Fiji adventures

Mum, Dad and I headed to Fiji for Cat and Mat's wedding, and went in search for my great-great grandfather's grave on the way there.

Levuka town

Levuka is the place to go to see the real Fiji. It used to be the major trading port for all the pacific in the 1800’s. Now it’s more of a ghost town. Most of the shops along the formerly thriving sea front are boarded over. A few small stores survive, along with a couple of food markets and ‘amusement’ centres (i.e. pool tables). And a few restaurants support the small tourist population. The town survives due to the Tuna canning factory, which employs most of the locals.

We really enjoyed walking down the main street. Everyone is so friendly, and if you feel friendly, greet everyone with ‘Bula’ as you walk around, and you are sure to be met with a big smile and ‘bula’ in return. There are lots of rustic colonial buildings to see, and heaps of schools and churches.

The little Levuka museum is worth a visit, even if it only takes you 20mins to read everything in it.

We spent a day walking around the village, and I think that was enough. There are quite a few tours you can do that show you more of the town and its history, and we all thought they would be great to do if we went back again. You could easily spend 4 days in Levuka, and by the end of that time you’ll be feeling like it’s 1900 again.

Ovalau divesports can organise your accommodation, transfers and tours, and are a great source of info on Levuka and the surrounding islands. It is run by a German couple that have lived in the area for 20 years – Andrea and Nobi.

The Royal Hotel

We stayed at the Royal, which is certainly the place to stay if you want to feel like you’re living in colonial times. It’s the oldest hotel in Fiji, and is still decorated like it’s the early 19^th century. My single room had a single four-poster bed had a mosquito net, which did a good job in keeping out the mozzies. I opened the window to look straight out onto the ocean, and there was a table and a few chairs in the sitting room. It came with a toilet and shower, although the hot water wasn’t too plentiful.

Downstairs there’s a series of sitting rooms that looked like time stopped 100 years ago, a large pool table, a bar, computer room (with fast internet, $6 an hour), the breakfast room - $3 for toast and nice plunger coffee (with 6 flavours!), and ghost-like staff who are almost impossible to find. I felt like I was in an Agatha Christie novel at the Royal – all that was missing was a murder. I heard that the nicest place to stay is the Levuka Homestay, run by a couple from Perth in Australia. There also a new place opened up that has self contained apartments, and looked fabulously clean and new from the street. Apparently the Ovalau resort is very tired these days.

The graveyard

The reason we went to Levuka was to discover a piece of family history. My great-great grandfather, from England, was the captain of a schooner that traded around the pacific islands, and was based in Levuka in the late 1800’s. He married Henrietta, a nurse who had moved to Levuka from Sydney as a nurse for a family. They had a baby girl, Alice, my great-grandmother, and when she was only a few weeks old the captain died of a heart attack. He was buried in Levuka in 1897.

My mum’s cousins had come and seen his grave over 30 years ago, and we thought we’d try and do the same. We talked to some helpful people at the library and the national records, and they suggested we go to the graveyard a bit south of the town where all the Europeans are buried. We got in a taxi, and the driver took us about 5mins down the road to a cemetery built on a hill overlooking the sea. He pointed us towards the steep part, where the Europeans are buried, and said that a few weeks ago he’d brought some people here to look for a grave and they searched for hours without finding it. The three of us trekked up the hill and spread out in search for the grave. 15mins later we were ready to give up – many of the grave stones were toppled or the engraving worn away, and there were hundreds too look at. We’ll do some more research, we’ll try and call the cousins, we said. I started heading down the hill, and yelled out ‘I’ve found it!’. There it was, all 111years old – a stone brought from Sydney lying on a concrete grave. The lettering was in bronze or something similar, and was still very easy to read. It was quite incredible to discover that a romantic story about a great-great grandfather suddenly became much more real.

Levuka’s restaurants

Well the Royal hotel serves breakfast all day, it’s cheap, a little slow, but thick with atmosphere. You can get eggs, bacon, fruit and plunger coffee.

The Levuka pizza restaurant, opposite the wharf and tourist info centre, is the best place to eat. Main meals cost around $7 and are very tasty. The staff are excellent. You can get cheap wine by the glass, and ice-cold Fiji bitter.

Whale’s tale is tasty, in a good location on the main street, and mains cost around $10. You can even get bottles of decent wine!

Epi’s tour

Epi’s tour was fantastic. Epi is an incredible storyteller, and told us the history of Fijians and his village while sitting on the veranda of his house in Lovoni. We then had a delicious lunch made by people in the village that was made completely from local produce (and a small can of tuna). Epi took us for a wander around the village then, showing us plants that can be used as medicine, food, tea, and even to tell you where people have been. We visited the chief’s house, and he left a gift for him on behalf of us, which he organised. It was a real insight into how villagers live in Fiji.

Leleuvia

After two nights in Levuka, we went to Leleuvia island on an open topped boat. It takes about 45mins through very calm water around the reefs to the small island with white sandy beaches. It’s a family run island resort, and the staff are very friendly. Our bures are basic – bed with mosquito net, a small table, a single light bulb, and small windows that look out on the nearby ocean. There are new shared facilities that are nice and kept clean. The showers a cold, although there are solar shower bags that you can fill up and put in the sun. The food was tasty and well presented. We found that it was enough food, but big men might be a bit hungry. Beer is available at the bar. On our last night there was a kava party. The boys from the family (who entertained with singing and guitars with dinner each evening) did some extra singing and served up kava in the traditional way.

We did 2 days of diving from Leleuvia with Nobi from Ovalau watersports. He has a small dive shop set up on the island. He was a great instructor, and took us to some sites with very pretty coral formations, sharks and lots of baby fish. You wont see many large fish, sea urchins or sea cucumbers though – everything that’s edible is taken by locals and sold to Asian markets apparently. Nice, easy diving, highly recommended. $330/person for 2 days of diving, with 2 dives each day.

Leleuvia was very quiet – there were only us and another couple staying the whole time we were there. It is quite popular as a weekend spot with people from Suva though, and a recent art exhibition on the island saw 40 or 50 people staying there. A couple we chatted with on the island had just spent a few days at Caqalai, and they said that Leleuvia was in much better condition, much nicer and better food than Caqalai, although Caqalai was busier, probably due to the better write up it has in the Lonely Planet (apparently the lonely planet writer didn’t go to either of the islands though!).

It takes about 20mins to walk around the sandy beach on the island. There’s some good snorkelling off the beach, and you can see some nice soft coral there. We saw a sea snake coiled up in the sun too, although we hear that no one has ever been bitten on the island. You can also walk out on the mud flats at load tide for a few kilometres, and see lots of starfish and little moral eels in the pools. There’s a volleyball court and sea kayaks for use too whenever you feel energetic.

Overall Leleuvia was a fabulous place to get away from everything. It is a beautiful, peaceful island where you can easily pass the day reading on a sun lounge by the ocean, snorkelling and searching for sea shells on the shore. 3 nights was enough for us.

We left Leleuvia on another small boat to Wandalice landing. We travelled across a calm ocean and then up the Wandalice river, taking about 1.5hours in total. We got to the landing ( a concrete block by the bridge) and Joe from Leleuvia waited the 5mins until the local bus came to take us to Suva. The bus ride took about 1.5hours, and the bus was very comfortable, with some bollywood/R&B/rap music blaring to accompany us there.

Suva

We spent an afternoon and evening in Suva – went to museum, which was really interesting. Walking around seemed very safe. Lots of people on the streets, and they certainly aren’t as friendly as on the islands, but it’s ok to spend a few hours wandering around. We ate at the Old Mill cottage for lunch, and it was super tasty Fijian food. For dinner we went to JJ's on the Park, where we had some tasty, more up market food. Great service, not the greatest atmosphere. Seems they allow smoking in restaurants still in Fiji.

Trip plan

Nadi – Suva (1 night) – Levuka (2 nights) – Leleuvia (3 nights) – Suva (1 night) – Shangri-la (Yanuca) (2 nights) – Nadi

See all out photos here:

Fiji

Transport

Taxis

Nadi to Suva F$180, about 4 hours, depending on the weather.
Suva to Nausori $30, about 30 mins.
Levuka airport (bureta) to Levuka town $10 each, 45mins. Mini van taxis wait at the airport to pick you up and take you to Levuka. The road is unsealed, so prepare yourself for a bumpy ride! You pass through a few small villages on the way.
Yanuca (Shangri-la) to Nadi - $70, 45mins.

Flights

Nausori (Suva) to Levuka, about $69, 15mins
Excellent flight, much less painful than 5 hours on a boat!

Boats

Levuka to Leleuvia - $30 each, 45mins
Leleuvia to Wandalice landing - $30 each, 75mins

Buses

Local bus Wandalice to Suva – about $3.50
Air-conditioned sunbus Suva to Yanuca (Shangri-la) – about $15 each, 3.5 hours

Accommodation

Peninsula hotel, Suva
$130/night/3 adults
Very tired hotel, good location though. Beds very soft. TV, coffee making facilities, hot shower, small pool. Lots of staff around, not doing a whole lot.

Holiday Inn, Suva
$249/night/3 adults
This was a bit of luxury after being on an island with no hot water! Attentive staff, all the modern comforts, coffee! NZ vs Australia rugby was on the night we were there, and a huge crowd came to the hotel to watch it on their projector screens. Fantastic location.

The Royal Hotel, Levuka
About $28/night single, $42/night double
This place is the real deal.

Leleuvia island resort
$50 per night per person in a private bure, shared facilities, including all meals.

Back home after my NZ trip

Well I'm back at work today - feels like I've been away for ages.. Check out my photos from the trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/jo.savill/NewZealand

NZ was fantastic - such a spectacular country. The crazy adventure sports in Queenstown were definately a highlight - rafting, the canyon swing, mountain biking... We didn't end up going kayaking in the Doubtful Sound unfortunately due to bad weather. We spent a day in the very sleepy town on Te Anau and then went back to Queenstown the next day, where we thought horse riding in a blizzard would be a good idea. Beautiful countryside, but it was bloody cold on that horse I can tell you. Once we got back to the hostel we jumped in the very hot spa and stayed there for a few hours to defrost, talking to random backpackers.

After Queenstown we spent 7 hours on a bus to the town of Franz Joseph on the west coast. It is very rugged on the west coast, with grey raging oceans, driftwood on beaches and lots of rain. Luckily we didn't see any rain, and instead climbed many ice steps on the Franz Joseph glacier in the sunshine. The glacier was incredible, so much ice. We even heard it groaning as it moved a few times. A once in a life time exprience.

Another highlight was catching the Tranz-Alpine train from Greymouth on the west coast to Christchurch in the east. A very scenic trip, and I prefer trains to buses because you can drink a bottle of wine on them!

Our last night was spent in a gaol cell in Christchurch - well in a gaol that was changed into a backpackers hostel. It was this great white cavernous building, and we slept in a real cell! Kind of spooky... There are a few picks on the photo collection.

Now I'm back in Canberra and am adjusting to being here with Chris gone. I'm just going to have a lot more time on my hands I think. I am playing mixed netball on Wednesdays, which should be fun! Hopefully the boys aren't too rough...

NZ south island adventure

I'm having a great time in New Zealand. It is so beautiful here, and so completely different to Australia... It reminds me a lot of Scotland and the lake district.

First the pictures - well that's me jumping off at 109m freefall canyon swing here in Queenstown. Oh my i have never been so scared. I totally freaked out initially when I looked down to see nothing between me and the canyon below, i even screamed and said i just wouldn't do it. But somehow I managed to calm myself down, and in a moment of madness walked over the edge to the few seconds of freefall before the swing gently caught me and i swung around with the beautiful blue water of the shot over river below. It was such an incredible feeling, and what and adrenaline rush! Totally nuts. Even now 8 hours after I'm still tingling inside.

Just because doing one adventure crazy thing in Queenstown isn't enough, yesterday Claire and I went rafting down a gorgeous river with 4 rapids in it. Had a great time and even swam in the 5 degree water!

This afternoon we went downhill mountain biking, which was great fun. I did the initial easy track, the shotover road, and then the next time I did the hard track, which I really enjoyed surprisingly! It was great fun, pretty challenging, but I found looking well ahead and not at the big rock I was going over or the steep hill i was racing down really helped with the fear of what I was doing!

Christchurch was a lovely city - so very English, i mean more English that england in some ways! We went punting on the river Avon, and drank some tasty beer at Dux de Lux. A nice touristy day.

The day after saw us on a 10 hour bus via the spectacular Mt Cook and some amazing aqua lakes. Stunning scenery the whole way.

Queenstown has been great fun. I'm really enjoying travelling with Claire, its all going fantasticly.

Tomorrow we are off to Milford Sound, and then onto Doubtful Sound, where we are going on a 2 days kayaking trip - can't wait.

Photos from Kosciusko

Hi All,

 

My parents came to visit me in Canberra. We went up to the snowy mountains for the weekend (no snow around at the moment though of course!). It was really pretty up there, and we did the big walk up the highest mountain in Australia - Mt Kosciusko. It was quite easy really. We caught the chairlift up, then did the 5hours return walk on a nice path. We saw a snake on the way too! And Polish people at the top, randomly dressed in polish national dress.. turns out the guy who first climbed the mountain was Polish and it was his birthday.

 

Anyway, check out some photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/jo.savill there are also photos from Sydney and christmas.

 

Hoep you are doing well.

xo

Jo

Christmas on the Gold Coast

Gold Coast Christmas 2006

Had a great Christmas at home on the Gold Coast. It is so lovely up there. I wish Canberra was a bit closer to it!

My housewarming party: Doctors and Nurses

Doctors and Nurses house party

Things are going well in Canberra - I'm enjoying being back in this cruisy city. Loving the sunshine. I'm heading home for christmas on Friday for 9 days which will be awesome. Can't wait to go to the beach and see all my family again.

Canberra update

I was just thinking that since returning from overseas I haven't told all my mates what I'm up to. It seems that ordinary life has taken over, and things aren't as exciting as they were but a month ago when I was travelling Europe.

Well things are good, but in different ways of course.

It took me about 3 weeks to get used to being back in Australia after 18months away. I had culture shock in the country I'm from - a very odd feeling. I was surprised by how friendly shop assistants were to me, how fresh the air is, how the sun here burns you so quickly, and how much things cost (I'd totally forgotten what your Aussie dollar gets you). It was fabulous to see family and friends again. Soon my overseas travels went from feeling like a very long dream I'd had to a distant memory. Now I'm just so happy to have travelled, and to have such great memories and have met such awesome people. It sustains me through the dull bits.

I've almost finished my first week of work! I'm a communications officer, in case I haven't mentioned that you yet. I like it so far - really nice people, interesting work happening around me (don't have much to do as yet though), and I have my own rather large office! The location is lovely too - out at Gungahlin. It is a collection of buildings surrounded by paddocks and bushland a little bit out of town.

I just found somewhere to live - with another girl in Dickson, in a nice apartment with all the mod cons, including my own ensuite.. Bring on the luxury living. I just have to walk down my stairs to choose from heaps of yummy restaurants in Canberra's 'china town' (I use the term china town loosely as its the smallest china town I've ever seen!). I move in there on the 11th, and till then I'm staying with Chris in the south of Canberra.

Last weekend I went to Canberra's version of Oktoberfest and drank lots of beer, chatted to lots of people, watched some German folk dancing and ate pork. All good, healthy, excessive drinking type fun. Reminded me of Europe in many ways... :)

Hola amigos!

I´m in Cordoba right now and it is a good 40 degrees outside... well its 35 degrees now that its 6pm. So hot! But at least it is quite dry. Spain is definitely the hottest part of the trip so far.

I had a great time in Barcelona. Nita was stayed longer in Italy so I was on my own there. But not for long really, because after just a morning by myself I met a great bunch of people who I spent time with over the next 5 days. The girl sleeping beneath me on the bunk ended up becoming my good mate and we travelled to Madrid and then onto Seville together as well. Shilly has now gone onto Lagos. It was great meeting some more cool people, and I found travelling on my own quite easy.

Barcelona is an amazing city - there is so much to do there and the night life is just huge! I didn´t get home before 4am 4 nights in a row. As a consequence by the time I got to Madrid I was coming down with a bad cold.... Which I still have now - runny nose, cough and all that. Nita met me in Madrid just fine. I hate being sick on holidays, so I´ve been trying to push through, by going on tapas tours the couple of nights in Seville which have been awesome fun. The tapas was so amazing!

Some highlights have been:

- everything Gaudi in Barcelona. The buildings he created are like something out of a fantasy book, they are just incredible. I loved how much of his work was inspired by nature.

- the Prado in Madrid had an excellent collection of art and an amazing Picasso exhibition. I was so impressed. Madrid was a nice big city, with great food and parks to wander through.

- the Alcazar in Seville was just beautiful. It was a moorish palace that was turned into a christian palace, and had amazing tiling decorations on the walls and beautiful gardens complete with peacocks.

- The mesquita in Cordoba is very beautiful, and I would say the most gorgeous church I´ve been to. It used to be a mosque and was turned into a chruch in the 1400´s. good on them for not destroying something so beautiful. It is filled with amazing archways.

- speaking spanish.. I am so glad I know some spanish because you really need to use it here in Spain! I would say out of all the countries I´ve been to on my trip Spain is the place where it is most useful to know some of the language. I´m great on menus and directions (thanks Jesùs!). I really want to learn more of the language now, it is fun to speak it.

- and of course the major highlight has been the people that I´ve met along the way, there are just so many awesome people that I´ve met on my trip now. The great thing about email is how easy it is to keep in touch with people from all over the world. Even after travelling with someone for a few days you get to know them so well, it can be hard to say goodbye.

I wish I could add some photos to this email but alas, no way of connecting my camera.

Next stop is Granada and then I´m off to London and then home! It is really hard to believe that I will be sitting at home on the Gold Coast in 11 days... It is very hard to imagine right now, here in very hot Cordoba, surrounded by people drinking sangria and cervercas and eating tapas....

I´m off for a siesta....

Istanbul

We are having a great time in Istanbul - it is a fantastic place, with lots of stuff to do and see. Hyrum was ill for a few days when we got here, poor guy with food poisoning or something, but he's doing much better now. His mate Rustin arrives tonight, so we are a group of 5 for the new few weeks.

Yesterday we went on a cruise up the Bosphorous and the day before we took a ferry to Asia - well the asian side of Istanbul.

People haggle with you here to buy things almost all the time but it is not that bad, it is actually quite funny!

Its super hot here though, but nothing that I can't deal with really. The airconditioning in this computer place is fantastic.

Our hostel has a roof top bar which overlooks the water and the Blue Mosque. Absolutely stunning, and very laid back. I've been eating a lot of Kebaps and baklava. Food is really good here!

Yesterday I went to the Grand Bazaar with Canadian Dan (the second canadian Dan of the trip) and had fun buying jewelry and backgammon boards for his friends. I also did some jewlery purchasing myself. It is amazing how cheap things can get when you walk away from them..

There a mosques scattered everywhere over this vast city, and along with the call to prayer 5 times a day I know I'm not really in europe anymore. People are very friendly here, even when they are not trying to sell you something (which is most of the time). Great place to visit all in all.

On the 17th we are flying to Izmir, then going to Kusadasi, a beachside town for a night where our hostel has a pool! Can't wait for a swim, that is one thing istanbul is lacking right now. Then we catch a ferry to the greek island of Samos, and then onto Mykonos. We might go to another island around there and then we head to athens on the 24th, I have my job interview on the 25th (you can really see me researching sustainable ecosystems on a greek island now can't you....) and then off to italy on the 26th/27th where we stay with Hyrum in Naples for a few days. Once we leave turkey things are going to get much more expensive than eastern europe and istanbul... I'm sure we'll be right.

Transylvania

We had a great day today on a tour of Transylvania. it was really beautiful up there in the forest covered mountains. The castles we visited were very fairytale like.

First stop was the Palais castle, which is quite a modern one really

Transylvannia was awesome today. Beautiful, very atmospheric and fairytale. I can understand the mystic about it, although the whole dracula thing is just a myth created by someone who'd never been here.

We never made it to dracula's tomb (well, Vlad's tomb). It is much more difficult to get around Bucharest than you would think. It is so not set up for tourists yet - there are no signs, people try to help but don't really know how to... Its generally a pretty crazy city, and it reminds me of a latin american city. There are parallels too - Romanian is a romance language (latin) and like some latin american countries they are just emerging from a hard core dictatorship.

The day before yesterday we walked around Bucharest to see some of the sites. Not as easy as you might think! We went to the people's palace, which is the second largest administrative building in the world, the brain child of the dictator Ceausescu , a megolmaniac to say the least. From 1984 to 1989 all the resources in romania went to building this thing, while most people were queuing for 20 hours to buy meat and had no running water. So walking around this enormous building encrusted in marble kind of gave you the creeps. The palace is at the end of a 'copy' of the Champs Elysee in Paris - only it is 1m wider and 15m longer... the dictator guy thought he was tops to say the least.

We are catching a 18 hour train to Istanbul today - we are skipping bulgaria so that we can spend some more time in Turkey. We have heard lots of warnings for all the scams when travelling in Istanbul so we feel prepared. Good there are 4 of us too.

draculas castle

At dracula's castle in Transylvannia... Hyrum, me and Ken eating black bullets, a Newcastle mint.

Romania, land of Dracula

I'm in Bucharest now, after a brilliant but speedy trip through the Czech republic, Vienna and Budapest.

We have met up with Hyrum now, our friend from Hawaii who is living in Naples. So we have a group of 4 for the next week until we meet Hyrum's mate Rustin in Istanbul. Ken, my mate from Newcastle met us in Budapest.

Was stressing out a bit today when I realised that it is actually quite far from Istanbul to Greece... we are trying to sort that out now so I can figure out where I will be doing my interview from!.

We had a really nice sleeper train from Budapest to Bucharest... 1st class I believe, with even a sink in the room. Played monopoly last night, very fun. Met a social anthropologist from Cambridge, so very random...

We had a great time in Budapest. It was nice hanging with our gang of friends that we had made. They have all moved onto Croatia now. Most sad. There is a pic of some of them - when we were in the train and then our last dinner in Budapest before the farewell.

The snail pic refers to our 4 hour mission to find a park in Budapest where they put all the communist propaganda statues after regime ended. We never found it that day, despite following a guy in khaki and flip flops blindly and asking loads of people for directions. the next day we caught the direct bus there. much, much easier!

Bucharest is an interesting place. Certainly a lot poorer than the other cities we have visited so far. I was wondering today whether the prevalence of sex shops, casinos, currency changers, dodgy Internet places and fancy clothes stores are a consequence of the relatively recent move from a hard core socialist government to a democratic society. Things are cheap here though, or they might be, if I can ever manage to sort out the currency conversions (they have new and old Lei, one has 4 extra zeros, and the other doesn't.... I'm so very confused!!!).

Had a massage yesterday at the baths in budapest. Was sooooo awesome. Perhaps I\'m feeling too relaxed/scattered right now or something.

Must get to sleep, as it is almost 2am, and everyone else has bunked down for the night.

Krakow and Prague

We spent our 3 nights in a very cool hostel called the Stranger, and have met lots of cool people. Our first day here we went on a cycling tour around Krakow, and saw the Jewish ghetto and Oscar Schindler's factory. It was a really interesting tour and gave us a good understanding of what has happened there.

The next day a big group of us went to an amazing lake about 20mins about that was made when they filled in an abandoned quarry. It was quite spectacular. And very beautiful. It was great having a swim in the cool water. We then picnicked on the cliff edge eating polish sausage sandwiches. Yummo.

We've been hanging out with other aussies, brits, irish, american and welsh people, loads of fun. The partying in Krakow has been loads of fun. And things are so cheap here! Yesterday we've eaten some amazing food at Babushka's kitchen - a cute eatery underneath a university, where they serve up amazing polish food. We ate till we could eat no more for about 4euro! Amazing. I tried to eat as much polish food as possible - perogi, pork chops, cabbage rolls, beetroot soup, bascrz, goulash.... so very good, but incredibly filling as well!

While In Krakow we took a trip out to Auschwitz. Words cannot describe how intense it was to be there. It still makes me feel sick in the stomach to think of it. Very moving. I'm really glad we went though.

On our last day in Krakow we went to the salt mines, which are a world heritage site. They are all man made, and we went down loads of steps to end up 136m underground. We went through numerous chambers where miners had carved amazing sculptures out of the rock salt down there. The extent of the caves were incredible. We also saw the largest underground chapel in the world (or something like that) which was very impressive. The acoustics are supposed to be awesome down there for concerts. But the best thing about the salt mines was that it was 14degrees down there, which was a gorgeous change from the relentless 30 degree temperatures we've been having.

Last night we took the overnight train to Krakow, arriving here at 7 in the morning, eventually found a tram, walked up a hill till our calves burned to our hostel just for tonight - the Clown and Bard. We've met a couple of irish guys we met in Krakow, and we're all heading to Czesky Krumlov tomorrow, to chill out and float down a river. Seems like there are loads of Irish and Canadians travelling around, and Aussies of course, but not that many English and no scottish so far.

Today we wondered around Prague, drank some fabulous beer- Pilsner Urquell - and are heading out for even more Czech food tonight at a restaurant that my family discovered where we were here in May - Kolkovna.

Our one night in Berlin (before hitting krakow) was awesome. We went to the Jewish museum, mainly for the architecture and we were not disappointed - it was an amazing building, and made more of an impression on us than the exhibits. That night (after randomly bumping into a girl I met in Scotland at easter on the haggis tour at our hostel), we went back to the squatter's artists residence and bar we went to last time we were there in January and managed to crash a pub crawl. Was lots of fun chatting to random people. I think that really is the best thing about travelling, the people that you meet. And perhaps the amazing food!

Zaans Sachans and Den Bosch

Today we went to Zaans Sachans - a little old-style dutch village (somewhat touristy, but the dutch are so laid back that it didn't really matter). It rained a bit, which was actally something of a relief after the unusually hot weather they have been having here. Off for some drinks tonight in Den Bosch.

First stop Paris

I was quite sad leaving Newcastle on the train on Sunday. It had really become my home, after living there for over a year. My last few days there were lovely too - sunny weather, great farewell drinks, seeing the toon play at St James' Park, an evening trip to druries beach (not sure of spelling there) and quiet drinks by the quayside at the Baltic bar watching the sun disappear behind the old buildings.

I spent a nice Sunday night in hot London staying with Katie (thanks Katie and Daf!). We went to Anna Doughtey's (from college days) place for dinner, which was so lovely (thanks Anna!). I must admit I was feeling a bit of culture shock being around a bunch of Aussies after hanging out with Geordies and English people for so long.

I flew in to a stinking hot Paris on Monday. I managed to negotiate the subway system to get the train to the hotel with 3 changes (which I couldn't have done without the handy metro map that Bolt had given me on my last visit), to meet up with Nita and Erwann (Nita's Dutch friend). We went out that evening to Champs Elysee and we lay on the grass next to the Eiffel tower watching the sky change colour as it set. It was a great way to start our Paris adventure.

We began the next day with a trip to the Cemetery Pere Lachaise. It was very leafy, and the mausoleums were quite spectacular, there were so many! We went to Jim Morrison's grave, and kind of wondered why it was so popular.. Perhaps it is the interesting surroundings. After walking up a slight hill we had to sit down to recover (it really is very hot, and living in Newcastle has not prepared me for the heat at all! Nita is feeling the same way, having just left Glasgow. Hopefully we will acclimatise soon because it wont be getting any cooler...)

We descended to the sniffling metro system and arrived at the Luxembourg garden with some sandwich stuff to join the masses of Parisians sitting in the shade enjoying the summer. It was lovely just lying there enjoying the weather. Parisians really know how to do the outside thing. England hasn't mastered it, for obvious weather reasons I presume.

Highlights from the nest few days include having a drink at Le Deux Magots (where the philosophers Sartre and de Beauvoir sat), a picnic at the Sacre Cour (more sunsets!), walking undergound through the macabre Catacombs, Musee d'Orsay (gotta love Renoir and Rodin), tucking into Lebanese food near our hotel, breakfasting on croissants and pain au chocolats, the Pompadieu centre (very interesting art work), Notre Dame (I don't know, I think the York Minster and Durham Cathedral are just as good, although the Vatican probably wins in terms of spectacularness), Le Sorbonne and the Pantheon.

Getting around Paris was quite easy considering Erwann speaks fluent French, having been brought up by French parents in Holland, and my mastering of the metro system :) My French still doesn't get past the 'Bonjour" and "merci" unfortunately, although sometimes I think I understand more than I realise because of my experience in Montreal 5 years ago.

Paris is such a beautiful city, there is some kind of magic about it - the buildings, the white and silver rooftops, the grand scale of the avenues, the leafy tree-lined streets, the spacious parks filled with people enjoying them... I still think it is the most beautiful city I've ever seen. I was just a little sad that Chris wasn't there to enjoy it with me. Some day soon perhaps.

Last night we drove out of Paris in Erwann's car, through Lille, Belgium, and now we are in Den Bosch, Holland at Erwann's very nice apartment. We are in Holland till Monday when we will make our way to Krakow on the train, and begin our Eastern European leg of the trip. I was quite sad leaving Newcastle on the train on Sunday. It had really become my home, after living there for over a year. My last few days there were lovely too - sunny weather, great farewell drinks, seeing the toon play at St James' Park, an evening trip to druries beach (not sure of spelling there) and quiet drinks by the quayside at the Baltic bar watching the sun disappear behind the old buildings.

I spent a nice Sunday night in hot London staying with Katie (thanks Katie and Daf!). We went to Anna Doughtey's (from college days) place for dinner, which was so lovely (thanks Anna!). I must admit I was feeling a bit of culture shock being around a bunch of Aussies after hanging out with Geordies and English people for so long.

I flew in to a stinking hot Paris on Monday. I managed to negotiate the subway system to get the train to the hotel with 3 changes (which I couldn't have done without the handy metro map that Bolt had given me on my last visit), to meet up with Nita and Erwann (Nita's Dutch friend). We went out that evening to Champs Elysee and we lay on the grass next to the Eiffel tower watching the sky change colour as it set. It was a great way to start our Paris adventure.

We began the next day with a trip to the Cemetery Pere Lachaise. It was very leafy, and the mausoleums were quite spectacular, there were so many! We went to Jim Morrison's grave, and kind of wondered why it was so popular.. Perhaps it is the interesting surroundings. After walking up a slight hill we had to sit down to recover (it really is very hot, and living in Newcastle has not prepared me for the heat at all! Nita is feeling the same way, having just left Glasgow. Hopefully we will acclimatise soon because it wont be getting any cooler...)

We descended to the sniffling metro system and arrived at the Luxembourg garden with some sandwich stuff to join the masses of Parisians sitting in the shade enjoying the summer. It was lovely just lying there enjoying the weather. Parisians really know how to do the outside thing. England hasn't mastered it, for obvious weather reasons I presume.

Highlights from the nest few days include having a drink at Le Deux Magots (where the philosophers Sartre and de Beauvoir sat), a picnic at the Sacre Cour (more sunsets!), walking undergound through the macabre Catacombs, Musee d'Orsay (gotta love Renoir and Rodin), tucking into Lebanese food near our hotel, breakfasting on croissants and pain au chocolats, the Pompadieu centre (very interesting art work), Notre Dame (I don't know, I think the York Minster and Durham Cathedral are just as good, although the Vatican probably wins in terms of spectacularness), Le Sorbonne and the Pantheon.

Getting around Paris was quite easy considering Erwann speaks fluent French, having been brought up by French parents in Holland, and my mastering of the metro system :) My French still doesn't get past the 'Bonjour" and "merci" unfortunately, although sometimes I think I understand more than I realise because of my experience in Montreal 5 years ago.

Paris is such a beautiful city, there is some kind of magic about it - the buildings, the white and silver rooftops, the grand scale of the avenues, the leafy tree-lined streets, the spacious parks filled with people enjoying them... I still think it is the most beautiful city I've ever seen. I was just a little sad that Chris wasn't there to enjoy it with me. Some day soon perhaps.

Last night we drove out of Paris in Erwann's car, through Lille, Belgium, and now we are in Den Bosch, Holland at Erwann's very nice apartment. We are in Holland till Monday when we will make our way to Krakow on the train, and begin our Eastern European leg of the trip.

Farwell Drinks

I had my farewell drinks last night, which went really well, and now I have a very sore head on my last day of work! It was so nice to see everyone there, I can't believe I have made so many friends while here, there must have been 30 people at one stage. Friends from work, netball and old housemates. We went to Camp David, a bar that has an outdoor patio, 2 for 1 drinks and free burgers, so it was a really nice atmosphere too.

I hate saying good bye to people. It doesn't seem real, like I know I must see these people again, I'm not going away forever or to another planet. But there is always the possibility that I may not see them again... I'm going to really miss my friends here. It'll sink in in about a month when I'm in Europe and I'll suddenly realise I'm not living in Newcastle anymore. I'm moving on once again.... I should be used to it by now, this is my 5th home since I left the Gold Coast to go to Uni... But people always mean so much, that is what never changes, and it always hurts to go away.

I think I'll stop trying to write silly things because I'm not coherent enough this morning after my 5 hours sleep and drinking escapades.

I left my sunnies on the table and they were discovered by my mates, hence the pics :)