Hey mama!
You are 50 today, congratulations on reaching this HUUUGGGEEE milestone. hehe.
Have a ball at your party tonight, make people wait on you all day - dad that is - and just enjoy it.
Wish I could be there to help you celebrate
Love you mum
The Adventurers
Above: Emma the Scot
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Monday, August 20, 2007
NOT DEAD!!
Just letting everyone know that we`re okay and just kicking back in the Swiss Alps for a few days before heading to busy Italy on Tuesday.
Internet here is hidiously expensive and will only get worse.
Just know we`re all good, sunning ourselves and eating lotsa spaghetti and gelati!
Enjoy that last few days of winter back in Ballarat...
Internet here is hidiously expensive and will only get worse.
Just know we`re all good, sunning ourselves and eating lotsa spaghetti and gelati!
Enjoy that last few days of winter back in Ballarat...
Thursday, August 16, 2007
A BIG MOMENT IN HISTORY...
Ok so everyone will obviously read my awesome entry about Munich, but you need to read the comment at the bottom. Ashlea actually wrote!! Dum Dum Dum Duuuuuuumm.
MUNICH!!!
The last three days have been full on like donkey kong. So much packed in.
First of all we arrived on the 13th in the arvo and poor Ash still felt under the weather so went for a lie down. And...well...what does Emma do when set free in a city? Shop of course! Okay so Munich has this massive outdoor mall with just huge shops, it is located dangerously close to our hostel. Even more dangerous is that Summer is coming to an end and every shop has a sale. Wow, I had to totally restrain myself and you'd all be so proud of me! All I came out with from 3 and a half hours was a pair of really cute €9.99 flat black sandals and a pair of shorty shorts because I cannot handle my flannette pj pants anymore...even though they have cows on them...just too hot. Day one down.
Day two was yesterday and it was a ''dream away and pretend that I'm a princess day''! We took a two hour train south of Munchen to a small town, then a further bus up a hill to Neuschwanstein Castle!! Well everybody at home knows how much I love my Disney movies and i was just in heaven. It was so pretty!! The bad part was the hour wait in line for a ticket to see inside, the half hour climb up the hill and then the two hour wait for our tour of inside to begin. But so worth it! The castle was built in the 1800's by King Ludwig the II of Bavaria and he was apparently a bit of a nutcase. He was obsessed with this other guy Wagner's operas and so every room was based on a different opera, detailed paintings covering the walls, elaborate carvings on furniture and you should have seen the ornate tapestry curtains! At the end of the 17 year construction span, only a third of the castle was actually finished and the King only got to stay there for 6 months before he was deemed mentally unstable and taken away to live in an asylum. Good story huh? So even today the castles interior stands unfinished and so the tour of those 8 rooms or so took only half an hour. But then the drama began. We had only ten minutes to catch the last bus for the day back to town to then catch the last train back to Munich. Now, I don't think I've actually run since PE of year 10 so it was a bit of a struggle, particularly on a downward slope without shoes (as usual mine unsuitable for strenuous activities). Eight minutes and four sore and blackened feet later Ash and I were at the busstop ready to go! Lucky, or we would have been stuck in the middle of nowhere for the night. Nobody told me travel would be so stressful!
That brings us to today. I don't want want to write too much just because there is no way to describe the way I felt but I'll try. We visited Dachau Concentration Camp. It was the most sombre, moving and emotional time I think I have ever had. We spent about 4 hours at the site of over 40,000 murders and countless other brutalities. Just being there, particularly the sites of mass graves of those unknown, the crematorium still covered in a fine ash and the camp's cold damp prison was just indescribable-eery, creepy and weird.
Returning to Munich though was a different scene. It's some public holiday in this state so noone has work and everybody is out about and celebrating. A whole lot of beer drinking going on. We walked to massive Englisher Gardens just to unwind and cool down a bit and it is the coolest park in the whole world i swear! I read somewhere that it is three times as big as New York's Central Park and it has way cooler stuff. Like a water feature on the stream which is a giant wave and there were surfers riding it...just crazy. Apperently it's against the law for anyone to do that and if the police arrive everybody scrams. But how could a surfie resist? Such a hot day and a wave without the hassle of sand or salt water! Other than that it has a nudie sunbaking area, a huge chinese garden and many many beer gardens...only in Germany.
Exactly a month today until Elise leaves Australia for her tour of Europe and then only about 15 days after that until we catch up with her!! So exciting. Everyone wish her luck. Can't wait to see you and party with you Lisey!!!
First of all we arrived on the 13th in the arvo and poor Ash still felt under the weather so went for a lie down. And...well...what does Emma do when set free in a city? Shop of course! Okay so Munich has this massive outdoor mall with just huge shops, it is located dangerously close to our hostel. Even more dangerous is that Summer is coming to an end and every shop has a sale. Wow, I had to totally restrain myself and you'd all be so proud of me! All I came out with from 3 and a half hours was a pair of really cute €9.99 flat black sandals and a pair of shorty shorts because I cannot handle my flannette pj pants anymore...even though they have cows on them...just too hot. Day one down.
Day two was yesterday and it was a ''dream away and pretend that I'm a princess day''! We took a two hour train south of Munchen to a small town, then a further bus up a hill to Neuschwanstein Castle!! Well everybody at home knows how much I love my Disney movies and i was just in heaven. It was so pretty!! The bad part was the hour wait in line for a ticket to see inside, the half hour climb up the hill and then the two hour wait for our tour of inside to begin. But so worth it! The castle was built in the 1800's by King Ludwig the II of Bavaria and he was apparently a bit of a nutcase. He was obsessed with this other guy Wagner's operas and so every room was based on a different opera, detailed paintings covering the walls, elaborate carvings on furniture and you should have seen the ornate tapestry curtains! At the end of the 17 year construction span, only a third of the castle was actually finished and the King only got to stay there for 6 months before he was deemed mentally unstable and taken away to live in an asylum. Good story huh? So even today the castles interior stands unfinished and so the tour of those 8 rooms or so took only half an hour. But then the drama began. We had only ten minutes to catch the last bus for the day back to town to then catch the last train back to Munich. Now, I don't think I've actually run since PE of year 10 so it was a bit of a struggle, particularly on a downward slope without shoes (as usual mine unsuitable for strenuous activities). Eight minutes and four sore and blackened feet later Ash and I were at the busstop ready to go! Lucky, or we would have been stuck in the middle of nowhere for the night. Nobody told me travel would be so stressful!
That brings us to today. I don't want want to write too much just because there is no way to describe the way I felt but I'll try. We visited Dachau Concentration Camp. It was the most sombre, moving and emotional time I think I have ever had. We spent about 4 hours at the site of over 40,000 murders and countless other brutalities. Just being there, particularly the sites of mass graves of those unknown, the crematorium still covered in a fine ash and the camp's cold damp prison was just indescribable-eery, creepy and weird.
Returning to Munich though was a different scene. It's some public holiday in this state so noone has work and everybody is out about and celebrating. A whole lot of beer drinking going on. We walked to massive Englisher Gardens just to unwind and cool down a bit and it is the coolest park in the whole world i swear! I read somewhere that it is three times as big as New York's Central Park and it has way cooler stuff. Like a water feature on the stream which is a giant wave and there were surfers riding it...just crazy. Apperently it's against the law for anyone to do that and if the police arrive everybody scrams. But how could a surfie resist? Such a hot day and a wave without the hassle of sand or salt water! Other than that it has a nudie sunbaking area, a huge chinese garden and many many beer gardens...only in Germany.
Exactly a month today until Elise leaves Australia for her tour of Europe and then only about 15 days after that until we catch up with her!! So exciting. Everyone wish her luck. Can't wait to see you and party with you Lisey!!!
Monday, August 13, 2007
AUSTRIA!!!
Since the 8th of this month we have been in my favourite country by far (so far that is...so many to go) Austria! It is even more beautiful than Prague was and a bit neater and less bums. So many bums in Europe.
Anyway, our first two nights were spent in Vienna and it is just gorgeous. Everyone who keeps up with Sarah's blog will have seen the photos but the photos don't do it any justice at all. Our hostel was a half hour walk from the old town centre and everyday we'd be walking down the shopping strip, modern buildings and shops and then suddenly the old buildings start. They just go on forever, are so huge and ornate and just gorgeous. All museums, concert halls, universities and basically anything that you would imagine in such a cultural area like Austria. I am definitly coming back when i have a higher budget to go to the opera and actually go inside the museums and stuff rather than gawk from the outside. Both nights we tried to go and see an opera at the huge outdoor theatre that they have set up for free, but one night it pelted down rain and we left before it started and the second we didn't even get there because there was a thunderstorm! Such bad luck!
After that we had three nights in Salzburg. Any dedicated Sound of Music fans would have been in absolute heaven. It's where the film was shot and the entire town is full of locations from the movie, Mirabell Gardens, the Convent, just everything. One day we watched the movie and then we did the Sound of Music bus tour which takes you out of town to the lake district, such beautiful big mountains and cute towns and...it was just so cute! We saw the church and the Von Trapp House and all this other stuff. It was funny on the tour though because it was a huge bus of tourists, every nationality imaginable and yet everybody sand along together. ''Doh, a deer a female deer....''
So that was one thing we did in Salzburg another was one night, me and Ash went out with two boys from Vienna who were having a short vacation. WELL they said that they were best friends and one even had a girlfriend but they were so gay! One was a model and just seemed so girly and not even hiding his gayish tendencies. In the bar we went to they were dancing with us one minute and the next they'd be dancing very provokatively with each other. Well it was just the most fun I've had on this trip, I have not laughed that much at one time in the last two months. So much fun. After the clubs, they tried to be all gentlemenly with us, gave us their jackets and we walked arm in arm along the river. And then (this part just made my night) one of them danced the Viennese Waltz with me on the bank of the river. It was so fun! I danced the Viennese Waltz with a guy from Vienna. Well I'm excited even if you aren't.
We're paying for the late night now though. Ash has swollen glands, sore throat and a terrible ear ache and I am just beginning to get the sore throat. Great.
We are in Munich now for four, maybe five nights. So many daytrips and stuff planned...hope we feel better soon!
Anyway, our first two nights were spent in Vienna and it is just gorgeous. Everyone who keeps up with Sarah's blog will have seen the photos but the photos don't do it any justice at all. Our hostel was a half hour walk from the old town centre and everyday we'd be walking down the shopping strip, modern buildings and shops and then suddenly the old buildings start. They just go on forever, are so huge and ornate and just gorgeous. All museums, concert halls, universities and basically anything that you would imagine in such a cultural area like Austria. I am definitly coming back when i have a higher budget to go to the opera and actually go inside the museums and stuff rather than gawk from the outside. Both nights we tried to go and see an opera at the huge outdoor theatre that they have set up for free, but one night it pelted down rain and we left before it started and the second we didn't even get there because there was a thunderstorm! Such bad luck!
After that we had three nights in Salzburg. Any dedicated Sound of Music fans would have been in absolute heaven. It's where the film was shot and the entire town is full of locations from the movie, Mirabell Gardens, the Convent, just everything. One day we watched the movie and then we did the Sound of Music bus tour which takes you out of town to the lake district, such beautiful big mountains and cute towns and...it was just so cute! We saw the church and the Von Trapp House and all this other stuff. It was funny on the tour though because it was a huge bus of tourists, every nationality imaginable and yet everybody sand along together. ''Doh, a deer a female deer....''
So that was one thing we did in Salzburg another was one night, me and Ash went out with two boys from Vienna who were having a short vacation. WELL they said that they were best friends and one even had a girlfriend but they were so gay! One was a model and just seemed so girly and not even hiding his gayish tendencies. In the bar we went to they were dancing with us one minute and the next they'd be dancing very provokatively with each other. Well it was just the most fun I've had on this trip, I have not laughed that much at one time in the last two months. So much fun. After the clubs, they tried to be all gentlemenly with us, gave us their jackets and we walked arm in arm along the river. And then (this part just made my night) one of them danced the Viennese Waltz with me on the bank of the river. It was so fun! I danced the Viennese Waltz with a guy from Vienna. Well I'm excited even if you aren't.
We're paying for the late night now though. Ash has swollen glands, sore throat and a terrible ear ache and I am just beginning to get the sore throat. Great.
We are in Munich now for four, maybe five nights. So many daytrips and stuff planned...hope we feel better soon!
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
A SPECIAL DAY!!
Today is mine and Nick's one whole year together!!
I miss you alot Nick and can't wait to see you in Thailand in 2 months and 12 days (and no I'm not that excited that I'm counting or anything...hehe no way), it's going to be the best fun ever - the beach, sun, shopping and just us.
Hugs and kisses and I wish we were actually together on our anniversary. Kinda sucks being in a whole different hemisphere to you.
LOVE YOU SO MUCH BABE!
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
KUTNA HORA!
Okay well as I said yesterday we had planned to catch the train to the small town of Kutna Hora about an hour away from Prague. It's the home of the famous bone church and everything like that.
It started off really well, we met a girl from New York (Sherrie) who wanted to come, so it was nice to have some different company.
We hopped on the crowded bus to get from the hostel to the train station and Ash got sandwiched between two older guys, they got off at the next stop though so there was a bit more room. Then it was our stop and as soon as we got off Ash realised her backpack had been zipped open-her wallet missing! Can you believe people would sink that low? So about 80 Euro, her credit card, debit card, ID...stuff like that. After Ash rang her mum to cancel crads and stuff we decided to go straight to the police to make a report so that insurance could be claimed for the money. Police stations in Prague are so hard to come by! And nobody actually knows where they are, we asked so many people. We went to the police vehicle depot and the immigration police before we found the ordinary police station...crazy. The police even told Ash off for not concealing her valuables...in her backpack...can it get any more concealed than that?! Yeah so that was an interesting detour to our trip!
Anyway, we didn't end our day trip there, we did still go to Kutna Hora. The bone chapel thing was really freaky. Like it wasn't even all that big, considering the remaines of 40,000 people were on display. It was all pretty creative really...in each of the 4 corners was a big stack of bones, like a massive massive stack, in the centre was a huge chandelier of bones and a coat of arms on one of that walls. They even went to the lengths of making crucifixes and urns out of bones as well. It was a really creepy feeling to be in there too...like it was 32 degrees outside but chilly inside. Wait to see that pictures, it really is unbelievable til you see it!
It started off really well, we met a girl from New York (Sherrie) who wanted to come, so it was nice to have some different company.
We hopped on the crowded bus to get from the hostel to the train station and Ash got sandwiched between two older guys, they got off at the next stop though so there was a bit more room. Then it was our stop and as soon as we got off Ash realised her backpack had been zipped open-her wallet missing! Can you believe people would sink that low? So about 80 Euro, her credit card, debit card, ID...stuff like that. After Ash rang her mum to cancel crads and stuff we decided to go straight to the police to make a report so that insurance could be claimed for the money. Police stations in Prague are so hard to come by! And nobody actually knows where they are, we asked so many people. We went to the police vehicle depot and the immigration police before we found the ordinary police station...crazy. The police even told Ash off for not concealing her valuables...in her backpack...can it get any more concealed than that?! Yeah so that was an interesting detour to our trip!
Anyway, we didn't end our day trip there, we did still go to Kutna Hora. The bone chapel thing was really freaky. Like it wasn't even all that big, considering the remaines of 40,000 people were on display. It was all pretty creative really...in each of the 4 corners was a big stack of bones, like a massive massive stack, in the centre was a huge chandelier of bones and a coat of arms on one of that walls. They even went to the lengths of making crucifixes and urns out of bones as well. It was a really creepy feeling to be in there too...like it was 32 degrees outside but chilly inside. Wait to see that pictures, it really is unbelievable til you see it!
Above: The crazy chandeliern of skulls, and femurs, and tibulas, and fibulas...
From there we hiked into the main town centre, chilled out and i got pancakes with chocolate icecream for lunch...yummo. Went up to another massive cathedral on a big hill which was also really cool. It reminded me of Beauty and the Beast, it was so ornate and pretty. The ceilings were so high and the stained glass windows were really detailed. Yeah it was a really good day other than the theft!
Above: here is us with the beautful view of the town behind us. It was so pwetty. See our tans starting to develop?
Well less than a month of crazy winter for you guys in Ballarat..so cheer up! Miss you all a lot!
Monday, August 6, 2007
PRAGUE!!!
Oh my gosh...okay so Prague is absolutely bloody beautiful! This is the most breathtaking city since Paris. Yeah it has all of the ordinary churches, town halls, museums like every other city, and I don't even know what it is but it just has something different. It's just such a cool feeling that I get walking though the streets, like I'm a part of history or something!
We've been here for two nights so far and it theres really no other way to describe the good feeling, 'its just the vibe of the whole thing.' Yesterday we walked the streets of the old part of town, on one side of the river-the massive fort with two huge churches in it and the old palace, which is today an opera hall and museums. This city is very cheap too! Accommodation is only 12 euro so we have a lot spare for chocolate and all the good stuff. We treated ourselves to a museum while at the castle and get this..it was the Toy Museum! So cool. And at the moment it has a special exhibition of Barbie through her life. At home I have this history of the Barbie book, and sounds a bit childish and girly but it was so fun seeing them in the flesh!
We've been here for two nights so far and it theres really no other way to describe the good feeling, 'its just the vibe of the whole thing.' Yesterday we walked the streets of the old part of town, on one side of the river-the massive fort with two huge churches in it and the old palace, which is today an opera hall and museums. This city is very cheap too! Accommodation is only 12 euro so we have a lot spare for chocolate and all the good stuff. We treated ourselves to a museum while at the castle and get this..it was the Toy Museum! So cool. And at the moment it has a special exhibition of Barbie through her life. At home I have this history of the Barbie book, and sounds a bit childish and girly but it was so fun seeing them in the flesh!
Above: this is one of the giant cathedrals inside the palace complex.
Above: as you all know, and i admit it freely, yes i love Michael Jackson and here is his Barbie! how cool.We've only just scratched the surface of the place. A whole other side to do tomorrow but today, we're going on a daytrip to the small town that has a massive church built of bones...creepy but cool.
Friday, August 3, 2007
BERLIN!
This place is very cool! We have just been go go go for the past three days, taking is as much history and culture and awesome Kebabs (Berlin is the second largest centre for Turkish people other than Istanbul) as humanly possible.
Yesterday we did a free walking tour of the city and I totally recommend it to anyone who visits here. The tourguide was so passionate about the city and about the history and the 5 hours of walking around went by so fast. I really had no idea of the history of the Berlin Wall and now that I do it is just remarkable that it happened, and not even that long ago! So we saw the Reichstag (the parliamentary building that Hitler may or may not have burnt down to gain full power in the 30's), Brandenburg's Gate with the famous peace/war lady on top, saw the site where Hitler's bunker (site of his suicide) used to be, a part of the Berlin Wall that is still standing and learnt of the amazing escape efforts of East Berliners at Checkpoint Charlie Museum.
One story that amazed me and kinda made me laugh was about one couple that got separated when the wall went up. The gentleman found a new girlfriend on his side that looked like his wife who was stuck in the East, unable to get out. He convinced his girlfriend to go on a day trip with him to 'the other side' and swapped themover - giving his wife the girlfriend's passport and visa and everything. Very cunning but he got caught and thrown in jail unfortunately.
We went up into the Reichstag building today and the dome from the inside is so cool! All mirrors and glassy and very impressive. A very good view of the city from the top too.
Tomorrow we travel to another German city - Leipzig, stay tuned.
Yesterday we did a free walking tour of the city and I totally recommend it to anyone who visits here. The tourguide was so passionate about the city and about the history and the 5 hours of walking around went by so fast. I really had no idea of the history of the Berlin Wall and now that I do it is just remarkable that it happened, and not even that long ago! So we saw the Reichstag (the parliamentary building that Hitler may or may not have burnt down to gain full power in the 30's), Brandenburg's Gate with the famous peace/war lady on top, saw the site where Hitler's bunker (site of his suicide) used to be, a part of the Berlin Wall that is still standing and learnt of the amazing escape efforts of East Berliners at Checkpoint Charlie Museum.
One story that amazed me and kinda made me laugh was about one couple that got separated when the wall went up. The gentleman found a new girlfriend on his side that looked like his wife who was stuck in the East, unable to get out. He convinced his girlfriend to go on a day trip with him to 'the other side' and swapped themover - giving his wife the girlfriend's passport and visa and everything. Very cunning but he got caught and thrown in jail unfortunately.
We went up into the Reichstag building today and the dome from the inside is so cool! All mirrors and glassy and very impressive. A very good view of the city from the top too.
Tomorrow we travel to another German city - Leipzig, stay tuned.
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