Anita & Sam

The Journey Home - Our Last Blogg!

2008-08-07T22:38:00.000-07:00

Hi there,

Well, this is our final blog and it has taken us a while to get around to it. We have been pretty busy since we got home but really wanted to finish off our adventure with a blog from the journey home... We flew direct to London on the way over so thought we would take our time on the way home to avoid some jetlag, relax and enjoy some sun while we had the opportunity.

HONG KONG

First stop was Hong Kong. We had a good flight with Cathay Pacific and were lucky enough to have some of Sam's family to visit which kept us up on the first night.

After we got the very decorative taxi (above) to our hotel we went and met Sam's uncle Tony and cousin Elissa for a lovely traditional Cantonese meal. It was the first time I had ever had a cup of tea to drink with the actual main meal, different...but yum! We then got our first look at the HK skyline from the top of Elissa's apartment block. It was amazing.

We dropped Tony off then Elissa kindly took us to one of the street markets. It was sensory overload! With bright lights, so many people, smells, traffic, bright tacky toys, clothes and accessories. It was just crazy and great to see.

Day one we walked along the harbour edge and caught the famous Star Ferry from Kowloon to central. The Star Ferry (below) is very old, rocky and full of character. It was a great, quick way to get across the harbour from mainland Kowloon to Hong Kong Island.

There are lots of things to do on Hong Kong Island. It took us a while to firstly navigate our way through all the shopping/business buildings which are all mostly linked by air conditioned walkways to avoid the heat and humidity. We got briefly distracted by some of the many designer stores on the way to the Peak Tram. The Peak is HK Island's highest point. The view from the summit is supposed to be one of the most spectacular cityscapes in the world. The tram ride to the top of Victoria Peak was really fun, it is soooo steep, nearly vertical - we were laughing on the ride up cause it felt so weird. You can see here how it just drops over the edge!

This photo of Sam is taken at the top of the Peak. Unfortunately it was hard to see much at all really, because of the fog, smog and low, humid clouds. A fun ride anyway :)

We also had a ride on the tall, narrow trams that get around the streets of Central on HK island. While on HK island we went on a really nice bus ride to the Stanley Street market which sold a range of cheap clothing and junk. We didn't buy much from the many shopping opportunities in HK (even the very long Nathan Road in Kowloon) mainly because our suitcases were already bursting with stuff we were taking home from London!

We spent a really nice evening exploring the many shops, restaurants and markets on either side of the 'pedestrian (mid-levels) escalator'. It's a great way of moving people up a very steep area of town called SoHo. This is where we found a 'wet market' (pic below). It's called this because the ground is continually hosed down to wash away all the spills from the fish, fruit and vege stalls. It's a very colourful and smelly place!

Back on the Kowloon side we took in more of the amazing skyline, oh and I got a wonderful foot massage from one of the many reflexology/massage shops.

Sam wanted this photo included...it's me in a manga cartoon, No.1 of course! :)

While we were in HK we took the opportunity to visit Macau. It took an hour to get there by ferry. It is a tiny territory which used to belong to the Portuguese but is attached to mainland China. Macau has many casinos and this is what has now made it a popular tourist spot. It rivals Las Vegas which is very weird and now has many of the same big casinos like Wynn and MGM Grand. A popular way to get around Macau for the day is by bike like the one below. You pay a driver to show you the sights on his bike. We felt quite uncomfortable with this especially as our driver was a very small little Chinese man who we thought would struggle with Sam and I!!! But he was keen to take us and show us the sights of his town. He was lovely and of course we bought him drinks as it was so bloody hot and gave a generous tip out of guilt!

Anyway, he took us to some great places. First stop was A-Ma Temple. It's behind us in the pic below.

It was a really beautiful place, unlike anything we had seen before. Everyone had incense burning, which is what the coils above are made from.

Then we got back on the bike and drove through some very interesting streets full of shops and markets.

Our tour ended at the ruins of the church of St Paul (below) - apparently the greatest monument to Christianity in Asia, and the guy is our driver. He was much happier than he looks in the picture! Cute, funny man!

After our guide left us we walked in the stinkin' heat to the Lou Lim Ioc Garden. Tricky to find but is was a lovely spot with huge shade trees, lotus ponds, bamboo and a bridge with nine turns to escape the evil spirits (who can apparently only move in straight lines). Local people were using the garden to play cards or and practice t'ai chi.

This is me, below in one of the town squares which we thought looked very European, from the Portuguese rule. Macau was a great day trip spot.

THAILAND

We were soooo happy to arrive in Thailand. We flew into Phuket and headed straight to our hotel in Kata Beach about 15mins south of Patong Beach. We were greeted by the sunset below which was the view from our beautiful room. The hotel was great and it was just so nice to be at a real beach! The water in the ocean was so warm, warmer than we'd ever felt. And we suddenly felt very close to home with the added smell of aeroguard :)

We spent the first day hanging at the beach which was the main reason for visiting Thailand. Did I mention how warm the water was?! - Amazing! Below is the beach just in front of our hotel where we were constantly harassed by the local people selling their creations. Some stuff was pretty cool, and useful, like a sand brush to clean the beach chairs. Great Idea! We spent a fair bit of time here, in and out of the water and sipping cocktails.

We decided to venture from Kata Beach into Patong to check out the notorious night life. We tried our bargaining skills with the tuk-tuk guys but got better at it as the trip went on. Anyway, this is me catching a ride in the back of an over priced tuk-tuk on the way to Patong Beach.

We found a really cheap, really yummy Thai restaurant and grabbed some dinner. Then we wandered along to the main drag, found ourselves a good seat out the front of a bar and watched the crazy crowd pass by. We were warned about 'lady boys' but still couldn't figure out why there were so many??? Anyway, there were all sorts of people there having a good time and a good laugh! We were certainly glad that we weren't staying at Patong though. Kata Beach where we were was a bit quieter and generally nicer in every way. It was good to be able to escape the weirdness!

The streets were lined with tuk-tuks and people trying to sell things. They were quite forceful but it's all good fun.

Sam found a new friend, someone was selling photos of this monkey and we couldn't resist a cuddle even though it doesn't seem right at all. The poor monkey just looked like he wanted to go home to bed, we hope he is well looked after.

Closer to Kata Beach was a bar/restaurant with this young elephant out the front on most nights. She was very cute and very friendly. People were paying the owner to feed her bananas which she couldn't get enough of. The kids walking by thought it was wonderful.

I guess we did lots of animal related activities in Thailand but it was all great fun and unique to Thailand. Another interesting one was a cobra show. They are just amazing the way they hypnotise them, very entertaining!

We've also got a photo of me holding the snake and it's a shocker! I was freaking out as it wrapped it's tail up under my dress and between my legs!! So it didn't make the blog!
Our holiday in Thailand was made up of 3 nights at Kata Beach, then 3 nights on Phi Phi Island (where 'The Beach' was filmed') then back to Kata beach for another 3 nights at the same hotel, so lucky it was wonderful :)

We took a 3hr boat ride to get to Phi Phi from Phuket. The photo below is the area where the boat came in. We were in a big ferry but there are lots of long boats there too which the locals use to shuttle people around. Most people go to Phi Phi for a day trip or do day trips once they are there. The beach on Phi Phi wasn't as nice at Kata but the little coves close by are just stunning.

Our first night on Phi Phi there was just the most beautiful sunset - EVER. The clouds were the most amazing orange colour. We were very lucky to see it. We were lucky with the weather in general in Thailand considering we were there in wet season. We just had a couple of rainy days at the end of the 9 nights so not bad at all. It was very hot though, but we were sick of the cold.

We did a day trip the next day on a speed boat with 6 other people. We went to some really gorgeous spots with crystal clear, aqua couloured water and sheer jungle cliffs. It was cool. We went to some great snorkelling sites (like shark point!) as well and a spot for cliff jumping which a couple of people finally did. We were deterred after our native guide said he had never done it and he was pretty adventurous! He also warned to jump straight or you risk breaking ribs!! that was enough for us.

The night life of Phi Phi is so relaxed. It's a very natural island lifestyle so not many luxuries but still cool bars with good atmospheres. There are little shacks with people selling food straight from BBQ plates and often funny smells from the heat and poor living conditions. We noticed no one gets dressed up and there are lots of kittens and cats with stumpy tails (apparently from inbreeding?). The place is just very cruisy.

We went to a bar one night to see some Thai boxing. Sam enjoyed it but I left early because i didn't like seeing drunk tourists encouraged to fight each other with little control over the situation even though they were in the ring. Sam said the professional thai boxers came on soon after I left and were more controlled and talented. Oh well, not my thing but very popular with lots of people.

On our last full day we wanted to revisit one of the spots we were taken to on our day trip. It was called monkey beach and we didn't have much time there on the tour. We paid a guy to take us there on our own in his long boat. We had bought a bunch oof bananas for the monkeys from a stall on the island. We were the only ones there when we arrived and the monkeys quickly came down from the trees for us to feed them. The monkeys are wild but used to being fed. They were surprisingly very calm and gentle. They took the bananas from our hands and peeled them. It was great fun. There were quite a few babies too and there were really cute.

This is another monkey on Phi Phi Island, obviously not wild anymore with it's nappy on! It was like the one at Patong and the lady was charging people for photos. Not good really.

When we got back to Kata beach there was one more thing we knew we wanted to do, apart from soaking up the sun on the beach and that was to go on an elephant trek...

We left for our ride not far from where we were staying. We were on the elephant for an hour had had a great time treking up through the jungle. The ride was pretty rocky especially when I was on top of his head rather than in the chair! We're definalety glad we had a ride while in thailand. The elephants are lovely...except for when she tried to steer our chair into a wasps next! :)

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Well, we had a really gret trip home and are glad we took the time to do it slowly. We also stopped off in Sydney and had 3 nights catching up with Granny and everyone which was great. It was so good arriving in Brissy. Sam and I had been feeling pretty homesick towards the end in London so it was great to see everyone and get home. We had a nice get together at Cathy and Dave's the night we arrived which was great. Now that we have had time to catch up with friends and family properly it feels like we never really left, except that we have a whole bunch of wonderful memories and experiences to look back on together.

This is a snap below of our exciting maget collection which we have from everywhere we visited for the whole time we were away. It's fun looking at them and thinking about all the cool things we did in each place.

Lots of Love from Anita & Sam xoxoxx

SPAIN - Our Last Europe Trip

2008-05-04T07:39:00.000-07:00

Hi!

We just visited Spain for a week and it was our last trip before we start our journey home very soon - yay! We were excited to visit Barcelona as everyone we've spoken to have loved it. It was easy to see why. Thankfully the weather was better than the last trip and warming up a bit. Anyway Cathy (Sam's mum) suggested Sam write the final Europe blog so here he is...

Hello!

We're a bit sad that this was our last trip but certainly excited to be heading home soon! Barcelona is a really cool city which we both enjoyed very much. It had nice long beaches and a cool old Town. The first few photos are of the old town.

This is Placa Reial, just a cool square in a part of the old town that has loads of restaurants and bars. I think its a pretty famous postcard shot of Barcelona. We had dinner here one night because we discovered that the best restaurants have 100m lines in front of them and a restaurant in this square had a great menu cheap! It was a really good meal although I had a starter that turned out be raw slices of beef, I ate half of it hoping it had been at least smoked but no, it was red raw!

This is Columbus tower at the end of La Rambla. La Rambla is full of street performers and has markets all the way along from the city centre to the port. Some of the things they were selling was pretty crazy. Anyone want a pet Hedgehog..., Iguana? What about some blue roses then?

This is the start of the Port. This is where we had dinner on our first night and ate some overpriced Tapas! The Spaniards have a bit of different lifestyle and don't seem to eat dinner until like ten o'clock. Restaurants don't even open till 8:30 - 9ish! They like to have their siestas and we discovered that we did as well! I could get used to that lifestyle! The sangria is pretty good too!

We headed off to the beach the day after we arrived and had a nice walk all the way into town. We stopped for a couple of drinks and nibbles at a couple of beach hut style restaurants along the way.

This is just some photo of what some of the streets look like. Surprisingly to us though the whole city seemed to be spot less, probably the cleanest city I've ever seen!

This is back along the Port heading back towards town, we had a couple of drinks on this boat behind Anita, it's a cool idea for a restaurant.

This is back at the market area near La Rambla, just on a side street is a bit of an under covered fruit and deli market.

I bought some dried strawberries.

These photos are back in the old town and in and around the Cathedral.

IBIZA

Next we flew into the party island IBIZA about an hour south of Barcelona. Funny though, this island

runs only 6 months a year and we arrived just before the party season started. It would have been cool to experience the party atmosphere of the island but I think we had a better time having it to ourselves! That's what it felt like at least. The beaches were nearly empty only a dozen or so locals not many tourists, it was great. We hired a car and just drove around the whole place. Everything was really cheap too because it was out of season. Still warm and sunny though!

We hired the car the first afternoon we arrived. The days last bloody long, I don't think it got dark until 9! We would find nice spots with cool restaurants and bars about like this one. Really good view!

Anita with her glass of wine just before sunset.

After, we headed off to another spot to catch the sunset, nice!

This is some caves that we had a little tour of they were quite interesting!

The view from just outside the caves.

We went to a hippy market which runs every Tuesday. People were mainly selling clothes and accessories.

This is the car we hired. Driving around the island was great fun. Really windy roads on edge of cliffs made an interesting drive and there was lots of places to pull over and take in the scenery.

Some of the crystal clear water of the Mediterranean ocean.

Another point we pulled over at.

A really great little beach had a spot where the fishing boats dock with little sheds built onto the side of the cliff. Anita's standing on the edge of the makeshift dock.

We drove into Ibiza town on our last afternoon of having the car. At first we didn't think much of it then we explored a little more and found that it was a great little town!

Well this is us at a little cocktail bar at San Antoni near where we were staying. We had just dropped the car back and were enjoying the last sunny afternoon that we'd be having in Europe for some time!

Bye for Now!

Nice on the French Riviera & Holland Tulips

2008-04-16T08:22:00.000-07:00

Hi Again,

Last week we had the week off work and spent 3 nights staying in Nice on the French Riviera. Then we flew up to Amsterdam again for just 2 nights but this time to visit the tulip gardens.

NICE & the FRENCH RIVIERA

Nice was a lovely town but unfortunately the weather wasn't very good. It was rainy and generally quite cold still. Anyway, on our first day we spent some time looking around the Old Town. We had breakfast next to the daily fruit, veg and flower market which was lovely. We wandered around the narrow streets and made our way to the top of the head land which gave us a good view over the city and up and down the coastline. This is the view...

The photos don't show it very well but the water was a bright but milky, aqua colour which was very pretty. It was kind of lucky that it wasn't too hot or sunny because if we had wanted to sun bake on the beach we would have been very uncomfortable. The beach was all stones! We think in the peak of summer they dump sand to make it a 'real' beach. There was a very small square of sand which we saw there like a man-made beach.

The picture below is me in the main square of the city...

We saw a lot of Nice wandering around on our first day and we had learned that it was possible to catch a bus to Monaco (only half an hour up the coast) costing only 1 euro! Also, we were told it was only an hour to Cannes in the opposite direction on the train. So on our second day we took the opportunity to explore a bit more of the French Riviera.

Monaco is a small town and mainly surrounds a marina with lots of lovely big yachts. Did you know that Grace Kelly (Hollywood actress) is the princess of Monaco after she married the Prince of Monaco years ago? We didn't!

Anyway, At the top of the hill, overlooking the marina is the district of Monte Carlo. It's a spectacular place and famous for its casino. Monte Carlo makes you feel like you are in an unreal Lego land or something. It is all very manicured and landscaped with lovely gardens and very decorative buildings. It's very luxurious and so expensive! Everyone drives fancy cars, there were basically Ferrari's and Porsche's outside the extravagant hotels. The people look like they are worth millions and the shops are amazing. All we bought was a magnet, the most expensive in our collection now! :)

We waited to visit the Monte Carlo casino which didn't open until 2pm! only to find out that it is very exclusive and they charge 10 euros per person just for the pleasure of going in. It looked like only 'high rollers' (which is obviously not us!) so we moved on. Certainly not like the casinos we've seen before which are open 24hrs and are happy to take any one's money. It was an unreal place to visit. The building in the pics below is the casino...

Later in the afternoon we went back to Nice then caught the train to Cannes for a look around and some dinner. Cannes was quite different to Nice. It seemed busier and more built up. We were pleased that we didn't stay there. The beach did have natural sand though! Cannes is famous for the Cannes Film Festival. There was something going on while we were there but we didn't see anyone famous.

HOLLAND TULIPS

Our main reason for going back to the Netherlands was to visit the Tulip fields. We stayed in Amsterdam which we were hoping would be a bit greener than when we last visited. Here are a couple more pics from Amsterdam...

And a famous alley in the Red Light District...

We had pre booked a bus tour to take us to the Keukenhof Gardens, 'the most beautiful spring garden in the world'. The garden is only open for 2 months of the year and is the main place to visit to see the Holland bulb flowers in bloom. It is an absolutely massive park the size of 40 football fields. The park is a huge, beautiful display of all the different types of bulbs that Holland flower growers have developed and sell. It is wonderfully landscaped with art exhibitions, display halls and all sorts of things. There is a big, original windmill in the park with lakes, streams etc. as well. The scent from all the flowers is amazing and we had a wonderful time wandering around. It really was stunning. We took hundreds of pictures. Apparently the garden is one of the most photographed places in the world! I couldn't choose which ones to put on the blog so I've put heaps!

As for the fields, we were told that the farmers have fields of tulips purely for commercial use so as a tourist to the area, the garden is the place to visit. We did see fields of tulips but it is so hard to determine when the flowers will bloom and the farmers will harvest them.

Spring has come late this year and it is still quite cold so some of the bulbs still weren't flowering. Hope you enjoy these photos...

Notice the windmill in the background below...

Bye for now guys, next week we are off to Spain to visit Barcelona and Ibiza. This will be out last Europe trip before leaving London (we think!) xoxox

JAMAICA

2008-03-16T07:26:00.000-07:00

Hey Mon!

Well we decided to have a break from the UK and Europe and 2 weeks ago we went to Jamaica in search of some sun and warmth! After a 10hr flight from London we arrived in the Caribbean for a wonderful 7 nights. We were staying in a great town called Ocho Rios.

Jamaica was hot and sunny, just what we were dreaming of. We had booked an all inclusive resort package (most accommodation on the island is this type) . So all our food, drinks and activities were included in the upfront price. We found this a bit had to comprehend at first. It was a real novelty being able to walk away from a lovely meal without paying anything and order unlimited Jamaican rum cream without a second thought! So we had fun with that :)

We had really good weather but unfortunately we got quite badly sun burnt on the first day despite having cream on. We were blaming a year and half in England for making us so sensitive to the sun! Anyway, that kept us resting in the shade for the first few days.

Jamaica is quite a poor country and because of this the locals are always trying to sell you something! It's quite funny and you learn to not be too trusting as everyone is trying to hustle a dollar from you. Because of this culture, the resort is very well protected and security is important to protect the tourists. In fact, if you wanted to, you could have a great holiday without leaving the resort at all because they cater for all your needs. Having said this, even the security guard was keen to try and sell us some of the Ganja (marijuana)!

We were looking forward to exploring outside the resort though so we wandered into town a few times. This is in the village...

We visited the craft market where everyone asked us to look in their stall or wanted to braid my hair. It was great to look around and there were certainly some interesting characters. The people really do dress and look as you would imagine. And they do talk like they do in 'Cool Runnings' which is great fun. These pics were taken in the market...

We had a drink at a bar called Mamma Marley's (owned by Bob Marley's mother)!

Actually when walking around town, and our general impression of the island remined Sam and I of New Guinea (from what tiny things we can remember, and from photos).

We did a tour out of the resort to one of the most popular sights on the island which is the Dunn's River Falls. It was really beautiful there. Most of the visitors walk up the falls which gradually cascades down to meet the ocean over quite a distance. Because the falls aren't steep local guides walk up the falls with groups of tourist and this can take about an hour.

We were lucky enough to end up in a much smaller group with a guide who took us up the falls a lot quicker that most people and it took us about half an hour. He was really quick, but good, and at times it was fairly dangerous and difficult to climb. We had to hire special gripping water shoes. There were areas where the water was flowing quite fast and everyone needed to hold hands and help each other up. It was great fun and of course we gave our guide the tip he was expecting for his extra efforts once we were safely at the top.

Jamaica was such a fantastic place to visit and so different from all the places we've been recently. Everyone is so happy and relaxed there which makes it a great place to holiday.

This trip was extra special for Sam and I because this is where we just got ENGAGED! :) So that is our very exciting news to end this blog... This is us celebrating at one of the resort restaurants on the night we got engaged.

Bye for now, Love from us xox

Berlin, Venice & Rome featuring Toby (as himself)

2008-01-31T12:20:00.000-08:00

Hi there, (sorry but i don't know how to make the underline go away!)

Well this is to fill you in on the last trip we took while Toby was visiting. First of all we went to Berlin. We had heard from other people that it was a great place to visit but we didn't have any expectations and were a bit unsure of what Berlin would be like. One reason for the visit was the hope of lots of snow!

Well, there was no snow unfortunatly although very cold. The 3 of us were pleasantly surprised by Berlin and all it had to offer. On our first full day we did an 8hr walking tour all over the city which was absolutley fantastic. The guide was great and we learned all about the history of the city during the war, nazi power and everthing about the Berlin Wall. We were really amazed by everthing we saw and heard, it was very educational and interesting.

One of the places we learned alot about was Checkpoint Charlie. Below are some pictures of us at the site as it is today

There is nothing really left of the Berlin Wall although there is a small section still standing a couple of hundred metres from Checkpoint Charlie. At the time the wall was in full use after many developments it was very different and a lot more high tech compared to the simple concrete wall that is left now! We went to a museum where he heard about a few of the desperate escape attempts that were made to get cross the wall, some were achieved.

Our tour also took us to the site of Hitlers bunker where he killed himself and to the Jewish memorial. The memorial is a very large area of grey concrete blocks all of different heights that you can walk amongst with some of the blocks towering over you. It's really hard to explain but a wonderful, eerie place to visit

The 2 pictures below were also taken on our tour. The bottom one is the Brandenburg Gate, the symbol of Berlin and once the boundary between East and West.

Berlin is not a very pretty city and there is evidence of it's recent history everywhere. There are still vacant lots that are bomb sites not yet rebuilt, there is alot of graffiti and the Jewish Boys School still has armed guards at its gates! These pictures give a bit of a feel for what it's like. There is also alot of alternative bars, restaraunts and a buzzing student scene. It seems like a really creative place that's only just getting renewed.

We noticed that the traffic lights were different too. The green man signal to 'walk' is supposed to represent the happy communist off to work! He is quite cute so the people voted to keep them in use :)

Once again, like in munich we realy enjoyed the German food! good value for money too :)

And the boys enjoyed the beer!

On recommendation we also visited the Berlin Zoo which was quite impressive. It is very open plan and the animals are kept in by deep ditches around the enclosure rather than big fences which is nice.

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From Berlin we flew to Venice which was a different world!

We got a boat to our hotel which was in a really great location just near the famous Rialto Bridge. So we spent 2 full days just walking around and exploring the little cobbled streets and canals. It was great to see this beautiful place that is so different to anything we had seen. The Rialto Bridge (below) is one of only 3 bridges that actually cross the Grand Canal.

On our first morning the sun was shining so we took a Gondola Ride. It was great fun! We started in the Grand canal just near our place then under the Rialto Bridge and into the smaller canals winding in the Marco Polo district where we saw Casanova's House! :)

All of the residents get their goods and services via boat! Here are some fruit and veg :)

The italian food was a bit dissappointing we must say. It was very expensive for very plain dishes which was a bit of a shame. We found it to be the same in Rome as well. Even if you try to get away from the tourist spots it was hard to find a satisfying meal (except one great pizza place, not the ones the boys are eating below!) Maybe it's cause we were in big cities??

We did find some great gelato though, mmmm

This photo was taken at the markets where locals do their shopping. Lots of fresh fruit, veg and Fish!

The picure below was when i was standing on one of the other bridges that crosses the Grand Canal. You can see the great Venetian building behind me

We had a great time crossing all the little bridges over tiny canals
On our last day we went to St Mark's basillica which is on the larges squares in the city (Piazza San Marco). It's quite impressive!

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We got up early on my Birthday to catch the train from Venice to Rome. It was 4.5hr journey but we did see some lovely country side of Tuscany.

We had a bit of a traumatic arrival into Rome when i realised i had left my hadbag on the train! Luckily we had only just left the station and i ran back to find the train was still at the plaform. The train was locked so i had to find some help which was very difficult and stressful. I eventually got help from the police and i got my bag back. Oh my God! what a lucky birthday!

Anyway, it was considerably warmer in Rome and after checking into our awful hostel we had a sunny afternoon to check the place out. Can't complain about the room mates in the hostel this time cause Sam and Toby were ok ;) but the room and building was terrible! Well, we stuck it out!

We did a walking tour in Rome as well and saw all the main historical sites. First stop was the Colosseum.

Everything in Rome is massive. Their buildings and monuments are just amazing and all symbolic of something!

Below are the ancient ruins of Roman civilisation that we walked through on our tour.

We visited the famous Trevi Fountain (below) a few times. We thought it was really beautiful. It shows Neptune's Chariot being led by tritons with seahorses- one wild, one calm- representing the moods of the sea.

We also went into the Pantheon which is really amazing. It was dedicatd to "all the Gods" and is the best preserved ancient Roman building.

The last couple of days we spent looking around the Vatican. We went to St Peters Basillica and saw the Piazza ouside where everyone gathers to see the Pope from the balcony. The pic below is taken looking at St Peters from the Piazza.
See Toby down the bottom, below :)

The photo below is also taken from the piazza. The columns are on both sides of the Piazza leading up to St Peters

We also went to the Vatican Museums which were kind of interesting and the Sistine Chapel which really is stunning and i can't even explain it. The picture below was taken in one of the many long halls leading up to the Sistine Chapel. The roof is decorated with paintings and gold.

The morning before we flew back to London we spent some time sitting around on the Spanish Steps which are a really nice spot to sit and have more gelato! The 3 of us agreed that although it's great to see the historical sights in Rome, it is quite dirty with alot of dodgy looking characters, beggers and gypsies!

Bye for now, missing you all

Love Anita & Sam xox

Christmas in Paris

2007-12-29T05:09:00.001-08:00

Hello,
Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas.
We had a really lovely time in Paris for Christmas. We spent 4 nights at a nice little hotel in the centre of Paris next to the Louvre Museum. We arrived in the afternoon on the 23rd and after checking in we went for a walk towards Notre Dame Cathedral to see if there were any Christmas carols on. We walked along the Siene river for a while to get there. Below are some pics taken along the Siene. It was really beautiful, had nice bridges and a pretty sunset.

The Notre Dame Cathedral is on a big island in the middle of the river. Unfortunately there were no carols playing at the time we visited but they had a great big Christmas tree out the front of the building as you can see behind Sam in the picture below.

Our second day in Paris was Christmas Eve. We spent the morning visiting the Louvre Museum. It was huge and we had a great time wandering around inside. We were sure not to miss the Mona Lisa!

After the Louvre we walked through the gardens for a while which lead down to 'Place de la Concorde'. The park was full of lovely sculptures. And there was a fountain in a large pond which was frozen!

On our way back to the hotel we stumbled across some really beautiful streets and squares which were all decorated for Christmas. There were so many designer shops and fancy restaurants as well. It's a city full of all things luxurious! The photo below was taken in a nice square just off the street we were staying in.

We went back to our hotel to get all spruced up for dinner and to visit the Moulin Rouge on Christmas Eve. It was a really great, fun night. Out seats weren't the best but we still really enjoyed the show. It was lots of fun and definitely worth a visit. The costumes were sensational and Sam enjoyed the many boobs on display :)

We made a slow start on Christmas morning. After sleeping in then checking for snow (no luck) we made all of our phone calls to friends and family at home in Brisbane & Sydney. We opened a few little pressies that we took with us to open on Christmas morning. Then we got all dolled up again and went to a fancy French restaurant for Christmas lunch. It turned out to be lucky choice as it was a place i had booked over the internet! We had a great time sampling some fine french food and sipping wine! It was a bit strange with just the 2 of us on Christmas day. We had a wonderful time though cause it's something different and spending Christmas in Paris is something that we would only do once in a lifetime. But will look forward to being home with everyone next year. This is us at our special lunch on Christmas day...

After lunch we were sooooo full but walked to the Eiffel Tower.

We had saved this for Christmas day cause everything else was shut. It was amazing to actually see. We waited in line for ages, freezing, to go to the top and didn't stay there too long cause it was sooo cold! When we got down from the top we crossed the bridge to get a different view. It was dark by this time so we got to see it all lit up. Every hour for about 10mins the tower sparkles with extra lights. It really glitters and is so pretty.

The photo above is the tower when lit up normally. Then below is a photo taken with the sparkle lights on...

On Boxing day we went to a big famous shopping centre in the centre of Paris called 'La Fayette'. It was beautifully decorated for Christmas and was huge. It had every designer brand you could think of but we were just window shopping! These pics were taken inside the shopping centre...

From here we walked up towards the 'Arc de Triomphe'

The 'Arc de Triomphe' is in the middle of the worlds largest roundabout. It is absolute chaos watching the cars try to get in and out of the roundabout which had no lanes! Crazy French!

We went to the top of the 'Arc de Triomphe' which gives a great view down the famous Avenue des Champs-Elysees (below)...

Then we walked down des Champs-Elysees. It is a very long, wide boulevard famously symbolising the style of Paris.
On our last day in Paris before our flight we grabbed a baguette :) and went back to the Eiffel Tower to see it from a different direction. This time the tip was in the clouds.

Sam's brother Toby arrives tomorrow so we're looking forward to that and have some fun things planned. So next blogg will be about some of the stuff we've done with him...

Au revoir! xoxoxox

What we've been up to...

2007-12-13T11:03:00.000-08:00

Hello!

Well I hope everyone is doing well, looking forward to Christmas and holidays I bet!

With Anita working so much she hasn't had time to do this blog so I'm writing this one (I've been working too, just not overtime!)

Anyway we have had a few days spare to get out and about. Bekki has gone back to sunny Brisbane so we did a couple of things with her before she went home. A couple of weeks ago we went out to a club called the "Church", which is only open on a Sunday for a few hours awesome fun though. A lot of Aussies go to this one then to the Walkabout pub after woulds so it makes for an overall fun day plus both places serve Aussie beers which is a bonus. Oh and at the church a lot of people dress in costume or at least really stupidly so that's why we had bubble wrap around our foreheads!

Then a couple of weeks ago we went ice skating at Tower hill Castle in London (next to the famous Tower Bridge which is often mistaken for London bridge) Another cool evening of fun! Covent garden is really cool at Christmas time too.

Tower Bridge....

These two are at Covent Garden....

Then last weekend we shot over to a city called Lille in France for the day on Sunday to see the Christmas markets. We went with Spence and Tor and their neighbour Ian and Tony and Alex. A great day out. It was cool to go through the Euro tunnel, where you drive your car onto a train which takes you under the channel.

Well Thats all for now.... One more week though and we're going to Paris for Christmas! Then Toby is coming over for new year and we have a bit of trip planned with him so the next few weeks should be pretty exciting!

We Hope Everyone has a Very HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR!!!!

Europe continued in Copenhagen, Amsterdam & Brussels

2007-11-11T08:56:00.000-08:00

Hello... how is everyone?

Last Saturday we took off for Copenhagen in Denmark for 3 nights. We arrived about lunch time and spent the afternoon walking around the city square and main shopping arcade which we weren't overly impressed with at first sight. It seemed surprisingly a bit Americana and kind of dirty. Anyway, we stayed in a good hotel in walking distance to the main square. We visited the information place to find out unfortunately that most of the city tours etc. don't run in winter and that the big gardens/ amusement park type attraction in the middle of town called 'Tivoli' was closed. The next pic is looking back at the town hall and the one below is a nicer square in Copenhagen.

Not too worry, the following day we took ourselves on a train ride a bit further up to the middle of Denmark and stopped at a place called Hillerod. We were told it was a nice place to visit. We walked down to a big lake with a castle on the waters edge (Frederiksborg Castle). It was really lovely.

The castle is now used as a museum. We just had a walk around the lake then got back on the train. It was nice to see the little village there. Next we went a bit further along on the train to Fredensborg and visited the Frenensborg Palace where Princess Mary and Prince Frederick were living! The gardens there were so nice and are huge. After a walk around the palace gardens we headed back to Copenhagen.

Our second day in the the actual city was much nicer. We took ourselves on a self-guided walking tour which was great. It took us to some much nicer parts of the city such as the beautiful port of Nyhavn (below)

and past some of the major sights like the Amalienborg Palace and Kastellet which we were told is one of Europe's best preserved fortifications. The walk also took us through some city gardens which were all orange and red with the autumn leaves on the ground. It's a nice time of year to visit we thought.

We really liked Copenhagen and Denmark after we explored a bit more. We did find it to be quite expensive though.

We flew from Copenhagen to Amsterdam and spent 3 nights there also. Amsterdam took a little bit of time to settle into as well actually. I guess even though you have an idea of what to expect it still takes you by surprise. We spent time enjoying the really beautiful side to Amsterdam and of course the notorious seedy side.

It is a city with canals running all through it and little bridges everywhere so it is really pretty. Everyone gets around on push bikes so it is is quite peaceful and relaxed. The canal houses are nice too. They are tall skinny houses which are all built a bit wonky and look very different to each other. They look great all next to one another on the canal though.

We did some interesting stuff in Amsterdam. We visited the Sexmuseum as well as the Hemp, Marijuana & Hash museum! All very educational :)

We visited some 'coffeeshops' which is what they call a shop where you can buy pot. It's pretty gross though. Sam and i both thought that because it's legal and widely accepted in Amsterdam that the 'coffeeshops' might have been ok. But they still seem to be dark, smelly places popular mainly with young guys. We did find 1 or 2 that weren't too bad and tried some 'space cake' (as you do when in Amsterdam!)

We did have a fun time exploring all these weird things that you wouldn't find anywhere else.

And of course the Red Light District...a crazy place not to be missed. It's right in the middle of a lovely city and really unavoidable even if you wanted to. It's good for a laugh though especially when you see someone going in to a window or coming out. There really are all shapes and sizes and it's quite a busy spot with tourists as well as the grotty customers! There are plenty of sex shops and shows offering "sleeze and filth in a nice environment" :)

We also visited the Ann Frank House in Amsterdam. Where Ann Frank wrote her famous diary about hiding with her family from the Nazi's in WW2. We took a lovely canal boat tour as well which is a nice way too see the city. Unfortunately it was fairly rainy while we were there though. Amsterdam has a lot too offer and is really a pretty, unique place. Like nothing I've ever seen.

From Amsterdam we caught a train to Brussels for 2 nights. We arrived late so only had one full day here. In the morning we walked to the main city square called 'Grand Place'. They claim to have the most beautiful central square in Europe and it is definitely the prettiest we've seen. It's fairly small but the surrounding buildings are amazing. It's all paved with cobble stones and is really lovely. Pictures below are all taken in the Grand Place...

It was rainy in Brussels too and seeing as we only had one day to check it out we paid for a city bus tour. It was a good tour and Brussels seems to be a really nice place. We learned that it is called the Capital of Europe because it is the city which holds the European Union Headquarters. We were surprised cause it's quite a small city in comparison to some others. There seemed to be alot to do if we had more time but a day was nice just to check it out. This pic was taken in a shopping arcade...

We tried some Belgium chocolates and waffles

In the evening we went to the main dining street which is quite long but narrow and full of guys trying to encourage you to choose their restaurants. They all had open fires in the restaurants which was warm and cosy. It was lucky cause it was freezing and raining outside! This is us standing at the top of the dining street and inside the restaurant where we had dinner...

Love Anita & Sam,

miss you guys xoxo

Girls trip to Bath

2007-10-25T07:15:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

I just wanted to add some pics from a couple of weeks ago when i went to Bath with 2 of my best friends, Bekki and Leah. Leah was visiting for only a month so just before she flew back to brissy we took the oportunity for a real catch-up girls weekend. Sam was happy to be left at home cause no doubt he'll take a boys trip with Toby when he visits in Jan.

Anyway, us girls drove down (about 2.5hrs from London) on Saturday morning. We were there by lunch time and then after a yummy lunch we had an afternoon of relaxation . We all had an hour long massage then visited the Thermae Bath Spa. This is where we floated about for a couple of hours in the hot natural spring water. It was beautiful.

We stayed in a sweet B&B (actually the same place we stayed back in March with mum cause it was great), ate great food, drank nice wine and had a wonderful time. On sunday we spent the day shopping and looking about town. And we also drove back past Stonehenge to show Bekki and Leah.

It was a really nice weekend :) Bath is the perfect place for it,

Next weekend Sam and i are off to Copenagen, Amsterdam and Brussels so we're looking forward to that and will fill you in when we get home

Cya, love Anita xox

From The Greek Islands To The Bavarian Alps!

2007-09-28T14:27:00.000-07:00

Hi there :)

Hope everyone is well. Sam and i have just got back to London after a 2 week trip exploring more of Europe and visiting OKTOBERFEST!

GREECE....

We first flew to Mykonos which is one of the Greek Islands. We only visited one of the many Greek islands and we're glad we picked Mykonos. It was fantastic. It had everything you would imagine a Greek island should have...crystal clear blue water, bright white square buildings and little paved walkways. It was beautiful.

Mykonos Town was full of little shops and cafes looking over the water and the beaches had great views to sit and enjoy cocktails.

Everyone gets around the island on scooters, 4 wheel quad bikes or funny 3 wheeled mini trucks. We hired a quad bike and had it for the 3 days we were there. It was great for exploring the little beaches and coves all over the island which is easy enough to do.

Below is our favourite beach which we went to quite a few times but the water was a bit too cold for lots of swimming. Thankfully we had lovely blue skies though.

It was lots of fun getting around on the bike until we ran out of petrol late one night! We were on our way to try and find 'Super Paradise' beach which apparently has a good bar at night. It was pitch black (no street lights) and we couldn't find the beach so were heading back into town (but still ages away) when the bike conked out! There was no fuel gauge but Sam was expecting there to be a reserve fuel tank but no luck! We pushed the bike a few hundred meters before a really helpful local helped us out :)

Mykonos is famous for the windmills on the island which you can see behind us on the hill in the pic below. Also the sunsets are amazing

From Mykonos we took a five hour ferry ride to Athens...

ATHENS...

We spent 3 nights in Athens which was plenty of time to see the famous ancient structures and visit the old town. We found Athens to be a bit dirty and run down compared to some of the other cities we've seen in Europe. I guess it is pretty old! :) The picture below is taken on one of the streets of the old town where we found some nice restaurants serving great souvlaki and Greek salad!

On our first afternoon we took a tour to Cape Sounion along a coastal road to the outskirts of Athens. We saw the Temple of Poseidon there on the southern most point of Athens. Poseidon is the 'God of the Sea' and the temple is on the top of a cliff looking out to sea.

The following day we did a tour to the Acropolis. Unfortunately it was under renovation so had a lot of scaffolding but still great to see. I'm definitely glad we took a tour to have someone explain what we were looking at!

These are a couple of pics we took looking back over the city of Athens from the Acropolis. There are a lot of stray dogs in the city of Athens (particularly in the old town). We were told by our tour guide that during the 2004 Olympic games they put all the stray dogs in shelters for the 2 weeks then when it was all over, they opened the doors and let them all roam again. Its sad because a lot of them have been abandoned and many would be quite adoptable probably.

Our tour also took us to the Panathenaic Stadium where the first modern Olympic Games were held. The stadium is behind us in this picture, you can just see the Olympic rings behind our heads :)

Then it was on the plane to Munich for some beer drinking... I'll let Sam write this one :)

MUNICH & OKTOBERFEST...

Hi!

We had a nice sunny afternoon to check out Munich before spending the the next day at the Oktoberfest. Munich is a great little town in the South East part of Germany called Bavaria. It would have been great to stay an extra couple of days even if it was to enjoy more of their really nice traditional foods, have a bit more of a look around the old town and drink more of their awesome beer. They really have the best beers in the world, which is lucky because at the Oktoberfest we drank litres of it!

We stayed in a nice hotel in Munich with a great view across old town, these are some photos from our room and inside the city.

Then... The next day we had an early start at 9:30 so we could grab a seat in one of the "tents" (these beer tents are like aircraft hangers!), we sat at a table with some real friendly locals and drank 1 litre steins of beer pretty much all day!

Anita did really well considering she had never been a beer drinker, I guess Oktoberfest is an exception!

We had a great time listening to the bands and seeing all the Germans get right into the tradition with all their outfits.

Then later in the arvo we caught up with Leah and Bekki who were on contiki tour and kept on partying with them, we also found Bianca!

(Right to Left - Leah, Anita, Bekki & Bianca)

AUSTRIA (SALZBURG & VIENNA)...

After our quick stop in Germany for Oktoberfest we caught a train down into a small town called Salzburg. It's a really pretty town set on the Salzach river. We arrived about lunch time and did a tour in the afternoon up into the Bavarian Alps which borders on Austria and Germany. The Alps are also called the Northern Limestone Alps. The limestone makes the river a cloudy aqua colour which is interesting. Salzburg sits just below the Alps on the Austrian side. Our bus drove up into the mountains (home to 'The sound of music') where we got a view of 'The Eagles Nest.' The Eagles Nest is Hitler's old conference centre perched on top of the mountain.

We only had a night in Salzburg and spent some time wandering in the old town. We had some schnitzel and then apple strudel for dinner (as you do in Austria) which was delicious.

We were so relieved to have only one night in salzburg but only cause of our nightmare roommates. We were staying in a hostel and for the first time in a share room. It was only 4 of us though and we thought it would be ok for 1 night seeing as there were no private rooms left. Oh, how wrong we were! We were sharing with 2 boys who left their things everywhere, snored, farted, snorted and coughed all night! The coughing was taken to a whole new level when we were sprayed from the top bunk by spit and flem! That's right, FLEM! I can't even explain how disgusting it was - never again!

The following day we continued our train trip across to Vienna...

VIENNA...

We arrived into Vienna after dark so we got some more schnitzel and checked into our hostel (single room this time and much nicer). The next day we wandered around and joined a walking tour which took us to some of the main sights in the old town such as St Steven's Cathedral (almost continually under construction since 1147) and the Hofburg Palace.

The weather had turned cold and overcast by the time we reached Vienna so we spent time in many famous coffee houses, as the Viennese do, and sipped our hot chocolates.

Vienna is a very cultural, artistic city so we showed some culture too and went to see the opera! We were told about cheap standing tickets (for 2 euro) which go on sale at the opera house just 80 mins before the evenings performance. We were told that it's worth lining up early for the tickets just to see inside the building. So we did that and it was definitely fun to check it out. We didn't stay for the whole show though.

The next day we went in the rain to see the Schonbrunn Palace (apparently lovely gardens which we didn't see cause of the weather). We also walked past the Parliament Building and City Hall which were cool.

Above is the palace and below is city hall.

From Vienna we flew back to London which has turned cold and rainy again too, oh well, i guess winter is coming again already!

Valencia & La Tomatina

2007-09-02T11:10:00.000-07:00

Hola!

We just got back from a quick 2 night trip to the east coast of Spain for the La Tomatina tomato fight festival!

We stayed in Valencia because Bunol (where the tomato fight happens) is a small village and only half an hour from Valencia. Valencia, on the other hand has many attractions worth seeing.

When we arrived in Valencia we made our way to the hotel which we had booked as part of a group tour. That afternoon we went to the beach and dipped our toes in the Mediterranean Sea. The weather was very warm and the sand lovely but we didn't think the ocean was very clean. It looked kind of muddy and weedy. The Spaniards are very beautiful people and many like to show off their bods :) Even the grandads!

On our first night after tapas for dinner we joined our tour group for drinks at a cool bar in 'old town.' It was beautiful walking around at night and seeing all the buildings and streets. The entrance to the old part of town had a castle tower with an archway and huge doors you walk through like into another world.

The next morning we caught a bus at 8am to Bunol for the tomato fight. We wandered with the masses of people through the town and down into a very narrow street where we stood packed like sardines for 2 hours! The tradition starts by a competition where people attempt to climb for a leg of ham hanging from the top of a very tall, greased-up pole! Weird I know! Once the ham has been retrieved a cannon sounds and the first of 5 dump trucks roll through the packed, narrow street off-loading their part of the 55,000 kilograms of tomatoes! Then it's ON!

As the trucks roll through everyone gets jammed hard together as the crowd parts for the truck. Meanwhile whilst struggling not to get crushed by the masses, tomatoes and wet, sloppy articles of clothing are flying everywhere! It hurts when one smacks you in the eye but is bloody hilarious when it hits the person squished next to you!

The tomato fight itself last for one hour and a second cannon signals the end. Finally after being drenched in tomato slop the entire crowd makes their way out of the street in a foot deep of tomato soup! It's pretty crazy!!!

Locals stand out the front of their homes with their hoses washing off the crowd after the fight. This is helpful cause you're not allowed back on the bus if you're still messy. It was hard getting all the bits of tomato skin and seeds from hair and ears especially!

All-in-all a great, fun experience but not one we'd do twice! :)...and tomato is off the menu for a little while.

We had one more night and half day in Valencia where we took more time strolling in 'old town'. Its a lovely place with lots of character. It looks especially Spanish and thankfully we had enough time to enjoy it all on our short trip.

We saw Buckingham Palace and a did few other things last week as well which are in the blogg below.
Bye for now... xox... don't forget to leave us comments!

Buckingham Palace & Westminster...

2007-09-02T10:34:00.000-07:00

HELLO!

Well we have had an exciting week pass us by. I have had the week off work and Sam only worked 1 day. This is what we've been up to...

Firstly one of my best friends Leah arrived for a holiday from Brisbane last Sunday. So bekki and I made an early morning trip to heathrow to pick her up (Sam slept in!). Leah did really well to overcome the jetlag and stay up all day on Sunday. First stop was an old english pub for a late lunch where Leah met up with her cousins. After lunch Sam joined us and we all visited Harrods for a whopping big delicious sundae!

Monday was a Bank/Public Holiday here and we all took the oportunity to visit Buckingham Palace. It was our first opportunity to do so as it is only open for about 2 months in summer when the Queen is away. It was absolutley amazing, unfortunately couldn't take pics to show you but we saw the royal thrones, beautifully decorated rooms and a special royal wedding exhibition.

We also went to see the Royal Mews (stables) within the palace grounds where i was hoping to see the queens horses all dressed up. We did see some of her horses but not in their formal gear! The Mews is also where the horse carriages are kept, they are very decorative.

After seeing Buckingham palace we walked along to Westminster Abbey where we got an up close view of Big Ben. It was a gorgeous day and nice wandering around there taking in all the sights.

We went inside Westminster Abbey which is a lovely, big, old church. It holds the tombs of many Kings & Queens.

In the afternoon we made our way to the Notting Hill Carnival. It is a huge carnival second biggest in the world after the one in Rio. An estimated 2 million people were there! So we had a look and moved on :) It was worth a look when we finally found the actual parade.

The following day Sam and I went to Spain for La Tomatina festival which i will blogg about next...

When we got back i had another day to spend with Bekki and Leah before they went on Contiki. We had a lovely 'High Tea' at Selfridges Hotel. It was very posh and we really enjoyed ourselves. Later we met Sam and some other friends in Covent Garden for dinner and drinks.

Our little flat

2007-08-19T06:37:00.000-07:00

HI Again :)

Well summer's over (it lasted a week!) and it's raining and cold again. Lucky for us it wasn't raining last weekend because that's when we moved into our new flat!

So we've left Sam's Aunty and Uncle in Loughton and are now living in West Kensington. It is in central London and a lot closer to work. Plus it's close to some nice parks and London attractions which we still want to visit.

We're in a studio flat where our bedroom is shared with a little computer table/ dining table. But the good thing is our toilet, bathroom and kitchen are in seperate rooms (we still live in a shoe box though!) Even though it's small, it is still our own space and just right for what we need right now. So we've settled in comfortably. Here are some photos if you want to check it out...

These are photo's of our street. The flat is in a large Victorian house which has been converted into quite a few studio flats. It's in a nice area and close to the tube station which is handy. Also, we have a little private courtyard area. Our flat is the only one that opens out onto it.

In the photo below, the archway in the bottom left hand corner is the entrance to our house and you can just see our red car parked on the street :)

Bye for now everyone, look forward to reading your comments. .....xoxoxo

Sunny England

2007-08-19T05:54:00.000-07:00

Hello!

A couple of weekends ago we had some fantasic summer weather here in london. On Sat we went to a fete in Regents Park. It was a day out for Bekki's Birthday. It was called the innocent village fete, sponsored by the 'nudie' fruit smoothie drinks. Anyway, it was a fun day and nice to be out in the sun. There was lots of great food, drink and music. They also had traditional fete attractions such as swingdancing, duck herding, dog agility trials and maypole dancing!

Here are some pics from the fete....

Then on Sunday we battled the crowds and drove to Brighton for the day. It is a very popular spot on a hot, sunny day cause it's a sea side town. Brighton also happens to be the gay capital of England and the day before we visited they had their 'gay pride parade.' As we didn't realise this, we were surprised at how openly gay the place was and at the number of rainbow flags flying! Anyway, it was a very colourful place and worth the visit.

Notice in the picture how their beach is all pebbles. It was nice to wander around but we didn't go swimming or lie on the "beach".

One of the places to visit in Brighton is the Royal Pavillion. It's an Indian-styled building that's quite unusal. Here's a photo.

U.S.A Holiday

2007-07-21T13:37:00.000-07:00

Hi there,

Sam and i have just got back to London after the best holiday ever! we spent 4 weeks in America and this is what we got up to...

LOS ANGELES

After a 10hr flight our 1st stop was LA. We were really impressed with LA and had a fantastic time there (one of Sam's favourite stops). Day 1 was spent doing a 5hr 'Grand tour of LA'. This tour helped us get our bearings & took us to all the major attractions such as the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Kodak Theatre & Chinese theatre. We also saw the famous Hollywood sign and visited the Hollywod Bowl. We drove through Beverly Hills, down to Rodeo Drive then along Sunset Blvd & Hollywood Blvd.

When in LA we also took a day trip to Tijuana, Mexico which was a very colourful and interesting experience and worth a look...just for a day! It was quite intimidating at first with everyone wanting to sell you stuff and being very pushy but we became more confident after a little while.

We visited Disneyland also which was so much fun! It was one of my favourite days. We loved 'Space Mountain' and the 'Tea cups' best :)

On our last day in LA we took the bus to Venice Beach where we hired roller blades as you do! We then walked along the market lined path all the way past Muscle Beach to Santa Monica Pier which was a fair way but lovely to walk. There were some great looking characters around and obviously a very popular place for all sorts of leisure activites. The beaches we saw in california are so wide with lots of sand so they are a bit different to home.
Our last night was spent at a fun bar on Sunset Blvd then, off to San francisco...

SAN FRANCISCO

A fair bit colder here and windy but a beautiful city. We spent the first day "Biking the Bridge". This is where we hired bikes from Fisherman's Wharf and rode push bikes all the way across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito. Sausalito is a pretty, european looking bayside town. Then we caught the ferry back with the bikes. It was lots of fun and something different!

We spent plenty of time at Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf and saw the sea lions but most of them had migrated for summer.

Also in San Fran we took a cable car to the top of the 'Crockedest street' and walked down before visiting Alcatraz in the afternoon. Alcatraz was great and very interesting.

Next on the itenerary was Vegas...

LAS VEGAS

Vegas was amazing and lots of fun. We stayed at Planet Hollywood but visited all the other major casinos like Bellagio, Paris, Luxor, Venetian, Caesars Palace... The 1st photo below is the view from our hotel room and the 2nd photo below was taken inside the Venetian hotel with the roof painted like sky! Impressive hey?

It's dazzling at night and we had a beautiful view of the Bellagio Fountain from our hotel room. We saw a couple of shows including 'KA' by Cirque du soleil at MGM Grand and a magic show. We also did a fantastic helicopter tour to the Grand Canyon. It was a great ride and just amazing. Sam had a turn of shooting a machine gun in Vegas as well. I sat in the box to watch. The gun was so loud and it was a really chilling noise.
Sam also had a turn in our casino poker tournament but didn't get lucky there unfortunately! :)

By this stage if the trip it was time to relax in Miami...

MIAMI, SOUTH BEACH

Miami gave us the tropical weather, sand and sea that we were craving (especially me). We spent a good amount of time at the beach or by the pool drinking cocktails which was so wonderful (are you jealous yet?!). While we were there we did a tour of the Everglades National Park in an air boat which was really good although we were told that because of the lack of rain most of the alligators had gone out to deeper water. So i thought we would have seen more animals but we did see a couple of 'gators.

We spent 4th of July at South Beach so there was a big firework display and concerts on at the beach. We saw lots of people letting off their own fireworks too.

On our last day in Miami we hired a Mustang convertable and drove down the Florida Keys. It was a gorgeous day. We got about half way then turned around. It's about 4hrs 1-way to Key West at the end. We were both surprised at how relaxed, small and casual the little towns are on the Keys. The ones we saw were just like Straddie for example which was really nice but for some reason i thought it would be a bit more exclusive and trendy. Sam did well driving on the wrong side of the road!

Then back to the city in NY...

NEW YORK

We met Mum and John in NY and it was great to see them of course. We spent 8 days together. We were lucky enough to stay at my cousins empty Manhattan apartment which was a great base. We had Ground Zero in walking distance which we visited. It's a big construction site but still eerie and sad.

We got the subway up to Times Square, Empire State, Fifth Ave etc. We did a hop-on, hop-off tour of the uptown (inc. Harlem), downtown & Brooklyn which was a good way to go. We went to the 'Top of the Rock'afella Centre and the Empire State. And we did a ferry ride around Statue of Libery which you can't go to the top of now since 9/11. New York was soooo hot and humid which unfortunately made us all very uncomfortable. Central Park was one nice spot to get some fresher air. We would definately recommend to see NY at a cooler time of year! But a fun trip and great to see all the sights just the same. How could i forget, we had a milkshake at the Seinfield restraunt!

Next the 4 of us took a short trip into Canada to see Niagra falls...

NIAGRA FALLS

A really beautiful, well maintained place and definately worth the trip. We did the Maid of the Mist boat ride near the base of the falls which was cool. You get given plastic ponchos to wear cause the mist is more like heavy, windy rain! It was great fun :) One of my favourite parts of this trip was the 'white water walk' along the edge of the Whirlpool Rapids. It's amazing and so beautiful.

After 2 nights at Niagra our trip was nearly over :( We all flew back to NY to catch our flights the next day.

LAST NIGHT

Before flying home to London we had one last night in Manhattan with Mum & John. We took the oportunity to see the Yankees Stadium (mainly Sam's idea and we think he mostly wanted to go the Bronx which is where the stadium is! We also had a drink in Grand Central Station and visited Bloomingdales :)

BACK IN LONDON

Now we're back in London and back at work after our wonderful holiday. We're flat hunting at the moment to move out of Loughton to a flat on our own closer to central London. So that is pretty exciting. We're also loooking forward to the next trip which will be in Europe very soon :)

Don't forget to us leave a comment

Love Anita & Sam xox

Life in London

2007-06-10T09:16:00.000-07:00

Hello!

How is everyone? This is a bit of an update of what we've been up to in between work recently.

Well we have been out and about on our weekends and making the most of the lovely weather we've been having here.

We went to South-end-on-Sea with Sam's Aunty Liz and her family. It is a typically English seaside resort town with a theme park at the sea (unlike anything we've seen in Oz). We had some lovely seafood for lunch at a nice restraunt sitting outside then had a game of mini golf and some rides at the park. It was a really fun day...

Our friend Bekki arrived a couple of weeks ago (who i used to live with). I picked her up from Heathrow and we had a couple of days catching up which was great! Bekki is now staying with an old school friend a bit out of London. We may all end up renting together again here in the near future as bekki is here for a working-holiday also. Later the same week Sam's Aunty Celia arrived here back at her house. It was nice to see her and everything is going well here together.

Last weekend Bekki, Spence, Tor and their neighbours, Linda and Ian came over for drinks then we went to a nice restraunt down the road for dinner. It was nice to all catch up with Celia and Bekki having just arrived. We've been seeing a bit of Linda and Ian lately also and they are great fun...

Last weekend was one of the first weekends of lovely, summer weather here. We made the most of it by going into Green Park in London and lazing around. It's a very popular pastime for Londoners when the sun is out! There were people hiring deck chairs and the place was packed. It was a really nice day. We later strolled down to Piccadilly Circus and had dinner at a pub before going to the movies later that night....

During the week i had a day off to meet my cousin Kylie and her 2 little kids, Oscar and Ava and spend the day with them. They stopped here in London for Anthony's work on their way back to Australia for a holiday from NY. We went to Kensington Palace then had a really nice late lunch there. In Kensington gardens there is a great Princess Diana Memorial Park where Oscar played for a while. It was really great to see them - but forgot the camera!

This weekend had been another big one with a night out on Friday with Bekki, Linda, Ian, Tor, Spence and their friend Nick. We had drinks then dinner at a yummy Himalayan restraunt. Then last night Sam's cousin Claire and her husband Mark had a "seven year itch" party where the theme was vintage film star. Here are some photos...

Work is going really well. I am getting plenty of shifts and going to the same hospitals quite often which is good. Sam has been supervisor of his new job for the last couple of weeks while someone is on holidays. So that is great experience for him and he is really enjoying it.

All this work has paid off because in just over a week we are heading off for a nice big holiday in the US. We'll be visiting L.A, San Francisco, Vegas, Miami, NY and Niagra Falls. We're back to London on the 15th July. We're really looking forward to a summer holiday and seeing Mum and John over there! So the next Blogg will be about our America trip.

Bye for now everyone, miss you all

Love Anita & Sam xoxox ps. please leave us a comment :)

Dover

2007-04-25T07:26:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, how is everyone?

Sorry we haven't done a blog in a few weeks. We've been working a bit lately so haven't been out and about too much. But last sunday we both had the day off and it was a beautiful, warm, sunny day which we have had a few of lately actually. It's really been warming up here heading into spring. So we made the most of the weather and drove down to Dover for the day.

Dover is about an hour and a half drive south east of London on the coast. We went to see the 'White Cliffs of Dover' and saw the castle there too. It was worth the drive but the town itself is not very nice. It is really just a big port where people leave from to travel across the English Channel to France.

The white cliffs are quite spectacular and we had never seen anything like it. They are white because of the chalk at the cliff face which is 250m deep. They are about half a million years old and formed when the English Channel of water separated France and England. Here are some photos we took when walking along the top. We later read that the chalk is crumbly and to stay 5m from the edge!

The guy in the photo with Sam is Blake. He is from Rockampton & Sam has become freinds with him through work. He is here on his own and arrived 2 weeks ago so we invited him to come for a drive. He seems very nice.

We also had a little look at Dover castle and took a tour through it's 'secret wartime tunnels' which were dug out deep into the soft chalk cliff face. They were built in the Nepoleonic Wars and expanded in WWII. They were used for secret operations - quite interesteing.

bye for now, xo

Mum's visit & Cotswold trip

2007-03-19T08:47:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone :)

I've just dropped mum off at the airport so she will be on her way back to America now :( We've all had a great couple of weeks with her visiting and i wanted to fill you guys in on what we've been up to.

The first few days that mum was here sam still had to work so we did a few things that he wouldn't be very interested in. So it was off to the shops on the first day! We went into Oxford Street (i had been waiting for someone to shop with) and we visited Harrods which i think mum really enjoyed and i got to have a proper look around.

Day 2 we went to the 'Tower of London' in the morning. Sam and i had been but we did a 'Beefeater' guide this time which was better i think instead of reading all the plaques. We then took a ferry ride up the Thames to Covent Garden (a really nice but touristy area) where we had lunch and saw some nice old pubs including the claimed oldest in London some 500yrs old!

In the evening we walked past Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament all lit up to go on the 'London Eye' ferris wheel - lovely at night. We then went home where sam had a drink ready for us :) The next day we went to Portobello Rd markets and Kensington Palace which i had not seen yet and it was certainly worth a look.
While sam was doing his "joy ride" in the previous blog, us girls went and saw 'Wicked' the musical which was great! It was mum, Tor and I and we all really enjoyed it. We then walked up past Buckingham Palace (only open to public at a certain time of the year) to meet the boys in town for dinner, so it was another great day.
For the 2nd week which sam and i both had off work, we decided to get out of London for a while and see some of the rest of the country. It was great because we had the car and could take our time. We headed off for the Costswold area. The Costwolds is a narrow strip of country side in mid south/west England and it is just beautiful.

We drove through Oxford and our first stop was Stratford-upon-Avon. This is the home of William Shakespears birthplace from the early 1600's! And Anne Hathway's Cottage which has a quaint english cottage garden which was just starting to bloom. Stratford was a very nice town set on the River Avon.
We slowly drove through the Cotswolds getting off main roads and onto the back country roads (which are tiny). Stopping at little villages and nice old english pubs along the way. We prefered some of the smaller villages like Lower Slaughter and Burton-on-the-Water. They have little streams running through the village, cobbled lanes and cute homes made of the characteristic honey-stone. It's all very typically English and the country side is very green and pretty. We stayed in B&B's on the way which were all very nice.
After a while looking at these little villages in the Cotswolds Sam was getting bored at times - but he did well! We also went to Warwick Castle near Stratford-upon-Avon which was great! we realy liked looking around there.
We kept driving and made our way to Bath. Another city which we all really liked. It has some great buildings like The Cresent (below) and Bath Abby
And the famous Pultney Bridge at night...

We went to the old Roman Baths there which were used as baths and a temple by the Romans between the 1st and 5th centuries A.D! They were built around the natural hot spring which rises at 46 degrees C. It was really great to have a look and hear about how they were used all that time ago and that it's still here today. The photos below are the old Roman Baths which are still standing but not used for bathing any longer. When the Romans used the water, the bath was enclosed with a roof. Now that the roof is no longer in place the organisims in the water have been exposed to sunlight and this is why the water is green.
There is a different area where the public can use the natural thermal springs. It has been recently reopened as a spa and is very luxurious. You pay for a 2 hr session and get to go for a swim in the water from the same natural hot spring the Romans used all that time ago and use the aromatherapy steam rooms. It was lots of fun and very relaxing...here we are in our robes!
We spent 2 days in Bath and while we were there we went for a drive to Bristol which was close by. Glad we had a look there but didn't stay long.
We ended up staying away for an extra 2 nights than planned because we felt we needed more time to look around properly. When we finally decided to head home we came back via Stonehenge which was amazing. It's an eerie and mysterious place.

We were so lucky to have great weather the whole time mum was here which made the whole trip even better i think.

Well that's all for now. Hope it hasn't been too much reading.
We'll look forward to reading your comments.
p.s. have a look at mum and john's blog too, she might put some different pics on

It's back to work now for Sam and I but we'll keep in touch, cya xoxoxox

Joy Riding

2007-03-17T07:30:00.000-07:00

Hello, Sam's bloggin' for a bit....

Hope everyone is well, I heard Emily has got her learners (watch out!) congratulations Em & Happy 21st Leon sounded like a good party!

Have been enjoying the week off (Anita will blog about the trip soon). On Saturday while the girls (Anita, Gae and Tor) were at a musical, "Wicked" Spence, His neighbour Ian and myself went for a ride down to the south coast town of Hastings (as in the battle of Hastings).

Ian very generously lent me his Triumph Trophy 900 whilst he rode his other bike a Triumph Rocket 2300! and Spence was on his bike a Suzuki SV 1000. I had a great time riding around this part of England all day, 'cause i had a major itch to get on a bike again! Great Fun!

The Green bike is the one that I rode.

The black Suzuki is Spence's Bike

This is Ian's Rocket

Spence standing next to the rocket down at Hastings.

Thanks to Spence for organizing this for me and a big thanks to Ian for lending me his bike!

Check this site again soon because Anita will do a big blog on our trip to the Cotswalds, Bath and Stonehenge!

We bought a car...

2007-02-26T03:50:00.000-08:00

Hello :)

These are pictures of our new car that we bought last wednesday. The decision to buy a car so soon all happened very quickly once we started looking on the internet and realised how cheap some were. we got pretty excited about it and thought it would be a good idea.

It's a mazda 323, 1991 model and cost us only the equivilent of $1200! it's in good condition and has been well looked after. the sale was close by and it had to be an auto for me which are hard to come by. it's got power steering, central locking, elect widows, heating but no air con - but we do have a sun roof! anyway, we thought it would be good for us to get around in while we're here. we won't drive in central london of course but it'll be easier to visit some of sam's family now and we'll go away for a couple of nights in the country while mum is visiting. we're looking forward to seeing more of england with it now and hopefully europe some time :)

love sam & anita xoxoxox

Update :)

2007-02-14T14:11:00.000-08:00

Hi guys,

Sorry for the lack of blogging but we haven't really been doing anything too exciting. Sam and i have spent the last few weeks starting work and generally getting into the swing of reality here so we can make some more money and continue our adventures.

Sam has been doing a maintenance electrical job that his agency got him which he is finding quite easy and a bit boring at times. But i think he will stick it out for the next few weeks until this job is over and then try for a construction job which is more like what he was doing at home. He is working on buildings right in central london so is learning alot about the city.

I have been doing day-to-day agency nursing shifts which have been going well. I have been to 2 different hospitals so far and people have been pretty friendly. It just takes a bit of getting used to new equipment, paperwork and drugs for each ICU. But it's all part of agency work and people seem to be quite understanding. I am joining a couple of other agencies as well so i can have a bigger option of shifts.

We had lunch last Sunday with sam's cousin Claire and her husband Marc who works for the London Symphony Orchestra. They took us to a concert at the Barbican (concert hall) which was a great experience. I had never been to an orchestral concert like that so it was nice of them to take us.

A couple of weeks ago we had our friends Rowy and Christian (who we stayed with in edinburgh) visit us for a night. They came down to London for the weekend to see some of Christian's friends as well. We went to the British Museum with them which was cool. It's an amazing building and you could spend all day looking around there (but we only spent an hour or 2!). The Friday before Row & Christian came was Australia Day so we went to an Aussie pub of course called the Hemisphere Bar. It was just Sam and i but the place was soooo packed and the atmosphere was great. Definately worth celebrating. We had a fun night and got free T-shirts which are a bit of a souvineer now because they say 'Australia Day, London 2007'. Not bad 'eh!?

Last week we went and saw Wolfmother play here in concert. They're an Aussie band who were touring here in London. It was a good night but we only knew their main songs. Sam is a bigger fan than me!

hmmm, what else? Last Thursday London had an amazing snow fall. The biggest in 7 yrs or something! So here are some pics. Unfortunately sam had to work this time so i took some photos.

This is our street.....

And the back yard where i made a snow man.....

You might remember one of the 1st bloggs we did has pictures of the forrest down the road in Autumn time, well here it is in winter....... it was beautiful.

We are very excited to have mum come and stay with us for a couple of weeks at the start of March so we'll be out and about alot more then and we'll have some more interesting things to blogg about.....lots of love from Anita & Sam xoxox

Snow in Loughton!

2007-01-25T08:45:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning we had the first snow at our place!

Would you believe it was my first day of work as well so that was a bit dissappointing. I had a pretty good first shift though. I left the house at 5.30am to go to work and it was white outside! The pictures are dark cause it was so early. I ran back in to get sam up and we took some photos before anyone was around to walk on it. It was still snowing as well which was so pretty. It must have been snowing for a while cause it was a couple of inches thick. Can't wait for more :)

Sam took the ones below in the back yard a bit later in the morning

Love Anita & Sam xo

Anita's Birthday in Notting Hill

2007-01-21T10:08:00.000-08:00

Hello again!

Just thought i'd show you some pictures that we took yesterday, my birthday! :)

We went to Notting Hill for the day and it was really lovely as you could imagine. Again, we had a nice sunny day and we walked around the streets looking at the beautiful houses and cars! we had a nice lunch there and wandered down Portobello Rd (can't wait to take you mum!).

Anyway, had a really great day and thanks for all your 'happy birthday' wishes.

We will both be starting work very soon. Hopefully within the next week or 2. My nursing PIN number came in the mail yesterday. It was a really good b'day present cause now i'm a registered nurse in the UK and can work all through the European Union as well! Sam has been in touch with agencies here too and it all sounds very promising so that's good.

cya guys xoxox

Prague

2007-01-21T08:04:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,

Last week we went to Prague in the Czech Republic for 4 nights. We got a pretty cheap, mid-week winter deal and decided to do a trip in Europe before starting work. Luckily we had 3 lovely sunny days and it wasn't too cold so we had a great time.

We thought Prague was a really pretty city. It's quite a bright, beautiful place with it's pastel coloured buildings and renaissance type decorations.

We spent 2 and a half days wandering around the New Town (from 1300's!) and Old Town. The area around Charles Bridge is very popular and there are lots of shops and hidden restrants in the cobbled streets. The bridge is lined with statues and most of the photos below are taken from the Old Town Bridge Tower which gives a great view.

It was interesting mingling with the Czech people and getting around on trams. We didn't find the Czech's very friendly though (maybe cause we couldn't speak their language!?).

Below are a couple of pics taken in the Old Town Square which was a nice place to sit and have a drink! It's also the meeting place for a lot of city tours. We did 2 tours around the city. The first one was a walk around the Old Jewish Ghetto which was definately worth a look. We went into some synagogues and the cemetry where people had to be buried all on top of each other! It's interesting to hear what happened to the Jewish people.

We also did a tour of Prague Castle, the largest fortress in the world where we saw the changing of the guards.

Then we went on a boat ride which they call "little Venice" around Charles Bridge and into one of the canals. It was good to have another perspective on the city.

After we had looked around the city for couple of days we wanted to see a bit more of the Czech Republic so we did day trip out to 'Kutna Hora'. It's a town about 2hrs out of Prague so we got to see some of the Bohemian country-side as well. It was a good trip to the town that was famous for silver mining.

In one of the gothic churches there, an artist was commissioned to do a bizarre display using human bones excavated from the graveyard! check it out...

Bye for now guys xox

NEW YEARS IN SCOTLAND

2007-01-04T12:26:00.000-08:00

Hello!

Happy new year everyone... hope you enjoyed the festive season.

Well we had a lovely cold christmas with Spence & Tor who made us a yummy hot, traditional christmas lunch. Unfortunately not a white christmas this year though.

Then on the 27th Dec we headed to Edinburgh, Scotland to spend 6 nights and see in the new year at the Hogmanay celebrations. We were met at the airport by Rawena (our school friend) and her boyfriend Christian who share a flat in Edinburgh right at the base of Edinburgh Castle. We spent our first 2 nights at their place which was really nice and we had lots of fun catching up. It was so great to have local friends show us the sights of the city and recommend some tourist attractions. The rest of our time was spent at our first hostel! I guess you've gotta do these things :) It was ok. This is the green door to Ro & Christian's building.

One of the recommended attractions was Mary King's Close tour. It is a guided tour of the underground vaults which the city was built on top of many years ago in the days of the black plague. It was very interesting and a bit spooky. It's like a little city of dark rooms underneath the main street (The Royal Mile). We really like Edinburgh with it's cobble stone closes and paved streets, little boutiques and ancient architecture. The pubs are great too!

The picture above is The Royal Mile which is the main street of Old Town. And below is St Giles cathedral on the Royal Mile.

This picture of Bobby's Bar and the statue of the dog is a memorial for the very famous terrier named Greyfriar's Bobby. The terrier faithfully guarded the grave of his master, policeman John Gray, at Greyfriars Kirk for 14 years until his own death in 1872. It's a sad and amazing story of loyalty. It's just down the road from Rowy's house.

We went to Edinburgh Castle on a day when the weather was pretty bad so didn't get to enjoy it thoroughly. We saw the Scottish Crown Jewels and had a look around there for a while. There is a cannon shot off at 1pm every day from the castle to signify the resurrection of the jewels which were recovered after being hidden for many years. Rowy & Christian took us up Arthur's Seat (a huge hill/mountain). It was certainly worth the hike even though it nearly killed us! From the top you get a wonderful view of the city of Edinburgh and the Castle, right out to the ocean and highlands as well. It was really great and luckily we did it on a fairly clear day so we got some good pics. I don't know if you'll get the impact of how high it actually was!After our big walk we drove a little bit out of the city to see Rosslyn Chapel (From the Da Vinci Code). It had beautiful carvings and symbols which i wish i understood. Apparently there are also frequent references to the Knights Templar (from the book).
One of the hightlights of the trip for us was going for a drive out into the Highlands. We're so lucky we were able to go for a drive with Rowy & Christian because we otherwise probably would not have visited this part of Scotland. We really appreciate it guys! They kindly drove us on a nice day to see Loch Lomond (like Loch Ness which was a fair way away). On the way we got a good dose of the gorgeous countryside. This is the only place we've seen snow so far...on the hilltops. Everything was so green and the Loch was very different to the places we get to see at home with it's dark (nearly black) water and hills behind. It was freezing there and it does have a relaxing but kind of eerie feeling. Another exciting part of the drive was meeting some Highland Coos! They are like big cows with very long hair. They also have rounder ears which makes their face look a little like a bear. They are pretty cute.
So as you know, our main reason for going to Scotland at this time was for Hogmanay (Scottish New Years Festival). I've already told some of you but Hogmany was actually cancelled at the last minute this year due to terrible weather. On New Years Eve there was sideways rain and gale force winds so the street party and all other events for the night were cancelled. We know... bummer! Especially because we had tickets to go to another event which was called 'Celidah in The Gardens' (a night of traditional scottish dancing) which would have been alot of fun. Not to worry, we still had a great new years partying at Rowy and Christian's house. The 4 of us made the most of it and had a crazy, memorable night so it was fine. They did let a few fireworks off the castle but nothing like what was planned.
Luckily the Hogmany is a 4 day festival so we did get to go to a couple of the events while we were there. Our favourite was the Torchlight Precession which was held on the night of the 29th. I think it is a traditional viking ceremony where a mass of people walk through the city. Each person is armed with a huge torch of fire (which you buy). The group walks behind a band of pipers and heads to the top of Calton Hill where more bonfires are set alight. The story goes that it is a ceremony to encourage the sun to come out and make the days longer as you go into a new year? Anyway, it was a really fun, unique event which looked spectacular as everyone walked the street with their torch. Then there were some great fireworks when we got to the top of the hill. I don't know if i explained that very well but here are some photos....

Now to plan the next trip! :) hopefully we can get another one in before starting work. Oh, and i finished my overseas nursing programme everyone... yay! xoxox

We'll look forward to reading your comments, so please leave a note

Ice Skating At Somerset House

2006-12-23T05:55:00.000-08:00

Friday Night
22/12/06After the trip to the gallery and a few pints at the pub we made our way down the street to somerset house. It was a pretty nice atmosphere their, the cool arcitecture of the building and the lights made it a great scene for outdoor ice skating. Oh yeah it was bloody freezing, when i got home and read the thermometer the temp was in the negatives, its been hovering around zero the last few days.

Something else cool happened when we were wondering along The Strand, I found an Aussie shop that sells Bundy! 20 pounds a bottle (25 for OP). A bit expensive but worth it!

Have fun everyone and enjoy Christmas and New Year!

Trafalgar Square

2006-12-23T05:23:00.000-08:00

G'day sam here! Thought it was about time that I had some input on this blog!

On friday we went to Trafalgar Square and went to the National Gallery where paintings by Van Gogh, Botticelli, Monet, Rembrant and three of the Ninja Turtles are on display. The gallery is an enormous place and really quite boring. So we saw some of the more famous paintings like "The Virgin of the Rocks" by Da Vinci, then went to a pub. The pub was good. So was the pub after that.

These are some photots of Trafalgar Square and the National museum. There were carolers singing under the christmas tree.

Fox visitor

2006-12-20T10:11:00.000-08:00

Hi again,

This is a just photo of a fox which was in our backyard yesterday morning (when i was talking to you brooke!). It was a pretty big one and seemed to have a sore leg but when sam went outside it took off really quickly! Then he came back, and went again when he saw us looking at him. We're not sure how it got in or out of the backyard cause there is a pretty big fence right around. oh well, a bit of excitement anyway. I hope his leg is ok and that he doesn't scare away the squirrels cause we like watching them bounding around.

Tower of London

2006-12-20T09:42:00.000-08:00

HI guys,

Just wanted to say first that we love getting your comments. so please feel free to leave a note. it's nice to know you're looking at our blog! :)

Yesterday we went to the Tower of London in the afternoon. it's another historical, touristy thing and we really enjoyed looking around. As you probably know, the Tower of London was a residence for the kings and queens of England as well as being a fortress and a prison. It is also currently home to the famous British Crown Jewels. One of our first stops was to look at the jewels. They are amazing, so sparkly.

We enjoyed wandering through the little coridors and up the winding stone staircases. It's got quite an eerie feeling really especially with the 'ravens' hovering around.

The tower bridge is just next to it and that is the bridge you can see behind me in the photo. we'll walk across it another day.

The funny man with me in the photo (with the red and black dress) is called a "beefeater." they got that name becuse they used to test the food before the royal family could eat it!

We decided if we go to the Tower again we would do a tour or get an audio guide because there is alot of history there which would make more sense if you had a bit of background knowledge. It would take forever to read all the little info plaques they have everywhere. xox

St Paul's Cathedral

2006-12-16T07:05:00.000-08:00

Hi there,

Hope you are all well.

A couple of days ago we went to St Paul's Cathedral which was a great day. We spent quite a bit of time there and took an audio tour which was certainly a good idea because it makes sense of everything like the paintings and points out the story behind all of the decoration and memorials. You are not allowed to take photos in there which is a shame although you can understand why. I don't think the photos would capture just how beautiful and amazing it is anyway. We got a couple from the outside though. There is a photo above of Sam knocking on the giant West door of the Naive. This is the formal entrance to the cathedral used for significant occassions (like when Diana married Prince Chrarles!).

We walked 259 steps to the Whispering Gallery which gives you a wonderful view of the paintings and mosaic art work that covers the inside of the famous dome. Then up more steps to the Stone Gallery and the Golden Gallery where you can get a perfect view across London. here are are couple of photos from the top as well.

We then went down under the Church's floor into the Crypt which is the Cathedral's burial chamber. A bit creepy really. There are many important figures buried or commemorated here such as Churchill, Wellington, Florence Nightingale...

love Anita and Sam

Loughton

2006-12-07T05:24:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to include these couple of photos of Loughton (the suburb we're living in) cause i thought they were really nice. The day time ones were taken from outside the library just down the road. And the night time pic was taken looking up the High Rd, which is the main road at the end of our street. It has lots of great restraunts and shops.

LONDN EYE

2006-12-07T04:56:00.000-08:00

Hi Guys,

Last night we went for a "flight" on the famous London Eye. It had been a lovely sunny day and ended up being a clear night of which there haven't been many so we thought we'd make the most of the good weather. We got the train in at a about 5pm so it was dark when we went on the ferris wheel. We wanted to go at night to see all the lights and it was certainly worth it, what a beautiful view of the city we had. You go up in a gondola type thing which is very spacious. You can walk around in it and it fits quite a few people. It takes half an hour to go all the way round. We took lots of phots and i've attatched a few. It was a wonderful view of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. They were staright across on the opposite side of the River Thames to the London Eye.

Afer our ride we went a few stations further back on the tube to try and find what they say in my book is one of the last original english pubs in West End. Anyway, after walking around in circles looking very touristy with our map...we couldn't find it! We went to another nice place for dinner instead cause by this stime we were starving. It's amazing how much busier the city is late mid-week compared to home!

cya xo

Shopping!

2006-12-04T11:42:00.000-08:00

Hey!

As you can see... went to Harrods today! Quite exciting :) So i've been shopping in London now Bekki (you would be pleased to know). We got the tube train into Oxford Circus Station which leads you to Oxford Street which is a very very long street and the main place for shopping in the city. I dragged sam around to do some christmas shopping. The shops are really beautiful with all the chrissy lights. We were going to walk through Hyde Park down to Harrods but it started to rain and we didn't have our brollies so we got the bus down (its not in oxford street). It was very flash. Nice to have a look and dream. So now we've been into central London. About time hey!? We were on a bit of a mission though with the presents (although i did find something for myself of course). Didn't do anything touristy this trip into town. Except for Harrods. Bye xoxo

Trip to Bournemouth

2006-12-01T09:03:00.000-08:00

Hello! Just to update you on what we have been doing lately.......

Well we've spent the most of our 1st week here just checking out the local area which is really lovely. We have settled in well and have sussed out the local pubs of which there are many within 200m or so of our house!

Also we went for a walk in the forrest at the end of our street. it is so pretty at the moment with all of the autumn leaves on the ground. i'll attatch a photo. can't wait to see it in the snow hopefully. wellingtons (he, he) are a must though as the ground is quite soggy. yes, as expected it has been raining a fair bit compared to sunny qld. Although the cold is bareable at the moment.

We went and visited sam's aunty Liz and her family on tues and it was really nice to see them. she was very excited which was great...alot like you cathy :) we got the train there and i must say... i'm pretty proud of the way we are getting the hang of the public transport around here, although it is fairly easy.

We have spent the last few days in Bournemouth (which is on the south west coast of england). it took us about 3 hrs to get there by train. it was a pretty funny trip as we accidentally got a train ticket instead of a bus ticket (just as i was saying we were getting the hang of the transport system!). anyway, we were crammed in the end of the carriage as it was full of workers at the time we went and no seats available. we sat on our suitcase in a corner and drank a beer and wine and nibbled some nuts. so it wasn't too bad.

We stayed in a lovely, cute Bed & Breakfast with an owner who gave us exceptional service. it was very reasonalbly priced as well. the reason for our trip to Bournemouth was for me to attend a day at Bournemouth Uni for the overseas nursing program i have to do. luckly it didn't end up being a full day but i got a huge booklet to complete which i think will be quite time consuming. anyway, all this has to be done to get my UK nursing registration.

we really liked Bournemouth. it is a very clean, pretty coastal town which has "award winning beaches" (nothing on australia). we went for a walk along the cliff top and nearly got blown away! it was freezing there on your ears and nose! i'm sure it would be lovely in summer. the town square had some festive christmas lights and really nice gardens running though the town. we enjoyed watching the squirrels there, they are very cute. we spent a long time getting a decent photo! they come very close when they think you've got food. one jumped on sam's arm. they're actually a little scary when they get that close!

we had some other plans for bournemouth but the weather was no good on our last day so we came back to london. we have to travel there for uni again so will postpone our day trip to "monkey world" which is an ape refuge centre. we were looking forward to checking it out but will do it next time.

bye for now guys xoxo

Arriving in London

2006-11-24T09:00:00.000-08:00

Hi there!
These are some photos of Tony & Celia's house to show you where we're living in london. The first pic is sam lazing around for 5 hrs in Aukland on the way over!
Then there's the kitchen, me outside the house (number 34), then a picture taken looking up High Beech Rd, and our lounge room.
We made it safe and are settling in well. This place is wonderful! :)
Love us xoxo

Farewell Party

2006-11-16T18:06:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,
Just a few pics here from our farewell party which we think was a great night. Thank you so much to everyone that came and made it so special. We hope you all had a good time and we will miss you heaps. Thank you especially to Cathy & Dave for letting us party at their house!

So we're off very soon.... 5 more sleeps! We'll keep in touch!
love Anita & Sam xox

2006-10-22T21:16:00.000-07:00

This is Sam and I at Green Is when we visited Cairns last year, i just realised i don't have many photos of the 2 of us together! Nice ones that is

2006-10-22T21:08:00.000-07:00

Femke, Leah (our good friend from nursing @ uni) and Brooke in Glin Ave kitchen...the last dinner

Glin Ave girls

2006-10-22T20:53:00.000-07:00

This is me, Bekki and Brooke on our last night in Glin Ave, Newmarket. The house is a mess as we are in the middle of moving! And eating off an esky!