Europe Trip Part 1

Diane, John and Jodie arrived in London on the 8th September and were pleasantly surprised when we met them at the airport. For the next few days in London they spent their time seeing the sites while James went to work to earn those extra few pounds and I packed up and cleaned our unit as we were moving out. On the 12th September we all flew to Paris (James and I flying at a much more reasonable hour than the other three who had to leave their hotel at 4:30am) and our 4 week trip began!

Paris

Here we stayed in a little apartment for four nights, in walking distance to the Eiffel tower and many, many cute little restaurants and patisseries. Nutella Crepes became my staple diet here. They were so delicious, I seriously think I could live off them forever.

We saw the Eiffel Tower, the Arc De Triomph, Notre Darme, went to the Louvre and another museum with lots of Van Gogh and Monet (name I can’t recall, but I liked the artworks in this museum much more than in the Louvre). While Diane, Jodie and I were at this second museum, the boys went off to watch a Rugby match. Later that afternoon we found out that the Rugby wasn’t on and that they turned up to the ground to find absolutely nothing happening. You can probably guess what they did instead with their spare time!

Diane, James and I also walked down the street with all the designer clothes shops and it was in the Gucci store where I found a pair of sunglasses that I now so desperately want! Anyone want to get them for me? It’s my birthday next month!

All in all, Paris was quite nice with its shops, patisseries and restaurants and I did really like it. However, the city is quite filthy and smelly in some areas and the French people can be quite rude for no reason (probably just the way they come across). So, even though it is a nice place to visit, I really don’t think it’s as good as some people make out. But, that’s just my opinion.

The day we left Paris, we hired a car (it worked out cheaper to do it this way with 5 people rather than use public transport) and left the city for Switzerland! John was dedicated driver and James chief navigator. It took a little getting used to driving on the right side of the road, but after a few gutter scrapes and screaming car horns, we were well and truly on our way. Headed north east up through France towards Epernay in the Champagne region, Diane and I began to get very excited, not to mention thirsty as we neared the Moet winery. James was doing an extremely good job with his navigating and we did not miss one turn. However, sadly, we ended up in a tiny, dirty, council housed town called Chen En Champagne! When we inquired from the back seat as to what on earth was going on and where the hell we were, James replied, as if this was where we were supposed to be, “This is Chen En Champagne!” We nicely asked, “Who on earth told you we were going here? We’re supposed to go to Epernay, which is in the Champagne region!”

Although James did a great job getting us to Chen En Champagne, there was obviously a communication breakdown somewhere along the line and sadly, Diane and I completely missed our visit to the Moet winery and quietly cried to ourselves in the back seat.

Switzerland

Coming in to Switzerland, the scenery was unreal. Water in the lakes and rivers became an aqua green the closer you became to the mountains and waterfalls. Our apartment was a newly built, but typical Swiss building with two bedrooms, kitchen, lounge, dining and everything else you would need. It was also so clean and the beds very comfortable. Best by far though, was the view from our back door- Snow capped mountains!

While in Switzerland we went up to the very top of Europe, Jungfraujoch. We had to catch a train and cable car to get there, which took about 1.5 hours but the journey itself along with what we saw once at the top was definitely worth the time and money! The day was perfect; blue skies, sunshine and blankets of soft white snow. Despite the cold, we all managed to get slightly sun burnt (I suppose from the glare off the snow). We also slid down little disc things in the snow and both James and John lost theirs and had to run for metres in knee deep snow to fetch it before it fell off the mountain! They were both pretty wet by the end of it, and I can imagine pretty damn cold too! Not that they really cared…

Germany/Oktoberfest

John, James and I left Jodie and Diane in Switzerland and caught the train to Munich for the opening weekend of Oktoberfest. We got up really early on the Saturday morning and were lined up outside of one the main beer tents by 8am, ready to go in. Lucky for us, we managed to find a secret side door, that only another 10 people found and were in the first lot of people to be let in. Other people, lining up at the front door, were squashed and pushed as people gushed in and ran around like crazy, trying to find tables. Believe it or not, the doors opened at 9:15am and were closed by 9:30am. The tent was HUGE but was filled within 15 minutes. We sat at a table with James Swift and a few more of his mates.

The first keg was cracked at mid day and all the celebrations began. Our beer wench was about 65 years old, maybe even 70, and could carry 10 steins at once! Very, very impressive.

All was going great, and we were having the BEST time… until the toilet line ups turned into mosh pits and girls began being sent outside to use other amenities. On average it was taking at least an hour to go to the toilet because the lines were that long. At one stage, while James was waiting for me, I got sent outside, to use the toilet and after 1 hour, when I tried to come back in the way I was sent out, they wouldn’t let me! James was becoming quite worried, because I had been outside for so long and asked the security whether he could go out to find me and bring me back in, but they refused.

In the meantime however, I had been sent around to a side door with a small group of other girls, and forced to line up all over again to get inside. James was completely unaware of this, and I had no way of finding him to tell him. Anyway… to cut a really, really long story short (and I promise you this really is the shortest version I could come up with), James ended up being pushed outside, looked for me everywhere, couldn’t find me, had no clue what to do so decided to go back inside to get John and tell him what had happened. BUT, yep, you guessed it… they wouldn’t let him back in! It wasn’t until the violent security guards started bashing into some poor, innocent guy that James was able to sneak back inside without them seeing.

I got back to our table, told John that I had lost James, he said James was still waiting for me and then 2 seconds later James came running over, so relieved and thankful to see me. He had witnessed such horrible behaviour from the security guards while outside and it couldn’t stop him wondering what might have happened to me! The whole security thing at Oktoberfest was wrong. It all worked on bribes! Some desperate people who didn’t make it in by 9:30am paid them to come inside. Some girls had to pay them (probably in more ways than one) to get back inside without having to line up after going to the toilet! They pushed, kicked and hit people for no reason. It was just awful.

We decided to leave after that incident (which took up most of our afternoon) and caught the train to Austria where we met up with Jodie and Diane for Diane’s birthday dinner. Luckily the trip was 2.5 hours so it gave us a little time to have a sleep and sober up!

Austria

If you know me well enough, and Diane for that matter, we went on The Sound of Music Tour!!! James, Jodie and John didn’t really like it that much but we loved it! Diane and I also went to a live Sound of Music show that night and I got pulled up on stage to do a traditional Austrian folk dance. That was entertaining!

Croatia

The drive down to Croatia was an adventure, to put it nicely. We decided to go down via Slovenia, as new roads had been built. Every booth that we drove through was shut down, with not a single person in sight, but once we got through the border and well into Slovenia, we were pulled over by some road officers who took all of our passports and insisted we had to pay a fine because we didn’t have a Vignett on our car! The fine, he said ranged from 300-800 euros! I almost had a heart attack at the sound of this. After a lot of talking and negotiating from John, we ended up having to pay half the minimum fine in order to get our passports back! (Aussie passports classified us as tourists and tourists pay half price) So, we paid 150 euros, PLUS another 35 euros for the stupid Vignett! 185 euros all together… That’s almost $400 Aust!!! What a scam. Luckily I didn’t hand over my British passport, otherwise we probably would have had to pay 300 euros minimum as British citizens are not counted as tourists!

Sadly, by the time we finally arrived in Croatia, the weather wasn’t as warm as we expected. The week before we arrived was apparently quite warm, but it had suddenly changed. So, we did no swimming… just a lot of walking, up really steep, narrow streets. The locals were a bit rude too. I figured because peak season had just ended, they were all so over tourists and just wanted everyone to go home so they could relax. However, weather and locals aside, the place was quite nice… well, the beaches were anyway. The buildings around Trogir were really old and quite fascinating. One day, Diane and I actually climbed up an old clock tower, which almost killed us, but was well worth it once we got to the top and saw the beautiful view over the harbour. Most nights we cooked our own meals and drank a lot of wine and beer in our apartment. Mmm… On the 5th and final day in Croatia we boarded a ferry, with our car, over to Italy!

Italy and the rest of Europe Trip Part 2, to come...

Spain and La Tomatina

Spain- Be careful what you eat in Spain and make sure you get out of bed when your alarm goes off!

We flew together with James Swift from Heathrow to Madrid where we met Swift’s lovely friend Mel who arrived 1 hour before us. It was the four of us who shared a four bed dorm at the ‘Mad Hostel’ for three nights. The weather was lovely and warm (much different from the miserable London weather we have been getting used to) and we walked around for most of two days checking out the sites, shops, markets and restaurants. Tapas, as most of you would know is the most common type of food in Spain (bits and pieces of cheeses and meats) and Sangria the most popular drink. I was quite wary of the tapas and personally thought most of it was quite dodge. The sangria was okay, but still, I wasn't really much of a fan. Mel probably drank Madrid dry of Sangria anyway... she loved it!

(Photos below of Mel with a Sangria, our hostel room and me carrying the boys' Turbos "Big Beer")

One afternoon we watched a bull fight, which was interesting, but down right sick. After two out of four bull fights, we had to sit outside of the arena because we couldn’t bear seeing another poor bull being slaughtered and dragged off, leaving a trail of blood, purely for enterntainment.

(Photos below of us site seeing and at the Bull Fight)

After the two nights in Madrid we caught a bus to Valencia where we then parted with James S and Mel because we were with two different tour companies. We camped at a site which was about a 40min bus ride from the centre of Valencia. James S and Mel, the lucky ducks, snapped up such a good deal and stayed in an awesome hotel, right in Valencia, for only an extra 50 pounds! Our tour was pretty much filled with complete idiots; Either 18 year olds who were completely embarrassing themselves because of the amount of alcohol they were consuming or people who were older, but still acted as if they were only 18.

(Photo below is of us outside the bull fighting arena)

The first night we had a few drinks and met the other people in our group. We had dodgy hamburgers for dinner, made up of raw mince and soggy bread that were stone cold. James bought me a bottle of white wine from the little store at the caravan park and it came out a cloudy brown when he poured it into my glass and smelt worse than it looked! James took it back and swapped it for a different bottle, which was much better, but still disgusting! I didn’t dare drink it.

(Photo below of our campsite)

The next day, James was feeling quite sick. At first I thought he must have been hung over, but he didn’t drink that much the night before and he was still sick late the next night, so it must have been from something else… probably that burger, or from the little bit of my wine he tasted... who knows!

The third day was the actual tomato festival. We had to be on the bus, ready to leave for the village by 7am, which was very difficult seeing as though all the annoying people in our camp stayed up all night long with the music blaring and yelling and screaming at each other.
La Tomatina was very interesting. I’m glad we did it, but I would never do it again. It was so messy and the local Spanish boys get quite violent and don’t know when to stop. If you’re really unlucky your clothes get torn off you and thrown around, saturated in tomato puree. I avoided these boys at all costs, and thankfully because I had my James with me, I was less of a female target than some other girls! The funniest thing of the day though, was when we ran into Mel (James Swift’s friend). She mentioned that she did not see James that morning when they boarded their buses to come into the festival. I knew straight away, without a doubt that James would have slept in, even though he was the one who pretty much organized this trip and was keen as mustard to come to this festival! Later on, when I spoke to him he told me the story of him going out the night before for the yearly ‘Water and Wine’ festival, coming home at 5am the next morning and having to be on the bus two hours later. As unbelievable as this may sound, he actually slept through his alarm, his room mate’s alarm, two concierge calls and two people from his tour group bashing on their hotel room door! You can just imagine how furious he was with himself when he finally awoke at mid day (well after the festival had finished) and realized he had missed the whole thing!

(Photo below of our fanatics camping group- We're on the top left)

In the meantime, my James had started to feel a bit better but I had started to feel sick. We hadn’t had alcohol for two days now… even though we were on a tour, so I knew my sickness must have been from something I had eaten. All I could do by that afternoon was lie in my stinking hot tent with my legs tucked up to my belly, feeling like, any second I was going to vomit. The tent was so uncomfortable as we had no mattresses (it was advertised as ‘beach camping’ and everyone there assumed we’d be on sand, but it was hard dirt and rock) and the pains in my belly were excruciating. Throughout the afternoon my sickness got worse. I was vomiting over and over again and eventually needing to go to the toilet ever half hour as well. To make it worse, our tent was so far away from the toilet blocks and by 9pm I could barely walk myself to the toilets because I was so weak and dizzy. By 11pm it got to the stage where James tried to find me a doctor, but none were available. He also tried to ring James Swift to see if there were any hotel rooms at his hotel back in Valencia, but that was unsuccessful as the phones wouldn’t work! I was ever so grateful when the dude who ran the caravan park, offered us his caravan to sleep in (free of charge). It didn’t have its own toilet, but it was much closer to the toilet block, much further away from the racket of our camp site and actually had a bed to lie on. Neither James nor I slept at all that night. Poor James had to pretty much carry me to the toilets every time, and I continued to vomit every half hour. At 8am the next morning we had to catch a bus into Valencia to get our bus back to Madrid and finally our flight home. Luckily we found a pharmacy on the way and the lady spoke a little English, so she gave me medication to stop the vomiting etc. I don’t think I would have survived the trip home otherwise!

I also now know why they call it Tapas: Tap Arse!

Belgium

Last weekend we jumped on the super fast Eurostar train and ducked over to Belgium for James's 26th birthday (yes, he is getting old isn't he!) The trip only took 1 hour and 55 minutes and it seemed like it went even quicker than that.

The first day was spent in Brussels, where we walked around town looking at old churches and buildings. We found out that a celebration was about to start that very afternoon, which they called 'The planting of the tree'. Apparently it was the 700th year that they had been doing this and there was a parade going throughout town, finishing in Grand Place. So, we found a good spot on the street to watch the parade go by and then followed it into Grand Place, where there was quite a crowd. It was quite interesting, but I must admit, we never saw them plant any plant. What they did was carry a huge chunk of a tree through the town and then hoist it up in the air once they got to the end of the parade... quite strange. I suppose it's more symbolic than anything.










Grand Place

We also came across The Glass Pyramid, which we were highly disappointed with. We had heard so much about it and were not very impressed with it in real life.













The Glass Pyramid

The next day, we caught a train to Bruges. Here we visited the Markt and the Burg, which are pretty much two big squares of of old buildings around a big empty space. A particular building in the Burg actually holds the Basilica of the Holy blood! (Just a few coagulated drops of Christ's blood apparently). We didn't go inside though, as it was closed at that particular time, so instead we just stared at the building for a while and took a few pictures.













Where the holy blood is kept

We then took a canal tour through the town, which was a good way to see the sites. Before we set off, the driver claimed he could speak every language and made a point to find out what languages people spoke on board (this I understood). But throughout the tour, I didn't understand one single word! James suggested we hire some bikes and follow the horse and carriage tours around town to see the sites and 'do some skids', but unfortunately we ran out of time for that. Damn.













Canal Tour

Throughout the weekend, James tried quite a few different local beers, ranging from 9%-14% alcohol. Enough to get you smashed after just one! I tried a very small selection of chocolates, and would have tried a whole heap more, only they were ridiculously expensive. The ones I did try ranged from a champagne chocolate through to your plain chocolate praline. I recommend avoiding the really fancy ones though, as they always let you down.

It's pretty amazing, the places you can go in one weekend while living in London. When we arrived back home on the Sunday night, we felt as though we'd been away for a whole week, but it had only been two nights. And as usual at the end of a trip, we were buggered.

In about two weeks time, we're off to Spain for the 'La Tomatina Festival'. The one where you throw a whole heap of tomatoes at everyone in the streets. That should be lots of fun... Until then, good bye for now :-)

Leah and James

Wales and Bath

Melissa and Brett popped over to pick us up for the massive trip to Wales. Melissa was chief Navigator, Brett was driver, Leah was 2nd Navigator and I bought myself a can of beer (or 8) for the drive to Wales.

After a few wrong turns, dead ends, swear words and a shit load of U turns Brett finally got us out of London by popping into a pub and getting some old Codger to draw a map on a napkin. We were finally on our way.

I probably knew it was going to happen as I have a bladder about as weak as the English cricket team's middle order but I am glad Dad wasn't driving because we had to stop several times so I could relieve myself.

Once over the bridge into Wales (which you have to pay to get into) our hotel was to be 20 minutes away. After an hour of driving we ended up about 30 miles from our hotel. It was 11.00pm and we were all rat shit so we got our hotel transferred to a different location.

It's Leah here now... After that enticing introduction, James decided he wasn't bothered to continue writing. So, you're stuck with me again.

The first day, we met up with one of Brett's friends who visited Australia 7 years ago. His name was Owen and he took us to some sites, such as 'Worms Head' on the south west peninsula and a castle in Swansea. We then went back to his place in Aberdare, which is a country town in Wales and then headed out for the night. James decided to bust some of his famous moves again on the dance floor, but sadly, I don't have the photos to use as proof of his skills, as they're on Melissa's camera. (Melissa if you're reading this, I need a copy of all your photos!) After a few too many drinks, we headed back to our Premier Inn Hotel, where Brett became the entertainment for the rest of night until we all passed out on our beds.













Pictures of Swansea Castle, and the peninsula at Worms Head.


The next day, we met up with Owen's previous girlfriend Claire who also came to Australia 7 years ago. Her family was lovely and insisted that we stay the night at their house, also in Aberdare. Claire took us to a party, a few clubs and finally back to her local pub, which was very much like the Shamrock Hotel in Muswellbrook but dodgier, so we felt right at home. The locals kept asking us all night, "What the bloody hell are you doing in Aberdare?" because most tourists head to Cardiff when visiting Wales, and Melissa and I had to explain to them that we were headed to Porth the next day (in the next valley), as that is where our parents grew up. Then they'd go on to say, "Porth! You'd better watch your handbag!" and, "Porth is a shit hole!" (Valley rivalry most likely). All in all, it was a ripper of a night. There were people dancing on tops of tables (not mentioning any names Melissa), people dancing on top of James's shoulders (who would do that?) and a bar owner walking around offering people swigs out of a bottle of Tequila!













Melissa, Claire and I, James and I out, James and I at Worms Head


Back in the day, Porth was an old mining town in the Rhondda Valley. Even though my family members have said to me how much it has changed over the years, and Kay, our family friend and old neighbour from Wales, has told me several times that she doesn't even like going back there, I personally didn't think it was all that bad. I guess because they remember what it used to be like, they've got something to compare it to. We had Hilary (my Dad's cousin) to show us around Porth on the Sunday and she pointed out the two houses where my Dad used to live and the school they went to. The town was quite pretty and not as dull and grimy as it used to be from the mines apparently, however, there wasn't much happening and it seemed very quiet.

Earlier that day for lunch, we were invited around to my Dad's other cousin Carol's house for a roast dinner where we also had lots of fine wine. She and her husband Dan have an amazing old house. The main part of the building was built in the 1500s! The gardens were spectacular, and the day was beautiful, so we spent quite a lot of time taking photos outside... along with the peacocks! That night, after our short trip to Porth, we stayed with Hilary at her house, in Pontyclun.










Night out with Claire . With the family, At Carol and Dan's house


On the last day, we left Hilary's in the morning and headed to Cardiff. Here we stopped for a short while, just to have a quick look in the shops and at Cardiff castle before venturing to Bath.

As you probably all know Bath is where the ancient Roman spa baths are located. Melissa and I paid our money to go inside and have a look at an ancient bath, while Brett and James stayed outside, peeking in through the walls because they were too stingy to pay. We then went to the modern 'Thermal Spa Baths' where you actually get to hop in. There were also a range of saunas, which had different scents in each one and were extremely relaxing...

Avoiding the main highway, we made our way back through old, windy roads and cute, little country towns until we found ourselves weaving through the familiar, smelly and littered streets of London. From there we managed to find our way back to our house on Brecknock Road quite easily, thank God, as we were all absolutely buggered and in no state at all to get into yet another navigational war.

Visitors

Over the last couple of weeks we've had a few visitors. Our friend Nik has come to stay with us and we've been very busy. We all went to see Hilltop Hoods play, went to a music festival called 'Projekt Revolution' in Milton Keynes and James and Nik have even been to the London Zoo.

My cousin Melissa and her boyfriend Brett have also arrived in London and we have had a few drinking sessions with them and most excitingly, they recently got engaged while being over here. Yay! Congratulations to them :-) James and I have also been working amongst all the excitement and just today I woke up with my worse nightmare, tonsillitis, and had to call in sick to work. Poor me :-( My other cousin, James is living over here too now, so we've been able to catch up with him quite a bit lately too, which has been great.

Projekt Revolution:

James landed Nik and himself some random work, putting up skateboard ramps for a company called Eastpak which BMX riders and skateboarders use to give demos at music festivals. For doing this, they managed to get 100 pounds each, free accommodation for 2 nights near the venue, all three of us free VIP tickets and on top of that, free merchandise such as a jacket for me and shirts for them. Pretty cool.

The festival was located at a venue called 'The National Bowl' north west of London in a place called Milton Keynes. At the festival Jay-Z, Linkin Park, Pendulum and a few other bands played. We had a great time out in the countryside and the weather was so nice we all even managed to get a little sunburnt. Oops.





















































Hilltop Hoods:

Mid week we went to see the Australian hip hop band, 'Hilltop Hoods' at a place called the Carling Academy in Angel, which is pretty close to our house in Camden. Because the venue was so small, we were pretty close to the front and anyone of a 'normal' height would have been able to see very well (Nik and James really do take their height for granted). Sometimes, I managed to sneak a peak through the gaps of tall, sweaty people standing in front of me and when James was feeling extra nice, he would lift me up.

After making us wait nearly 2 hours for them to come out, the Hoods did put on a show well worth waiting for. What can I say??? They were awesome! There were so many Australian fans there... I don't think I've ever seen so many Australians in the one spot, ever.


































Melissa and Brett's Visit:

The first time we planned to see Mel and Brett, I was very excited. We decided to meet at a pub called 'The Nags Head' in Angel. We had a few too many drinks that night, but luckily none of us had to work the next day.

At one stage, poor Mel copped an old, tin drink tray in the head (compliments of Brett) and while on the way home, James decided he'd try to drive a digger thingy and then have a sleep at a bus stop. Luckily, some of us remained responsible enough to get us all home safely! We all managed to get up at a reasonable hour the next morning, as we had plans to watch the State of Origin at an Aussie pub called 'Walkabout', at 10:30 am. Unfortunately, there were a lot of Queensland supporters surrounding us, and no matter how often and how loud James screamed at the television, ordering instructions and offering his opinions, the cockroaches still managed to be defeated :-( We all then went to London's Chinatown and had a nice lunch.


























Two nights later we met in Brick Lane for dinner and drinks with Melissa, Brett, my cousin James, Brett's sister and boyfriend and Melissa's good friend, Dale from Muswellbrook High, and his girlfriend Zoe. It was at a bar, this night, called 'The Big Chill' that Melissa and Brett announced their engagement! So, we popped a bottle of moet and celebrated... as you do. CONGRATULATIONS MEL AND BRETT!




















We then headed to an Indian restaurant for dinner where Melissa managed to pilfer two bottles of alcohol from behind the bar!!! Yes, I couldn't believe it either. She was so good at it though, that I, who was sitting at the same table as her, facing the bar, didn't even see her do it! All in all, it was a very, very funny night and we all had a great time celebrating the engagement and taking photos of Melissa's beautiful diamond ring :-)















Will write again soon, Love Leah and James x x x