And once again I'm slack with no photos just yet! We arrived home on Sunday afternoon, and we've spent this last week getting everything back to normal again.
We left Singapore and arrived in Sydney with no real hassles. I started feeling sick on the plane ride, and all the smells on the plane (food cooking, the guy drinking wine next to me) made me want to be sick. When we arrived in Sydney, we transferred to the domestic airport and had about a 6 hour wait until our next flight straight back to Mackay. That was about 1/2 hour late, but the flight was pretty quick. I was still feeling so sick the whole time waiting at the airport and then in the flight back home, but managed to hang on until we arrived at the Mackay airport.
It was so good to get home. Despite knowing that I should stay awake until bedtime on Sunday night, I had a couple of hours of sleep in the afternoon, and woke up feeling a lot less sick that night.
The first thing I did on Monday morning was drop my ring in to the jewellers to get resized! They had to send it away, and apparently I'll have it back tomorrow. I can't wait!
John's parents came up on Tuesday (which was also John's 30th birthday) and brought back Roxy and our car. Roxy has completely fallen in love with John's dad, but has settled right in again. I've had this week without work (I start again tomorrow, boo) and over the last few days Roxy has even bonded with me a little and will let me do the one thing that is reserved for John and John only - scratches. She's laid another egg though, so there'll be a few more on the way.
The house is getting back to normal again, and I've got a roast in cooking tonight. Not having to do any cooking or washing up for 8 weeks or so has meant that getting into cooking again has been fun! It's not even bad doing loads of washing any more - it's way easier than doing the washing while we were away in the bathtubs!
Back to work tomorrow, which I'm not looking forward to, but it will be nice to start earning a wage again! I will of course get some photos prepared over the next week or so and post a bit of a highlights reel soon.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
The home stretch
I know I haven't posted any recent photos like I said I would (surprised?) but there's sort of a good reason for that!
We left Warsaw for our flight to London on 7 July in the morning, and made our connecting flight from London to Singapore with plenty of time. As it turns out, after we boarded the plane, they kept us sitting at the terminal (with everyone on the plane and not allowed to leave) for over 4 hours due to a mechanical issue. After 4 hours, they told us that the plane would be leaving at 11pm that night (instead of midday as scheduled), and we would all have to get off and wait in the terminal. Half an hour later, they changed their mind and told us the plane would be delayed until 9am the next day, and they would be taking us all (400 passengers) to a nearby motel for the night. Of course it was frustrating, and because there was 400 people - who were all more important, tired and hungry than everyone else of course - patience was definitely a virtue.
After having boarded our first flight at 7am in Warsaw, and our second flight at 11.30am in London, we finally made it into our room in the motel in London at about 8pm. All bags had to stay on the plane, so we had to make the most of the free toiletries from the motel, and then put on the same clothes the next morning.
Our plane was supposed to leave at 9am the next day, but was further delayed by over an hour. We finally took off after 10am, and we arrived in Singapore this morning at 5.30am local time (the flight was about 13 hours).
Because of the delay, we had to cancel two of our pre-booked and paid for tours in Singapore - the city tour and ride on the giant ferris wheel, and the night zoo safari tour. But, our next tour started at 8.00am this morning, so after we checked into the motel, we had a shower and some breakfast and then headed straight out.
So, now we're in Singapore, having arrived this morning at 5.30am, went on our first tour around Sentosa Island at 8am, came back at lunchtime, but were just too tired to even have any lunch. I actually got bus-sick on the ride back to the motel, and we had a sleep for a few hours. We had another tour at 6pm tonight around Chinatown (including a Chinese dinner, a trishaw ride and a bumboat ride) and are now back in our motel. It's nearly 11pm and we are completely knackered.
We leave Singapore tomorrow night at about 8pm and arrive in Sydney on Sunday. We then catch a flight a couple of hours later from Sydney straight to Mackay, where we will arrive on Sunday afternoon.
We'll give everyone a call when we get back to let you know how everything went, and to work out when we'll be in what city (whether we'll go down to Rocky etc) but if you don't get a call straight away on Sunday night don't worry - we'll probably just crash the moment we get home (into bed I mean).
Tomorrow morning is our breakfast with the orangutans at the open plains zoo, which I can't wait for. At least I'll get to see the zoo animals eventually!
It's my baby sister's 20th birthday today. I'm sorry when I called you I couldn't talk for longer, but it really has been a crazy day! Hope you had a great day, and we'll see you when we're back home chicky.
The finish line is in sight... xxx
We left Warsaw for our flight to London on 7 July in the morning, and made our connecting flight from London to Singapore with plenty of time. As it turns out, after we boarded the plane, they kept us sitting at the terminal (with everyone on the plane and not allowed to leave) for over 4 hours due to a mechanical issue. After 4 hours, they told us that the plane would be leaving at 11pm that night (instead of midday as scheduled), and we would all have to get off and wait in the terminal. Half an hour later, they changed their mind and told us the plane would be delayed until 9am the next day, and they would be taking us all (400 passengers) to a nearby motel for the night. Of course it was frustrating, and because there was 400 people - who were all more important, tired and hungry than everyone else of course - patience was definitely a virtue.
After having boarded our first flight at 7am in Warsaw, and our second flight at 11.30am in London, we finally made it into our room in the motel in London at about 8pm. All bags had to stay on the plane, so we had to make the most of the free toiletries from the motel, and then put on the same clothes the next morning.
Our plane was supposed to leave at 9am the next day, but was further delayed by over an hour. We finally took off after 10am, and we arrived in Singapore this morning at 5.30am local time (the flight was about 13 hours).
Because of the delay, we had to cancel two of our pre-booked and paid for tours in Singapore - the city tour and ride on the giant ferris wheel, and the night zoo safari tour. But, our next tour started at 8.00am this morning, so after we checked into the motel, we had a shower and some breakfast and then headed straight out.
So, now we're in Singapore, having arrived this morning at 5.30am, went on our first tour around Sentosa Island at 8am, came back at lunchtime, but were just too tired to even have any lunch. I actually got bus-sick on the ride back to the motel, and we had a sleep for a few hours. We had another tour at 6pm tonight around Chinatown (including a Chinese dinner, a trishaw ride and a bumboat ride) and are now back in our motel. It's nearly 11pm and we are completely knackered.
We leave Singapore tomorrow night at about 8pm and arrive in Sydney on Sunday. We then catch a flight a couple of hours later from Sydney straight to Mackay, where we will arrive on Sunday afternoon.
We'll give everyone a call when we get back to let you know how everything went, and to work out when we'll be in what city (whether we'll go down to Rocky etc) but if you don't get a call straight away on Sunday night don't worry - we'll probably just crash the moment we get home (into bed I mean).
Tomorrow morning is our breakfast with the orangutans at the open plains zoo, which I can't wait for. At least I'll get to see the zoo animals eventually!
It's my baby sister's 20th birthday today. I'm sorry when I called you I couldn't talk for longer, but it really has been a crazy day! Hope you had a great day, and we'll see you when we're back home chicky.
The finish line is in sight... xxx
Sunday, July 4, 2010
In the east
We're currently in our second last country, with only a bit over a week to go before we come home. I haven't really been homesick during our trip (although it's certainly the longest I've been away from home), but lately - I know how silly this sounds - I have been missing Roxy! I know she's probably not even aware that we're not around and probably fallen in love with John's dad (after all, she does like the men) but I just can't wait to see her. John is thinking about our lawn, and wondering how dead it is!
Since my last post, we've spent time in Amsterdam in The Netherlands (not Holland, which is only the region in The Netherlands), which I really enjoyed. We went through Anne Frank's house, took a 'granny' bike ride around Edam (just outside of Amsterdam) and a canal boat cruise. Our tour manager took us all on a walk through the red light district, which was definitely an experience! It's a very 'easy' city, that is very different to any of the others we've been. No one has to worry - neither John nor I partook (is that even a word) in any sort of mind/body altering substance. I think we were two of only four people on our tour that didn't! I enjoyed Amsterdam, but there's certainly a side to it that is a little uncomfortable!
Our last day of our first tour was pretty much just driving back to Calais (in France) through Belgium, taking the ferry across the English channel and then driving back to London. Nothing too exciting there.
The next day we got up early and took the very first Underground tube to... Wimbledon. We joined the queue a bit after 6.00am, and were queuers number 2,600 or so. We waited until 9.30am to be let into the ground, where only 1500 tickets were available to get into the important courts, where Roger Federer, Justine Henin, Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick and Venus Williams were all playing that day. We did manage to get into the court number 3 (which is actually called Court 5) to see John Isner play against the dutchman Thiemo de Bakker. John Isner was the guy who had, two days earlier, won the longest match ever after 3 days (11 hours) of play. He lost the game in straight sets, but it was great to see a live game at Wimbledon. We then found a prime position table and chairs on the terrace, right outside of Court 1 watching the big screen of live play. We saw Lleyton Hewitt win his match and also Roger Federer. It would have been great to have been in the courts, but we're now thinking we'd love to arrange a trip to the Australian Open in January.
The day after we flew to Berlin (Germany) to start our next tour. Berlin was a wonderful surprise. I didn't have too many expectations really, but I loved it. We learned so much about its really quite recent history, that made both of us feel very naive for not knowing much about it in the first place. We saw the remnants of the actual Berlin Wall, saw Checkpoint Charlie and a number of other historical buildings and sites. We also happened to be in Berlin the day that Germany played against England in the soccer world cup, which has been absolutely massive over here. The two of us went into this huge park where there was an official 'Fanfest' celebration showing the game live. We were amongst over 200,000 Germans when Germany won the game, which was madness!! A once in a lifetime experience though. Anyway, both John and I loved Berlin, and would go back more than likely.
Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic was next. Again, a lot of recent history was very eye-opening, where we visited the Communism Museum and I was almost in tears at some of the things that we learnt. This part of Europe (including Hungary and Poland, which came next on our trip) has had such a turbulent recent history, that this trip is really opening my eyes to. Prague was a beautiful city, which lovely old buildings and a very Viennese feel to the buildings and architecture.
After Prague, we had one night in Vienna (Austria) which we'd visited on our previous tour. It was good to have more time to visit some of the not so common sites, so we saw the crown jewels of the very old and very successful Austrian Empire.
This morning we left Budapest (Hungary) which would come close to being one of my favourite cities. It was absolutely stunning, really beautiful, and just a really pleasant city. In terms of well known sites to see, there aren't really any, but the city itself and some of its castles and lookout points are wonderful. I'll post the photos at a later date to show you.
This evening we arrived in Krakow (Poland), which is nothing like I thought it would be. In fact, most of Eastern Europe has been unexpected, although positively so. It's really been beautiful. Tomorrow we will be exploring Krakow with a city tour in the morning, and a visit to the Krakow salt mines in the afternoon. That will be something a little different.
Our next destination is Warsaw (also Poland) in two day's time, where we will visit Auschwitz extermination camp. I don't know how we will handle that, but it's something I've been looking forward to since we booked the trip.
This second tour has been very different to our first tour so far - our tour manager is very different, and I think we both preferred our first guy, and the mix of people is also very different. On our last trip, our of 50 of us, there were two Kiwis, one Canadian, one South Korean and everyone else was Aussie. This tour, there are three South Africans, a couple of Kiwis, two Singaporeans, quite a few Canadians and Americans, and a handful of Australians. Let's just say that the group dynamic and interaction is very different!
We're having a ball, and the time seems to have flown by so quickly, yet our first day seems so long ago. While I don't want to wish the time away at all, I think when we get home, I will be glad to be home. Not looking forward to starting back at work though - how difficult is that going to be!!
In the meantime, Linda and Gerry (neighbours) have had a big event with their son getting married - we were certainly thinking about you over the last couple of days and hoping that you got back home safely. Glad everything went well.
I fully intend on posting again before July 9th, but consider this my back-up plan. It's my baby sister's 20th birthday, and I can't believe that she's not 12 years old anymore! I'll see you when we get back, chicky. We'll literally be in transit somewhere in Singapore, and will try to give you a call.
Love you all,
Caitie and John xx
Since my last post, we've spent time in Amsterdam in The Netherlands (not Holland, which is only the region in The Netherlands), which I really enjoyed. We went through Anne Frank's house, took a 'granny' bike ride around Edam (just outside of Amsterdam) and a canal boat cruise. Our tour manager took us all on a walk through the red light district, which was definitely an experience! It's a very 'easy' city, that is very different to any of the others we've been. No one has to worry - neither John nor I partook (is that even a word) in any sort of mind/body altering substance. I think we were two of only four people on our tour that didn't! I enjoyed Amsterdam, but there's certainly a side to it that is a little uncomfortable!
Our last day of our first tour was pretty much just driving back to Calais (in France) through Belgium, taking the ferry across the English channel and then driving back to London. Nothing too exciting there.
The next day we got up early and took the very first Underground tube to... Wimbledon. We joined the queue a bit after 6.00am, and were queuers number 2,600 or so. We waited until 9.30am to be let into the ground, where only 1500 tickets were available to get into the important courts, where Roger Federer, Justine Henin, Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick and Venus Williams were all playing that day. We did manage to get into the court number 3 (which is actually called Court 5) to see John Isner play against the dutchman Thiemo de Bakker. John Isner was the guy who had, two days earlier, won the longest match ever after 3 days (11 hours) of play. He lost the game in straight sets, but it was great to see a live game at Wimbledon. We then found a prime position table and chairs on the terrace, right outside of Court 1 watching the big screen of live play. We saw Lleyton Hewitt win his match and also Roger Federer. It would have been great to have been in the courts, but we're now thinking we'd love to arrange a trip to the Australian Open in January.
The day after we flew to Berlin (Germany) to start our next tour. Berlin was a wonderful surprise. I didn't have too many expectations really, but I loved it. We learned so much about its really quite recent history, that made both of us feel very naive for not knowing much about it in the first place. We saw the remnants of the actual Berlin Wall, saw Checkpoint Charlie and a number of other historical buildings and sites. We also happened to be in Berlin the day that Germany played against England in the soccer world cup, which has been absolutely massive over here. The two of us went into this huge park where there was an official 'Fanfest' celebration showing the game live. We were amongst over 200,000 Germans when Germany won the game, which was madness!! A once in a lifetime experience though. Anyway, both John and I loved Berlin, and would go back more than likely.
Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic was next. Again, a lot of recent history was very eye-opening, where we visited the Communism Museum and I was almost in tears at some of the things that we learnt. This part of Europe (including Hungary and Poland, which came next on our trip) has had such a turbulent recent history, that this trip is really opening my eyes to. Prague was a beautiful city, which lovely old buildings and a very Viennese feel to the buildings and architecture.
After Prague, we had one night in Vienna (Austria) which we'd visited on our previous tour. It was good to have more time to visit some of the not so common sites, so we saw the crown jewels of the very old and very successful Austrian Empire.
This morning we left Budapest (Hungary) which would come close to being one of my favourite cities. It was absolutely stunning, really beautiful, and just a really pleasant city. In terms of well known sites to see, there aren't really any, but the city itself and some of its castles and lookout points are wonderful. I'll post the photos at a later date to show you.
This evening we arrived in Krakow (Poland), which is nothing like I thought it would be. In fact, most of Eastern Europe has been unexpected, although positively so. It's really been beautiful. Tomorrow we will be exploring Krakow with a city tour in the morning, and a visit to the Krakow salt mines in the afternoon. That will be something a little different.
Our next destination is Warsaw (also Poland) in two day's time, where we will visit Auschwitz extermination camp. I don't know how we will handle that, but it's something I've been looking forward to since we booked the trip.
This second tour has been very different to our first tour so far - our tour manager is very different, and I think we both preferred our first guy, and the mix of people is also very different. On our last trip, our of 50 of us, there were two Kiwis, one Canadian, one South Korean and everyone else was Aussie. This tour, there are three South Africans, a couple of Kiwis, two Singaporeans, quite a few Canadians and Americans, and a handful of Australians. Let's just say that the group dynamic and interaction is very different!
We're having a ball, and the time seems to have flown by so quickly, yet our first day seems so long ago. While I don't want to wish the time away at all, I think when we get home, I will be glad to be home. Not looking forward to starting back at work though - how difficult is that going to be!!
In the meantime, Linda and Gerry (neighbours) have had a big event with their son getting married - we were certainly thinking about you over the last couple of days and hoping that you got back home safely. Glad everything went well.
I fully intend on posting again before July 9th, but consider this my back-up plan. It's my baby sister's 20th birthday, and I can't believe that she's not 12 years old anymore! I'll see you when we get back, chicky. We'll literally be in transit somewhere in Singapore, and will try to give you a call.
Love you all,
Caitie and John xx
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Long awaited pics
First off, sorry for not posting these sooner. We've had a run of hotels without internet access, so we're currently sitting in a Bagel cafe in Amsterdam (and yes, it's just a NORMAL cafe) doing a quick photo upload.
Today is our last day of our first tour, as tomorrow we head back to London, ready to fly to Berlin in a couple of days to begin our second tour.
I won't say too much about the last couple of days, I'll keep them for the next post. For now, I'll just post the photos that should have accompanied the last post. Sorry that they're all out of order - it's just too difficult at the moment to do them all in the right order.
Leaning Tower of Pisa (Italy):
Pompeii and Mt Vesuvius in the background (Italy):
Venice (Italy):
Sorrento (southern Italy):
Barcelona (Spain) - we walked up to the top of the hill you can see in the centre:
1992 Olympic stadium in Barcelona (Spain):
The pebbled beaches of Nice (France):
Grand Casino in Monte Carlo, Monaco (French Riviera):
On the gondolas in Venice (Italy):
Dubrovnik (Croatia):
The view going up Mt Pilatus, Lucerne (Switzerland):
Ferry crossing from Italy into Greece:
Snow at the top of Mt Pilatus, Lucerne (Switzerland):
Ancient city of Ephesus (3000 years old), Kusadasi (Turkey):
On top of the old city walls, Dubrovnik (Croatia):
The Aegean sea with our cruise ship in the background, Patmos (Greek Islands):
On top of the old city walls, Dubrovnik (Croatia):
John jumping off the boat into the Adriatic, Dubrovnik (Croatia):
Florence (Italy):
The Trevy Fountain, Rome (Italy):
Athens (Greece):
Mykonos (Greek Islands):
The Acropolis in Rhodes (Greek Islands):
The gorgeous blue domes, Santorini (Greek Islands):
The Parthenon, Athens (Greece):
Looking down on Dubrovnik (Croatia):
The Stairs of Death at Mauthausen Concentration Camp (Austria):
The quarry at Mauthausen Concentration Camp (Austria):
German Pork Knuckle at the Hofbrahaus Beer Hall, Munich (Germany):
In a couple of days we'll be in Berlin, Germany to begin our next tour. We'll keep you updated on our travels!
Thanks for taking care of everything while we're away, everyone. Won't be too much longer and we'll be home.
Love Caitie and John
Today is our last day of our first tour, as tomorrow we head back to London, ready to fly to Berlin in a couple of days to begin our second tour.
I won't say too much about the last couple of days, I'll keep them for the next post. For now, I'll just post the photos that should have accompanied the last post. Sorry that they're all out of order - it's just too difficult at the moment to do them all in the right order.
Leaning Tower of Pisa (Italy):
Pompeii and Mt Vesuvius in the background (Italy):
Venice (Italy):
Sorrento (southern Italy):
Barcelona (Spain) - we walked up to the top of the hill you can see in the centre:
1992 Olympic stadium in Barcelona (Spain):
The pebbled beaches of Nice (France):
Grand Casino in Monte Carlo, Monaco (French Riviera):
On the gondolas in Venice (Italy):
Dubrovnik (Croatia):
The view going up Mt Pilatus, Lucerne (Switzerland):
Ferry crossing from Italy into Greece:
Snow at the top of Mt Pilatus, Lucerne (Switzerland):
Ancient city of Ephesus (3000 years old), Kusadasi (Turkey):
On top of the old city walls, Dubrovnik (Croatia):
The Aegean sea with our cruise ship in the background, Patmos (Greek Islands):
On top of the old city walls, Dubrovnik (Croatia):
John jumping off the boat into the Adriatic, Dubrovnik (Croatia):
Florence (Italy):
The Trevy Fountain, Rome (Italy):
Athens (Greece):
Mykonos (Greek Islands):
The Acropolis in Rhodes (Greek Islands):
The gorgeous blue domes, Santorini (Greek Islands):
The Parthenon, Athens (Greece):
Looking down on Dubrovnik (Croatia):
The Stairs of Death at Mauthausen Concentration Camp (Austria):
The quarry at Mauthausen Concentration Camp (Austria):
German Pork Knuckle at the Hofbrahaus Beer Hall, Munich (Germany):
In a couple of days we'll be in Berlin, Germany to begin our next tour. We'll keep you updated on our travels!
Thanks for taking care of everything while we're away, everyone. Won't be too much longer and we'll be home.
Love Caitie and John
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
The road less travelled
We're back in civilisation again after a number of days without internet access. We've been to some places that are probably not too high on most people's "to visit" list, and seen some very interesting things...
Warning: this post is very long, much longer than I expected. Feel free to stop reading at any time (or you might want to grab a coffee...). I also wanted to post some photos, as all words and no photos makes for quite a dull read. But, it's quite late here and I've got a big of a headache that I want to lose, so we're going to bed now. I'll post the photos that accompany this post very shortly, I promise!
The last blog post I wrote was in Florence, and since then we've been to Rome, Capri and Sorrento (Italy), Athens, the Greek Islands and Preveza (Greece), Kusadasi (Turkey), Tirana (Albania), Montenegro, Dubrovnik and Zadar (Croatia) and Bosnia.
Rome was enjoyable, but not necessarily high on my list of places that I'd like to go back to. Apart from the major sites, it's not a city that I enjoyed a lot - maybe because it was quite dirty and crowded. We saw the Colosseum (which was fabulous), the Trevey Fountain (where we threw in some coins for good luck), the Pantheon (which was under renovation from the outside and covered in scaffolding), the Spanish Steps and the Roman Forum. The sites we saw were all very good, and did meet my expectations. John says that he liked Rome more this time around (his second time) and that maybe it's somewhere that you have to know what to expect before you can really enjoy it.
The island of Capri, and the nearby coastal town of Sorrento, are really beautiful. We had a day trip to Capri (after driving through Naples - what an experience, the traffic is insane), which is really pretty, and spent the evening and night in Sorrento. Sorrento is a place that many people on our tour said they would go back to - it was really stunning. Not so much to see in the way of tourist attractions, but the scenery is gorgeous and it's more laid back than the major towns.
Somewhere in our Italian travels we also visited the leaning tower of Pisa and the ancient city of Pompei. The tower was pretty cool, but some of the 'magic' is removed when you learn that a few years ago, authorities fixed the tower so that it stopped continuing to lean and even brought it back from a much more sever lean, but kept some of the lean so that it would remain a tourist attraction! Pompei was amazing, and some of the things that have been preserved are incredible, especially when you think that it was 2000 years ago that this place existed. Paintings on the walls and fast-food shops are still there, the original pedestrian crossings and the underground water pipes.
Unfortunately we didn't get to see too much of Greece itself. We arrived in Athens one night and went straight to the motel, and left early the next morning for our Greek Island Cruise. I loved the cruise and the islands. The islands did not physically look like I thought they would - they're quite barren, brown and rocky. Still very beautiful though, and I enjoyed all of them. The cruise included a morning in Turkey, which I really loved. I would definitely go back to Turkey, although what we saw of it probably isn't really representative of the rest of the country, as Kusadasi is very much a tourist destination (well, they're trying to build it into a tourist destination). The cruise was a really good way to see the islands, and John said that he would definitely do another one to another destination. We met a couple from America who said they would definitely recommend a cruise in the Bahamas... :)
After the cruise, we went back to Athens and visited the Parthenon and the surrounding buildings and ruins. Despite not seeing much of Athens apart from this (and a little drive around the city) I really liked it, and thought that it would be a place I would go back to. It seemed quite open and relatively clean, and unlike the other major cities we've been to, very few high-rise buildings. Athens only has a population of 4 million people - nowhere near as big as I expected. We drove to the town of Preveza in the north of Greece that night, which was really just a place to stop and sleep the night, without actually seeing anything.
We travelled the next day into Albania, which is very much a developing country still trying to make up for the communist rule they had until very recently. The roads are absolutely wild, and more than once there was some very hairy moments. The roads into Albania were very mountainous and windy, and in a number of places the road just all of a sudden didn't exist - it had collapsed and fallen down the mountain! The roads in the towns were also madness - donkeys pulling very overloaded carts of hay sharing the same roads as pedestrians (and I mean, pedestrians walking in the middle of the road at a very leisurely pace), motorcycles, semi-trailers and buses. We even saw a guy on a motorcycle, who pulled straight out in front of our bus, get hit by a four-wheel drive, who pulled straight out in front of him. He just got up, dusted himself off, waved to the driver and kept going. We felt very safe in our big bus, but our driver did very well not to get gouged or smashed I think!
To tell you the rest of the story of Albania, I need to back up a week or so, and I'll include all the details so if you don't want to read the story, you better stop now! On one of our long bus driving days we all watched a movie called 'Taken' (which John and I had actually seen before, but did not remember the details). It just happens to be about a women-trafficking ring in Paris, run by Albanians, where they lure in females travelling in Paris and sell them. Anyway, the Albanian people were not painted in the best light. So, by the time we all arrived in Albania everyone was thinking about this movie and the people of Albania in general.
The motel in Albania wasn't big enough for our entire group, so a few of us needed to stay in self-contained apartments in the same complex, but about a 5-10 minute walk away up a hill. John and I were a little wary (as what we'd seen of Albania did not fill us with confidence), but fell asleep relatively early. There were a series of doors in the apartment, and we had the door shut to our room, and the light on outside the room so that if anyone opened the door into the hallway leading to our room, we would wake up with the light. At about 10.30pm I woke up hearing what I thought was someone trying to open the door to our apartment, and then progressively heard a number of doors opening. I thought it may have been someone in the apartment next door. Then, the light came flooding into our room as someone had opened the door. John was still asleep, so I woke him up, and we could see the silhouette of someone standing outside our door. John yelled out (in a big manly voice, should I add) and a lady replied that she was just housekeeping, and everything was ok.
Well, needless to say, we got a very big fright, and I ended up in tears from the shock of it all. It was not what I was expecting, and our nerves were already a little frayed. We called our tour manager who checked out that it was all legitimate, and he put our minds at rest. We still think that housekeeping coming into our apartment at 10.30pm at night (supposedly because she thought the room needed cleaning) is a little dodgy, and we think if we hadn't been there, we would have found our stuff gone. Why else would she walk through the apartment progressively opening all the doors into the other rooms that we'd closed? Someone else on our tour tried to get an extra towel that night after dinner, and was told that housekeep was closed...
Anyway, you don't need to worry Mum! She wasn't very big, and we could have taken her easily! John says that she's lucky she's a woman, and that we could tell that by her silhouette, otherwise he would have charged and knocked her to the ground!
We left Albania a couple of days ago, and headed through Montenegro into Croatia. Both countries are very beautiful with gorgeous coastlines, and we spent yesterday afternoon on a day trip to some islands off the Croatian coast. We all jumped off the boat into the Adriatic Sea and had a swim, and it was so lovely. We visited the 'old town' in Dubrovnik and its surrounding walls which we walked around, and came back with a small group of us that night to see it all lit up.
This morning we left Dubrovnik, drove through Bosnia and back into the northern part of Croatia to Zadar, which is where we're spending tonight. Again, it's just really a stopover and place to sleep on our way to Vienna, Austria tomorrow.
We've spent a fair bit of time walking around outside, and as a result, Caitie looks like she's wearing a constant pair of thongs on her feet and has 'racoon eyes' from her sunglasses. John's got his fair share of colour as well, although some of that is a red back from the backflips he was doing into the ocean from the roof of the boat in Croatia yesterday.
We're having a blast, and can't wait for this final part of our first tour. We've got Austria for the next few days, and then onto Switzerland, Germany, Liechtenstein and the Netherlands. I definitely loved Paris, but apart from that, I think the second part of this tour will be the best.
Things we have to look forward to include a classical concert in Vienna, a trip up the Swiss Alps in Switzerland and a canal cruise in Amsterdam. Hopefully internet access will be plentiful, but it will all depend on timing and what we do each night as to whether we will have time to write updates (or whether we'd prefer to be exploring the cities).
Hope you are all well. I love reading the comments you all leave me and knowing that the world still exists back home. I promise I'll post some photos soon - assuming that you want to see them, of course!
Speak to you all soon,
Caitie and Johnny xxx
Warning: this post is very long, much longer than I expected. Feel free to stop reading at any time (or you might want to grab a coffee...). I also wanted to post some photos, as all words and no photos makes for quite a dull read. But, it's quite late here and I've got a big of a headache that I want to lose, so we're going to bed now. I'll post the photos that accompany this post very shortly, I promise!
The last blog post I wrote was in Florence, and since then we've been to Rome, Capri and Sorrento (Italy), Athens, the Greek Islands and Preveza (Greece), Kusadasi (Turkey), Tirana (Albania), Montenegro, Dubrovnik and Zadar (Croatia) and Bosnia.
Rome was enjoyable, but not necessarily high on my list of places that I'd like to go back to. Apart from the major sites, it's not a city that I enjoyed a lot - maybe because it was quite dirty and crowded. We saw the Colosseum (which was fabulous), the Trevey Fountain (where we threw in some coins for good luck), the Pantheon (which was under renovation from the outside and covered in scaffolding), the Spanish Steps and the Roman Forum. The sites we saw were all very good, and did meet my expectations. John says that he liked Rome more this time around (his second time) and that maybe it's somewhere that you have to know what to expect before you can really enjoy it.
The island of Capri, and the nearby coastal town of Sorrento, are really beautiful. We had a day trip to Capri (after driving through Naples - what an experience, the traffic is insane), which is really pretty, and spent the evening and night in Sorrento. Sorrento is a place that many people on our tour said they would go back to - it was really stunning. Not so much to see in the way of tourist attractions, but the scenery is gorgeous and it's more laid back than the major towns.
Somewhere in our Italian travels we also visited the leaning tower of Pisa and the ancient city of Pompei. The tower was pretty cool, but some of the 'magic' is removed when you learn that a few years ago, authorities fixed the tower so that it stopped continuing to lean and even brought it back from a much more sever lean, but kept some of the lean so that it would remain a tourist attraction! Pompei was amazing, and some of the things that have been preserved are incredible, especially when you think that it was 2000 years ago that this place existed. Paintings on the walls and fast-food shops are still there, the original pedestrian crossings and the underground water pipes.
Unfortunately we didn't get to see too much of Greece itself. We arrived in Athens one night and went straight to the motel, and left early the next morning for our Greek Island Cruise. I loved the cruise and the islands. The islands did not physically look like I thought they would - they're quite barren, brown and rocky. Still very beautiful though, and I enjoyed all of them. The cruise included a morning in Turkey, which I really loved. I would definitely go back to Turkey, although what we saw of it probably isn't really representative of the rest of the country, as Kusadasi is very much a tourist destination (well, they're trying to build it into a tourist destination). The cruise was a really good way to see the islands, and John said that he would definitely do another one to another destination. We met a couple from America who said they would definitely recommend a cruise in the Bahamas... :)
After the cruise, we went back to Athens and visited the Parthenon and the surrounding buildings and ruins. Despite not seeing much of Athens apart from this (and a little drive around the city) I really liked it, and thought that it would be a place I would go back to. It seemed quite open and relatively clean, and unlike the other major cities we've been to, very few high-rise buildings. Athens only has a population of 4 million people - nowhere near as big as I expected. We drove to the town of Preveza in the north of Greece that night, which was really just a place to stop and sleep the night, without actually seeing anything.
We travelled the next day into Albania, which is very much a developing country still trying to make up for the communist rule they had until very recently. The roads are absolutely wild, and more than once there was some very hairy moments. The roads into Albania were very mountainous and windy, and in a number of places the road just all of a sudden didn't exist - it had collapsed and fallen down the mountain! The roads in the towns were also madness - donkeys pulling very overloaded carts of hay sharing the same roads as pedestrians (and I mean, pedestrians walking in the middle of the road at a very leisurely pace), motorcycles, semi-trailers and buses. We even saw a guy on a motorcycle, who pulled straight out in front of our bus, get hit by a four-wheel drive, who pulled straight out in front of him. He just got up, dusted himself off, waved to the driver and kept going. We felt very safe in our big bus, but our driver did very well not to get gouged or smashed I think!
To tell you the rest of the story of Albania, I need to back up a week or so, and I'll include all the details so if you don't want to read the story, you better stop now! On one of our long bus driving days we all watched a movie called 'Taken' (which John and I had actually seen before, but did not remember the details). It just happens to be about a women-trafficking ring in Paris, run by Albanians, where they lure in females travelling in Paris and sell them. Anyway, the Albanian people were not painted in the best light. So, by the time we all arrived in Albania everyone was thinking about this movie and the people of Albania in general.
The motel in Albania wasn't big enough for our entire group, so a few of us needed to stay in self-contained apartments in the same complex, but about a 5-10 minute walk away up a hill. John and I were a little wary (as what we'd seen of Albania did not fill us with confidence), but fell asleep relatively early. There were a series of doors in the apartment, and we had the door shut to our room, and the light on outside the room so that if anyone opened the door into the hallway leading to our room, we would wake up with the light. At about 10.30pm I woke up hearing what I thought was someone trying to open the door to our apartment, and then progressively heard a number of doors opening. I thought it may have been someone in the apartment next door. Then, the light came flooding into our room as someone had opened the door. John was still asleep, so I woke him up, and we could see the silhouette of someone standing outside our door. John yelled out (in a big manly voice, should I add) and a lady replied that she was just housekeeping, and everything was ok.
Well, needless to say, we got a very big fright, and I ended up in tears from the shock of it all. It was not what I was expecting, and our nerves were already a little frayed. We called our tour manager who checked out that it was all legitimate, and he put our minds at rest. We still think that housekeeping coming into our apartment at 10.30pm at night (supposedly because she thought the room needed cleaning) is a little dodgy, and we think if we hadn't been there, we would have found our stuff gone. Why else would she walk through the apartment progressively opening all the doors into the other rooms that we'd closed? Someone else on our tour tried to get an extra towel that night after dinner, and was told that housekeep was closed...
Anyway, you don't need to worry Mum! She wasn't very big, and we could have taken her easily! John says that she's lucky she's a woman, and that we could tell that by her silhouette, otherwise he would have charged and knocked her to the ground!
We left Albania a couple of days ago, and headed through Montenegro into Croatia. Both countries are very beautiful with gorgeous coastlines, and we spent yesterday afternoon on a day trip to some islands off the Croatian coast. We all jumped off the boat into the Adriatic Sea and had a swim, and it was so lovely. We visited the 'old town' in Dubrovnik and its surrounding walls which we walked around, and came back with a small group of us that night to see it all lit up.
This morning we left Dubrovnik, drove through Bosnia and back into the northern part of Croatia to Zadar, which is where we're spending tonight. Again, it's just really a stopover and place to sleep on our way to Vienna, Austria tomorrow.
We've spent a fair bit of time walking around outside, and as a result, Caitie looks like she's wearing a constant pair of thongs on her feet and has 'racoon eyes' from her sunglasses. John's got his fair share of colour as well, although some of that is a red back from the backflips he was doing into the ocean from the roof of the boat in Croatia yesterday.
We're having a blast, and can't wait for this final part of our first tour. We've got Austria for the next few days, and then onto Switzerland, Germany, Liechtenstein and the Netherlands. I definitely loved Paris, but apart from that, I think the second part of this tour will be the best.
Things we have to look forward to include a classical concert in Vienna, a trip up the Swiss Alps in Switzerland and a canal cruise in Amsterdam. Hopefully internet access will be plentiful, but it will all depend on timing and what we do each night as to whether we will have time to write updates (or whether we'd prefer to be exploring the cities).
Hope you are all well. I love reading the comments you all leave me and knowing that the world still exists back home. I promise I'll post some photos soon - assuming that you want to see them, of course!
Speak to you all soon,
Caitie and Johnny xxx
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Good times...
...are being had by all!! We're having a great time, and I just thought I'd pop in with a quick update.
After we left Lyon, we headed to Barcelona, Spain for two nights. What a weird city - neither of us loved it but it was certainly an experience. Some of the group went out to a nightclub one night (we didn't - surprise surprise) and there were two pickpocket incidents and one drink spiking. After Barcelona, we headed to Nice for two nights, which was very relaxing and low-key. One of those nights we spent in Monaco - the Grand Palace casino in Monte Carlo. We had a bit of a gamble, and doubled our money on roulette - a grand total winnings of 5 Euro. Woohoo!
We're currently in Florence, after having left Venice this morning, and heading to Rome tomorrow. After Rome (and Pisa), we head to Greece, and then on to some lesser travelled countries (like Albania and Croatia) so we're unsure how reliable the internet will be, and how in touch with the rest of the world we'll be.
Venice was pretty crazy, a maze of canals and tiny, tiny little alleyways. We went on a gondola ride, and I was just thankful not to end up in the Grand Canal. John has some photos of my expression to prove it. Our whole group was treated to a real Italian feast, which made John very happy. (Two entrees, four huge plates of pasta and three bowls of ice-cream...)
Florence is a really pretty city, surrounded by the Tuscan hills. We headed up to the hills tonight for a 'traditional tuscan meal', and were again treated to plate after plate of food. Until this point, we'd both been losing weight on this trip as we weren't eating a whole lot, and the amount of walking we are doing is tremendous. Italy has changed that though, as our guide told us all it would. I'm guessing Albania and Croatia may not be conducive to a whole heap of good food though, so we'll lap it up while we can.
I'm sure I've bored you enough for now, but we just wanted to let you know we're having the time of our lives. Still over 6 weeks to go, but the time has flown. I think I'll certainly appreciate Australia when we get back.
Can't wait to see the Colosseum tomorrow, and John tells me the Sistine Chapel is really something to behold. Shortly after that, we'll be on a cruise ship amongst the Greek Islands - it's a tough life!
We'll be back in touch when we can, and hopefully with some more photos.
Love to you all,
Caitie and John
After we left Lyon, we headed to Barcelona, Spain for two nights. What a weird city - neither of us loved it but it was certainly an experience. Some of the group went out to a nightclub one night (we didn't - surprise surprise) and there were two pickpocket incidents and one drink spiking. After Barcelona, we headed to Nice for two nights, which was very relaxing and low-key. One of those nights we spent in Monaco - the Grand Palace casino in Monte Carlo. We had a bit of a gamble, and doubled our money on roulette - a grand total winnings of 5 Euro. Woohoo!
We're currently in Florence, after having left Venice this morning, and heading to Rome tomorrow. After Rome (and Pisa), we head to Greece, and then on to some lesser travelled countries (like Albania and Croatia) so we're unsure how reliable the internet will be, and how in touch with the rest of the world we'll be.
Venice was pretty crazy, a maze of canals and tiny, tiny little alleyways. We went on a gondola ride, and I was just thankful not to end up in the Grand Canal. John has some photos of my expression to prove it. Our whole group was treated to a real Italian feast, which made John very happy. (Two entrees, four huge plates of pasta and three bowls of ice-cream...)
Florence is a really pretty city, surrounded by the Tuscan hills. We headed up to the hills tonight for a 'traditional tuscan meal', and were again treated to plate after plate of food. Until this point, we'd both been losing weight on this trip as we weren't eating a whole lot, and the amount of walking we are doing is tremendous. Italy has changed that though, as our guide told us all it would. I'm guessing Albania and Croatia may not be conducive to a whole heap of good food though, so we'll lap it up while we can.
I'm sure I've bored you enough for now, but we just wanted to let you know we're having the time of our lives. Still over 6 weeks to go, but the time has flown. I think I'll certainly appreciate Australia when we get back.
Can't wait to see the Colosseum tomorrow, and John tells me the Sistine Chapel is really something to behold. Shortly after that, we'll be on a cruise ship amongst the Greek Islands - it's a tough life!
We'll be back in touch when we can, and hopefully with some more photos.
Love to you all,
Caitie and John
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Our trip so far...
I'll keep this fairly short and sweet - for me, anyway! We're having an absolute blast in Europe, but our trip is really only just getting started. We've just finished Day 7 of about 55 days - there's still a long way to go!
At the moment, we are in Barcelona (Spain), having arrived this afternoon from Lyon (France). We've got tomorrow in Barcelona, before we head on to Nice (in France) the next day. So far we've spent 4 days in London when we first arrived, two days in Paris and an evening in Lyon, and nearly the whole day today driving.
We've been doing heaps of great things, and trying a lot of new experiences too. Something that you'll probably never believe if you know me - I actually ate escargots (snails) and grenouille (frogs) in Lyon last night. Yes, the fuss-pot of the Universe did actually eat them. And, believe it or not, they were actually edible. I'm not a huge fan of oysters or mussels or scallops because I don't like the texture, so snails are not something I would eat again. The frogs were nice enough - a little like chicken. The problem was that they leave them as a whole frog and fill your bowl with them, so I could see their little heads and legs and everything! Once I got over that though, I was fine.
On the first day of our tour (when we left London for Paris) I was so sick - it was a miserable day. Whether or not it was something I ate or a bug, I don't know. But all the signs pointed to food poisoning. It took about 2 days to get over it, and by that time, John had it too. We're now both over it though, and hopefully that means there'll be no more sickness for us on the trip.
Anyway, I don't intend on writing a whole blow-by-blow account of what we've been up to. I just want to post a few photos.
Tower Bridge (London):
Roman Baths (Bath, England):
Stonehenge (England):
Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum (London):
Abbey Road Beatle's crossing:
Eiffel Tower (Paris, France):
On top of the Eiffel Tower:
Moulin Rouge (Paris, France):
And a premium vineyard in the Bourgelais wine region (outside of Lyon, France):
As you can see, most of the photos are either taken of one of us (while the other took the photo), or they're 'self portraits' with John holding our camera. Now that we've started out tour, there should be more shots of the two of us that aren't only a foot away from the camera, as we now have 48 other people going everywhere with us.
Oh, and if you've made it this far, one last piece of news:
Of course, I said yes. What place is more romantic than a little cafe on the Champs d'Elysee in Paris? I'm the happiest girl in the world right now!
While there is so much to say, I'll leave it there. I'll be back again soon with some more photos, but I can't promise when. So far, the motels have all had free internet access, which has made it really easy.
Adios, amigos!
At the moment, we are in Barcelona (Spain), having arrived this afternoon from Lyon (France). We've got tomorrow in Barcelona, before we head on to Nice (in France) the next day. So far we've spent 4 days in London when we first arrived, two days in Paris and an evening in Lyon, and nearly the whole day today driving.
We've been doing heaps of great things, and trying a lot of new experiences too. Something that you'll probably never believe if you know me - I actually ate escargots (snails) and grenouille (frogs) in Lyon last night. Yes, the fuss-pot of the Universe did actually eat them. And, believe it or not, they were actually edible. I'm not a huge fan of oysters or mussels or scallops because I don't like the texture, so snails are not something I would eat again. The frogs were nice enough - a little like chicken. The problem was that they leave them as a whole frog and fill your bowl with them, so I could see their little heads and legs and everything! Once I got over that though, I was fine.
On the first day of our tour (when we left London for Paris) I was so sick - it was a miserable day. Whether or not it was something I ate or a bug, I don't know. But all the signs pointed to food poisoning. It took about 2 days to get over it, and by that time, John had it too. We're now both over it though, and hopefully that means there'll be no more sickness for us on the trip.
Anyway, I don't intend on writing a whole blow-by-blow account of what we've been up to. I just want to post a few photos.
Tower Bridge (London):
Roman Baths (Bath, England):
Stonehenge (England):
Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum (London):
Abbey Road Beatle's crossing:
Eiffel Tower (Paris, France):
On top of the Eiffel Tower:
Moulin Rouge (Paris, France):
Napoleon's Castle, Fontain bleu (outside of Paris, France):
And a premium vineyard in the Bourgelais wine region (outside of Lyon, France):
As you can see, most of the photos are either taken of one of us (while the other took the photo), or they're 'self portraits' with John holding our camera. Now that we've started out tour, there should be more shots of the two of us that aren't only a foot away from the camera, as we now have 48 other people going everywhere with us.
Oh, and if you've made it this far, one last piece of news:
Of course, I said yes. What place is more romantic than a little cafe on the Champs d'Elysee in Paris? I'm the happiest girl in the world right now!
While there is so much to say, I'll leave it there. I'll be back again soon with some more photos, but I can't promise when. So far, the motels have all had free internet access, which has made it really easy.
Adios, amigos!
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