly covered head to toe in long sleeves and pants. So we were a little pink/ RED ROAR at the end of the day.

We had a few random creepy experiences this first day which included a guy getting up whilst we were eating lunch and pegging his newspaper at us and storming off and looking like he wanted to kill us. Which is funny now but at the time the girls were scared. I had no idea what was going on as he was behind me the whole time and I stupidly thought his newspaper must have blown off his table and right onto our table BUT NO he had it in for us for some reason. But thank god we didnt see him again that day. Another experience was the four of us sitting on the edge of the water taking photos and next minute a one toothed guy walks up to me and looks like hes either going to push me in the water or steal my handbag so obviously I grab tightly on my hand bag and stare at him thinking what on earth are you doing you freak?! but he just walked off.  Things normally come in 3s so we were waiting for the next awkwardly weird experience in Croatia but it never came. LUCKILY!!

We headed out for a cider and dinner then off to bed for a 9pm early sleep as we were so exhausted. But as I previously said that did not happen. It was a night filled with tossing and turning and another early get up to leave for Bosnia the next day.

We met out tour guide Dax and boarded our bus and off we were to our first stop.

MOSTAR- It was this beautiful little town and had this amazing bridge built right in the middle which was built for trading purposes back in the day. After the war though the original had been blown up so its a reconstructed version of the old bridge. And I personally think it was stunning. The water underneath was crystal clear fresh water which flowed through the town. There were cute little restaurants and houses and shops built around the river and the views were glorious. There was still alot of damage to the buildings which showed bullets holes and blown up walls and buildings.
Here we experienced a traditional lunch with our local tour guide which was Burek. Its thin pastry slices filled with spices and either potato, cheese, spinach or meat and then rolled up and cooked over coals and cut up.It tasted delicious. This restaurant was also the beginning of using squat toilets. Not so fun I can tell you.  We get back on the bus to our next stop which is Sarajevo.



SARAJEVO- I loved this place. It is amazing. By far my favourite place where I've loved learning the history of it even though its very modern history. We arrived around 530 and checked into our Motel and then showered and got ready for our 4 course meal and even more excitedly we were meeting up with Tess :) We went to a little restaurant called Pod Lipom and for 10 euros we had Chicken and Lemon soup, Salad, a Mixed meat tasting platter of Bosnian foods and Apple Baklava and a glass of Vino (wine). Food was absolutely amazing and got us even more excited to keep trying more the following day. That night we went to a local bar and watched eurovision and  had a few too many vinos then ended the night as we had another early get up. The following day we had a walking tour with a local guide around the war torn city and then took a bus to the tunnel that kept the city alive which they call the Tunnel of Hope. The tunnel was 1m by 1.6m and 800metres long which was connected from a house in Sarajevo to the airport and took them 4months and 4 days to hand dig this out so the country could try and survive whilst under attack. The tour guide was 8 yrs old when the war started in 1992 and she told very heart wrenching experiences of what it was like to live in a city whilst under attack. She looked as though she was going to cry everytime she spoke of the horrible things they went through and I found it a very traumatic experience. Its hard to picture what it would have been like to be living there when over 11500 people/family members of these people were killed by bombs and snipers and machine guns from serbians. The worst part is the city find it hard to move on when the people are still suffering from mental and physical problems caused from the bombs. She said many of the young kids die young as they grow up with cancer from the gun powder and bombs chemicals and alot still wake up in nightmares of being under attack and thinking they could die any day.  I think after having Ben in the army away in Afghanistan for the past 6 months that it really hits home when you see the damage that has been done to the buildings and lives over here and really thats what hes dealing with over there. So it was quite scary to think that everyday that ends is a day closer for him to come home and be safe and another day you have to pray he will come back in one piece and 100% mentally and physically. So yeah I really liked that tour and its really made me fall in love with the city. After the tour we got a bus back to town and met up with Tess and had Cevapi. Which are little sausage type meats cooked over coals and put in a bread case with cream cheese. They were huge and very tasty. Highly recommend everyone tries them if they come to Bosnia.

SERBIA- Belgrade- After a long bus ride to Belgrade we arrived in the afternoon and went on a walking tour. We had a local guide who was very informative and as we were on the walking tour we walked up into an old castle and watched the sunset over the River Sava. It was beautiful. After the pubcrawl we arrived at a restaurant where our group had dinner and then went on an underground pub crawl. This was the first time busabout had been on this pub crawl and it was pretty funky and different from the other pubcrawls we had done in the past. We went to bars that were illegal in peoples houses and in caves and in deep dodgey backstreets. haha Now that Ive scared you all they were all completely safe. One place was a tattoo studio by day and a really cool chilled out bar by night where everyone sat around and relaxed and just enjoyed everyones company and the walls that were covered in drawings from people and the bathroom was an eyeopener as it had a lounge in it and the walls were covered with naked women.?! STRANGE! There were a few random bars inbetween and then the last bar was in a cave along the river it had homemade wine which you could taste every single ingrediant in it and it tasted aboslutley disgusting.  Lets say one sip and I was done trying to drink it. We also tried Honey Rakia which is the local drink. Then we strolled home as we had an early start on the bus to get to BULGARIA.

BULGARIA- 1st night we stayed in Sophia. We stayed at Hotel Rodena which was pretty fancy compared to what we were used to . Still only about 1-2 stars but still. In our hotel we had a strip club on the roof top and also a piano bar which overlooked the entire city it was awesome views. Once we arrived and checked in we got ready for the night and then went on a walking tour which half way through began to aboslutely bucket down with rain and we all got soaking wet so the bus picked us up and took us to our Gypsy night out. The gypsy night out was all you can eat food / MEAT and gypsy dancing and singing. It was by far the best night on the trip. We ate so much meat and drank so much wine that next thing we know we are dancing on our seats and tables whilst everyones eating dinner and then the whole restaurant is up and dancing on the tables and the gypsys were belly dancing and singing it was amazing. So much fun. We had a really good night and then got the bus back to the hotel and had the bus pumping of music and then went to the piano bar and then a few of us stumbled into the strip club for about 10 minutes then left as it was some ridiculous hour.

The next day we got on the bus around 12pm and drove to Plovdiv which took 2 hours. We did a walking tour through Plovdiv where we found a statue that looks exactly like dave with his ears and everything so Sal got a photo with him :) We went out for a group dinner this night and I had chicken in a clay pot and sally had chilli concarne it was really good then we headed home for an early night. 

Last night on tour was in ISTANBUL - Love Istanbul its such a beautiful city. We went on our last group walking tour and then went into the Turkish baths. They were awesome we sweated it up on the marble stone then had topless ladies scrub and massage us then we went into spa baths then had a massage it was amazing. That night we had dinner and drinks with the group was a really fun night. The next day we went to Blue Mosque, Spice Market and the Grand Bazaar. Then Dave arrived and we went on a boat trip which was supposed to be to the Asian side but we got on the wrong one and just went to a different part of the european side. So silly of us. But was still fun. That night we had an early night as we had an early get up to go to Dalaman to our turkey sail.

Poland - Krakow and Zacopane

Early January I went to Poland with Tess and Lauren. We flew with Ryan air and thought buying the cheapest flight would work out best for us as we'd only take hand luggage for the week we were away.
But we were wrong. How can 3 girls pack enough warm clothing to last a week when we were going to be in the snow every single day. WHAT A MISTAKE. I think my hygiene standards really dropped this week as I wore the same white long sleeve (and only long sleeve) top the entire week it was that cold.

We arrived in Krakow and stayed 3 nights in Greg and Toms party hostel. We went to the salt mines which was amazing. We went hundreds of metres below ground through hand craved salt mines. It was incredible and Id highly recommend everybody to go.

From Krakow we also went on a day tour out to Auschwitz concentration camp. The weather suited the day and place we were at very well. It was cold dreary and dark. Not an ounce of sun. The concentration camp was very interesting but very sad as well. It hadnt been snowing at the time we were there but when the tour guide was telling us how the Jewish people had to live with nothing but stripped clothing no socks, no shoes, no jackets and had to work and stand in the snow and rain for days on end with no sleep and no food; it really made you realise how good we have it and how badly they were treated. We walked through all the buildings and there was photos of hundreds of thousands of Women, Men and Kids that were killed in the concentration camp. There was a huge room full of all the hair that was shaved of all the Jewish people that were in the concentration camp and a room full of hair and tooth brushes and even a room full of shoes. It was really really sad especially hearing the stories the Tour guide told. The entire place was roped off the barbed wire and metal and concrete poles and the rooms that had beds were just metal frames, no blankets and no mattresses. It was truely apaulling that anybody could treat another human being like that.

That night we went home and decided we would go to Zacopane up in the mountains of Poland. The hostel owner even picked us up in his own car and drove us the full hour to Zacopane. We ate Polish pastries the whole drive up and then we finally started driving through snow. Huge amounts of powder everywhere. The trees were covered and our hostel was more like a house/lodge. We walked through knee deep powder to get to our hostel door and then it was warm and toasty inside. We were so excited about the snow that we walked down and took hundreds of photos and just ran and jumped all through the snow. We walked down into the town and even bought snow boots which were a bargain. That night we went out for dinner and ate traditional Polish food which was amazing. We ate Perogi which are similar to dumplings and also Buckwheat groats. Which were really good. They had this amazing soup which was served inside a big damper bun and u had the soup then ate the bun :) was delicious!!! The next three nights we just drank hot drinks inside our cabin and went out for lots of polish food and enjoyed the snow. Lauren and I even went skiing one afternoon which was really fun as we skiied watching the sunset :) another day the three of us went up the mountain which had a view of the entire city which was lovely but Freezing cold!! We definately didnt have the clothing to be up there but we had lunch and took lots more photos.

Then on our last night we got the bus back to krakow where we went on a pub crawl with everyone at Greg and Toms hostel which was really fun and involved shots with tobacco in it . YUCK!!!

Then we sadly got up the next day and got our ryan air luxurious flight (NOT!) back to london to head back to work!

London - Our new home!

We fly from Venice into Stansted airport where we change from being poor hungry backpackers to being picked up by our own private driver whos holding an ipad with our names on it! What a great way to end our trip. Thanks to Peter Nickerson and his connections. We get driven to Peters friends house in Wandsworth where we have this amazing little 3 story english style house. You look at it from the outside and think it would be maybe a split level apartment then once you enter that front door you are thrown by how big it is. It was newly renovated Huge lounge room WITH A TV IN ENGLISH!! and a huge dining room and kitchen and has a little court yard/backyard. The second level had two bedrooms and a bathroom (with a bath that we couldnt wait to use) the third level was split but had a bedroom with two single beds and up a couple of stairs was the double bedroom and bathroom. We were given the choice of the top room or the room with two singles but even after 4months of being with each other 24/7 we opted on the bedroom with the double bed and we shared the bed. We are definately know each other really well now.

We spent the next four days here while we looked for a place to live and a job. Whilst staying here we visited the London eye and got to go on it for free thanks to Rachaels connections :) then we went to big ben and watched changing of the guards at buckingham palace.

We then moved into our house in Clapham right behind clapham common tube stop . GREAT location and even better the girls we met travelling Amie and Tess live either in clapham or balham so we are walking distance between each other . We both started working almost straight away in office jobs and life felt normal after settling in.

If your thinking are the girls not sick of each other yet? or how do they handle each other 24/7? Well heres the answer to that. We live in the same house in fact the same bedroom actually in the same double bed which we share. We have lived in each others pockets probably for the last year. Before we moved overseas we were always hanging out and then we lived in the same hostels for the next 4 months and now we share a bed. We dont fight , we laugh all the time and pretty sure I've slighty turned Sally into a boy haha All my bad habits rub off on her and hers rub off on me... like I now read books????? yep 5-6 pages a night before bed and in that time Sal has read 5-6 chapters. We both miss each other so much when we arent together that we text or email all day whilst at work even though we both know we will be seeing each other at home in maybe a longest period of 8 hours. We talk about everything and anything and still dont get sick of each other. So if we werent ridiculously close before we definately are now!

Since being in London we have met heaps of amazing people and have been to some great clubs and bars and YES even the church! We live across the road from infernos so can confirm we have stumbled home from there a time or two. We've had swilks come and stay with us and now we have lauren staying with us until her place is ready and its been amazing the whole time we've been here.

We've been to camden markets and borough markets  and we went and celebrated with fireworks for guy fawks night. We say things like 'You Aeright?' which every english person says and every aussie replies yeah fine why? hahaha.

But so far so good . We love it here and love the people we have met and the experiences we have had.


We cant wait to begin our next adventure together in late 2012 and Im sure we will see you all very soon to fill you in on how everything is and what we have done.

Will update the blog once our travels begin again very soon.

Venice - Gondola rides, Canals, Wine and a Blossomed Romance.

Our last stop is Venice. Its sad that our trip is coming to an end but we know that this wont be the last of it so its ok for now.
Where to start with Venice.

It took us about an hour of walking the streets and lugging our bags up and over 5-10 bridges to find our hostel. It was this random little house at the top of a shop where we stayed in the attic. It was quite cosy and sweet but not the easiest of places to find.

The first night we went out for dinner with our group from busabout and walked around the city for a mini walking tour to kind of get our bearings. (Im pretty sure people that live there still get lost) We went to a nice little italian restaurant off one of the main squares where we enjoyed a few glasses of wine and some pasta before saying goodbye to our fellow busabouters as this was our last stop :(
The next morning we got up early and went on a romantic gondola ride. Everyone always says we act like a couple and now I guess you can say we are officially a couple. We held hands while sailing through the canals of venice.

The man that steered our boat was smoking hot and spoke very little english. PITY! haha
After our romantic gondola ride we went shopping and bought the famous murano glass. We strolled through the streets and had a delicious meal by the canal for lunch and dinner and then had an early night as we had an early get up to get to the airport for the flight back to london where we will begin our new lives as a defacto relationship. hahaha

OKTOBERFEST - PROST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHjj9o-xqQg&feature=related Traditional song we sung in oktoberfest . Means Cheers and to drink.

We arrived in Munich for the closing week of Oktoberfest. Where to begin.

As soon as we were all checked in we went on a hunt for Dirndls. Yes we were going to be dressing up for the next two days as German Beer Maids. We bought our costumes which makes you feel like you cant breath it compresses your chest so much. We got back to our hostel and decided to try our entire outfit on. Who would have thought something could go wrong?? Well I put my dress on and BOOM the zipper on the front of my chest bursts and rips off. My dress is now no longer wearable and my boobs are hanging out everywhere! What a disaster. Sally and I quickly get changed and run down to the shop to complain we were sold dodgy dresses. He refused to give us a refund until we complained enough that he gave me a new dress.  Thank god for that.

That night we headed out for dinner at this awesome little mexican bar. The best mexican we've ever had and it was in Munich? Who would have thought ey? We had huge delicious burritos and eyed off all the cocktails being made but decided we'd save ourselves for the big day ahead of us tomorrow. We organise a time to meet everyone at the Beer tents so we get a table and head off to bed for an early night and early rise.

8am the alarm goes off and up we got to get dressed and ready for a big day of drinking steins. We met the boys and went to the beer tents at 10 am. First tent we went to was Hoffbrau tent. The Beer Wench could carry 10 steins at a time . It was crazy she must have huge muscles and strength. Sally and I both ordered Raddlers which is half lemonade and half Beer. This was our first beer we have ever had in our lives and now we know why. It took me 2 hours to finish a litre of the stuff and about 20 trips to the toilet. Sally took about an hour and tried not to break the seal but when you gotta go you gotta go. After the first went down the next few went down a little too easy. Before we knew it, it was the afternoon and we had drank 4 steins . Sally met an asian/german man that fell in love with her... or her breasts not sure which one but he still fell in love with her and bought her a heart shaped gingerbread cookie saying "SWEET SEX BOMB" this was a laugh for us all as he then wouldnt leave us alone all day until one of the boys got angry cause he was annoying and getting drunk and made him leave our table. We moved out to the outside table and had a pork knuckle. Who would have thought I would have eaten a pork knuckle.... but yes I did.. and probably would have eaten veggies too the state we were in. The pork was delicious and so tender was by far the best pork we'd ever had and not to mention the amazing crackling.

That night we hit the dance floor for some drunken singalong songs and a few PROSTS! We strolled home around 11pm as we knew we had to back it up the next day.

The next day we were up and at it at 10am. We went to Lowenbrau tent and the beer was delicious. We loved it there. Music was great and we met up with Amie and Tess and were sat on a table with German guys so we got to see what its like for a local to go. We got really drunk and danced on the tables and sung all day and night. Was the best day and night! Sally went on some rides with David our tour guide from ibiza but soon to be boyfriend. Then we headed home around 1-2am. The 8am bus ride is not looking good the next day.

Next day we were up early and running to maccas to fill our need of any type of greasy hangover cure. But sad that we are coming to the end of an amazing adventure and life experience.