Emmammemma's blog

3 October - London

Yes, that's right, London - NOT Richmond this time. That would be because I am writing this post at work! In my lunch break of course, I wouldn't dream of wasting paid hours messing around on the internet.......

Last time I updated was the 2nd of September, and I'd just gotten my job. Well work is fine, it's been pretty much all I have been up to with a few exceptions.

On Saturday the 8th of September I went into Covent Garden to see Avenue Q. I went by myself (yeah yeah, Emma-No-Friends) and it was absolutely hilarious. For anyone who doesn't know, it's a musical performed by people and puppets (well, people operating the puppets, duh). My favourite characters were The Bad Idea Bears, I would recommend it to anyone although if you're easily offended you might want to think twice. It features songs called "The Internet Is For Porn" and "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist" so you can imagine the humour is a little risque.

On Sunday the 9th I went for a trip to Hammersmith to see Dad's old haunts, with my Uncle John and Aunts Sheila and Brenda. We spent most of the day walking around, I got to see the street where Dad grew up (sadly the house he grew up in is no longer), a few pubs where Grandad used to drink, and St Peter's church where Dad used to steal apples during the Harvest Festival! We saw the infamous naked runner statue in St Peter's Square, as well as Ravenscourt Park, Flora Gardens School, Bells Steps, Walpole House, Chiswick Island, St Peter's Cathedral and Westcroft Square. We had a delicious lunch at The Black Lion on Black Lion Lane, which we got to after walking for a while trying to find the underpass to get across the main road. After we left Hammersmith Uncle John took us for a drive around London, through the Kensington High Street, past Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, along the river and all around Canary Wharf. It was nice to see those sights again, this time in a car with family to talk to. Canary Wharf was cool, somewhere I doubt I would have normally gone and a very stark contrast to the rest of London. Very stark, modern architecture and loads of heavily armed guards protecting the headquarters of various finance and telecommunications institutions. They dropped me home at about 8pm, by that stage I was knackered after a long but fun and interesting day.

The following weekend, on Saturday 15th I went for a wander around Ham, so see some of the places Mum always mentions when talking about growing up. I had a walk down to Ham House and was happy to realise that it was a free entry open day. I had been planning to only have a look around the grounds (£9 to look around a dusty old house, no thanks) but ended up looking inside the house too, as it was free and all. The house was nice, if you've seen one old house you've seen them all, but the grounds were a lot better. I could have taken a lot of great photographs if it weren't for the poxy old people getting in my way! After I got back from Ham House, Ann and I went for a drive around to see some other places. We saw The Royal Star & Garter Home, Grey Court School, St Andrew's Church, The Ham Tap and The Oak. We drove past the big house on Lock Road and I got a crafty photo of the front door through the hedge. We had a nice drive through Richmond Park and saw loads of deer really close to the road. On the way home we stopped at Ham Common and saw the infamous pond where Mum was once caught skating across the ice in winter, only to let Aunt Sue take the blame. I got some great photos, lucky for us the weather was uncharacteristically clear and sunny.

Saturday the 22nd John, Sheila and Jack picked me up for our trip to Stonehenge.

 

I'll finish this tomorrow, lunchtime is over! Hopefully no one is checking this regularly enough to see this message!

2 September - Richmond

Well I'm back to continue bringing this journal up to date. Where I left off I had just returned home after spending 8 days gallivanting around the UK on my Contiki Great Britain tour. The day after I arrived home I was still feeling my Liverpool hangover, not a good sign, definately not a good feeling. I didn't do very much at all for the next day or two, I just relaxed, slowly unpacked my backpack and just enjoyed doing nothing. On Sunday the 12th I organised with two of my Contiki GB buddies, Kim and Lauren, to go to Paris for two days the next day and bought my Eurostar tickets online. Ann, Mark and I headed out to Mandy's for dinner that night and didn't get back home until nearly midnight. I quickly packed my small backpack as well as I could before going to bed.

Monday the 13th of August I woke up to my alarm at 4am and had as quick a shower as I am capeable of. Waking up that early was horrible, it was hard to imagine how I'd done it every weekday morning for about a year when working for Woolworths. I was packed and ready by 5am and Ann kindly drove me to Richmond station to catch my 5.15am train to Waterloo. I arrived in the Eurostar terminal at about 5.45 and waited for about 15 minuted before Kim and Lauren arrived. We collected our tickets, got through security and Immigration and boarded the train pretty quickly. As we'd booked our tickets seperately, Kim and Lauren were in the same carraige as I was, but right down the opposite end. It wasn't a problem, I slept for most of the 3hr ride to Paris. I've become quite good at sleeping anywhere necessary. And to think I used to have a hard time sleeping anywhere but my own bed.

We arrived in Paris 10.30am (Paris is an hour ahead of London) and after a quick planning session decided to head straight for The Louvre. We braved the Metro and made our way there, and whilst admiring the glass pyramid I realised that while I had brought my camera with me, the battery was sitting in it's charger back in London. Crap! After feeling like an absolute moron for a while I got over it. Kim and Lauren offered to share their cameras with me, and after all, it wasn't my first time here. We went into The Louvre and followed the crowds to the gallery housing the Mona Lisa. We admired the most famous painting in the world for a while before having a look around the surrounding galleries. We saw some beautiful artworks but only barely scratched the surface of the enormous collection the Louvre houses. Apparently if you were to look at every single artwork in the Louvre for one minute each, it would take you over 9 years to see them all. Fair enough then!

After we left the Louvre we grabbed some lunch before heading on over to Notre Dame. The walk took us past a Sephora, good news for me, bad news for my credit card. Once at Notre Dame the girls took some photos of the Cathedral, but baulked at the idea of going inside after seeing the enormous line. We hopped on an open-topped sightseeing bus and rode it around the city for a couple of hours. Kim and Lauren got to see The Eiffel Tower, The Arc De Triomphe, The Seine and The Champs-Elysees for the first time. We got off the bus by the Opéra Garnier and walked to our hotel on Rue Lafayette in Monmartre, via a few department stores and H&M. It was a pretty long walk so we stopped for a half-time beer in a cafe on Rue Lafayette, and received stereotypical rude service from the waitress. We continued walking to our hotel where we checked in and had a brief relax and freshen up before heading back out. We walked the short distance from our hotel to the Paris Hard Rock Cafe where we enjoyed our dinner. It was a good night, the food was great and the cocktails even better, although not a late one. We were all pretty exhausted from the full-on day and the early start. After we finished our second cocktails and bought a few items in the gift shop, we headed back to our hotel.

Tuesday the 14th of August we were up early, 6am, to head out of Paris to Disneyland! We'd noticed the brochures in the hotel lobby the day before and after much deliberation had decided to go. As I had already climbed the Eiffel Tower and seen the Arc De Triompe and the Champs-Elysees, it was Kim and Laurens decision as to whether they wanted to forgo seeing them in lieu of going to Disneyland. They chose Disneyland, much to my delight. It took us about an hour and a half to get there on the Metro and RER, we arrived at 9am to find the park didn't open until 10. We wandered around the Disney Mall and had coffees in McDonalds before lining up to get into the park.

The line didn't take too long and once we were inside you couldn't wipe the smiles off our faces. It was like being a little kid again, we were running around, looking at all the sights, posing for silly photos and gawking at the Castle in the centre of the park. We spent the morning going on rides in the various parks, we went on Big Thunder Mountain in Frontierland followed by Indiana Jones' Temple of Doom. We had lunch and ran around Main St USA, hijacking our way into other peoples photos with the Disney characters. We now have a great collection of photographs of ourselves grinning our heads off with the characters, surrounded by other people's families whilst small children gives us odd looks. After that we went on The Mad Hatter's Teacups, and just before leaving, Space Mountain. Space Mountain was great fun in a pants-crapping kind of way, and Lauren felt so queasy from it she didn't join Kim and I for an afternoon Kronenbourg back outside in the Disney Mall. We did a bit of damage in the gift shops, ate a Royale with Cheese from McDonalds (and took a photo of myself doing so) before jumping back on the RER back into Paris.

We arrived back in Gare Du Nord station at about 5.30, the Eurostar wasn't due to leave until just after 7. We wandered around Monmartre for a while trying to find cheap souveniers and stopping for coffee at Subway. After being hassled by beggars, paying far to much for Eiffel Tower statues and slowly getting through Immigration, we boarded the Eurostar shortly before 7. This time Kim and Lauren were in a different carraige to me, but at least this time I didn't have to sit next to anyone. The ride back would have been an ideal oppurtunity to sleep, especially as we were delayed and re-routed coming into London by 45 minutes, but for some reason I was too wired to sleep. I spent the journey listening to my iPod, reading my book and gradually putting on more clothes as the weather got wetter and colder as we got back to Waterloo. Kim, Lauren and I said our goodbyes at the station and I headed back to Richmond. I stayed up for a while telling Ann about my trip once I got home, and stayed up, too wired to sleep until 1.30am online and reading my book.

The next day I headed into Hammersmith to meet Kim to do some shopping. We had a wander around, spent up in Primark and got our photos developed. I'd ended up buying a disposable camera at Disneyland so I could at least get some photos of my own. They weren't a patch on what my normal camera would have taken, but at least I have some evidence that I was there. Kim had to leave at lunchtime to we said our goodbyes on the tube, she headed into Covent Garden whilst I headed to the Kensington High Street to do a bit more shopping. I wandered around the shops for a while, ate a delicious but very overpriced Saag Paneer in Whole Foods Market before heading home. That evening we headed to Mandy's for Jack's 13th Birthday Party. Jack was given a Wii for his birthday, so we alternated between watching him play with that, and he and his friends play on the Bouncy Castle Mandy had arranged. Unfortunately it started raining and Mandy and Pete had a hard time getting the rain cover over the castle. Jack and his mates didn't mind however and all got soaking wet. We had a good night but didn't stay too late, I wasn't complaining as I was still pretty tired from the previous two days.

Not much else happened for the next few days until Sunday the 19th of August when I went to my Aunt Sheila and Uncle John's 50th Wedding Anniversary. It was a great day, I met so many more of my family, including a load of my Dad's cousins. I can't remember everyones name although they were all really nice and made an effort to introduce themselves. I've now met all of my cousins on my Dad's side, a considerable effort considering how many of them there are! I have to admit, one of my favourite parts of meeting more of that side of the family was meeting other girls in the family who have big hands like I do. It sounds silly but I'm now much more at ease with then now that I know I'm not a freak! Ha!  Sheila put on a beautiful spread for the day, and the dessert table was very impressive. Martin, Judy, Tina and I all put a significant dent in the offerings I must say. I had a great time but was all talked out by the time John dropped me home about 8pm.

The next morning, Monday the 20th I was awoken by a phone call from a personnel company about a few jobs I'd applied for the Friday beforehand. I got up and dressed quick smart and headed into London for the meeting/interview I had arranged for 1pm that day. The meeting went quite well I must say, as the next day they rang me and told me I had a job at a marketing firm in London and started the next day. So I've been working as an administrator at the marketing firm for a week and a half now and it's pretty good. The work is easy and the people I work with are really nice. We had a "Team Building" exercise, or "Fun Day" as someone called it on Friday, a Treasure Hunt around Soho. It was really fun, even though my team came 4th out of 5 teams. I managed to be helpful despite my limited knowledge of the city, and got to see loads of enticing shopping on Carnaby St and around Soho. I might have a hard time finding my way back there alone, which might be a good thing actually. I could really do some damage in those stores.

So it's been great so far, although I've not yet worked a full week so we'll see how I feel next weekend. The office is a block away from Oxford St, I keep thinking of things I "need", so I have to go shopping during lunchtime. My aim this week is to not to do any more shopping, save buying my lunch. We'll see how that goes..........

So that brings me up to date with now. I'll keep updating but I'd imagine the posts will be much shorter and even less frequent now that I'm working and not gallivanting around Europe. But I'll keep everyone up to date with what I'm doing, even if it is just to say that all's well except for the shopping addiction. So now it's all your turn to email me and tell me what's been going on in YOUR lives for the past 3 months. There are plenty of people who promised to email but haven't! So get emailing, you may not think I'm interested in hearing what you've been up to but I am, even if it is just work work work. So get to it, send me emails to emmammemmaATgmailDOTcom. Do it NOW!

-Emma

August 27 - Richmond

Okay, so where I last left off I was enjoying a few lazy days before I started my Contiki Great Britain tour. It was great to be able to relax a bit after the constant go of my European tour, but it felt like I barely had time to unpack before I was stuffing my belongings back into my backpack to head off on the next adventure.

On Wednesday the 1st of August I spent the morning hurriedly trying to finish the Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows. I managed to get it finished about lunchtime, and it was awesome. After lunch I got my stuff packed and headed into London for my Contiki pre-tour meeting. The meeting was quick and uneventful, I spent the rest of the evening eating chocolate and watching The Bill in my hotel room. Fun times.

The next morning, Thursday the 2nd, I was up at 5am to get down to the Royal National Hotel at 6:45am to start my tour. We all got our bags weighed and checked in, and then had to wait over an hour for our coach to arrive. We boarded the coach at 8 and headed off to our first stop, Windsor, via the sights of London including Buckingham Palace, Marble Arch, Trafalgar Square and Harrods. We spent about two hours in Windsor, we went into the Castle and watched the changing of the guard. We tried to walk to Eton but ended up going the wrong way, so had to turn back as we had run out of time. After Windsor we headed to Oxford, where we would be spending our first night. As soon as we arrived we had a guided tour of the city and the university campuses, which was really interesting. We saw a couple of places where the first Harry Potter movie was filmed, which I enjoyed. Afterwards we had free time to roam the city, I in usual form, spent it shopping. After that we headed to the hotel to get settles in, then out again for dinner at a nearby pub. It was a good opportunity to get to know the rest of the group, and we enjoyed some very entertainingly made cocktails with dinner. I hadn't slept very well the previous night, so had an early one once we got back to the hotel.

Friday the 3rd we left Oxford early in the morning headed for York. It was only a short stretch on the coach to York, so we arrived too early to check in to our hotel. We dumped our bags in a storage room at the hotel before walking into the centre of town for a walking tour with our tour manager. We saw Yorkminster Cathedral and The Shambles, before enjoying free time until dinner. I hung out with some of my tourmates, we had lunch, a walk around and found an internet cafe. After I'd checked my email I ventured off on my own for a bit of shopping before heading back to the hotel. I relaxed in my hotel room for about an hour before getting ready and heading down to dinner. We had a pretty average roast dinner at a local pub, after that we all met up outside to start out Ghost Walk of the city. Even as a rampant skeptic I enjoyed the Ghost Walk, in particular the explanation of the origins of the name of one of the streets, Grape Lane. If anyone wants to know it, email me and I'll tell you, but it's far too sensitive a subject for this journal, particularly as a lot of my family read this. After the ghost walk we headed back to the hotel to get spruced up to head out to the local 80's nightclub, Reflex. It was a pretty fun night, the music was right up my alley, dodgy, tacky, kitschy goodness. I was one of the last to leave, hanging out with Kim, Lauren and Alison until 2am, at which point I collapsed on to my bed once we got back to the hotel.

Saturday the 4th we left York, and England, to head to Edinburgh. We drove for most of the day, stopping at Hadrian's Wall in the morning, and Jedburgh for lunch. We arrived in Edinburgh about 4pm, checked into our hotel and had some time to kill before dinner at 6. I spent it napping. We had a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant then got rugged up to head into town. We were lucky enough to be there during both the Fringe festival, and the Military Tattoo. We were also lucky enough to get tickets for the Tattoo, the last show of the evening. It was pretty cold so a group of us spent some time in a nearby pub, until it was time to join the enormous line into the Castle. We cheekily snuck in line with some of our other tourmates, and thankfully the line into the Castle moved slowly but steadily. Our seats were pretty good, we were jammed in like sardines but as it got darker, and colder, that was more of a blessing than a curse. The Military Tattoo was amazing, I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would. It started raining towards the end but that didn't dampen our moods at all. Lucky for us, the last show of a Saturday night includes a fireworks display, which was a great ending to the night. After the show finished we shuffled our way out of the Castle forecourt to our designated meeting point, and headed back to the hotel and to bed.

Sunday the 5th we had the whole day free in Edinburgh, so after finding a much needed coffee shop Ange, Sarah, Danielle, Meagan, Jen and I headed over to Princes St to scope out possible tickets to a Fringe show that day. Most of the big name shows were either sold out or on too late, but we managed to find out about a free comedy show happening later that afternoon. Jen, Meagan and I spent our time up until then checking out the art gallery, shopping along Princes St, having lunch and using the internet. We met up with the others at 3pm and headed over to the comedy club. The show was free.... and worth the price. There were three comedians on, the first was pretty funny, the second awful and the third so-so. But it was a good way to spend the afternoon, even if we were laughing more amongst ourselves than with the comedians. After the show finished we headed back to the meeting point, via a few shops on the way of course. We had a bit of time to kill, I wandered around the Royal Mile by myself, window shopping and watching street performers. At 5.40pm we met the rest of the group and headed off to dinner and our Scottish Evening. We enjoyed a very nice meal for dinner, where I and a number of others tried Haggis. It wasn't bad actually, pretty heavily seasoned, but not something I'd order again just because I'm not the biggest fan of stodge. After we finished dessert we were entertained by Andrew, the half Irish, half Scottish bagpiper. It was a fun night with lots of music, stories, jokes and sarcasm from Andrew. After dinner we all headed back to the hotel and to bed for me.

Monday the 6th we left Edinburgh for Ballater in the Scottish Highlands. On the way we stopped at St Andrews, where most of us girls spent far too much time in the ladies change rooms, using the hairdryer, hand lotion and stealing paper towels (they had the club crest on them! souveneirs!). After St Andrews we headed to Eradour, the smallest whiskey distillery in the highlands. We had a quick tour of the distillery, a taste of their wares then time to browse the gift shop. I bought a few bottles, a particularly nice one for Dad, and a couple of others for some people at home. I won't say who, but lets just say there are two brothers who had better be nice to their sister once she gets home. After we left the distillery it was a few hours on the coach before we reached the hotel in the late afternoon. Dinner that night was in the hotel restaurant, I took the oppurtunity to try the Black Pudding for entree, much to the fascination of those at my table. It was quite nice actually, served with a sweet onion and apple sauce, I'd have it again. I was surprised by the texture, I thought it would be like a sausage but it's very much a pudding-like texture. And it didn't taste like blood for those interested. A group of us went to a local pub after dinner for a while, but I ended up back at the hotel, in the bar with most of my other tourmates, listening to our tour manager Che play the guitar and trying to sing along. I had a few beers and played a few dodgy hands of blackjack before going to bed about 11.

The next morning, Tuesday the 7th we left Ballater headed to Glasgow, via Loch Ness, Ben Nevis, Urqhart Castle and Loch Lomond. I didn't see Nessie at Loch Ness, but we did get to enjoy a nice cruise on Loch Lomond in the afternoon. We arrived at our hotel in Glasgow and only had about an hour to get ready for dinner and a big party night. I quickly got myself glammed up and ran to the next room for a quick "pre-drink" with Richelle, Nancy and Kristi. We went to The Walkabout in Glasgow for dinner. Of course, when in Scotland, go to an Australian pub. I had Kangaroo for dinner, much to the shock of my Canadian tourmates, it was nice but overdone. We spent most of the evening there as a group, I won a drinking competition (My Daddy would be so proud!) and we all had a great time dancing, mucking around and making song requests to the cute barman. Most of the group went home from the Walkabout but Kim, Lauren, Wendy and I continued on to two nearby clubs, Campus and Garage (I think that was the name!?). We danced for a while, very nearly sang karaoke, before Wendy and I caught a cab home. I banged and crashed around my room getting ready for bed, much to my room mates' bad luck, before collapsing on the bed and going to sleep.

I woke up feeling okay the next morning, a nice greasy breakfast and much OJ and water helped settle the hangover by the time we arrived at Gretna Green for our group photo. We were told the history of Gretna Green and the Old Blacksmiths Shop before having our group photo taken without much warning. I've since received mine in the post, thank god I'm not blinking or making a stupid face in it. Well, no more stupid than normal. I slept most of the way from Gretna Green to Liverpool, we arrived there about 2pm and started our Magical Mystery Tour almost right away. It was a really interesting tour, mostly Beatles-centered but with lots of interesting info about the city as a whole. I had my photo taken on Penny Lane, saw John Lennon and Paul McCartney's childhood homes and the Strawberry Fields orphanage. After the tour we had a couple of hours to get ready for our last night together as a group. I took my sweet-ass time getting ready, then headed down for more pre-drinks in Richelle, Nancy and Kristi's room. Those naughty Canadians, trying to palm their duty-free alcohol off on us. I had two very strong CC & Cokes, which had well and truly hit me on the ass by the time our dinner was served. I enjoyed a very nice, very rare steak for dinner with an overpriced glass of red wine. After dinner we headed to the famous Cavern Club for a free drink. Danielle and I spent our time posing air-guitar-style on the stage for photos and writing cheeky messages on the wall. After the Cavern Club, we headed to a bar for a few drinks, to be brutally honest I don't remember all that much of it, except for nearly choking on my beer at one point and having to run outside to cough. After that we ended up, typically, at the Liverpool Walkabout, yet another Australian pub. I didn't have anything more to drink, I'm not a complete lush, and spent most of the night talking to my tourmates, dancing or sitting on the couch. I trotted the short walk home with Carly, Adam and Danielle about 2am, and after stumbling into my hotel room and walking into my room mates bed about 4 times, I fell asleep on top of the covers.

I woke up pretty worse for wear the next day, still a little bit drunk to be honest. I managed to choke down some breakfast before cramming all my stuff into my backpack and hauling it down to the coach. We had a short drive to our first stop, Chester, where we a group of us got drinks at a cafe before having a walk around the town. After Chester we headed into Wales, to a town called Conwy for lunch. I hung around with those naughty Canandians, Richelle, Nancy and Kristi and they led me astray once again. Let's just say our Tour Manager had a little surprise in his tip envelopes from us. We got fish & chips for lunch but unfortunately I was too queasy to eat much of it. Once we got back to the coach our group had to split up and say goodbye. Half the group were continuing on to Southern Ireland for another 8 days, my half were heading back down to London on another tour bus. We waited for ages for the second coach to arrive and said our goodbyes. I was rather sad, I'd made some good friends in the past 8 days and wished I was continuing on to Ireland to keep partying with them. But we boarded the second coach and waved our goodbyes to the other half of the group. The drive back down to London was long and boring, we watched a few dvds but I mainly slept most of the way. We arrived back in London at 8, I said my goodbyes to the remainder of the group and then caught the tube home with Kim and Lauren.

I was exhausted but sad for it all to be over. It had been a really fun tour and I'd made some really good friends on it. It was good to get home and tell all the stories of my trip, as well as to have a proper cup of tea. It's funny the things you crave when you can't have them. When I got home my cousins Mark and Geoff were there, I was able to tell them all about my trip whilst Geoff tried to get me to drink inspite of my rotten hangover. We stayed up late chatting before I had to excuse myself and go to bed. I think I was asleep before my head even hit the pillow.

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed reading that, I had fun doing it! I'll update again in the next couple of days (so she says) to tell you all about going to Paris, getting a job, and everything else that has happened between then and now. But for now I need to get my sleep, sadly, I need to go to WORK tomorrow. I've waved a sad, sad goodbye to the last three months of no job, no responsibilities, seeing the world and lots of partying. I guess I'll just have to satisfy myself with MONEY, and test my willpower by working so close to the gorgeous shopping strip that is Oxford Street.

Till next time!

-Emma

August 21 - Richmond

It's been nearly a month since I last updated but really, are any of us surprised. It's not like I'm suddenly ruining a frequent-updater reputation. But unfortunately this post is not the one you were all waiting for. I've got some good news and some bad news.....

The good news is : I've gone and got myself a job! I start tomorrow and once I know what it's like I'll give you all a better idea of what I'll be doing. It's all happened so fast, I had my first interview with the job agency yesterday, and start work tomorrow. But it has unfortunately prevented me from being able to update this blog properly, which is the bad news I have to deliver. Not really bad news exactly, just annoying for anyone desperate to hear about what I've been up to since the 28th of July.

So I doubt this will be up to date for at least a couple of days. But it's a Bank Holiday on Monday (Yay, three day weekend!) so I really have no excuse not to do it then, although I'm sure I could come up with one if need be. But no, I promise to have it updated by Monday night at the absolute latest!

Messages of congratulation on my new job are more than welcome, as are emails in general. I'd particularly like to hear from my old work friends, if any of them are still reading this blog. Please, I want to hear that Northpark collapsed without me there! So get writing everyone, send emails to emmammemmaATgmailDOTcom if you didn't already know it.

July 28 - Richmond

I'm back in London at last and I tell you, not a day too soon. I absolutely loved seeing Europe and had a great group of people to share the experience with. But there is only so long a girl can go before she would sell her soul for a long hot shower and her own bedroom.

But on with the story, I'll pick up where I left off.

Last time I updated I was spending the afternoon in Prague. After I got off the internet I met up with a pal and we had a very nice meal near Wenceslas Square. After that we met up with our Tour Manager and some of the others, to go see a Black Light Theatre show. The show we saw was Faust, and after seeing that I know understand what taking LSD feels like. It was bizarre, yet entertaining, to say the least. Black light theatre is a strange notion. It's hard to take seriously when it reminds you of a mix between a dodgy night club effect and a high school drama production. Afterwards a few of us went to a little cafe for dessert, drinks and to listen to a little live jazz.

The next day, Thursday the 19th of July, we left Prague early headed for Munich. A shorter drive than normal, we arrived in Munich mid-afternoon. We dropped our stuff at the hostel and had a quick freshen up before heading in to town to explore. We had a short orientation followed by free time, I spent mine wandering around the shops (as usual). Miraculously I managed NOT to buy anything in H&M, but did give the credit card a workout in the Swatch store. The one I bought can be seen here, it's called Magic Affection. I watched the Glockenspiel, which as I'd been warned is an exercise in tedium. I took some nice photos of the Neues Rathaus, which kind of made up for it. I wandered around for a bit before meeting up with some of my tourmates, we then headed off to find the famous Hofbrauhaus. We ordered steins of Radler (a mix of light beer and lemonade, a Bavarian shandy!) and pretzels and I was overwhelmed by the size of both. But I managed to finish them, even beating the boys! Daddy would be so proud! We met up with the rest of the tour soon after and took the coach to another beer hall, further out of town. We had a nice meal with lots of beer and singing, before taking the coach back to the hostel that night.

Friday the 20th of July we were once again loading onto the coach to leave yet another city. Our first stop was for lunch in Vaduz, in the tiny principality of Leichtenstein. Vaduz is gorgeous and picturesque, but they don't half charge like a wounded bull for english language magazines there. Or maybe I got ripped off. After Vaduz we went to Lucerne in Switzerland for sightseeing (the highlight of which being the Lion Monument) and shopping for swiss watches and swiss army knives. I made a few purchases before wandering off to explore by myself. I got a tad lost, found a supermarket selling the most beautiful strawberries, before making my way across the Chapel Bridge to the meeting point.

After we left Lucerne we were headed for our campsite in Lauterbrunnen, but a spanner was thrown in the works when a mudslide closed the road we needed to travel on. We had the option of waiting 5 hours for the road to re-open, or take a 2 1/2 hour detour. After an hour of deliberation and our Tour Manager and Driver making many a phone call, the latter option was chosen. It turned out to be one of the best experiences on the trip. On our way higher into the mountains we saw breathtaking scenery, waterfalls, lakes and snow-capped mountains. As we got higher, and into the clouds the visibility shrank to only a few metres. Some people were getting scared but we all had faith in our coach driver, I was fascinated staring out into the unknown. We arrived at Camping Jungfrau, our campsite in Lauterbrunnen at 9:30pm that night, and our starving bellies had to wait until 10pm for dinner. We somehow made it through, and inhaled our meals once they were served. Sleep was quick in coming that night, after such an eventful day.

Saturday the 21st of July will now be known as the day Emma (and many others in the group) saw snow for the first time. We took the cog railway up the Jungfrau Mountain to the top. The ride took about 2 hours and the further up we got, the more I regretted not wearing a warmer jacket. We went straight out onto the snow and had a snowball fight, shortly after I legged it back inside to buy a jacket from the gift shop. We spent several hours up there, exploring the Ice Palace and sliding down the snow on a glorified plastic saucer (getting a crotch full of snow in the process). You couldn't wipe the giddy smile off my face the whole time (it may have been frozen on), playing in the snow is awesome. I now realise how sad Mt Thebarton is, how was I ever satisfied with that.

We took the railway back down in the afternoon, the scenery was again amazing, the fact that my right ear didn't pop on the way down was god-awful. The pressure and pain got so bad I had to take painkillers and have a lie down. We arrived back at the campsite at 4pm and it wasn't until nearly 10pm that it started to clear and I got relief. It was one of the best mornings with one of the most awful evenings to follow. I went to bed at about 11.30, still partially deaf.

Sunday the 22nd of July we left the Swiss Alps and returned to Germany, this time to St Goar in the Rhine Valley. Our main stop was the univerisity town of Heidelberg, where we spent an hour or so windowshopping and eating Haagen Daaz ice-cream. Once we got to St Goar we were shown how Beer Steins were made, and then had free time to shop for them, Cuckoo Clocks and Birkenstocks. Beer mugs and kitschy clocks aren't my cup of tea, but shoes are, and I am now the proud owner of a pair of Birkenstocks. They're not the most attractive shoes in the world but they are some of the most comfortable. After our rather average dinner we went to a wine tasting nearby. The wines were nice but not spectacular, the whites we tried were far too sweet for my taste. After that we had a short drive to our hotel, where the evening was spent playing beauty shop in our room before a relatively early night.

Monday the 23rd of July, we left St Goar and made our way to The Netherlands, specifically Amsterdam. Our first main stop took us to see a Cheese and Clog making demonstration (seperately, not together). It was cool to see how clogs are made, and very nice indeed to try over 10 different varieties of Gouda cheese. After buying many a clog between us we moved on to Volendam, where we had some free time to wander around and eat the typical french fries with mayonnaise. After that we made our way to Edam, where we partook in a leisurely bike ride around the town, along the canals, past a windmill and up to a dijk. As our guide explained, the dutch too have dijks in their country, although the difference between theirs and those in Australia is that you can stick your finger in a dutch dijk without asking first. Her gag, not mine!

After Edam we headed to our hostel in Amsterdam. The rooms were tiny but clean, with a rather impressive bathroom. We had yet another quick change to have tea and get ready to head out to our optional excursion. Yes, we went and saw a sex show. Come on, when in Amsterdam! We had a quick walking tour of the red light district before entering the club to see the sex show. To your disapointment, I'm not going to detail what happened on stage, suffice to say it wasn't anything terribly exotic, even the most limited of your imaginations can begin to guess what went on. A couple of our group got pulled up on stage to join in the antics, but nothing happened that they wouldn't like to tell their mothers.

After the show we hurried back to the coach in the rain, but not quickly enough as we all ended up soaked through. Many people stayed in the red light district to patronise a few "coffee houses", but I went back to the hostel and spent the evening with a bunch of others in the bar. We went to bed about 2am, not before I donated my chocolate stash to a few remarkably hungry tourmates.

The morning of Tuesday the 24th of July was spent in a local tobacconists packing and shipping the souveneirs I had aquired thus far, back home. After that a couple of us took the tram into town. We walked to the Anne Frank House but after seeing the line to get in, decided that it was one tourist attraction we could miss. We spent the rest of the day wandering around town, I managed to get seperated from the rest while we were shopping. I happily occupied myself by spending 100 Euros in H&M and eating ice-cream at Haagen Daaz, before taking a free ride on the tram back to the hostel.

As it was our last night together on tour, all us girls (and some of the boys) took our time getting dolled up for the evening. The lovely Nicky (she who shares my love for Benefit) did my make up and I wore the lovely new outfit I purchased that day. I wore it because it was nice, not because I'd run out of clean clothes or anything. And yes Steph, it was black. We met in the lobby at 5 and walked the short distance to the canal where our cruise was meant to pick us up. They did pick us up, just 45 minutes late. We cruised through the canals, seeing many a sight I can't name, as the captain's commentary wasn't loud enough for us to hear it. I drank three glasses of red wine and ate a load of olives which passed the time nicely. We disembarked the boat outside The Sea Palace restaurant, where we would be enjoying our evening meal. The food was pretty good, I had been craving Asian food after so much stodge in the past month. We had a great time being noisy and constantly shushed, taking photos and drinking the free booze.

After the restaurant we took the coach back to the hostel where we had a half an hour to give ourselves a quick spit-shine, before we headed out to a local nightclub. Alas, when we got there it was closed, so we partied at a local Irish pub until closing time.  After the pub closed most of the group headed to another local nightclub, I lined up for a while before having the epiphany that I didn't want to pay good money to listen to dance music that I hate. So I went with a few of the others to a sports bar where we ate pancakes, drank Heineken and sang along to my favourite of all music genres : Pub Rock. We left the sports bar about 2am and it was only a short walk back to the hostel. I quite tipsily got changed, washed and de-contact-lensed before passing out for a few hours sleep.

Wednesday the 25th of July, the last day of tour. We were up early as usual, although I accidently turned my alarm off and went back to sleep for an extra half hour. So it was a more rushed morning than I had planned, but I made it in the end. I still had time for breakfast, and to sit on my backpack to get the zip done up. I fell asleep soon after we started driving, the next thing I knew we were pulling up outside a McDonalds. I stuffed my face with a Chicken Mythic meal (It's a chicken burger with salsa and sour cream apparently), deliciously greasy and hangover-curing. We then had about a 4 hour stretch on the coach, during which we travelled through Belgium to France. I'd love to find out what Belgium was like because I slept the entire way through it. We arrived at the port in Calais, got through Immigration no problem (but once again with no passport stamps, damn you british passport) but waited around on the coach for ages until we finally boarded the ferry at 4pm. The ferry was uneventful, little more than diary writing, curry eating and perfume shopping. We arrived at Dover at 5pm (time zone change) and had a 2 hour drive back in to central London. I managed to stay awake this time, and we spent the trip sharing funny stories, playing games and chatting one last time.

We arrived at the Royal National at 7pm, most of the tour were staying there at least that night, if not more. There were plans to hang out at a local pub that night, but because I had to get back out to Richmond, I said my goodbyes then and there. I have to admit, my eyes got a little damp saying goodbye to all my tourmates. I'd become quite close to a few of them, and we were all kind of bonded through the experiences we'd shared. I gave many a hug and promised many an email before I hauled myself and my backpack to the tube station.

The ride back to Richmond was uneventful except to say that I am not very graceful when hauling a 15kg+ backpack around. It was such a relief to arrive back home (well, English home). I ate, talked my throat sore, had a bath and showed off my very impressive hacking cough before collapsing into bed. I slept so very well that night.

Well that brings me pretty much up to now. I've not been doing much, relaxing, watching T.V, uploading some of my 1700 photos to Flickr. The highlight of the past 3 days has been going to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on Friday night. I've bought the new book too, which should keep me quiet and occupied for a day or two. I haven't got any major plans for the next few days, just to relax before I have to do the aforementioned caper all over again, albeit on a much smaller scale.

I had a great time seeing some of Europe and already have a list of places I'd like to visit again. And I was lucky enough to be able to share it all with a group of really great people. I hope my sharing of it with you all has been interesting, I'd imagine it would have to have been if you're still reading this far down the page. Either that or you just love me enough to persevere with my drivel. But regardless, I had a fun time writing it and an even better time actually doing it all.

That's enough from me tonight, I need about 100 years of beauty sleep, judging by the dark circles under my eyes.

Having Fun, Staying Safe, Miss You All, Big Love!

-Emma 

July 18 - Prague

Prague is awesome! It's taken top spot as far as awesome cities I've been to go, followed closely by Paris and Vienna. Last time I updated I was in Corfu, so let me update you on how I got from there to here.

After we left Corfu town we had a short ferry ride to mainland Greece. Well, I think it was short, I fell asleep on the couch in the bar. We had another couple of hours to kill on the dock before our overnight ferry which most of us spent on the coach watching Oceans 13. The movie wasn't bad, the 40 degree heat and humidity wasn't pleasant. We boarded our superfast overnight ferry at 8pm, it was a pleasant surprise to find that this ferry was miles better than the one we arrived in Corfu on. We had swipe cards to open our rooms and most importantly, our own bathroom! The room list was a bit of a lottery, I didn't mind, as a single traveller I don't care who I share a room with. We had dinner on the ferry and I only stayed up to eat Haagen Daaz ice-cream in the bar and write in my journal.

We arrived back in Italy about 12pm the next day. I've never been so pleased to be able to flush toilet paper again! That was the worst part about Greece, having a bin full of dirty loo roll in the bathroom is disgusting, no matter how you try to justify it. The rest of the day was spent on the coach, we made one service stop before we had an afternoon stop in Verona, the city where Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet is set. Verona is a lovely city, probably my favourite in Italy. We saw Juliet's Balcony before I took a leisurely stroll down the main street, window shopping at Swatch, Gucci, Prada, Pucci and Dolce & Gabbana. After Verona we drove for another few hours before reaching our next port of call, Venice. It was my turn to help with the cooking so shortly after we arrived at the campsite I headed down to the kitchen to chop a pile of capsicums. After dinner I did some very exciting washing before coating myself in mosquito repellant and going to bed.

The next morning I was up early to help with breakfast before we headed into Venice for the day. Our first stop was Piazza San Marco where we saw a lace making and glass blowing demonstration. After that we had free time until 3pm, I wandered around with my pal Sarah, shopping, sightseeing, eating and at one point getting very lost. Venice is nice for a visit but is very touristy, and the canals make it difficult and frustrating to get around on foot if you don't know the place. We met the rest of the group at 3pm and headed off to our Gondola rides. The ride was short but good, we had great fun watching our Gondolier steer one handed whilst trying to eat a packet of Fonzies (they're like Twisties) with the other. After that we caught the boat back to the campsite, had dinner and went to bed.

Our last morning in Venice and I was once again up early to help with breakfast. Whilst I was busy chopping tomatoes I realised that one of the Contiki site reps looked familiar. Turned out I used to work with her at Woolies Northpark! Talk about a small world! I chatted with her for a while, had breakfast and hauled my backpack down the coach. We had a full day of driving to get to Vienna, with only a couple of service stops. It was a beautiful drive, once we crossed the border into Austria the scenery was amazing. The Sound Of Music soundtrack got put on at one point and most people were singing along. Except me, I am one of the few people in the world who hasn't seen the film.  The roadside services improved greatly once we got into Austria, I had a very nice, fresh Caprese salad for lunch, a nice change from stale panini or greasy pizza. We arrived at our hostel in Vienna at about 5pm, we had only a short while to get ready before the group were heading off for dinner and a Mozart and Strauss concert. I and a group of other girls decided to stay back and organise our own dinner, so we would have more time to get ready. It worked out fine, we got a nice cheap meal at a cafe and made it to the concert with plenty of time to spare. The concert was amazing, you don't realise how many classical pieces are familiar. I went to bed after the concert because I had a sore throat, but most of the others went to a big nightclub in Vienna and had a great time. I wish I'd gone but would have felt worse for it the next day.

The next morning I woke up a sore-throated super snot machine. I ate two pieces of bread and two panadol for breakfast before we headed off for our sightseeing tour of Vienna. We had a coach tour and a walking tour, both of which we really interesting. After that most of us wandered around the main shopping street which was unfortunately (or fortunately?) boring, it was Sunday and most of the stores were closed. I sat in Starbucks and drank an enormous cup of green tea to make myself feel better, before we headed off and found an Australian pub where we had lunch. Tacky I know, but it was funny and kitsch at the time. After that we walked to our meeting point, stopping halfway to cheer on a bike race that was happening in the middle of the city. We met up with the rest of the group and headed off to a Hapsburg palace where we spent an hour wandering the grounds before heading off the the Schnapps Museum. We had a tour of the museum which was interesting, and best of all a tasting at the end. I tried a coffee liquer (very strong and a bit too sweet), a Schnapps made with chilli (good for colds apparently and it did make my throat feel better) and Absinthe (not as unpleasant tasting as I'd imagined). I bought an Absinthe starter kit to take home, containing a bottle of Absinthe, two glasses and two spoons. Party at my house when I get back! After the Schnapps Museum we headed out of town to our traditional Viennese meal. We enjoyed delicious food (mmm, Saurkraut and Knodel) and hilarious entertainment in the form of Herman and Wolfgang, our hosts and their singing, commentary and games.

After another early night (party hard Emma) we had another early start. We all loaded on the coach for day of driving to Prague. We had a couple of stops, the first at Mauthausen, a Nazi concentration camp in Austria. We watched a film about the history of the camp before walking around inside. We saw the crematorium and the gas chambers. It was not something you could call a pleasant experience, but definately something I am glad I have done. The mood on the coach was sombre to say the least after we left. The next stop was 2 hours in Cesky Krumlov, the town where the movie Hostel was filmed (among other things I'm sure, but you know where my interests lie). We ate a cheap and leisurely lunch (I love the exchange rate from AUD to Czech Crown, so much better than the Euro) before wandering back to the coach to continue our drive to Prague. Once we arrived we had a long walk through town to dinner, before heading to our hotel. The hotel is fine except there are no fans in the rooms so it gets very hot. The temperature has been mid to high thirties here in Prague, a stark contrasts to what everyone back home in Adelaide in experiencing at the moment. Once we arrived most of us had cold showers before going to bed.

A full day of exploring Prague today, we had a walking tour from Hradcany Castle to Wenceslas Square, with many sights in between. The most exciting was seeing The Amazing Race being filmed at Hradcany Castle. We got all excited and fan-boy-and-girly and raced over to take photos. The producer got angry and yelled at us but it didn't stop us gawking and snapping away. We had a bit of time to kill before we boarded the boat for our lunchtime cruise. The food was really nice and the sights from the river amazing. After the cruise we had about 6 hours free time, a group of us went to see the exhibition "Bodies", a display of real human bodies dissected and preserved. It's not as morbid as it sounds, it was really fascinating and informative. After that Nikki, Sarah and I walked around shopping, spending far too much money before having dinner. We met up with the rest of the group at 8 and caught the tram (the wrong way at first) home. Everyone busied themselves getting all dolled up to go out to the biggest nightclub in Prague that night. It was a great night, everyone had a fantastic time, even Becky who fell over onto broken glass and cut her leg so bad she needed 22 stitches. She got well looked after and was in good spirits in spite of the accident. It will remain one of the most memorable nights of the tour.

And that brings me up to now. All I did this morning was sleep, I didn't get up until 1pm, the biggest sleep in I've had in a very long time. Well deserved considering I got home about 4.30am. Feeling a tad queasy today, but nothing a nice meal and long walk through town won't cure. I headed into town at 3pm which is where I am now, updating you all on the past few days. For the rest of the day I'm going shopping for some touristy souvenier tack before we head off to see a Black Light Theatre show. And tomorrow we head to Munich, the highlight of which will be our Bavarian beer hall dinner tomorrow night.

This part of my trip is quickly coming to an end, less than a week and it'll all be over. I'll try to update before then, hopefully in Amsterdam but I'm sure you'll all understand if I get a bit distracted there and don't manage to. So until then, or maybe after!

Big Love!

-Emma

11 July - Corfu

My gosh, frequent updates! Don't get used to it y'all. We have time to kill in Corfu town before boarding our overnight ferry to Venice, so what better to do than spend it in a airconditioned Internet cafe checking emails and drinking frappes. I re-read and edited my last post, the only update is for Tuesday the 3rd of July. I forgot to mention we went to Pisa. For all of an hour but I saw the leaning tower nonetheless.

When I last updated I was sitting in this same Internet cafe, killing time until we could check into our hotel. We were able to do so at about 1pm, and I did little more than laze and sleep for the rest of the day. I had an average salad from McDonalds for lunch, why do I keep kidding myself that they are ever going to make a nice salad. We had Moussaka for tea which I may get disowned if I admit I really liked. But I did. Sorry Mum.

Monday the 9th of July a group of us headed back into Corfu town to do some shopping. I bought a beach towel, toiletries, books and some of the local Kumquat Liquer. We had a delicious Yiros for lunch and spent the afternoon at the pool. The cool water was so refreshing in the heat but I did get a tad sunburnt. But what's a holiday without some irreparable skin damage! That night we went out for our traditional Greek meal with dancing. The food was excellent and my attempts at doing the Zorba highly comical. Some of us had a few drinks at the bar back at the hotel afterwards before having a relatively early night.

Tuesday the 10th of July was officially the best day of the tour yet. We spent the day on Georges Boat cruising around eating delicious food. I think I've been trying to eat my own body weight in olives while I've been here. We stopped for a few hours by a jetty to do watersports. We could do parasailing, jet skiing, wakeboarding and a number of other things. I went on the Fly Fish, an inflatable thingy that gets towed behind the speedboat. When you get enough speed when hitting a wave, the thing goes flying up in the air. We got some pretty good air on our go, and even a chicken shit like myself absolutely loved it. We cruised around on the boat for a few hours after that, stopping a few times to go swimming off the side. We all got back to the hotel exhausted but happy about 5pm. We had a few hours to kill before and after dinner before we had to get ready for the Toga Party that night. I am lucky enough to have made friends and share a room with two Adelaide girls, one who is a pattern maker and created fantastic Toga creations for us all, and the other whose mad-hair-skill meant I had a gorgeous grecian-style braid in my hair. The party was amazing, I never knew how fun and comfortable going out wearing a sheet could be!

This morning, Wednesday the 11th of July we were up for breakfast at 8.30am and packed and ready on the coach at 10. The plan for today is we have until 2.30pm to kill in Corfu town before heading to our ferry for our trip to Venice. So for me that's going to include more Internet surfing, shopping for moisturiser for my sunburn and eating more Yiros!

I won't be updating while in Venice, everything including Internet access is too expensive in that city. Perhaps once I get to Vienna, if not then Prague. I shall have more exciting (!?!) stories to tell by then, so stay tuned!

Safe & Sound

-Emma

 

July 8 - Corfu

Hi everyone, I've managed to find some time to use the internet but I'm not sure how long i'll be able to stay, so I'll write as much as I can. This post might be incomplete for a little while, I forgot to bring my journal with me and can't remember some of what I did before the tour started.

Saturday the 23rd of June Uncle Pete took Natalie and I for a drive and we ended up at Windsor. We had lunch at Pizza Express and saw Windsor Castle which is pretty impressive.

Sunday the 24th of June Natalie and I went to the London Zoo. It was cool and a bit rainy but it meant the zoo wasn't very busy. We watched a couple of demonstrations, The Penguin feed and the end of the Birds of Prey show were a highlight for me. We had taken the tube to Baker Street and it was a hell of a long walk around the outside of Regents Park to get to the zoo. On the way back we cut through the park and it saved a lot of time.

Monday the 25th was my birthday! Yay for birthdays, Boo for turning 23! Natalie and I spent the day in Kingston shopping up a storm, Natalie buying last minute gifts for home and me buying exciting things like quick-dry towels and sleep sheets. That evening Ann, Mandy, Hannah, Tom, Laura, James, Jack, Natalie and I all went out for tea at Pizza Express (Am I hooked or what?). It was a very nice meal and the cheeky buggers had my dessert brought out with a candle on it and everyone sang me Happy Birthday. A little embarassing but very sweet.

Tuesday the 26th was leaving day for Natalie and I. After spending all morning packing we took the bus to Richmond Station (so much fun with a big backpack and suitcase between us, a school bus full of kids and one very rude woman with a pusher) and then the tube to Hammersmith station. It was there we hugged and said goodbye and Natalie took the Picadilly line to Heathrow and I it the other way to Russel Square. The tube ride wasn't too bad and I made it to the Imperial Hotel in Russel Square . I checked in and at 6.45pm made the short walk to the Royal National hotel for my 7pm Contiki tour meeting. The meeting itself was quite quick, all we really had to do was get checked in with our passports and tickets. I met up with a bunch of people on the same tour as me, amongst them 5 other Adelaide girls! I went out to dinner with them that night before heading back to the hotel to try and get some sleep.

Wednesday the 27th was the day our tour officially started. We all met up outside the Royal National at 6am to get our bags weighed and loaded. I was paranoid my bag would be over the 20kg maximum, but it was 15.6kg. No problem, I'll have heaps of room for shopping! We loaded on the bus and left at 6.45am and our first stop was Dover to catch the ferry to Calais. Once we reached France we went to our campsite to get unpacked and have tea, before heading into Paris for a bus tour of the city. After we got back, most of us went straight to bed.

Thursday the 28th we were up early to spend a full day in Paris. First we went up the Eiffel Tower, it was about 2 hours waiting in line but was worth it. After that we walked to the Arc De Triomphe, took some great photos and spend the rest of our time walking down the Champs-Elysees window shopping. I love Paris and hope to come back before I go home to Australia. Highlight of the day: finding Sephora and spending a half an hour drooling in Louis Vuitton, Lowlight of the day: Missing the bus for our ride back to the campsite. Luckily another Contiki tour let us on their bus and we got back on time.

Friday the 29th we left Paris headed for the Beaujolais Wine Region and the Chateaux De Crux. As soon as we got our stuff unloaded we headed to a tasting of the local wine. It was really nice and I bought two bottles to bring home. After that we had tea and got ready for the Black & White themed welcome party. It was down in "The Cave" - the underground bar at the Chateau. We all got pretty drunk, well I know I did, at one point I was running around insisting everyone on my tour have a photo with me. It wasn't embarassing because everyone was drunk, and I've got some great photos to keep.

The next day we took it easy with a picnic lunch, which we ate relaxing on the grass out the front of the Chateau. After that I went upstairs to organise my backpack but ended up falling asleep on my bed. I managed to get it repacked after tea, before we all had an early night.

Sunday the 1st of July we left the Chateau and headed for Cannes, via Montelimar (to buy Nougat), Avignon (a beautiful walled city where I bought a fantastic necklace) and the Fragonard perfumery. We were very lucky to be upgraded to a hotel in Cannes rather than staying in a campsite outside of the city which was over booked. I spent that evening in the hotel laundry doing washing, about three hours because the few washing machines that were working were really slow. But at least I have clean undies!

Monday the 2nd we took the bus and train into Nice and spent the day there shopping. I bought a pair of pants, a skirt, a pair of shoes, a bag, a necklace and some hair ties. So not much really. I had a gross-out experience in the McDonalds toilets, but a delicious Citron Tart for lunch once I'd gotten over my disgust. That night we all glammed up for our trip into Monaco. We had a tour on the bus and went up to the Grand Palace for photos, before heading to the Grand Casino in Monte Carlo. The sheer amount of wealth on display there is amazing. We ogled the Bentleys, Aston Martins and Ferraris for a while before having a few drinks in a local bar. No gambling for me, I'd rather spend my money on chocolate and clothes.

Tuesday the 3rd we left Cannes headed for Florence in Italy, via Pisa. The leaning tower is pretty cool, we all got the geeky "holding up the tower" pictures. Everyone took great glee in mocking the Italians for celebrating a construction mistake as a national treasure.  After that we arrived at the Florence campsite, unpacked and had tea before heading out to a local bar, The Red Garter. I won't go into too many details but lets just say that after three Heinekens, two Tequila Sunrises and one Capirinha I had danced my ass off and had my first public karaoke experience. I slept with my contacts in that night and the feeling similar to pulling a sticker off your eyeball was punishment enough for my drunken behavior.

Wednesday the 4th we spent most of the day in Florence. Walking around in the sun and fresh air was the best hangover cure I could have asked for. We saw a leather making demonstration before shopping for leather, gold and silver. I bought a silver chain and venetian glass pendant, some of the others bought beautiful leather jackets for about $600 AUD. I ate a delicious panini for lunch and walked around shopping. That night we went out for a traditional Tuscan meal which ended up being a complete letdown, before getting lost and eventually finding the Euro Space Disco, the largest nightclub in Florence. I was too tired to drink like I had the night before so had my free drink before heading home about midnight.

Thursday the 5th we left Florence for Rome. We arrived in Rome and had a bus tour of the city before walking around the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, The Trevi Fountain, Pantheon and Spanish Steps. The Trevi Fountain is my favourite sight so far in Italy. I did the touristy thing and threw the two coins over my shoulder into the water. That evening a few of us went to a fancy little cafe for dinner. It was pricey but it was the best meal I've had since starting this tour, bruchetta and spaghetti al pesto, accompanied by a Mojito. We arrived at the Seven Hills Campsite about 8.30 and did little more that night than get unpacked and go straight to bed.

Friday the 6th we once again headed into Rome and most of us went into The Vatican City. We had to wait in line for an hour and a half but once we were in we organised ourselves well and got a group ticket which saved us time. The Sistine Chapel is as beautiful as expected, I managed to get one sly photo of the ceiling, but what really blew my mind was St Peter's Basilica. It's enourmous and every inch is covered with beautiful sculpture and artwork. I could have spent all day wandering around in there. After that we left the Vatican and found some cheap internet in Rome, before catching the train. We got lost on the walk back to the campsite, so instead of taking 40 minutes it took twice as long. That night I bailed on the "Garbage Bag" themed party in favour of sleep, some of the costumes people made were great but I was feeling a bit under the weather. I am determined not to get sick on this tour so have to make some sacrifices.

Saturday the 7th I was up at 4.45am, I was very grateful for the early night at this point. Breakfast at 5.30 then on the bus and leaving Rome at 6.40 after some delays. It was nearly a full day of driving, stopping at the roadside services and Pompeii. We had a guided tour of Pompeii which was really interesting. It's fascinating seeing how people lived all those years ago, very different but very similar at the same time. We arrived at the ferry at 5pm and unloaded our stuff into our shoebox sized cabin. Four groups (including ours) had drawn the short straw and didn't have bathrooms in our cabins as promised. We ate an overpriced and underwhelming meal in the ferry restaurant before going to bed in poor moods. The homesickness really started to creep over me at that point.

And now to today, Sunday the 8th. We were woken by the porter at 5.10am and were given about a half an hour to get ready and down to reception. I was able to have a quick shower but didn't feel entirely clean or awake after it. We had a short bus drive to our hotel, but weren't able to check in that early. So we had breakfast and are now in Corfu town, killing time until we can get into our rooms. The hotel looks nice so I am feeling a lot better than I was last night, and we have three days to relax and have fun here.

Well that's all from me for now, we should be heading back to the hotel soon. I can't wait to unpack and have a little nap. Here's to hoping that the rooms have powerpoints, toilets and showers - three things that have been rare all together so far!

I might tweak or add to this post in the next couple of days once I've had a look at my journal. So stay tuned!

All Well, Having Fun, Miss You All, Big Love.

June 22 - Richmond

My sincerest apologies for not updating in over two weeks! But as you will see I've been really, really busy! I've been hearing through the grapevine that the natives are getting restless, so whilst my washing is in the machine (Shock, Horror! Emma has learned how to use a washing machine!) I'll fill you all in on what I've been doing.

Natalie arrived on Sunday the 10th of June and we took it easy for the first few days to let her get acclimatised and over her jet-lag. We had a trip into Kingston on Monday and a trip to Richmond on Tuesday. We both spent far too much money on both shopping trips so realized quickly that we needed to start finding other things to entertain ourselves.

Wednesday the 13th we headed into London and went on the London Eye. It was my second ride but the weather was better this time, although the queue longer and the capsule more crowded. I took some more photos, I now have about 100 of Big Ben and The Houses Of Parliament alone. After that we headed down the Southbank to Tate Modern, where we enjoyed a pricey but delicious lunch and a good look around the gallery. I've ticked another "must do before I die" off my list, I've seen not one, but three Claes Oldenberg works for real. And yes, I am a nerd for not only having a "must do before I die" list but for having that of all things on it.

Thursday the 14th we went back up to Waterloo and enjoyed the Salvador Dali and Star Wars exhibits at the County Hall. Both exhibitions were great, Natalie and I took photos of each other with a few of the lifesized replicas, R2D2 for me, Han Solo in carbonite and Boba and Jango Fett for Natalie. After that we went to the Kensington High Street for a walk around and for me to find the new Whole Foods Market that had recently opened. We did and Natalie patiently walked around with me while I got all excited about a glorified supermarket. So today was possibly our nerdiest day yet. The biggest highlight of the day however was getting back to find my care package from home had arrived. Twisties! Tim Tams! Mint Slice! A birthday card and envelope of photos that reduced me to tears! Mum outdid herself with that one.

Friday the 15th we went to Madame Tussauds in the morning. Luckily for me I'd gotten a 2 for 1 entry voucher from Tescos because it costs £25 to get in! But we had a great time in there, we spent the whole time laughing our heads off and posing next to the lamest waxworks possible. So I'll hopefully be posting the photos of me with The Rock and Natalie with Gary Barlow very soon. The afternoon was spent walking around Covent Garden trying to find the Paul Frank store. I'd looked up the address but had conveniently forgotten to bring it with us. As an absolute fluke while looking at the map I noticed a street name that looked familiar that turned out to be correct. Natalie gave her credit card a work out in there! I bought one thing which I can't disclose, as it's a birthday present for someone back home.

Saturday the 16th we went to the Natural History Museum, The Victoria and Albert Museum and The Science Museum which are all within walking distance of one another. The Natural History Museum was great, enormous and the building alone is amazing. We had fun playing with all the interactive displays and it reminded me of being on a school excursion. The V&A had a fascinating Clothing and Textiles exhibit and although their photography display is small it contains some really interesting works.

Sunday the 17th we were able to have a much needed sleep in and went to my Aunt Brenda's for lunch and to meet the family. We had a delicious meal and I got to meet more of my cousins, but we weren't able to stay for too long as we had to get to Wembley Stadium to see Muse by 8pm. We got to the Wokingham train station at 4.30pm and thanks to rail works and line delays it took us 3 & 1/2 hours to get there. We got our butts on our seats mere minutes before the band walked on stage. But it was a fantastic concert, in an amazing venue and well worth the hassle of getting there and the sardine-tin like Tube ride home.

Monday the 18th we slept in again and spent the day relaxing before we got dressed up and heading into Covent Garden at 5.30pm. The ride took longer than we had anticipated so instead of having dinner at a restaurant or cafe, we bought sandwiches at M&S and ate them on the footpath outside the Theatre Royal. Classy. But we had no time to waste because the performance of The Lord Of The Rings musical we had tickets to started at 7.30pm. We'd bought the cheapest tickets available so were up in the gods, in the absolute back row. But the view was still good and the sets and effects so amazing and elaborate we didn't feel let down at all. Apparently the production cost £25 million and was 3 years in the making. Well in my humble opinion I think it was worth it.

Tuesday the 19th we took a tour of the National Theatre, which was free with our London passes. I wasn't expecting it to be as great as it was, our guide was friendly and really knowledgable. It was really interesting to see backstage and learn about the workings of the theatre and how the three performance spaces were designed and used. After that we used our London passes again to get into the London Aquarium. It was enjoyable but I must say not a patch on Sydney Aquarium. For the rest of the day we walked around the city to Victoria station, past Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament before going home.

Wednesday the 20th we got up extra early and headed into the city to start our Big Bus Tour. It was a great day and a great way to see the big sights of London. Most of the buses we were on had a live commentary, the guides were really informative and funny in a lame dad-joke kind of way. We saw (and took photos of) Marble Arch, Leicester Square, Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, the posh houses of Belgravia, The Ritz, St Pauls Cathedral and The Gherkin (the Swiss Re) among other things. We wandered and shopped around Harrods (very beautiful and posh, unbelieveably expensive), Hamley's Toy Store (the best toy store I've ever seen, their range of soft toys alone is amazing although their Barbie selection was dissapointing) and Covent Garden (I could spend forever getting lost in the shops there). We ate lunch at the Cheers bar, which oddly is a recreation of the bar from the TV show "Cheers". And we ate tea at The Hard Rock Cafe, which was great fun although we did get bought drinks by two old fat guys. So what did we do? I drank them down fast and we legged it before they tried to talk to us! I may have been a little tipsy but the whole situation had me giggling all the way home.

Thursday the 21st my cousins Laura and Hannah took us to the Kempton Markets, which for you guys back home is kind of like the Pooraka or Gepps Cross markets. We wandered around for about an hour, I bought a few small things including an enormous bag of bananas for a quid. I don't know what on earth were going to do with them all, but I've already eaten 3 today. After we got home and had some lunch we relaxed for a while before getting all dressed up to go into London to see We Will Rock You. We'd managed to get half-price tickets with our London Pass even though I was pretty much prepared to pay whatever necessary to see it. This time we left earlier and had time to have a proper dinner beforehand, even though it ended up just being at a bagel bar. We had some time to kill so had a walk around Covent Garden where we found an amazing lolly shop. They had candy from all around the world and I must saw it was a bit bizzarre seeing Australian lollies in there. I bought four tins of Altoids and Natalie bought a packet of the American Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans. Those things were hideous! I'm not sure which flavour exactly, it was either Rotten Egg or Vomit nearly made me throw up on the people in the theatre row in front of us. I'm still having nightmare-like flashbacks just thinking about it. But that aside We Will Rock You was amazing, everything I'd expected it to be. It was something I'd wanted to do while here so I'm glad to tick another one off the list.

And today we headed down to the Southbank again to The Globe Theatre. We took a very interesting tour around the theatre, this was another thing on my "don't miss" list ( I sure do have a lot of these lists). We had a look around the exhibition and the gift shop (of course) before heading to Nando's for lunch. To anyone that cares, Nandos is a bit different, it's more restaurant-y and less fast food chain-y. The building this one was housed in was an old converted warehouse, high ceilings and art on the walls. And not run by Ninjas (inside joke!).  We had a quick look around the Borough Markets that me, miss foody-head, is going to be returning to one Saturday morning. Then we walked to the Tower Bridge and took the tour, followed by The Tower Of London. Both were great and very interesting, The Tower Of London in particular to see the Crown Jewels, Bloody Tower and the displays of weaponry and armor. We got home at 7.30pm completely knackered.  

There! I hope you're all happy. But I'm relieved to have finally gotten this up to date. I knew the longer I left it the harder it would be. So to those of you who have managed to stick with me to the end of this post, I hope it was interesting and I promise I'll try harder to write more often.

Natalie leaves for home on Tuesday June 26th (the day after my birthday, hint hint) and the next day I leave for my month long tour of Europe. I'll try my best to keep this updated while I'm away, I'm sure I'll have a lot to tell. So until then!

June 7 - Richmond

Just a quick update to tell a few of the things I've done recently.

Yesterday my Auntie Ann and I headed up to London to see the Kylie Minogue costume exhibition at The Victoria & Albert Museum. The exhibition was fantastic, the costumes on display were beautiful and so tiny. It was amazing to see the detail on some of the costumes up close,  and the two showgirl costumes were amazing, all feathers sequins and rhinestones.  I definately want to go back to the V&A and see some of their standard exhibits. Another trip to the giftshop wouldn't hurt either, I could spent a lot of money in there.

I also enjoyed my first experience on The Tube. Although I felt a little ripped off, the journey from Richmond to South Kensington only went underground very briefly. I thought that was the whole point! But at least I know how to use the underground now.

Today my Uncle Pete took Ann and I down to Brighton for the day. It's a lovely city, I'd like to spend more time there if I get the oppurtunity. We walked along the pier and bought some of the obligatory Brighton Rock. Whilst the sky was pretty cloudy all day, it wasn't cold so the walk along the pier was very enjoyable. We had a drive around the city, and around the Marina before heading home.

It's been an enjoyable couple of days, who knows what the next few will bring. All I know is that Sunday will bring Natalie. Or rather Japan Airlines will! I can't wait, the exploration of London will really begin!

I'll update as soon as I have something to report!