wedding bells

Congrats to Kelly and Dave (fox) who got engaged last saturday! Church was a riot with their announcement and big, silly grins. You can read the account of their engagement on their blogs (and the size of kelly's ring which dave was able to pick out by himself!)

Encounters of the European kind: nudity

At the time i posted our trip, the euro world open to us, i wanted to also write a few reactions, reflections to what we saw, instead of just regurgitations. So, when i get the chance i'll be posting "encounters of the European kind."

There were many things on our whirlwind tour of Europe that were different.
I would say weird or strange or wrong, but our tour leader recited; "its not wrong, its different".
It some ways that is very true.
It may seem obvious that going over seas you will encounter people with a different way of life, but whats not obvious is your reaction to the differences;

Nudity is huge. Atleast in the tasmanian equivalent to Germany; Bavaria, where Munich is situated. There is nothing better than a walk to the park for lunch and stripping down for a picnic. I would think it'd get cold in germany, so i'm sure that only on rainy days they'd stay indoors... although, it would add a whole new dimension to dancing in the rain.

I guess i wasn't too surprised. I did raise an eyebrow, but since i'm short sighted, my contacts aren't perfect, and i'm not that good of a cyclist to take my eyes off the road for too long, i wasn't able to take it all in... though Alastair did stop to take a photo.

Australia isn't as devoid of nakedness, just not as prevalent. We have nude beaches, but not nude parks, (atleast none that i know of in sydney) and none that are in the middle of the city.

Amsterdam was quite naked too. At this point i'll say that my experience of a the city was, as you may well have read, not favourable. But it was an experience, one that didn't mar my trip at all. Infact, it was a good experience. strangely enough.
Let me rephrase that, maybe making it clearer; It was good to go to Amsterdam and experience what i did. Even though i may have not really enjoyed the whole city at the time, looking back i can say that it was worth going.

London - Bangkok - Sydney

I'm sitting at work, waiting for my boss to call and update me on the work he has for me (gone for two weeks as of today) and trying to get through 150+ emails.

LONDON
the city itself is great. Much better than i imagined, though i would've liked to see the country side. Actually it would've been good to walk the country side of all the countries we went to instead of seeing it through the windows of a train or coach. But i guess you could spend years over there and not see everything.

After my last post dani and i strolled down toward trafalger sq and futher toward shakspeares theatre. Taking a detour we found lunch at walkabout cafe (australian pub that sold Forsters *shudder* and stella in which i partook a pint) After lunch stopped in a park and it was this point that Dani, who had been not feeling well all day, urgently
We made our way back to the worst hotel wemarked a statue of some english bloke with her best rendition of a the technicolour rainbow. We slowly made our way back to the worst hotel we've ever stayed in, stopping at every park on the way. Finally caught a cab, picked up our bags and headed off to Heathrow. In the end Dani wasn't well 8+ times.

BANGKOK
Dani was able feeling better by the time we boarded and headed off to Bangkok. The flight wasn't too bad, though British Airways needs to update their inhouse entertainment system. I think i slept.

Coming out of the Bangkok airport, we were hit by an intense heat and humidity which the thai seem to shrug off. We, on the other hand, were groggy from the flight and the heat and humidity didn't help with our mood or the fog in the brain... we paid 700 baht for a taxi to the hotel... (thats... 700/28= Aufd$25) which i'm sure was a rip-off but at that stage we didnt care.

Dani had outdone herself by booking the Hotel Athenee, Le Meridian. 5 stars of relaxation in one of the most confusing cities. The taxi ride over was an eye opener (they were still pretty open from amsterdam). Huge skyrises sat next to shanty alleys. Rundown housing, rundown units sat next to gleeming windows. And wherever you looked green cloth covered buildings in varying degrees of constructed erection.

The hotel itself was air conditioned so you'd forget how hot and humid it was outside. Gold and wood panelling and marble everywhere. A bellhop took our bags, and my 5 weeks of conditioned distrust of anyone parting me and my bags kicked. But i shouldn't have worried, because almost as soon as we left the fast, effecient, wood panelled elevator walked along the lemon-grass scented walkway and into our refrigerated room on the 19th floor, there was a ringing (the room doorbell) and the same bellhop had our bags on a trolley.

Do you get the picture that our stay in bangkok wasn't meant to be alot of work?
We ventured out onto the streets a few times into the markets for some sweat-shop quality designer fasion. And anything else made of wood that would make it through customs. We didn't get much from bangkok and Dani was somewhat dissapointed that she couldn't find anyone selling satay chicken. The street vendors had an interesting array of food, none of which we wanted to taste though. I guess our unwant of gastro was the main reason.

We swam, lay in the sun, sipped cocktails (two cocktails was the same price as dinner, both equalling around aud$20). Our three nights (three and a half days) came to a quick end and we boarded another flight to Sydney.

SYDNEY
Bangkok to Sydney was rather quick. And so, i didn't actually sleep.
Most of the trip i was reading the Bourne Omnibus; the book itself is huge and i've almost finished the bourne identity.
We watched the sun come up as we hit the tarmac. 6am.
The rest of the day went by as a blur; picked up by Dani's parents, dropped our bags off, saw my parents and finally fell asleep around 3 in the arvo. I had wanted to stay awake as long as possible, but a short kip was needed. We Finally fell asleep again at 9.30.

Budapest - Prague - Berlin - Amsterdam - Brugge - Paris

Another whirlwind week has passed and i've forgotton what we have done.
Firstly i whole-heartedly recommend Kamuka. And we met a great bunch of people. Its hard not to make friends since you're all having the same experiences, but we've been spoilt with the group. Mostly OZ and NZ, two English and two Korean. And we're already missing Adrian, Matt and Kelly... and Alistair and Christian and crazy Matt, and Peta and Haley, Tina... i could keep listing names.

Ok, to holiday... or hightlighs.
BUDAPEST
Had an all inclusive coach tour after dropping bags to the hotel, and a dinner we'd rather forget. After the Vienna Orchestra (which was amazing) the seedy guy on his rusty violin (yes, i know violins are made of wood- but this guy was that bad that the wood rusted) leered at us as he screeched along and then played in your ear demanding a tip. This was followed by a traditional gypsy performance... there is a reason these gypsys don't have a country anymore.
The following day was all walking around Pest (pronounced Pesht); art gallery, heroes square, Andrassy street (pretty), great lunch (15 of us) with a giraffe. (giraffe is 2.5 litres of beer that comes in a tall glass tube with a tap on the bottom).

PRAGUE
Beautiful city. Smaller cobblestone streets, walking tour at night. The city hadn't been bombed in the war so it remained traditional. Dinner was eye-opening; a famous (and rather dirty) cartoonist had adorned our subteranean room with the equivalent of far side... but dirty. We could get most of the jokes, even though they were in Czech.
Dani's dinner was labeled as a beef with a creamy vegetable sauce... it was whipped cream and strawberry jam. (later we saw signs for the crazy dish everywhere) I had goulash which was more like mongolian lamb. Simple, but tasty.
That night half of us went out to the self-proclaimed largest club in central europe. 5 floors of music ranging from r&b to retro to 80's to doof doof. It was a fun night.
The following day we saw the castle tour, and changing of the guard, went into Dani's new favourite cathedral, attempted to buy tickets for a black light theatre which wasnt on that night, went to the markets and bought a few pictures of the fantastic Prague sites and finally headed back to our hotel.

BERLIN
I was excited to get back to Germany. We stopped off at a Gestapo camp (which wasn't as horrifying as Mauthausen) and waited half an hour at the German/Slavic border.
The next day included a trip to the Brandenburg gate, check point charlie, remaining sections of the wall, the Zoo (aussie birds are so noisy! and an irate lion peed on a few kids.) And since our room was huge we hosted a room party. (its usually in Adrian and Alistairs room)

AMSTERDAM
We were expecting to see people riding bicycles and wearing clogs. We were horrified. The city was dirty an all senses of the word. The red light district, the abuse of drugs, the canals and the dirt on the unswept paths. Dani and I declined a sex show (as did most people, a stroll through the red light district was eye-opening enough) and an offer to experience the 'culture' (dope infused brownies, muffins, cookies, milkshakes...).
During the day, we explored Ann Frank's house, Van Gogh exhibition, hotdogs chilling with Kelly and Matt (NZ), having Australian ice cream (we do pretty well with ice cream, apparently) and the main event- the Heiniken Experience.
If you ever go to Amsterdam you have to go to the Heiniken Experience. We were bottles, we were hops, we were DJs... and we got free beer. Now we are Heiniken people.

BRUGGE.
Before our only afternoon in Brugge, we stopped at a Cheese and Cloggs factory. What cheese and clogs have in common is beyond me. But it stank of foul milk and sawdust. The girl wearing clogs and a hat that resembled a lace boat was multitalented; making clogs and cheese as demostrations.
Finally in Brugge we got to our hotel and found a free pool. Most of us went for a swim. It relieved sore aches, re-energised us and washed away the reamnants of Amsterdam.
Brugge itself is a cute city full of chocolate and waffles. We purchased a few of the finer morsels and are now stuck lugging a styrafoam box around until we get home.

PARIS
Back to where we started. This was the final stop where we had to say goodbye. It was emotional. Some of us went off to London, others journeyed to Spain to continue their trip.
We made some good friends on the trip. But since i have less than five minutes i'll sign off.

Right now we're in overcast London. It was raining when we woke up.
I'll post again in Bangkok.

KAMUKA; Rome - Venice - Munich - Vienna

Hi all, I've finally been able to find and open, cheap, working internet connection. I'm currently sitting at in our hotel in Austria typing on another fruity keyboard... and i don't have much time.
So very quickly;

ROME and POMPEII
The journey to Rome was pretty quick, though Dani had to survive the bad breathe of the lady next to her. We eventually got to the hotel and stayed in our room until the Kumuka bus arrived. Once we ventured out of our room we met our tour opperator (Ellenie) and met a few of the other people joining the tour. We were joining the tour in Rome but it had started in London so there were already a large number of people on the tour. It was daunting, and they're trip that day included a wine tasting tour so they were extra jolly.
We were warned that our days are packed, and they weren't wrong.

We had a total of two days in Rome whicfh were taken up by and inside and outside tour of the Colosseum, a tour of the Forum, the Vatican, Trevi Fountain and Pompeii. Pompeii is amazing and took almost all day.

VENICE and ORVIETO
We left Rome and headed to Venice (city of masks and canals), Via Orvieto (city built onto and into a mountain). Venice is a beautiful place, though stinky. Our single day there included a glass blowing demo, a gondola ride and window shopping.

By this stage we all were sick of the food; either pizza or pasta or panini (bread rolls). The food that once was new and interesting was now old and crunchy. So it was good to leave italy for Germany.

MUNICH via NEUSCHWANSTEIN SCHLOSS (thats castle in german)
The castle (not writing Neuschwanstein again) was the home to loony Ludwig the second who was obsessed with fairytales. So he built this castle. If you think you've seen it before you may have, 'coz it is the castle that Walt Disney based his castle off.

Munich is fantastic. the Germans are my new friends. Where italy was dirty and old, Germany is modern and efficient. (remember they speak german in switzerland). We ate at the Hofbrauhaus (litre steins and sausages with kraut) on the first night and, explored the city on a Mike's Bike tour (2nd day)- a big must. You follow your guide for 7km over 4hrs (one of which is spent at a beer garden, more litre steins and pork)... were were a little wobbly after that.

VIENNA
Finally we come to Vienna. I have missed a lot out coz the the little amount of time but i hope to write more later, in detail. Vienna is in Austria, its just as nice as Munich and german speaking too. We walked around the centre of the city, and ate enormous snitzchells (more beer).

I gotta go, but tonight were off to the Vienna opera, orchestra, thingy. Then snappy museum tomorrow morning on the way to Budapest.
Seeya soon.