Clifton and Cheddar Gorges

The sun was out this morning! It lasted til lunch time!

Clifton Bridge is a massive, old suspension bridge in Bristol. We set the GPS to take us somewhere near there, and ended up driving AND walking over it. It was a spectacular bridge, with a great view!

We drove in to the city to get to the Christmas markets, that weren’t much different to the others we’ve been to. We picked up a few things and I had some amazing raspberry hot cider. Then drove out to Cheddar – what a cool drive! It was so pretty! The Cheddar gorge is awesome, a massive limestone gorge that you can drive through. You can walk to the top but it’s a long way and it was too late. I doubt the girls would have been keen either.

Dinner was more individual microwavable meals from the supermarkets. They’re actually really yummy, and fresh! All in all a pretty cool, and very beautiful day!

Brighton to Bath to Bristol

A google map of where Tegan, Ebony and I have been so far

I've attempted to put a link in to a map I made of where we've been so far. Click on it and it should take you to the page where all the places on a map are.

We drove past (slowly) Stonehenge today. And we walked in to the reception of the Roman Bath Houses in Bath. Both cost money and it wasn't a price equivalent to our interest so we moved on. Bath was so amazing - super duper busy though. Bristol was literally around the corner, and now it's dark (winter solstice today; sun set at about 3:30pm) and we'll have Indian for dinner I think!

Brighton, UK

Don’t be fooled – Brighton does not mean bright and sunny. It’s the UK in winter so I don’t expect too much.

Harrods was our first port of call yesterday, in the rain. We bought some lunch in the food hall and pretty much got out of there – it was great but crazy busy. Our cupcakes weren’t fresh, which was a shame.

Once we’d packed the car we drove the entire 70km from London to Brighton, where we booked in at the Crown and Anchor, a little pub on the highway where we’re staying. Our room is nice and big, with a spare bed and a very large shared bathroom. The pub downstairs is very civil so we slept really well! We hung around for dinner at the pub – the chef was suppose to arrive at 5:30pm. At 6pm we were informed that the chef wasn’t coming in. We ordered take-away pizza and ate it downstairs instead. It was edible but it wasn’t the best pizza ever. But we got to eat it in the pub with a glass of wine. We were down there for about three hours, reading magazines and playing cards (it was rainy outside).

It took a while to get going this morning. I was up at 7:30am, then Ebony then Tegan. By the time we got ready to go, it was 11am.

Brighton Pier was the object of the day. And the pebbly beach. The pier is a pier with an amusement park on the end of it. The pebbly beach is very pebbly – when the waves wash over the pebbles, it makes a deep WHOOSH sound as the pebbles all move against each other. Landscape evolution in action! I took some great photos today. My wide angle lens hasn’t come off my camera for weeks. It makes taking photos of buildings and busy landscapes so much easier.

Brighton Pier VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Fish and chips were on the menu for lunch. We got two to share between the three of us, which was perfect. I got to eat both lots of mushy peas though, which was a bonus. We also checked out some great white cliffs up the road, made of a rock I don’t know that weathers to really clayey-chalky white, which is why the cliffs are so spectacular. Interest level from the other two parties was very vague so we moved on to The Lane where we saw lots of beautiful gems and silver and bought some cupcakes.

After last night’s attempt at a pub meal, we decided to check out Sainsbury’s for easy dinner options. It’s no Marcs & Spencers, but it was good enough. The cases (albeit tiny) of beer/cider were half price so we stocked up too. Conveniently, the massive tins of Roses chocolates were on special too. We got two.

We sweet talked the pub kitchen downstairs in to microwaving our dinner (he wasn’t impressed though) and ate our half-cooked meals in our room. The girls had soup, I had laksa with a side of broccoli and peas.

Tomorrow we’re driving to Bath and then to Bristol. I’ve got my alarm set for 7am, when I plan to open up the blinds and start packing so we get on our merry way. Two nights in Bristol and then we’re off to our Christmas destination – woo!

Home days

Such a beautiful day! Not only did we get to sleep in, we could do whatever we wanted – without having to climb lots of stairs or eat pre-cooked food. And the sun was out, at least when I woke up (at 9am). It’s so nice being in a house, with all amenities, and that homely feeling. :)

Chill out day – lazing around for a while and then I went for a walk, got lost a few times, went shopping – realised the credit card I was trying to use hadn’t been authorised yet so I had no money (got Tegan to bring me the other card, that was authorised)………. Spent lots of money, bought me a cool Christmas present that you’ll just have to wait til Christmas Day to find out about. No, it’s not a Canon 7D. Don’t worry, if you’re buying me one of those I am definitely still without.

Tegan had dinner for us ready last night (Tesco microwavable Indian – it was delicious) as well as lots of mandarins and grapes. Clothes washing was prioritised. We watched an entire season of a super cool show called ‘Awkward’. (Don’t worry mum, I’ve got it on my laptop for you). Then we slept, for about 10-12 hours (different people slept more and less).

Barnes (where Tegan lives) is really really nice. It’s not very busy and the houses are all terraced cute little things with well kept front porches and a loft up top. There are trees everywhere and even chirping birds!

I spent a fortune today. There was this great shop with fantastic 70’s style clothes. Fortunately the quality was terrible and I wasn’t talked in to buying too much. Namely: a Tinkerbell jumper, a really comfy jumper, pink velour tracksuit pants and a skivvy to go under the Tinkerbell jumper.

And then I got some Christmas decorations, a couple of presents (including mine: ohhhhh yeah), a coffee, a bunch of necessary stuff at ‘PoundLand’ (like the two dollar shop, but everything is actually one pound)……. And two bloody long Christmas paper rolls. Too long, they were annoying.

For dinner we shared more Tesco microwavable stuff – I had extra vegies and salad. I also bought a hunk of ham, that is the driest, most flavourless hunk of ham I’ve ever tried. We have decided that maybe all ham from shops taste like that, and that we’re just really lucky having awesome home-made ham every Christmas. So, probably no more ham and we’ll try for turkey next time.

Brighton is our next stop. Tomorrow, after we go to Harrods. I bet I spend more money… Argh.

Please, if you can, go to this website and follow the link to vote for Ebony, for her chance to win an iPad. The photo is one I took (of her) and the words are all hers.

http://experience.csu.edu.au/entry/228344

Sleep well!

xox

Caen–> Paris

Finally, a decent sleep! No more tequila shots. Phew! It was only one night – I’m definitely turning soft. Too bad, I prefer to explore in the day and sleep at night. Mostly, except when celebrating.

Rainy rainy rainy this morning with an early morning trip to the bus station to get our return Caen –> Paris bus. It was 15mins late and we met a couple of friendly Polish guys who were more willing to chat than we were, which I still feel bad about. Sometimes explaining the weather in Australia again just is too much.

The bus took a bit longer this time as we went through a few different towns. I got busy finishing my book – called ‘The Help’. It was great. The movie’s out at the moment – it’s also really good. Amazon recommends books to me and I just buy them, without knowing they are God books or books just re-released because there’s a movie on it. Sometimes I get lucky and end up with a great book like ‘The Help’ and then other times I’m not so lucky and end up with the Book of Proverbs.

In to Paris and we made our way to our hotel, where we’re on the 6th floor. It’d be fine if there was a lift. The room is tiny but great – new and clean. We are in the attic bit so we have a cool window and a very limited bathroom. But there’s no lift. I carried a hard cased, 25kg bag up 6 flights of stairs. And before you say that’s why you travel with a backpack – I still disagree. The amount of ease that having a hard cased wheely bag provides totally outweighs the occasional stairs. We just were super unlucky today.

No lunch today, just a late lunch at 4pm. There’s so many places to eat, and most places only serve food at certain times of the day that it gets really confusing – where you can actually eat and where you want to eat. We ended up a pasta joint that was SO cool. What a find. Home made pasta and sauce, where you choose your sauce and your pasta separately. The salad is made with the ingredients you want and it’s cooked in front of you. On top of that, it was bloody delicious.

Because of the 6 flights of stairs, we limited our food intake to one lunch/dinner. Which sucks right now because I could really go some more pasta, but I’m in my pyjamas and once I’m in them there’s no going back.

Interesting note: I always thought of Matilda as a very Australian name. Not so. There’s Matilda towns and shops all over the place. I guess I never questioned its origin because it just feels Australian.

Second interesting note: buses and trains in Europe attract different socioeconomics. The bus is notably more feral than the train. The train is lovely and clean and sophisticated. The bus is feral and dirty and graffiti’d, with no toilets and very scare offices. The train is considerably more expensive at times.

Third interesting note: The French are too cultured to wear ugg boots in public. Every where else we’ve been (including Mongolia), lots of people wear ugg boots not even as a fashion statement, but as practical, comfortable and trendy daily footwear. There was at time in Australia when wearing ugg boots to McDonalds for a late night snack was the equivalent of wearing your pink flannel pyjamas too. Whilst I cringed a lot when I first started seeing all these ugg boots around during the day time, I have come to realise that my opinion is a social construct and I am just actually jealous that I didn’t think that I could have worn my ugg boots all over Europe.

That SD card was found – hooray! Here are the photos I may have lost, but didn’t and am extremely grateful for:

William the Conqueror’s Wall in Caen VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Caen Caen

The bus from Paris to Caen – a 3 hour journey on a practically empty coach. A taxi ride to our hotel and an early night. It was raining and dark, and we were exhausted.

Weather in Caen for the next five days: rainy. It’s true. It hasn’t stopped. Yesterday we wandered around the city, met friends on William the Conqueror’s castle wall, wandered around and started drinking as the sun was going down. I managed to lose an SD card with the photos I took that day, which sucks balls because there were some amazing photos on it. We bought some alcohol and went to drink and watch the sun set over William’s wall. Only it started rainy again so we retreated back to our friends’ hotel. We drank a lot more, laughed a lot more and went out to dinner too late. Nothing was open except a random bar we found, who served us some tapas and sangria.

And that was the beginning. We’d already drunk Smirnoff Ice, rose, red wine, white wine, Jamison and then sangria. And then the tequila shots and cocktails started. Then Ebony got her results – some great results, that we celebrated with more tequila until we had to leave that bar. To another bar. More cocktails and white russian shots. Some game playing with a group of different Asian people studying in France. They were so cool – Indonesians, Japanese, Chinese, a guy from Hong Kong. We had a lot of fun with them so followed them to another bar after that one closed. By then I was just drinking water but it didn’t save me from an epic day of hangover.

All in all, Ebony had a pretty freaking cool celebration night. We had a lot of fun!

Today was very difficult. The rain made it much worse. D-Day beaches/Battle of Normandy is Caen. We had some beaches and history to see. Only it’s rainy and we’re hungover and we did no research. We got out to a small town that we’d catch a bus to the beaches from – and the buses weren’t running enough to make it worthwhile (to get there before sunset, anyway). We checked out a museum, wandered around a bit and headed back in to Caen on the train.

More restaurants for dinner – I ended up accidentally ordering cow bones baked so you could eat the marrow inside…….. Luckily the next course was steak and chips.

Ebony and I managed to successfully navigate the buses home and now we’re resting ready to head back to Paris tomorrow. After very few hours sleep and lots to drink last night, we’re in need of some rest!

The Eiffel Tower

The most famous destination in all of France is Paris’ Eiffel Tower. It is pretty cool but once you learn its history, and how much it was hated for so long, it makes you wonder…. How cool is it?

But it is cool, even for the second time round. Probably cooler this time, because it was a glorious day and we weren’t in a hurry. We ate lunch underneath it and then went to the Christmas markets over the road. There were lots of scammers around trying to get us to sign their bits of paper – I saw everyone going out of their way to avoid them, and every single person saying no no no to the scammer. I wonder how many people they actually rort? These guys are after signatures on what looks like a petition. Once your signature is there, they try to hold you to the fact that you just signed a document stating you’d pay them 200 euros. They must be successful, if only once every two weeks – because they wouldn’t do it otherwise, right?!

The Eiffel Tower VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Our hostel provides breakfast, even if the toilets and showers are gross (as well as everything else gross about this place). Croissant, bread and coffee. Pretty good really. After breakfast we went to make sandwiches we’d got the stuff for the night before. Some bastard stole our meat! Seriously! We had it wrapped in a non-see through plastic bag, carefully with all our other ingredients. They yoinked our freaking meat! We were so looking forward to it as well. It was awesome prosciutto looking stuff.

Today will be henceforth known as the day of pastries. We had three pastries from three different shops, each today. And then for dinner we had ‘traditional’ French food in a Brasserie. I had steak and beans (the biggest plate of baby green beans you’ve ever seen – yum!). Ebony had a burger with cool shaped chips. It was most delicious and the waiter was very friendly. He didn’t like us being in our thongs (we’d walked all day and we have blisters) because it is cold outside (it is quite chilly). We looked like the most feral people in France. But who cares. The food was great and the service was great, until we had to wait 45mins for our bill. Now that was annoying!

Tomorrow we’re off to Caen. A friend of mine arrives (probably feeling much better than we did; bastards scored a business class upgrade!) tomorrow as well so hopefully we’ll catch them when we get to Caen. Yay for France.

Berlin to Paris

Boarding the night train to Paris was exciting. France is always such a heralded place, for good reason. Delicious food and wines, gorgeous cities and scenery, beautiful accents and best of all: the croissant.

I usually sleep well on trains because the vibrations put me to sleep. Not last night. Wholey dooley. What a night. We were in a girls-only compartment. The train was ‘sold out’, and tickets were getting very expensive which is why we had to book so early. In actual fact it’s all total bullshit. In our 6 bed cabin (the size of a shoe box) held two: Ebony and I. The entire wagon had 4 people in it. What the hell? Why have the seats ‘sold out’ or so freaking expensive it’s totally unaffordable – when no one’s actually on it?!

Mind you it was a total blessing. Trains are always squishy at night and if you recall my Lake Baikal – Irkutsk to Ulan Ude experience, it’s not something I really look forward to. There’s no space to move and I don’t like that at all. This was no different. We were up on the top bunks – 2m from the ground. We were told at the next few stops we’d be picking up heaps more people. So we slept in our beds right up the top, having nightmares about falling down. When I say sleep, I mean – we laid down in the beds all night. I got to sleep fairly early on but at our next stop in Hamburg, the dude rudely awoke everyone with details of what was going on. That was it for my sleep – 10-11pm. I just couldn’t get back to sleep.

The train went very fast and there was no clakety-clack like on the Trans-Siberian. We were thrown around a fair bit and the noise from the creaking corners were noisy too. By the time the sun was up, we were ready to go and thankfully not far from Paris.

Oh, Paris.

 

 

 

I remember I did really like Paris, but I loved Rome more. I still believe it – Roman history, Italian food and gelato combine to make Rome Sally’s number one favourite city in the world (thus far). Paris would have to be a closely placed second. Wait. No. Prague second, Paris third. Brisbane fourth. Vancouver fifth. Ulaanbaatar does not make it on my list.

Anyway, we needed breakfast. A joint near the station was advertising a breakfast menu in English which caught out eye. In we went, sat down and ordered two breakfast’s. There was no choice. But who needs choice when you’re being served orange juice, tea, fresh baguette and fresh croissant with jam?

And if that wasn’t the lightest, crispiest, most amazingly flaky croissant I’ve ever had……….

Trying our luck on the metro, we found our station called ‘Felix <something or other>’ and our hostel called the Three Ducks. You’re not allowed in your room from 12-4pm so we left our bags in the luggage room and went out for a free tour of the city. It’s one of those newer tours popping up where the guide isn’t paid by the company – only by the tips they get. It was great. We walked around for 4 hours checking out things and being shown some interesting sites/told some great stuff. Rain set in, we got a bit wet. Whatever. I ordered lunch during a 15min break which turned out to be an unidentifiable piece of meat. It had no fibres but was definitely of animal origin. I would have called it a chicken liver, only it was the size of my hand and had been filleted. It could have been a chicken tasting pork liver (it was white meat). But it was so tender and so full of animal flavour……. I couldn’t eat it, which annoyed me because I’d chosen it from an array of delicious looking things.

Berlin to Paris VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We paid the guide 20 Euros (10 each) and went about getting home in order to do some washing. Oh yes, you heard me. Washing. We did it all. And dried it in a massive dryer and now I have clean everything and it’s wonderful. Food shopping for dinner at the supermarket and then chill time.

Our hostel is the yukkiest I’ve ever been to. The website claims it’s the most popular in town. Gullible Sally. It may have been 20 years ago when the bathrooms were not 100 years old, the beds not disgusting, the foyer not a pub, the showers functional, the courtyard a homeless shelter and the kitchen a useless room with a sink, a little fridge and a two burner portable stovetop.

It’s not unliveable. I don’t think we’ll die of unhygienic conditions (it’s kept quite clean, regardless of how dirty it does look). It’s just not comfortable. For what we’re paying, I guess we deserve it – there were just many other options of hostels in this price range (50 Euros/night) that we could have chosen. Nevermind. There is also a church with a belltower about 20m as the crow flies from our door. It dongs every hour for at least 3 minutes.

I did get to take some cool shots from our hostel though.

That bell definitely dongs every hour. Shitballs. I’m not going to get any sleep at all.

East Side Gallery, Berlin

East Side Gallery, Berlin VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We were going to head out of town again today but decided against it when we spent half the morning at the East Side Gallery. It’s an open air gallery that’s just a whole bunch of really interesting paintings along a 1.3km stretch of remaining Berlin Wall. The photos above are some of the cool paintings. There were so many!

So I still haven’t heard from that Brisbane job that offered me more money and more flexibility. It did take them about 2 months to get the last contract with me, so I imagine this won’t be different. The boss did say I’d get the new contract the day after we talked (which was 2.5weeks ago). Oh well.

From the gallery we walked in to town again and picked up some Christmas stuff. Wandered around, checked out the very busy Christmas markets, tried to have a look in some shops but hightailed it out of there when we realised just how busy it was (think Boxing Day sales). Ebony tried a pork sausage that was supposedly delicious.

Tonight we board a train to Paris overnight. Tomorrow morning we will be in Paris! More croissants for breakfast. Man, I’m going to have so much gym work and salad eating to do when I get home.

Oh, yeah – I bought a pair of pink Birkenstocks too! Mine have been well worn and are on their way out. I’ve been thinking of buying a new pair for a while. Today made my decision really easy. Brand new pairs at the price of 43 Euros, or $56 AUD. In Australia, Birkenstocks cost anywhere up to/more than $200. So I grabbed a pair. A pink pair. They won’t be practical, colour wise – but who cares. Nothing I own matches anything else, so why start now with a boring brown pair of Birkenstocks?

We’ll have dinner and clean our teeth tonight before we head to the train station (we’re hanging at our hostel) at about 6:30pm. Our train leaves at 8pm although I’m paranoid we’ll miss it, because it’s not like a plane where people help you and then call out your name when you’re not on board yet.

I’m sure we’ll be fine. We’ve made it this far.

I keep thinking of cool places that Ebony didn’t get to see, like Rome, Venice, Austria, Switzerland, Amsterdam…. And then of places that I would love to go to, like Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Belarus, Turkey, Morocco, Portugal, Slovakia, Croatia… And then I realise that there’s no way I’d make it to all those places in one go and that I need to calm down because I have a lifetime to visit great places……..

Berlin

From Prague we boarded a train to Berlin. It was a really lovely ride. It was overcast but we could still see how beautiful everything was. Lots of green pastures, wind farms, cute little houses…..

Upon arrival to Berlin, we booked tickets to our next destination – Paris! The man was SO friendly and helpful at the travel desk. It was a really nice start to Berlin!

We braved the trains again and made our way to our hostel. It’s near a train station, which is handy – but that’s about the only good thing. We’re in a massive room with extra beds again, this time with a tiny little heater that does nothing. Our room is freeeeeeeeeeezing! The doonas are good, when you use two at a time. The showers are great – amazing shower heads the size of my head. No, bigger!

Berlin is nice, but it’s not as cool as Prague. It’s much bigger which I don’t like so much. Graffiti is appreciated here, as are long dogs of all kinds – the closer to the ground, the better. More guys have ear piercings and there are lots of sausages around (even a proper sausage on a McDonalds burger). It’s colder than where we’ve been but that’s because we’re further north.

Below: the massive TV tower at Alexanderplatz; Ebony in the cute little town we were in yesterday; me out the front of a building that we should probably know the name of in the middle of town.

We spent a day walking around town which was lovely. And then a day yesterday at  Sachsenhausen Memorial, which was a massive concentration camp during and post WWII. It’s free to get in unless you want to pay 3euros for a English guide thingy, which we did. You could spend easily your entire day there, it’s fantastic. The train ride there was lovely, as was the little town the train stopped in.

Today we’re going to play it by ear – the weather looks terrible and it’s suppose to rain all day. Tonight we’ll board an overnight train to Paris, where we’ll spend two nights and then hopefully head on to Caen on the Western coast of France, near where the Battle of Normandy was.

Kutna Hora and the bone chapel

Above: the most delicious looking ham on a spit; Sally eating a sausage (YUM); Ebony eating a chicken kebab (YUM, both from the Christmas markets in Wenceslas Square)

The shit part of traveling around Europe with no plans is that you do have to plan eventually and there’s so many options at varying prices that it sends you batty and then you get cranky. I like to be in super control all the time so running by the seat of my pants isn’t something that comes naturally. I don’t really mind that we have no plans, I just hate that it’s such a bloody effort to make them. Which means you spend half your time finding somewhere to stay, or booking plane/bus/train tickets instead of just enjoying the place. We booked tickets this morning to Berlin, with hope that it will be easier to navigate ourselves westward, towards France.

With my recent infatuation of the Soviet era courtesy of Mongolia, I’d love to go east and check everything out. Not this time though – we’re going to Germany, France and Spain and with some luck maybe Denmark? I don’t know.

We paid for a tour today. Such a good idea. Kutna Hora and the Bone Chapel. Kutna Hora’s just a really nice super old town, and the Bone Chapel is a church that houses the bones of 40,000 people who died in the Black Plague and other various events along the years. The bones are strung up around the place, to teach children about the circle of life (?!?!). Mostly skulls and femur bones. It wasn’t gory or creepy (at least I didn’t think so). It was really cold inside but I’d say that’s because the church is made of stone and has no insulation and is surrounded by trees in the middle of European winter.

 

Bone Chapel VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I know it’s a bit anti-European of me, but I’m finding European landscapes and history so much less cooler than Mongolian history. I guess it’s because of a bunch of different reasons, but in short – Chinggis Khan conquering the world shits all over the rise and fall of numerous inbred/crazy royal families. I don’t doubt that sounds terrible, but if you were to meet lots of Mongolian people and see the landscape they have to work with, you’d appreciate anything they create for themselves so much more due to the sheer physical inhospitability AND the nomadic mindset.

Mind you, being in Europe is amazing and it’s so beautiful and so rich in history. Maybe it’s best that I say that Mongolian history is just so different to any other country’s history that it makes it exciting and interesting in such a different way.

The tour we were on just took us around a gothic style church (oh-so-beautiful), the bone chapel and around the UNESCO site of Kutna Hora – an old silver mine that was the site of many coin making centuries.

Kutna Hora VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Ebony and I stopped at a cake place and ate two rounds of pastries, as well as being forward thinking and bought bread rolls for lunch tomorrow (to go with our cheese and meat). Dinner was left over cheese and meat on bread left over from yesterday. Berlin tomorrow, for three nights. Oh Germans and their sausages. And sauerkraut. And beer. And then maybe…… Copenhagen, maybe Paris, maybe the Netherlands…. We’ll see!

Prague city

Wet, rainy and windy. Day two in Prague. It’s still bloody amazing, but it was a bit harder to appreciate. Old, beautiful buildings run for hundreds of blocks – unobstructed by modern buildings (or, if they are, they’re well disguised). Beautiful building after beautiful building. The river runs through the middle, and the big castle sits atop it all. The view from up there is amazeballs:

I guess it’s hard to see in smaller photos, but it’s just amazing.

With only a few hours of light in the day (sun up at 8am, down at 4pm) you have to squish stuff in. I’m kind of glad of the sunlight hours anyway as it means we have an excuse to rest a bit earlier. I’m still totally whacked with jetlag – it hits at 4:30am when I wake up, and then about 6pm when I want/need to go to sleep.

We wandered around and found breakfast, then the big classical music theatre. We got instructions from the guy downstairs of our hostel (Welcome Hostel PragueCentre; it’s awesome) and then headed out for our walk. Over the river, lunch from an organic supermarket. We ate it by the river. I had creamy celery soup which was delicious, Ebony had a pizza thing that wasn’t too bad either. Up to the castle, down to the old town, wandering through christmas markets with an amazing array of sausages, donut things and Czech style chips. It all looked very similar to the set up in Hyde Park in London. I got me some chips. They were awesome. They were cut like a slinky apple with a drill that had a bit on the end like a cookie cutter. The slinky bits are shaving thin – then they’re deep fried to a delicious crisp. A bit of salt and you’re one step closer to high cholesterol and heart disease. I am lucky enough to know I am genetically predisposed to both – I may as well get in while I’m young ‘cos I ain’t gonna be able to eat my way through Europe for ever. Mind you, I’m not eating too far in to it because it’s not cheap to eat out! It’s cheaper than home, but when you add it all up……….

That’s Ebony on the bridge crossing the river, and then the river from a different perspective.

Wandering back to our hostel (which is awesome, again), we stopped at Tesco to pick up some fresh bread and cheese for dinner and then again at some more markets to get some ‘hot punch’ that is very alcoholic and not very delicious. Ebony wouldn’t even drink it.

All in all a good day. Nothing exciting to report, just lovely Europe. We’re trying to decide where to go next, and it’s not easy. Austria? France? Germany? Switzerland? I’d really love to go to Budapest but Ebony’s not so keen, and I don’t mind going back to all the other beautiful cities.

Prague city VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Prague

Prague VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

wow. That’s a totally different set of photos than what I usually put up – with Mongolian countryside screaming untouched beauty. Now I’m in central Europe where modern society began (of a more recent variety, anyway. Lots of dinosaurs in Mongolia. And ancient civilisations). It means there are lots of amazing buildings, paths and a culture that has meshed so smoothly in to so many others.

I woke up at 3:40am courtesy of a wrecked body clock. The alarm went off at 4:30am and we got on our way – not without a couple of trials beforehand though. We had to pay to store some baggage, of course we had no cash on us and the machine wasn’t working so I had to sprint up to the ATM 800m away. We got on the train at 5:30am and were at Gatwick airport soon after. It’s a massive airport! Our plane left at 8:30am. We arrived in Czech Republic at about 11am, had some lunch we’d organised last night and tested out patience and knowledge with the local bus/metro system.

I wasn’t really ready to be in a country that doesn’t speak the same language as me and that isn’t particularly easy. I am okay now I’m in the city but it was a bit worrying there for a while. I was just dreading everything – I’m sure because I imagined everything would be difficult as per the last country I was in. But it wasn’t. The train was fine and we eventually got in to town.

Wholey dooley, it’s so beautiful. So, so beautiful. It’s got a small town feel, but with big buildings. No new ugly developments – just lovely well kept old buildings, wide roads and lots of gardens. It’s so nice!

Our room is great too. We’re very close to the main street. We’re in a hostel type thing where we share a bathroom, but we’ve got a massive room with a couple of spare beds. The lady downstairs is just too nice and very helpful. So far, so good!

We went for a wander around town before it went dark (4pm is when it gets dark), had some Indian for dinner and now we’re ready for bed.

We’re tired but not as tired as last night! Oh – yesterday!

Yesterday was our Big Bus #2 day. Jumping on at Leicester Square after we got ourselves some Chicago tickets, we went around town, then caught a ferry up to Greenwich and back. Back on the bus, off the bus and to the theatre to see Chicago. LOTs of people everywhere. We were a bit early so stopped off at a deli to try their pastries and tea. Ebony had tea and scones, I had peppermint tea and a delicious custardy pastry thing.

America Ferrera was in Chicago. It was just amazing. The theatre was nice and cosy with very old seats (like the Mudgee theatre ones). We had much better seats. America was GREAT. It’s so weird to see someone in real life, that you’ve spent ages watching on a tv screen (she’s in Ugly Betty and probably lots of other stuff that I don’t know about). The music was great, the dancing was great. Everything fits together like clockwork and is so cleverly crafted, the performance itself is an art – not including the amazing singing, dancing and showmanship.

Tired again, we trekked home and packed ready for our voyage to Prague!

Matilda the Musical

Matilda the Musical was great! Man oh man were we tired though. We slept through the interval. I have no idea how long it was. We had 25 pound seats. We originally bought Chicago tickets but then walked to the Matilda theatre and they had two tickets for the night, so we went and returned out Chicago tickets and bought the Matilda ones. We had seats in the very back row RIGHT up the top. We were practically looking directly down on them. It was pretty tricky to see, but we got most of it.

The purple is the stage.

We went on the Big Bus, which is one of the tour companies that take you around in a bus. We didn't get far before we bought tickets for Matilda. And went to M&M world. And had a look around. Today we'll go and do the bus the whole way round, properly.

me checking out the amazing array of different coloured M&M's

Ebony and an M&M

Me and an M&M

Ebony outside the spaghetti house -we had dinner here before we saw Matilda

Tomorrow we're off to the Czech Republic, where we'll stay for 3 nights and then move on to somewhere else. It's all a bit crammed in because we only have 2 weeks before Tegan gets here (less then 2 weeks actually). We'll prioritise. And we'll have internet in our next destination, which will make things much easier - going to McDonalds every time you need to do something is annoying. BUT very handy - without it, we'd have no internet! Okay, we could pay 15pounds PER DAY for internet access in our room - but geez, who wants to do that???

It's overcast today, not so nice. But we're doing the Big Bus look around town thing again, the whole way round (not on the open top today I'd say, it's rainy outside!). We'll go up on a rivercruise. And go to Harrods when we get back mid-January.

Happy anniversary mum and dad!! xoxoxox