Hi Guys,

Been *way* too long since I wrote to you... But will have tons of time to relax soon... am on hols for a couple of weeks! But won't be spending much time on a PC :-)

I leave tomorrow 6:30pm on a Singapore Airlines flight to Perth, then have a week and a bit there to catch up with friends and for my Dad's wedding, then zip off to Adelaide to catch up with other rellies. Luckily, I managed to sweet talk my work into letting me hang around in Australia though - I'm spending two weeks working in the Sydney office - they need some sysadmin stuff done, and I'll be able to help them with a few parts of the system that I develop (that they sell). The office is right near Darling Harbour (35 stories or something), but there's only 4 people in the office... so will feel quite different than being around 200 people here!

So all in all a month in Australia. Should be really relaxing.

Then I'm trying to organise a dinner for my Dad's side of the family cousins for November the 11th, and will have time to catch up with Karen in Sydney and Denise in Singapore. So lots of socialising, a bit of work and a wedding celebration thrown in for good measure :-)

Hope to be catching you all soon. I'm off to pack!

PS. Just for reference:

Sam's "Trip to Oz" Flightplan 2005

To Perth
--------
Thu 27/10	 6:30pm	London (LHR T3)
- Fri 28/10 	 2:15pm	Singapore (T2)

Fri 28/10	 6:50pm	Singapore (T2)
		11:50pm	Perth

To Adelaide
-----------
Tues 8/11	 8:00am	Perth
	 1:20pm	Adelaide

To Sydney
---------
Mon 14/11	 9:05am	Adelaide
	11:30am	Sydney

To London
---------
Sun 27/11	 8:30am	Sydney
	 1:30pm	Singapore (T2)

Mon 28/11	12:40pm	Singapore (T2)
	 6:45pm London (LHR T3)

Haha I'll be in trouble... but since she's staying at mine not sure if she can complain too much! Nahh the walk between Riomaggiore and Monterosso is really scenic. Sea views, fresh air, and quite a few tourists to dodge (esp compared to the last time I walked the trail in Oct 2002). Today we've been managing the Siena steps *very* slowly.

We flew into Milan on Thursday afternoon. After walking through the streets for a bit we accosted some random tourists for their map.. which turned out to be Japanese! We were a little underconfident though, as it turned out our hotel was only 2mins further on. And twas a bit of a dump for €80 a night. Luckily we stumbled upon Umberto at Riomaggiore who offered us his apartment with a sea view... for €60 a night! We had two lounge rooms, a kitchen, bathroom, balcony and big bedroom. Since I'm normally travelling alone I avoid the renting private room thing, but it turns out to be quite good when you're lucky: for reference (mine, prolly more than yours) http://www.riorooms.com/.

Been eating well too - what I thought was "mussels" in Italian turned out to be octopus, and what I thought was "artichoke" turned out to be anchovies! Lucky that I'm not a picky eater. Am enjoying speaking to randoms too... and even getting Mum to join in on the act (easier than I expected!).

So tomorrow - San Gimignano and then a night train to Venice! Relaxing... then squashed! Such is life when you try and do a country in a week!

Take care & catch you all soon,

Sam (expert tour guide this time round ;-p )

... today is my last day skiing! But I wanted to let you know a little more about this holiday while I was actually here!

I'm here with my friend Katie, and we have 2 really nice roommates Maria and Tony (from Greece). They're snowboarding and have really kewl gear... and are about as bruised as I am so I don't feel too uncoordinated! In the evenings here there's been tons of events organised by the university group, so there has been close to 200 people out each night - there was a traffic light party (where the colour you wear depends on if you are single or not!), a beach party, a garbage-bag-and-tinfoil party... and tonight is "back to school" - and yes, I do have a british school tie!

Last night was interesting - about 150 of us paid €30 for a fondue dinner up on the slopes, and then we skiied back in the dark with our way lit by flaming torches. Luckily I knew the slope really well, the problem was that many of the people carrying the torches had drank quite a few drinks...!! But consuming alcohol seems to be the #1 thing on the British student agenda - which I suppose isn't too different than Australian students - I guess I'm experiencing the crazy parties that my friends and I largely avoided at UWA.

So although you all know I love the dancefloor stuff, skiing and stopping in beautiful places for chocolat chaud and tarte aux pomme is definitely the highlight - it's nice to have met so many interesting and friendly people too...

So today - skiing, buying ingredients for fancy dinner, finishing postcard writing, more skiing, returning skiis, tidying room (arghh the hardest task of all), cooking fancy dinner, then parting all night at some random pubs and clubs!

... at least I'll have all Sunday to sleep before I get back to work.

Take care & keep well people!

I've just finished my first four days skiing! I'm at Val Thorens with 200 crazy students from the University of Surrey. It's been *really* great fun.

So let's start with the trip over - the coach was supposed to take about 16 hours, but it took about 22 hours because of really choppy seas across the channel. We had to wait for 3 hrs before we could even board the ferry - and the ride was terrible! I did sleep through most of the ferry ride - but not the bus ride!

We picked up our skiis on Sunday after a restful night in our apartments. Katie and I are staying with a Greek couple Maria and Tony. They're really friendly - it's good that we are all quite tidy (errr... perhaps I should say it's good that those 3 are quite tidy?!??). I had to rush off to my first skiing lesson! It was quite fun, but I did happen to be the only person that was demoted a group (I *told* them I was an absolute beginner!!!!)

There's 4 grades of slopes - green, blue, red and black. I managed to ski my a green on my first day, practiced my first blue on Monday (I missed my lesson!) and on Tuesday learnt about parallel turns. So today was my first where I didn't have to rush to get up (although was out skiing by 10) and I went on more blue runs. I'm wearing my body out slowly... have some nasty bruises and a cut or two but nothing broken yet (like I say, apart from when I broke my ski binding!)

.. to be continued...

Hi All!

Thought it was time for an update! I only have a couple of days left here in Italy before I'm back in London... wanted to fill you in at least once mid-trip.

It's been really great staying with Magdalena and her family. Magdalena is staying here until she does an exam sometime in November... she keeps a pretty good study schedule in the mornings, which has allowed me to sleep in and look for jobs. In the afternoons we've been zipping about all over, doing relaxing, outdoorsy or touristy stuff.

The trip over was a bit of a nightmare! As usual, I didn't sleep before I left (I *must* ditch that habit). I had to leave home at 3am and catch 2 busses, then caught a train at 4:30 am to get to Stansted for a 7am flight. As a consequence I was amazingly tired, and really quite kooky in the airport and on the plane... ended up chatting to many randoms! Upon arriving I caught another bus, then a train to Bolzano. Travelling time all in all was nearly 12 hours!

Magdalena met me in the train station, and it took about 20 minutes to walk to her house. After ditching my bags we went and sat overlooking a vineyard and started with a great chat. I slept * really* well that night and had a Magdalena coffee waiting for me in the morning :-)

Once I was up and breakfast was over (err it takes a while, I get fed really well here) we went on a bike ride to the Montigglerseen. It was about a 3 hour ride (ouch!) up to some lakes in the woods. We were planning to swim, but it ended up raining! It was really relaxing, except for the concentration required to stay on the bike, and the concentration lost in keeping muscles working that I never knew I had!

After Tuesday's half ride in the light rain, we planned to do indoor stuff on Wednesday. In the afternoon we drove to Merano (about 1/2 hr from here), and went to the "Touriseum" museum. It's all about how Südtirol has changed over the years to accept tourists, and due to tourist influence. It was quite interesting, especially when the flip-side of the coin was shown in interviews with the locals working in pubs and guesthouses, and their children. The museum is in Castle Trautmannsdorff, which was quite interesting in itself, but we didn't have time to check out all of the part about the building of the castle. We did spend quite a bit of time outdoors, looking around the adjoining botanic gardens - this really is a fertile region and I was able to spot a few Aussie plants (or ones I had in my garden at home, I suppose) around the place.

After returning from Merano, we waited for some of Magdalena's friends to arrive for dinner at 8. She selected some friends that spoke English well - it was nice to be introduced to more South Tyrolians and gave her a good excuse to catch up with friends she hadn't seen in quite a while! Gundi (Magdalena's ex-London flatmate) joined us later on as well. She and Magdalena tried to do a walk from Bolzano to Verona (err it's a scarily long distance) and made it slighly more than half way after a week of hiking - so I had a chance to speak to them both about the experience and tell them how mad they were! Gundi returns to London to do a masters this year, so will be nice to catch up and practice my Deutsch now and then!

We woke up late on Thursday after the dinner. As Magdalena rushed Gundi to the train station and went to work in a casual once-a-week cinema job, I took off to wander around the city. I sat and read listening to traditional buskers, took photos of the town, and then wandered up to Schloss Runkelstein, which is an interesting castle with tons of wall paintings. Unfortunately there was no English guided tour, as Magdalena mentioned that they tell tons of interesting stories about the paintings.

I walked back to the town centre, and after grabbing a coffee I went to see "Ötzi" the bronze-age iceman at the Archeological museum. The naturally preserved mummy was found in the Ötztaler Alpen (between Italy and Austria) in 1991, and ended up in Bozen after Italy won the "it should be kept in our country" fight. There was no English writing on exhibits, but the audioguide was quite complete. I never realised how much slower it was to see a museum using and audioguide only! Interesting stuff - it's quite rare to see artefacts as if coming straight from Jean Auel's Ayla or Jondalar! I went back to Magdalena's house for dinner, and had a meal just with her parents and godmother... After meeting her parents Adolf and Karen while half asleep and crazy on Monday, I think I was able to appear semi-sane to her godmother...!!

Friday was the day we planned to go crazy at night. We had an easy morning (Although I actually got up earlier than Magdalena!), then went for a walk in Jenesien. We took some books, and sat reading for over an hour overlooking mountains and trees, with cows clanking their bells as they walked around us. The hotel at the top where we grabbed a coffee was called "Edelweiss"... couldn't remember enough of the song to give Magdalena a complete rendition though.

That night we had excellent traditional food and micro-brewrey beer in Hopfen & Co and then drove to Brixen. We went into a club called "Max" at around 12, but it wasn't until 1am that people started dancing. We pretty much danced straight through till 4, which was excellent! The music was OK, twas a shame that the upstairs part (the "Jukebox") was closed though.

Today has been a long day - After 4 1/2 hours sleep I dragged myself out of bed... I'd promised to cook Magdalena and her parents some Chinese for dinner. This was a little challenging, as there's barely any chinese ingredients in Bolzano, the shops close at 12:30-ish on Saturday, and I'd have to speak Italian or German!!! The last point wasn't much of a problem... I'd been bugging Magdalena all week about learning German - and I quite like to talk with my hands if my basic German/Italian fails! So I managed to get enough of the ingredients I was after (including the *required* Shao Xing rice wine and Sesamöl ;-p ) and whipped up a marinade. In the afternoon we went for a walk to Santa Maddalena (in italiano, Sankt Magdalena auf Deutsch). I haven't worked out if Magdalena is named after a hill... ?!?! It is just around the corner from her house, and after meeting her parents... well *nothing* would surprise me! Haha j/k all is well as they seemed to really like my cooking! After dinner we strolled down to the centre of town to go to a Bond festival at a fancy pub, but it turned out it was invitation only! We did stumble on a celebration of the city fruit market...!!! Which was excellent, except for the part where Magdalena's parents bought me Oysters! Of course the oysters weren't the problem, just the südtirolians buying them for me purely to watch and state "eew how can you eat that!" :-) haha.

So tomorrow! My last full day. We're getting up early (arghh at 7am - 6 hrs sleep!) and hiking for around 8 hours in the Sarental region. Supposedly we'll get quite high. I'm really looking forward to it!

Off to bed. Piccies will follow soon. Love you all!

Hi all!

I'm at home again! No more holidays for me! :-(

Well, that's not exactly true. Still am time rich, and not too money poor to not enjoy myself.

Krakow was excellent. I arrived in the evening and found a hostel quite easily - the Travellers Inn. It was really small, clean and neat... and was playing jazz music in the common room :-)

I chatted to randoms for a bit, and left the hostel at about 7pm to find some food. I went to Chlopsie Jadlo, which is an award winning traditional restaurant that I'd been to in 2002. After starting with huge chunks of bread (with spredings of pork dripping and gristle - nicer than it sounds - and herby cream chesese) I finished with a 400g serving of potato pancakes and goulash. During dinner I met Ada and Jeff from Montreal, who invited me out to drink with them. Just as we were leaving, they bumped into Mike and Joanna, who Ada knew from Canada! It was all very random... we made plans to meet up at a jazz club later that night. It turns out Mike and Joanna are moving to London in a few weeks, so will be good to hook up with them again here.

So I finally saw some jazz! But we were talking so much I wasn't paying too much attention. I'd been in the club 2 years ago, but the band was better last time (and the locals more drunk!). After the jazz club we tracked down a nightclub called Faust. We talked and drank until 3am, and when the others left (to drink more in Mike & Joanna's apartment) I hit the dancefloor for a few hours... although the music was better earlier in the night. I climbed out of the club at 5-something am... tis always weird when you walk back to your bed in daylight!

Fortunately checkout was at midday. I took my time getting ready, knowing that it was the last place I'd have a shower before reaching home. I'd left my shower gel and shampoo behind (in Prague) again (or did I tell you that already?) so twas soap for shampoo... ick!

After dropping off my bag at the station I met the crazy canadians again, at 2pm. They were looking marginally worse than me even! Although I always feel better after a night of dancing and drinking than just drinking. We strolled around, ate and drank stuff, and relaxed tons. Considering I'd seen many of the sights of Krakow in my last visit, it was nice to relax for a bit. After drinking a cino on the curb outside a funkily decorated cafe (err we were getting weird looks from the locals) I took off to stroll the streets for my last few hours in the city. The night train to Budapest left at 9pm so had time to take a photo or two.

The train to Budapest was quite comfy. I had sleeping irishmen in my cochette cabin so sat nextdoor to chat with three generations of holidaying Americans and two brittish girls. At midnight I climbed into bed. I heard someone outside my cabin making ghost noises - "ooohhhh Sammmm... you'll have nightmares... we'll come to get you Sam..." . It turns out that these crazy Italians that I met (and were being quite annoying) on the Prague - Krakow night train were also on the same train with me to Budapest! They tried to be annoying but I just closed the curtains and was able to sleep.

The next morning I left my bag at the train station and started walking around. After walking for nearly 1 hour to get breakfast on a floating platform on the Danube, I read and walked another hour to read, relax and sleep in a big park north of the city centre. At around 4pm I went to the Szechenyi Baths. They are quite old, and were nice inside. I was swimming for an hour or so before I spotted the Italians in there too! It was really surprising. They were mildly annoying in there - at least people around weren't sleeping!

I went for a random stroll again, and found a nice square with tons of restaurants. After living it up with a seafood entree and a duck main (all the stuff I can't afford in England) I went to organise what to do with my bag - turns out that the train station closes at midnight - I eventually left it in a random hotel - took a bit of wheeling and dealing. I didn't really want to be stuck with my bag - especially between 12 and 4am with tons of dodgey homeless people around!

So, the best way I know to kill 4 hours of time is to dance! Well, and to get lost strolling back from the club!!! I walked from the train station at midnight to the centre of town, but couldn't find anywhere that looked open. I knew that Rio would be popular, so I walked down to the Pertofi bridge. I stumbled across Budda, another club, and found the crazy Italians there! I could have avoided them, but figured that clubs are quite good venues for being noisy and crazy! I convinced them to follow me to Rio, which was quite full until I left at 3am, even on a Monday! Made fun of them the whole time too - was quite good fun.

I did manage to get back in time for my airport mini bus - just. A little jogging required and asking of policemen for directions. Was so happy to find the hotel to leave my bag in I forgot to retreive my map before I dumped it!

So today was just a wipeout. After meeting Kevin May and his wife, who run tours for motor racing enthusiasts (www.selectmotorracing.com) I slept all 2 1/2 hours on the plane... don't remember taking off, saw breakfast was placed on the empty table of the chair just next to me but didn't touch it, was never awake when the drinks cart went past... I slept a chunk of the train journey back as well. I lay on my bed when I got back home at around 11am, and slept until 5pm!

At least I was alive to say goodbye to Shannon (who is going to live in Stretham) and to watch I, Robot at the movies with Phil and Lee tonight! Although staying up till 3am to write this and to sort out some photos isn't a good way to fix my body clock!

OK, you're pretty much up to date now. There's a bit of photo posting to be done, but most of that I'll probably delay until after I've caught up with Cousin Shane in the next week.

Look after yourselves. Get some sleep (more than me, that is!).

It's interesting to see how much Poland has changed over the last 2 years. Wroclaw seems to have more bars and cafes, has better lighting of street monuments, and easier to find hostel accommodation - although some of this may be due to travelling in peak season!

Some of the main buildings have been restored - their main cathedral is currently being cleaned, and the university building has been improved too. After eating some Perogi and Bigos, I went into a very fancy cathedral next to the university - amazing decorations. I ended up sitting on the banks of the river, and drifted off for an hour or so... night trains are not good for the body clock!

I met up with Aleksandra and her boyfriend John last night (or should I say Ola and Jan??? Grr tis weird when you first learn english-ified names!) I originally met Aleksandra in a restaurant in Krakow in 2002, and we were planning to see some sites together but it didn't work out. It was great to meet up with her again after 2 years. After starting the evening by eating chocolate mousse, we cruised around the old town at night, and went into *every* jazz club (and there were a few!) but none had live music!!! We ended up sitting next to a fish-bowl-porthole-thing and eating more sweet stuff :-) mmmm.

I have 1hr to tidy and check out. There's enough time for me to go to the train station, dump my bag, and go into the centre of town again. There's a tower in an old church which supposedly has great views (although is grey today), and was closed 2 years ago. And a reccommended coffee shop :-) Then it's back to Krakow to party tonight (and hopefully see some jazz!)

I'm not sure about visiting the Matulewicz's! They said I should come Monday but I can only make it Sunday (to Bielsko Biala)! If I don't zip up there on Sunday then I'll have 2 days in Krakow, which will be OK. Will be a bit of a rush back to Hungary though - about 11 hours on a night train!

:-)

Hello All!

I'm already in Poland, but just wanted to fill you in on what happened in Prague!

The walking tour was excellent, but there are so many important little buildings in Prague that it was hard to retain much of the information they stated... the Berlin tour I did a couple of years ago discussed less spots in more detail, which was better IMO. At least it gave me an idea of what was what!

After the tour I went out with James & Ryan from the US and Kirstin and Kjersti from Norway. After an excellent dinner and sitting drinking straight from red wine bottles in the town square, we met up with Brittish lasses Caitriona and Lucy at a nightclub with 5 different music floors (but only 3 were open!). It was a bit of a mad night, I was singing aloud to all the cheese - I think hanging around in London with ppl that don't like Hip Hop & Dance too much has me a little crazy for cheese... well, it is fun!

I arrived home at around 4-ish. On Wednesday I walked around with Caitriona and Lucy and took tons of photos. We met Ryan for a coffee at an excellent bookstore/cafe/bar thing. They use real milk in their coffee!! (like, wow!) My ceasar salad wasn't particularly up to scratch though.

The plan was to go to jazz on Wed night. Unfortunately, dinner ran too late, and jazz finished an hour earlier than I thought, so I missed it! I was on my own, trying to track down something to do on my last night in Prague. The club I went to on Monday ended up only being free on Mondays, so I payed to go to the Drum & Bass night... arghh was it frustrating! The introductions to the tunes were really nice, but then when the heavy beat kicked in over top of the tune it was frustrating! At least I stuck at it for about 40 minutes.

So... I didn't want to sleep! I walked around for a couple of hours. At least you can walk at a decent pace in Prague at 1am. I didn't have my camera, but the scenery is much nicer without so many people about. Was quite dodgey walking through the parks at that time of night though.

On Thursday I walked around all day with Kirstin and Kjersti. It was really hot, so we mostly relaxed, ate good food, and saw some cubist stuff.

Mmmm a pear and fig marmalade crepe was an excellent way to finish off staying in Prague!

OK... need to eat now... Bigos for me!

Cheers!

Hi All!

Heyy I'm in Prague... and what a nightmare getting here!

The trip from Split to Budapest took 20 hours! On the same train! I met kewl people though, so that made it OK :-) It was good to speak to some more Hungarians - May meet Agnes for wine tasting next week, and met some more friendly Portugese people. But... arghh!

Then I jumped on a train 5 minutes after my 20 hr one for another 2 hours to get to Gyor... I was feeling quite ill so walked across the road to the nearest hotel (was quite cheap... but smelled bad!) and crashed for 14 hours.

The next morning I was able to get the hotel maid to clean my clothes! let me tell you that they *really* needed cleaning! I ended up paying her more than she asked for (was still cheap)... everything was folded and she even rolled my socks together... *I* didn't even do that!!!

Yesterday I jumped on a train at 2pm from Gyor to Breclav. It was 1/2 hour late, so I missed a connection to Prague. I was hanging out with Andrea and Simona from Italy, and Sebastian from Germany, but they were speaking Spanish!

I met Austrian Sarah who wanted to travel to Rijeka, Croatia but was heading to a similarly named village in Hungary! (oops!) Considering they speak pretty good German in Hungary, and not English as much, that made me feel quite confident about the whole navigate-when-you-can't-communicate thing! Or perhaps I'm just lucky??

I arrived at Prague at around 9pm and was drinking with the hostel people by 10. We hit the town and saw some sights, danced a bit and drank... am coming to realise how competetive (some) Americans are. I'm not sure if they realise that I just don't give a damn!

Everything works here and most people speak English. It's not much like elsewhere in Eastern Europe... tis really nice, but it's not the kind of challenging holiday stuff I go searching for!

In 10 minutes I'm starting a 4 hour walking tour of Prague... should be interesting!

'til later! :-)

Wow, Dubrovnik!

Twas nice, but I'd gone and shoved myself in the absolute south-east corner of where my rail pass allows me to go. Have just decided where to go next... but will get back to that in a sec.

Last time I wrote I was in the garden internet cafe, talking about using my first night in Dubrovnik wisely. Well.... I didn't - was so tired that I crashed, slept from around 6pm till midnight, then read for an hour or two, and slept again till about 7.

At least my second day was productive. I went into the old town and wandered around, did a walk along the walls of the old town - it's spectacular... took tons of photos so you'll see some soon. After wandering around a maritime museum, I grabbed some lunch at an outdoor cafe, and went searching around for a beach towel (err, yes I am collecting quite a bit of gear... back isn't liking it!). After a bit of confusion in the local department store, I ended up with a cheapy towel and hit the beach for a couple of hours - although is quite boring with just me... I'm not likely to laze around in the sun without someone to talk to, or at least a book to read, but decided that taking gear down to the beach with no-one to watch it might not be such a good plan... although it does seem that plenty of people do that.

Can you wear contacts while swimming in the sea?? I haven't yet tried it. At least being daylies then I don't lose much cash if I lose them!

So swam for nearly an hour and lazed for about an hour in the late arvo. Am a healthy brown, but no where near as dark as the crazy europeans that sunbake for ages. It does seem to be more friendly sun than in Australia... although I have been wearing sunblock.

But the day was not yet over! I went to the hotel, got changed and went into the old town again. I made it by about 9:00, and bought a ticket for a 9:30 Dubrovnik summer festival performance of traditional songs and dances. After rushing to find some food and water in 10 mins, I sat next to an Irish couple and watched an amazing display of Croatian culture. Unusually, it started by being quite similar to Irish dance! But when the women came out with jingley necklaces and the men with bells on their shoes, or when the women rolled over the men's shoulders, or when the women were spun around so their feet left the ground for about 30 seconds... haha was going to say you get the picture... but my descriptions don't do it justice and I wasn't allowed to take photos. The band (all guys) did some excellent acapella singing too! The bass guy was especially kewl (although I am quite biased!)

So it was 11:30... I was starving after only having an apple strudel for dinner! I rushed through eating a plate of spag bol, and found Club Lazaretti, where the Japanese DJ was playing... but it was mostly empty! I met quite a few people, Hamashakiro from Japan who had lived in Croatia for 6 years and his croatian friends, Sarah and Serena from Austria, Ivana and Ria from Zagreb... I danced a lot and drank a little, and before I knew it, it was 5pm! I caught the first bus back to the hotel at 5:40 and slept until midday! Oops... no hotel breakfast!

Sleeping in wasn't that bad, it was really icky on Friday. Raining quite heavily. I dragged myself out of bed and sat in a restaurant for about 3 hours, reading and eating seafood risotto :-) I met Gillian and Andrea from Illinois (& Chicago?) I chatted to them during lunch, then left and walked all the way into the old town. Was pretty far! But felt like I had to do *something* other than sleep all day. On the way back to the hostel I bumped into the Americans again, and we decided to meet up later that evening. We ate pizza and danced a little, but it was quite an early night.

So, today! Well as you can tell, at the moment I'm trying to kill time - telling you everything in wayyy too much detail. I'm in Split - I caught a bus here from Dubrovnik at 1pm... it's a 5 hour trip. My train leaves here at 9:43pm, so still have 2 hours to kill. A big dinner and a walk around Split should make that quite easy though. At least there's train stations here, so I can make use of my rail pass - unfortunately I have to go all the way back to Budapest. I don't really want to stay there another night though, so after arriving around 2:30pm, will jump on another train to Gyor at 7:40pm. Its a nice, small, quiet and cheap place to stay for the night, before I catch 2 trains on Monday to Prague. *phew*

So all in all, a scary total of 24 hours on trains in the next 2 days!

At least I'm stopping half way for a bed and a shower - I did consider going straight to Prague though. Unfortunately I can't go via Vienna and make use of faster Western-European trains... am stuck with trains that will stop about 20 times during the journey! Hopefully I'll be able to sleep enough to throw energy at Prague!

OK I think that's about enough time killing. Time to eat some cheap Croatian grub.

Till next time :-)

Hello!

Arrived at 8am-ish thismorning in Dubrovnik. It's costing me a fortune to stay here - so 3 nights then I'm zipping somewhere cheaper. In the meantime have to make use of the sea and sand. Tonight will take a look at the nightclubbing street - tomorrow there's a japanese jazz dude playing, who sounds quite good, so want to know where to go! Tomorrow morning I'll explore the old town, tomorrow arvo I'll swim, then on Fri I may do an islands cruise - a whole day out including lunch and drinks for 18 pounds doesn't sound *too* bad.

The bus trip was quite horrificly long, but comfy enough. I was sitting next to Asja from Zagreb, who was really nice - we discussed tons of topics and I found out a bit about what it's like to live through a war and the subsequent reconstruction.

Today I've walked around and bought shorts. And had fun getting to the hostel. And spilled Gelati on my new shorts. Barely no people speak English here too, which is a little frustrating... haha we'll see, shouldn't matter too much on the dancefloor :-)

Cheers & keep that tan up (you know I am!)

PS. This was written at an *outdoor internet cafe*. I'm under all these trees... hehe kewl, eh!

Hello!

Im quite excited to be in Croatia. I know everyone keeps telling me to go to Prague, but it is fun to explore parts of the globe that I know barely nothing about!

The train ride from Budapest was weird - we kept stopping, and at one stage we had to reverse to let another train past! I think they have only 1 line in many places in Hungary. Well, would rather we reversed than had a collision! I spent the train journey talking to Graeme (a scottish IT teacher - going to work and explore Mexico! Lucky bugger) and Alex, his english no-longer-an-academic friend. They were quite entertaining for the 6hr journey, along with a mad Budapest vocal actor guy, who seemed to like many of the historic cities - but whos first comment was always "ohh theres money there".

At Zagreb tons of people with packs jumped off... and barely no Hungarians! I met Kieren and Claire, and followed them to a hostel. Its nice to be in an environment where I can meet people, but the hostel isnt too nice. After meeting some Dutch guys and Irish Colin in my room, I took off with Kieren and Claire to get some food. Yummm venison steak! Croatian beer! Pancakes and chocolate! Cappucino! All for less than 10 pounds! Gotta love Eastern Europe! Not yet scrimping and saving, as you can see!

I slept so well last night - I think if Im careful I may even normalise my body clock! I got up at 9:30, and met Benjt and Annette from Sweeden. We went out looking for breakfast, although settled on Subway :-( although it was new to them. Now Im about to find a nice coffee and sit in the sun for a bit, then wander and take some photos about the place. Perhaps catch some opera or ballet tonight? Might make a nice change from manic dance music till 4am!

Keep well guys!

PS.. Just checked the news - Thanks for the text message (whoever it was) but am quite far from Prague.

FYI - current travel plans:
* Maybe the Plitvice Lakes national park - seems quite nice.. wooded hills, 16 turquoise lakes, waterfalls...
* Dubrovnik
* Somewhere on the way to Vysoke Tatry - on Lake Balaton??
* Vysoke Tatry
* Krakow
* Prauge
* Gdansk
* Bielsko Biala to visit friends
* ... (anywhere else in between or after the above places)
* Budapest

*grinz*

Quick Update Tues 3/8
Heading to Dubrovnik by bus at 9pm with 9 crazy Frenchies! It'll take 11 hours to get there - when I factor in a night of saved accomodation it is actually quite a cheap journey (cheaper than getting to Stanstead airport!!)

OK, perhaps I was too scathing last time.

After updating my site the other day, I slept for a few hours then went out to find some nightlife. I went by this place down the road, and it was quite dead (at 9:30pm) so I ended up at this crepe place, eating savory crepes for dinner. I got one with lots of chilli - niiice! I spent time with Paulo from Portugal and his friends... he was almost (says he, but I would say more so) hyperactive than me!

Then I went back to the club nearby - it's called Rio, it's all open air and free entry, with 4 bars and a huge dancefloor. It was so good that I stayed till 4:30am! I met some kewl Americans Rose, Brian and Bridget. We had planned to meet up yesterday for dinner, but they were no longer in their accomodation! Perhaps they took my advice and caught a night train (considering they were travelling all the way to Venice!).

So, the Americans weren't there, I had to find something else to do. I was just walking randomly and found the touristy district (which is reallly nice!) and sat down to eat and listen to a live jazz performance. I managed to find Pascal, a half-german, half-french lone traveller, and together we met Nikki and Christina, two brittish gals who are in Budapest for a music festival. We were off to Rio again, and stayed until 4:30am (again!). I'm running on 2 hours sleep, but I've checked out of my hostel and may follow Pascal to Croatia next!

:-)

Take care all.

Hi there!

First "travel diary" entry for a long time - I'm gradually getting used to the backpacking thing again!

Last night was horrific - Mrin suggested that I sleep in the airport to save some cash - my flight arrived at midnight, and since you're normally kicked out of bed by 10-ish at hostels it kinda made sense not to pay for just a few hours of sleep. I missed the last night bus from the airport (by about 2 minutes) so payed for a spot on a shuttle bus - that's the usual way to get into the city. Was planning to dump my bags in the large train station and roam around until dawn, but the train station looked closed... I ended up in a 24hr turkish restaurant/kebab takeaway and learned some hungarian while munching away. I was tired, and hostels are so cheap, so I ended up ringing hotels and hostels around 2:30 am, but most of them were not answering (what I expected) or full (arghh!!). I'm coming to realise that summer travel in Europe requires much more planning than my last stint in 2002 (because it was shoulder season). At the moment I'm planning on going on a relaxing day trip tomorrow, then I'll train out of Budapest on Sun afternoon and stay in a country villagey-place northeast. From there I'll try to travel up to the slovakian tatras, hiking hiking hiking!!! before going up to Krakow and then Prague, then probably Gdansk.

Will have to set these things in place soon - will look up timetables on the net a bit later. Will let you know what I've decided.

The place I'm staying in is a bit ugly, I'm yet to meet many people (not such a good atmosphere at this hostel but it's cheeap!!!) and it's been raining. Budapest is... well the stonework is amazing. It's nicer than Warsaw and Bratislava although doesn't yet have the character of Krakow. I'll see what the country bits are like - am planning to avoid cities a little more than I did last time I was on the continent.

I have met some nice people though. Before my hols had even started I met a kewl Korean girl on the train to Stanstead, and I spent some time with some Austrian lads - Christoph and Mandy thismorning. Tis quite annoying that many groups of Aussies and Brits are not really interested in meeting lone travelling strangers! ... perhaps lone travellers stick to western europe??? I'll have to see about that one!

OK time to look up train times. Hope you are all well! If any of you want to join me last minute in the East, let me know :-)

Hello All,

I managed to sneak home and surprise my parents last Thursday morning - they thought I was coming home on Fri evening! I promise that all of the remaining website travel dates are accurate :-)

Since then I've barely slept - meeting people and eating, chatting, dancing... tis quite fun! But so much to catch up on - arghh life is much more complex here than in London! But then again that's because I have so many really great people whom I care for here.

I'll get into specifics of what I've been doing later. More importantly - if you're in Perth check out the party details using the link above! I was going to email the details to everyone, but so many of you have changed your addresses!

I'll update this with some piccies and more info soon, but for the time being I need sleep! :-Ozzzz

Hello All!

Back to another travel entry!

Amsterdam has been quite good - quite crazy though. I guess I'm still looking forward to lying in the sun in Bali!

I only have 5 mins to finish this entry... grrr expensive internet access! We'll see how much I can fit in!

I went to the Heiniken Brewry today! You can look at a video I sent to my parents here. Haven't seen it myself yet!

The brewry wasn't that good - I ended up going to see T3 afterwards... I was quite happy, at 1:30pm! Too early to be a little tipsy - will probably be another night of drinking tonight though.

I've met some kewl ppl here! Jo and Kate just left to go to Belgium - Tis quite hard to meet scottish lasses on the road!

The hostel is filled with crazy guys - quite often in the afternoons everyone's asleep!

Yesterday I went to the Van Gough Museum - for 4 hrs! Was really well done.

Heyy All!

Next year, I'll be an IT teacher! At a really nice school! An underground-then-tram-then-train ride away from where I live! Haha finding it today was fun.

Tomorrow, my agency is going to try to deal to get me a damn fine salary... hopefully!

So... it was crazy today! I went in to see the first agency, had an interview, then caught the tram and train thing and toured the school. "Langley Park School for Girls" Seems quite fancy and has a really good (official government review-style) writeup.

So all that transport heading south... my other two interviews (that's right, last night they changed from 2 to 3 interviews I had today... not including that the morning one was actually 2!)... were in the centre of London! It took me 2 hours to get into the centre of the city... then I found this place at 4pm (was supposed to be there at 2:30)... I said "things have changed slightly... I just found a full time job", and she said "starting when?" I said "umm Jan 6th", and she (Lisa) said "Well I have this job that starts tomorrow, it's working at the Science museum, until the 2nd of Jan" I was kinda stressed by this point... like I'd toured schools and my teaching agent wanted me to say yay or nay to the job by tomorrow morning... but I thought what the hell! I'll work!

So tomorrow at 10am I have to be at the science museum for training! It's supposedly the "Bond Exhibition" haha so should be fun. I think I'll be working on ticketing and in the giftshop etc. At 5.50pph it's not going to make me rich, but it'll keep me from sleeping every day away!

Yepp so I was stressed a bit today. It's like a year long committment basically to work at the school. Ummm... I was pretty ready to do it, but then I had this guy call up about this job I applied for online last week... it sounded like a pretty hard-to-get-into graduate development job, and he wanted to know my school (ie pre uni) results. I told him and he was quite interested.... but it may take a week or so to get that organised... and my agent was pressuring me to give him an answer about this next job... arghh!

So... I called another agent! Ward at Venn consulting... he's my "serious IT jobs" agent... I only met him yesterday... but I asked him if he reckoned it would be bad for future IT work to do a year of teaching... he basically said to do it!

So... this means I do the equivalent of a dip-ed, while working. And there are always teaching jobs in the UK... More options are always good! Need to email Liam my education agent in a second to make sure that he doesn't call me while I'm training tomorrow! *phew*

So this arvo I walked from the temp agency place, found this cute jazz-cd-cafe and bought myself a celebration 'cino and carrot cake :-) Haha some things never change.

*Sigh* I'm exhaused... but excited... all in one! This is pretty strange... hope I have enough energy for work tomorrow!

Take care all...!

PS. Ohhh permanent staff at the school get a laptop! Now *that* would be kewl!

Hello!

London is kewl so far... yepp a little expensive - I'm not even going to look at my credit bill for a while yet - but everything I've been buying I've basically needed! I have lots of food now... being healthy... including butter for the first time in 3 months! Wow, what luxury!

My room is really nice, even though it's small! The house has a lil cute garden and antique furniature! My housemates - Angela (& bf Peter), Toni (& bf Mark), Natalie and Farid are really friendly! And I've bought all this homemakeing-type-stuff! Well, OK not really, but an alarm clock radio, a duvet, pillow & cover etc. Haha I never realised buying all this stuff would be so much fun! The one thing I'm not yet sure about is this long black overcoat I saw. At only £35 it's a really good price, and will help when in a suit looking for jobs in 0-degree-weather, but... ouch... I'm still timesing everything by 3!

Yepp so I've been to Wandsworth and Wimbledon today. Wandsworth is a *really* junky shopping centre, but I got $15AUD jeans and a really warm $20AUD jumper. Wimbledon is kewl, tons of shops... but I went and got my photos transferred and they forgot to put the CD into its case! Otherwise you would have had more photos today! And there's no Wombles! Maybe I need to check the back streets! :-)

OK... have to look up some job agencies now. Take care & Happy Xmas! (Will write again before then, but just in case you don't check before!)

or... "The End"
... "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish!"

Hrmm

I have now officially started the next part of my trip. The "Survive the Ratrace" part.

Hehe and the plane trip wasn't so casual... since when are they?? I was drinking a cappucino with Joe at the pasticceria thismorning... I should have really left for the airport earlier, but... there was tons of time - so I thought.

The problems started when I probably missed a train by about 2 minutes. Not such a biggy, I would get to the airport 30mins later, still would have enough time.

BUT then the automatic ticket machine debited my credit card the price of the ticket, but didn't print the ticket correctly! Printing Error, Go To A Ticket Window. Arghh!

Of course, you're supposed to go to a specific ticket window, but I went to the wrong one! Then I had to line up at the correct one. In the end I got the ticket and jogged a bit (pack and all) to make the train... although I may have made it without jogging.

So, a train to the airport was OK. I tried to check in by phone, but duhh, if you have luggage you can't do that! So at least I reserved a really good window seat. After checking in I went in the passport control queue... do you believe that the metal surrounds for the laces on my shoes set of the metal detector??? Haha I wonder what they'd think if i took my shoes off next time and put them through the scanner!

So that queue was taking a while. I got through it at about 12:10, and the gate for my flight supposedly closed at 12:15!!! I jogged through (minus my big pack this time) to the correct terminal, and then found you have to take this sky train-monoraily-thing to this satellite building that the platforms are off of. Hrmm OK. The sky train took a minute to arrive, then it was a 2 or 3 minute journey. I couldn't see any clocks around, but I reckon it would have been exactly 12:15 when I went through the gate! *phew*

OK, so I thought I could walk on a sky bridge on to the train, but it turns out that it was being repaired! We had to jump on a bus!!! It waited there for about 10 or 15 mins before taking off and driving us to the plane... finally!

So it was like... jog, train, jog, sky train, jog, bus, climb steps, plane, *sigh of relief*

So I made it, my luggage made it. I even asked to see the cockpit during the flight, but no-one can go into the cockpit any more. Not even the cabin crew! I went in after the flight though, took a photo and spoke to the captain for a bit. Have to kill time. It's not quite 5pm (although my body clock is nearing 6pm and I only slept for 4 or 5 hours!) and there won't be anyone in the place I'm staying until 8pm. At least I have an address and directions now.

So yepp... I'm back in good ole Earl's Court, using the internet cafe here that I know has MS Office and printing facilities. I need to double check that my resume is OK and print a few copies. Hopefully I'm awake enough not to stuff it up!

Accomodation seems to be getting better, well the price and conditions... I haven't yet seen any rooms!! The room is supposed to be really small, but have many of you seen my room at home??? I don't need much space. And the price is now £50pw!! Hrmm an extra $30AUD per week... doesn't go that far here, but discount is discount, eh? I found out that it costs over $200AUD per month for a travel card (unlimited travel on underground and busses within the 3 zones)... ouch! In Perth I was paying $84 for 40 rides, so that's a big increase... I guess I won't have any transport but the public transport, so it'll probably be worth it in the end. In Rome the transport was so cheap though!! €0.77 per metro ride! For a capital city that's damn good!

Hrmm... OK the last few days in Rome have been OK... I've been slowly recovering... Last night (the last night of my holiday!!) I went to dinner with Joe, Randy and Adrian. It also happened to be Adrians birthday. We splashed out a bit, which was a nice way to finish a 3 month trip! Mmmm chicken and asparagus! Potatoes and seasoned veggies! Cafe Baileys and crepes! Won't be doing that for a while! Adrian and I gave the other two brothers (from car-driving fast-food-loving California) a taste of Aussie endurance... we walked across the city, and then walked back home. Tis not that far, really... well that was our opinion! :-) In a few days Joe's coming to London. Should be kewl... we're going to try and track down a soccer game... so long as I can afford it!

Hrmm so OK... 1/2 an hour to do resume stuff, maybe 1/2 hr more to email some ppl I've been neglecting... which is all of you! Then have to track down food, maybe some work agencies, maybe try and look for the army surplus store that I managed to miss when I was in London last... Tomorrow will be more of the same kind of stuff - dry cleaning, washing, hair cutting etc. ai yai yai!

I'm actually enjoying this though. I think I enjoy the whole challenge of all this stuff. Travelling *was* a challenge... but it became so comfortable! Which was good, I suppose... but I think you lose a certain edge and alertness when you know what you're doing! Hrmm will have to think about that more.

OK getting used to English being spoken will be weird. I'm really used to being one in a sea of tons of different-language-speaking-ppl. I'm just so intruigued about English accents at the moment... It's too strange! I need to lose my fascination, otherwise I'll be trying to overhear everyone's conversations!

HRmm been thinking about writing these for a while... but wanted to wait until I'd finished travelling. Stats! I'm a kinda logical, mathematical thinker... these need to be here!

Number of days travel:
96

Number of items stolen:
0
(except for perhaps some food... but that's not serious, just annoying!)

Items lost:
8

3 towels. I kept losing them so often that I had to learn the Polish word for towel! My current one is bright yellow so I can spot it easily!
My address book.
A travel pillow (after only using it once! Grrrr! Couldn't really fit it in anyway!)
1 sock
1 long sleeved white t-shirt ??? OK this one is interesting... I don't know where I lost it... like it could be in any of 5 or 6 countries! By the time I realised it was missing ( about a week ago), I don't think I'd worn it for a month or two!
My International Hostelling Europe hostels book. Which was quite cheap, but really useful... grrr! I actually remember seeing it, and after I'd left, remembered putting it there! I think that's the problem with pushing yourself to travel and see stuff every day... you start to get a bit fuzzy round the edges.. hrmmm... so to speak... in addition to the no shave thing! Ohh which reminds me!

Best Bargains... things that have lasted

My toothbrush, paste, shower gel, shampoo and handful of razors I threw in... all still going strong! Guess I never realised how slowly that stuff goes down... and NO I have been clean... except for the no shave thing!

Waterproof shoes... expensive, but I haven't had wet feet in 2 months! As an added bonus, I haven't fallen off any mountains or sprained my ankle (again) either.

Umm... there was another really good bargain.
Ohh... Mayonaise!
I should prolly ditch it by now. I bought a tube of mayo in Switzerland... did I tell you about the whole tomato thing? Basically, I have a lunchbox that chocolate biscuits came in from Denmark, a €0.50 knife from a junky shop in Germany, plus some fresh tomatoes and the mayo make for an instant meal anywhere! It's shelf mayo... well supposedly refridgerate after opening. Which is why I should buy some new stuff now that I'll have access to a fridge.

Worst deals would have to be the $5AUD each I payed for two apples.... grr Sam check the per kilogram price!
And the guy that charged Candace and I $5AUD after we'd taken photos with him. I mean... If he would have told us the price beforehand it would have been OK... also if he wouldn't have encouraged me to go up and get photos taken with him as well... Joe and Randy were also suckered in... and I think it was the same guy!
I'm sure there are other bad deals.... hrmm they'll come to me and I'll add them.

Best tourist info would have to be in Rome. Hands down. The people actually like the whole chat while finding info thing (which they DIDN'T like in Germany) but they also had tons of info, like a database about tons of stuff. And the info booths were everywhere!

hrmm this is getting long isn't it! I'll give you and me a break... maybe I'll move this stats and comparison stuff to another post later and add to it... :-)

Heyy... get back to you soon with details about London Life and my small room!

Adios!

Hello!

Haha I'm feeling a lil strange... I have a cold :-( and took a tablet... perhaps Italian tablets are really strong! So if this post seems a little incoherent, maybe I have an excuse!

Rome has been great! I'll get back to it in a sec.

So how much did I tell you abt Sicily? Ohh Thanks for your comment Barbara! Taormina was strange, I slept in too much (no hot water! It's on a timer and I missed it!) . I dumped my bag at tourist info (haha which you're not really supposed to do, but by then one of the tourist ladies kinda knew me.... I'm always chatting away to info ppl! At least they're friendlier here than in Germany!).... and then walked to Castelmola and this other hill. It was basically the whole day walking... Walking is getting a bit much... I probably average 5-10km a day... or maybe more... my feet are starting to feel it! So, anyway Taormina was quite nice, but it was strange to be there with no other ppl... I caught a night train from there to Rome, and arrived at around 6:20

Well... at least I think we did. I woke up when the conductor of the train opened my door to wake me up... I have no idea how long I'd been at the station... most other people had left... it was weird walking down the platform on my own!

I've been here for a few days now... I've seen most of the old sights in the last few days... theres some really kewl stuff here (more than just the coleseum)... I'll have to post some photos and annotate them. A kewl thing I saw today was the ruins (of part of the building) where Caesar was murdered! Theres also some place where his body was burned... haven't found that yet!

Today was interesting. Last night I was partying, and thismorning I dragged myself out of bed to use the (free) internet before other people were lining up. I managed to upload the photos (that I'd selected and resised previously)... and I also had to check up about accomodation!

I actually found my own room for £50/wk in Chiswick, which is really cheap! But the people whos were going back to Oz are now stayinhg in London... I kinda panicked and emailed over 10 ppl about accomodation... now I'll be staying in Southfields, which should be OK. Tis a lttle further out though.

Gee I'm falling asleep at the computer. Will write again soon!

... OK it is Monday! I slept for a while on the couch in the TV room last night, then watched Hannibal... ohhh freaky movie. Some of it is set in Florence... which was kewl! I've never really been to a place then seen all the famous parts in a movie. It's sooo fake some of it - like there's this scene where there is a garden setting on this lawn, with the famous bridge "Ponte Vecchio" behind it... they either computer inserted the bridge, or had some barge covered in lawn... hehe.

Anyway... Yepp today is the last full day of my holiday!! And it's a bit of an icky one at that... At least I'm feeling a little better. Soon I'm going to go out and grab a coffee and see St Peters basilica. It's supposedly the most amazing part of Rome and I haven't seen it yet! But that's kewl... relaxing day.

Hrmm what had I told you that I'd seen before... OHHH I forgot to tell you the most important part...

I SAW THE POPE!

I was like a shameless paparatzi guy... hehe well not really. Every Sunday at noon the Pope speaks at St Peters Basilica... I was told that instead, he would be blessing this fountain near the spanish steps (it was a holiday weekend... feast of the immaculate conception?? something like that). At about 11:30 I found out that the pope would still be speaking at St Peters! I hopped on a metro, rushed there, and missed him by a couple of minutes! Grrr!

So that was annoying.... but I knew he would be near the spanish steps at 4pm. I arrived at 3, and there was already tons of people lining up to see him! I ended up being in a really good spot, except I was behind maybe 6 people. Digi cameras are also good for snapping above heads! I took quite a few photos and a short movie... the pope is quite small, and some of them are blurry, but I think I got one or two that are OK. I understood nothing of what was said... and he sounded *really* shakey. But wow the people love him! When he was leaving everyone cried out "Papa.... " something... I didn't catch it but it was great... then they all waved to him! My piccy of the pope mobile driving away didn't work, but I did get snaps of him getting on and off of the mobile.

Yeah... drivers in Italy are crazy... And so are pedestrians. In many countries, we've been encouraging the locals to illegally cross roads... in Italy, and especially in Rome, the locals will walk in front of cars.... Once I followed a local to cross the road... and we weren't nearly hit by any stretch of the imagination, but we had to move quite quickly... in the end she looked around guiltily... was quite funny. I've also seen these scenes that could be out of movies... 5 undercover police cars... with lights placed on top (like out of the window and stuck on the top of the car), screaming around a corner, nearly fishtailing it... hehe

I also reckon I could have seen the Pope going back from the service at St Maria (in the Major? church names are weird here cos they all have to be in somewhere... too many dedicated to the same saints!)... there was a few police motorcycles, going really fast with flashing lights, then there was a police car, then a fancy car with blacked out windows, then a big van carrying more people, then another few motorbikes.... they were FLYING... ignoring all lights, signals and other traffic.

Yepp... haven't been hit so far :-)

Ohh gee this isn't very touristy... more stream of consciousness writing for you to decipher!

OK... time for a coffee and to see a kewl church. My plane is at 12:45 tomorrow, so I don't even have to stress too much in the morning. Sanette at the place I'll be living will be there from about 6:30pm, so there's tons of time tomorrow arvo too. At least the end of my holiday is stress free... ask my Dad about the start!

Cya :-)

UPDATE just found a room of my own for only 2 pounds more per week! :-)

It's all good ppl, it's all good!

Hello!

Gee I've been slack recently! Seeing too much and writing too little... I'm going to splurge a bit and let you all know what I've been up to.

Let's work backwards! That'll keep you awake!

I just confirmed a room in Chiswick, West London for the next 4-6 weeks. It's only £50/week, which is really cheap for London! Much cheaper than hostels as well... the good ones are kinda closer to £20/night and you have to share the room with tons of ppl etc. This way I'll be able to stay and look for work knowing my stuff is all OK, and saving cash. Chiswick is kinda out of the city... but not really too far, there's a tube stop and train station nearby. There are Aussies, Kiwis and Canadians in the house, supposedly... haha barely any english people in London... maybe they just know better than to share with us!

So... anyway... I'm in Taormina, Sicily now! The train from Venezia (Venice.... did you know it used to be called "The Most Serene Republic of Venice"... err... pretty uppity! But twas quite nice, really) left just before 7pm, and I arrived here at around midday. Instead of catching a bus, I walked up from the train station to the town! It was 3km, well maybe it was 3km the short way. The part I didn't realise was that its also quite a few hundred metres upwards! I arrived at the top, found the tourist info desk, found the hostel, and then noticed it was going to be closed until 4pm (I thought) but I think I misread the sign and it was 5pm. Anyway, I had my first bad italian coffee and read while I was waiting, and finally got into the hostel... I'm the only one staying there! It's all quite bizarre. And the hostel is a bit shabby... but for €15 a night, breakfast included, I'm not complaining!

So what's in Taormina? I'm not really sure yet... today was a bit strange as I was solely focussed on getting to the hostel... imagine Sam... Robocop style... stepping through walls etc. OK maybe not, but once you get up momentum with a 20Kg pack, you don't really want to stop! I'm here to see Mt Etna, but it turns out it's erupting! Which is quite interesting... and annoying. There's ash everywhere (took a while for my brain to realise what it was! OK maybe I'm slow, but I've never been to a town in the shadow of a volcano before!)... it blows around when dry, and is just like ikky black mud when wet.. but hopefully my photos will be OK! You can also see the sea from here.. it's below and there's this really cute island with a sandbar bridge... I think there's a church and some other building on it. There's also some Greek ruins that I might check out tomorrow. Being so empty, this is like a recoup place before I hit Rome and have a few days of hardcore touring. Still haven't decided if I'll stay for one or two nights. There's a night train out of here, so at least that makes the next few days a little cheaper.

So... I came here from Venice! I took TONS of postcard-quality photos... a bit sad really... I mean, canal, gondolla, canal, condola, *sigh* haha yeah I do have others. I didn't ride in a gondolla (you'd think money grew on trees the amount they were charging!) but I went in a Vaporetto, (ferry)... haha their name sounds more exotic. That was quite strange... over there with no cars, the ferry system IS the bus system. I know how ho-hum I get about bussing every day in Perth... was quite interesting the number of people who just hopped on and off and didn't look the slightest bit interested in the journey... haha but then again, I had a snooze... you know me!

I caught the vaporetto to Murano, where they make tons of glass stuff. Some of it was really nice, all of it was quite expensive. I saw cutesy xmas gifts for everyone, but bought none... sorry guys, I don't trust the postmen not to crush your presents... ;-/

I'd been hanging around in Venice with Jeff, Christine, Brian and Bridie. They were a really great group, although we went to too many restaurants! I was staying in this 1-star hotel, sharing a room with 3 beds for €18p/n, which is a really cheap price!

Ohh I also went to this Penny Guggenheim museum. Tons of interesting paintings... Picasso was one of the only names I recognised, but I liked tons of the paintings and sculputres. I've still seen barely no modern art!

So Florence... I ended up going to the Ufizi museum with Sheldon da Kanuk and Maja from Belgrade... which was OK, but a few too many portraits for me. The next day I went off to the gardens at the Palazzo Pitti, which were *REALLY* nice. Seattle Jason and I just sat up overlooking these olive fields, in t-shirts wearing sunnies... was a beautiful day!

Ummm ohh yeah! And then there was the night in Florence where we got 5 shots for €5! Twas pretty memorable... and slightly dangerous... the popular italian combination was bacardi, with a chaser of pear juice! Mmmm that was good!

So... I'm sure there's more... uploading photos will help me to remember! Will have to do that again sometime soon.

Take care all... next entry will be from Rome!

Hello!

Wow another incredibly quick entry... I'm off to Sicily!

Using my last Eurail ride... making it count as well! I'll be travelling from about 7pm tonight till around 1 or 2 pm tomorrow! Not sure where I'll be jumping off the train even, but planning to do a tour or climb Mt Etna! Tis only 7 hours to the top... hrmmm am I feeling that game??

Will let you know soon... not many days till I'm in London... gotta make them count!

Hello!

Hope you are all well! I just have 3 mins left of internet access left... been emailing people to try and find cheap accomodation in London. None of it is cheap, but at least its cheaper than staying in a hostel!

Venice is kinda kewl! Such a tourist town though... and its also bigger than I thought which is a bit of a shame. But the no car thing is pretty good... Florence was a bit scary for that!

I still have tons to write to you about florence as well... I'll do that soon. Here I've met some kewl ppl and we're dinnering a bit too much... time to save cash Sam!

Anyways... will write again soon!

Hello!

I'm in Florence... was supposed to be in Venice today... but Italian trains are a lil weird! I suppose it's Sunday, so less of them run... I guess it's good that I don't have many hard deadlines.

I only have one trip left on my Eurail pass! I'm going to pay for a ticket from Florence to Venice, then use my last trip to go to Sicily from Venice (From the north east of the country to the south west! Then buy a bus/train/boat ticket to Naples, then buy a train ticket to Rome, where I hang out for a few days and then fly to London. It's a shame that I'm not going to have time to go to Greece.... the bit I really wanted to explore was the Greek Isles. I spoke to Cynthia (in Berlin) who had worked on a Greek tour boat, and she said that most of the places had already shut down a month ago! I'm planning to leave Greece and Turkey to a trip of their own... maybe with some other eastern european countries. The other trip that I might do is Holland-Belgium-France-Spain-Portugal. Will definately have to earn some sizable pounds before I embark on them!

So... Chinque Terre was really great. Lisa and I managed to do the whole 12km walk in one day! It was pretty kewl. Basically the only rest I'm getting from big walks these days is train rides! Today I stopped at Pisa, wandered around and took some photos. Seems like there's basically only the tower to see there. The Lasagne was nice though!

There was a soccer game between La Spezia and Pisa (exactly where I was from and where I was going to) so the train ride to the tower was really busy! Also, the stadium is just near the tower, and so I could hear all the soccer fans singing! It gave the tower touristy area a rather different feel! So I decided to catch a slow train to Florence, cos it would be really empty... and I wanted to sleep!

So... yepp trains have been my only rest recently. In Luxembourg I was climbing up and down tons of hills, roads, bridges and steps. Then I had one day on the train, and I climbed for two days in a row in Interlaken - can't remember if I told you where... We caught a train to Laudabrunnen (my spelling for all these places will be wrong), then walked along a valley to another small town (canìt remember the name), then up to Gimmewald... there was snow on the ground before I got to the top. We had lunch at this hostel... brought all this food and snacked... then walked to Murren and caught a train then funicular then train back to the hostel. Was a good walk... I think we started from 900m and went up to maybe 1450m... so quite a lot smaller than the climbs in Poland and Austria! Nice alps around and tons of photos though. I'll have to post some photos of Alex, Wit, Peter and Scott that climbed with me.

The next day I was hanging with these kewl guys from South Africa (whose names will appear here shortly when I can spell them!). Peter from the day before joined us, and we climbed Harder Kulm, this small mountain near to Interlaken. We had to climb up and down though... we started early, ate lunch at the top, and were able to get down to the bottom, and have a walk to the ruins of the local fortressy castle thing.

OK... so I walked for those days, and then went to Chinque Terre, walked for the whole day... then slept on the train from Pisa to here. In my hostel room, I saw Zac, who I'd originally met in Munich! I went out with him, Eric, Nick, Carissa and Kelly, for dinner, and to this after party of the Florence Marathon that was run yesterday!!! It was pretty wild... after getting home (before the 1am curfew... grr!) I was on the net till 3:30am uploading all those nice photos for you...

So today... Eric and I just walked around and had a look at some sights... will write about them later. Tomorrow there's these really good gardens that are huge... more photos will be taken!

So, the best thing about Florence is the food! I went to Marios restaurant for lunch, and ate some chicken, pork, fries and salad - and polished it off with some biscotti, dipped in sweet desert wine... !

Then we went to the markets nearby! I stocked up on sundried tomatoes, and made these really nice mortadella cheese sundried tomato sandwich things for dinner! mmmmm!

OK... gotta go!

:-)

Hello!

Ive been a really active busy bee recently... walking everywhere!

Im in Italy at the moment! And before you start to complain about my punctuation, I cant find an apostrophe on this keyboard! Or a tilde... hrmm

Anyway Luxembourg was really great... except trains out of there were too busy... I had