england in a word: cute

we survived the journey to janets. we only got lost on the tube a few times before realising we needed the OVERground train as opposed to the UNDERground. minor detail. its been awesome staying with janet and her family. they use funny words like kerfuffle, palaver and kagool in their every day language. crazy. james amy and charlie have kept us entertained with rounders and funny words (they think the way we say special and delicious is hilarious.) the whole family has made us feel so welcome, almost like we're part of the family. they have gone out of their way to make sure we know all the good places to go and things to see.

janet took us into london on the 23rd of may. we went to buckingham palace to see the changing of the guard. that was good... until i blacked out. how embarrassing. a policeman came over and everything. i'm fine, you can all stop panicking now. we think it was just the heat. which is funny, seeing as the hottest it gets here is like 15 degrees celsius. after buckingham palace we went on a touristy bus all around london. we saw westminster and the london eye. we got off at covenant square and went for coffee, and jess got some exciting news. after that we caught the tube to camden and went through all the markets. i love markets. janet and jess wouldnt let me buy anything though. so disappointing.

well the 23rd was definately a special day. my brother became a dad, therefore i'm now an aunty!!! woohooo!!!! We had just hopped off the double dekker bus and were sat down at a nice cafe and there was an opera singer and then my phone rang and kristian told me very teary, that Harriet Eleanor was born. i was so excited! we had a nice coffee and a toast to the new addition to the family. i can't wait to give her the biggest cuddle ever! the rest of the day was so nice, we walked around the markets, and then went to a quaint little pub with janet and had a drink. this was after we walked through the Harrods food hall...another oh my god!!.. so much food.... but i didnt get any. so all in all it was a great day, except for when ange decided to fall over in the middle of a huge crowd outside Buckingham Palace.. good thing i'm a tank and caught her!! haha

on the 24th i went back into london by myself. i got back on the touristy bus to see the stuff we missed yesterday. i saw the london dungeon and the tower of london. the latter was very impressive. i took loads of boring scenery photos which are all on flickr. i got off the touristy bus at the tower and caught the ferry down the thames. i was laughing at a thatched roof building on the south side of the river when the guy giving a commentary told us it was the globe theatre. oops. after the ferry ride i went in search of 'alfies antique market' which i read about in my trusty london guide (cheers for that, pam!) but i got hopelessly lost and ended up at a smelly fish market instead. i went back to oxford street and got bodyslammed at least 50 times so i headed off the main street into the dingy looking back streets. i found this awesome square which sold heaps of vintage clothes. i went through soho and found an awesome cafe that actually made real coffee. i was so excited to see that their coffe list had more on it than "latte, cappucino, filter coffee" woohoo! i tried to contain my excitement, but the guys behind the counter still looked at me like a weirdo. i walked past ronnie scotts jazz club to have a look, but it was full. by this stage it was nearly 7 (it gets dark at nine here; throws you off completely.) and i only got lost three times before getting back to victoria station to catch the tube home.

well while ange was off galavanting around the countryside, i went to Twickenham stadium. THE actual Twickenham stadium!! the world sevens were on, and a bunch of James' friends went and I tagged along. it was so amazing. just to be in the stadium was enough. there were about 20 matches, and i was so excited because Australia was in it. so the first few games were between places like New Zealand and Canada, and Fiji and France etc, and then Australia came on to play Portugal. every one was deadly quiet, and then Australia got a try, so i was up off my seat cheering, and then i froze, with my hand still in the air, and realised NO-ONE else was cheering. not one person in our stand, mabey 5 in the whole stadium! can you believe it?!?! i thought they'd support a team who has their flag imprinted on ours, but they cheered for the other team.. so i was a lone supporter for Autralia, but don't worry Queta, i did us proud :) it's surprising, because i usually half support england, when they arent playing Australia but being over here has made me much more patriotic, and i'd never dream of not supporting Australia now... we left after a full day of rugby, which was awesome! i am so glad i had the opportunity to go there, and i'm grateful to nick and james for inviting me.


on sunday we caught up with liz. we met her and her boyfriend, blair, at clapham junction. we met up with another one of their friends, gemma, and went to 'a country affair' at clapham common. it was so cute. we watched ferret racing, chicken racing, sheep shearing and "dancing", dog diving, falconrey displays and a crazy lady who looked like she was still on a trip from the 60's doing a mayfair display. she was insane. *shudders*. we ate delicious fair food and jess had soft serve iceceam that was like pure cream. the weather was so weird. it rained and was freezing, then it was so hot i got sunburnt (yes i had suncream on. jess didnt and she didnt get sunburnt. how does that work??) and then it was freezing again!! i could never live here just because of the weather. after the fair we went to a cute little country pub for a few beers. the pubs here are so cute and homely with random beatles music playing. completely different atmosphere to aussie pubs. after that we caught the train home and went to bed.

The monday (the next day) was a bank holiday, so the weather was rough. apparently this always happens on a bank holiday. we thought it was pretty cool but, because then we could experience some 'typical english weather' this excitement lasted about 5 minutes after we went outside. it was FREAKING FREEZING! though there were still poms walking aroud with t-shirts on..
janet, nick, charlie, ange and i piled in the car and drove down to colchester, essex. it worked out really well because we were going to go down there to see uncle kit and where my mum was born, and they happened to be going to the same place because it was aunty berts (janets mums) birthday. this was double good because i know aunty bert because she knows granny and grandad and i wanted to see her too!
we got there after a very long drive on a famous road that was very long and famous. i think it is called the M25. we got lost on the way to uncle kits, but eventually found it down a country track full of blind corners. nick drove cautiously but then kit drove like a rally driver! we found ucle kits place and met pat and debbie and sarah and the dogs that never ever stop jumping. thats right. never. we looked around the garden and saw pats 12 rabbits and then we drove like rally car racers to suzies house which is the oldest house in colchester. it was awesome. we found mums house and then went to brightlighsea, and found north rd, and took pictures of the wrong house....we thought it was 27 but it was 28... but thats ok becaue we got it inadvertantly in a photo. we asked a thousand people for directions (grandad, is it possible to get lost in brightlingsea?) and found a pub where we ate a delicious hearty meal. mine had lots of steak. mmmmm steak..
after that we went to colchester and went to stevens house where janet was. steven is janets older brother who apparantly told mum he'd wait for her when she left (at 11).. only when she came back he was married.. when we got there, aunty bert rushed out of her chair and pinched my cheeks and gave me the biggest warmest hug ever. she gives great hugs. we all celebrated her birthday (kit too) and talked lots about lots of things.. as you do.. we then had a huge drive home after an awesome day :)

we've been taking it easy the past couple of days. kit gave jess some money for her 21st so we went into london for dinner on tuesday night. we went to soho and wandered around until we found somewhere that looked nice. it was an italian restaurant and it was delicious! jess had chicken with asparagus and mushrooms and i had canneloni that was actually made out of a pancake. weird, but nice. after dinner we went to 'jazz after dark' which is a little bar in a back street in soho. it was a tiny little room crammed full of people listening to a live band. it was awesome. the singer was really entertaining and it was such a great atmosphere. the musicians were great. there were some swedish students there with their teacher who kept asking to sing. the singer let him sing a few only because she didnt know 'can't buy me love'. the set went on til 1.30 but we had to catch the last train home and (surprise surprise) got lost on the way home. it didnt help that it wasnt raining when we went in but it was bucketing down when we came out. how were we supposed to know they closed down the victoria line station from oxford circus?? ah well. we got home in the end. and it all adds to the adventure, right?














today we tried to send stuff home, and that turned into another adventure. we couldnt make it more than two kilos because it was too expensive so we spent the whole day trying to re pack everything. at least our packs are lighter now. hooray, more room for shopping!


off to colchester again tomorrow, to hang out with kit some more. then off to ireland on saturday. yay!

coffee, anyone?

** we have added heaps of photos to flickr and are organising them into groups by city because they havent been added in order. look for the sets or tags and click on the cities. some you will have already seen but heaps are new. enjoy!

Amsterdam.. this is certainly a very hardcore place compared to everywhere else we have been. the trip there in the coach wasn't the nicest, i received some bad news from home. to tony, queta, ashlea, lauren and danika, my thoughts are with you guys, and i hope that you're ok, or as ok as you can be. i love you guys.

when we arrived at amsterdam, we were so tired. it was a nine hour bus trip there, and then we found out that we weren't going to go check into the hotel until about 11 that night. this was because a few people had signed up to go to a show in the red light district. on the notice board, kerri (our tour guide) had written that it was a family orientated show on. but then she informed us on the bus that it was actually a live sex show..thats right, people having sex on stage.. we didn't go, the prudes that we are. the people who did go said it was pretty disgusting, except for one of the guys loved it. while they were at the show we went and found a cafe..or was that a coffee shop? see, if you mix them up you can get more than you bargained for in a cup of coffee. hehe. anyway, when the others came back, we went to the hotel which was ages away.

the next day we all had to get up early and go to a cheese and clog farm. a lady showed us how they make cheese, and then a man who was absolutely off his face showed us how they make clogs. he was hilarious! ange and i bought some cheese, because it keeps for nine months, so we got a round block of it to travel with. it has mustard seeds in it. mmmm. then we went into the town to spend the day wandering around, and sitting in cafes...or was it coffee shops? it was a bit too cold to do anything in terms of sight seeing. make that it was freaking freezing! so we shivered our way around and then had dinner with the group at the chinese restaurant and ted, ange and i didnt go on the cruise thingy so we went somewhere warm and waited for the others then we all went back to the hotel and there was a party in teds room so some of us hung out there for a bit drinking some wine from the cruise and then went to bed!

poor ted. he was the only american on the tour and he got picked on by the stoned clog man. so funny. and then at his own party he fell asleep and left us all to clean up!

it wasn't too cold to do any sightseeing. i went to anne franks house - jess just sat outside. in the cold. which was why she was freezing while i was inside staying nice and warm. the house was amazing! i got to go up into the annexe where she lived for two years and i saw the pictures she stuck up on the wall of her bedroom. creepy. there were passages from the book written on the walls and lots of information about the family. i can't believe that they all lived there for so long; i would have gone crazy.

the bus ride yesterday was only seven hours, but everyone was feeling tired and seedy from the cruise/party last night so we slept most of the way. we got to paris around four in the afternoon and then rushed to an internet cafe to book accommodation for last night. jess has discovered that she absolutely hates hostels and refuses to stay in a dorm again. we'll see how that goes. and here we thought I was going to be the princess! I even had a shower this morning, something jess couldnt bring herself to do. hahaha. so now we're sitting in london, freezing our butts off and cant wait to get to janets house this afternoon. nearly there...

ich bin ein berliner

we arrived in berlin two days ago. we got a local tour guide, heike, to show us around on the coach. we went through the centre of town and saw the church that got bombed during ww2. they left it as it stood and built new buildings around it. we went down the main shopping strip and saw heaps of expensive shopping centres. we were told to check out one particular one for the food court, which im sure jess will tell you more about. heike knew all about the architecture; she could tell you who designed nearly every building in central berlin! there was such an eclectic mix of designers and styles too. crazy. we went to the last standing part of the berlin wall. its so hard to imagine the whole city divided in two, especially when there were cars and coaches parked across the wall now. we drove past the bunker where hitler killed himself and saw the wreck from where his office once stood. there are still a lot of nazi buildings in use - mostly government agencies like defence and finance. we saw the reichstag and brandenburg gate. we nearly left someone behind at the gate - that was pretty funny.

we went out for dinner that night, but again, im sure jess will mention it. yesterday we got up late and went in to town around midday. our intention was to go to the aquarium but got distracted by shopping instead. shopping.... we figured we're coming back so it didnt really matter if we didnt see everything.

today we went in to potsdamer platz, where the sony centre is. we went to checkpoint charlie and went to the museum. what some people did to escape was amazing! people hid in cut out surfboards and amps and radios. they used bouncy balls in the suspension to make the car look like the load wasnt too heavy and then have a heavy car before and after the escape vehicle so that they wouldn't be searched extensively. berlins a pretty cool city. there's a mix of old and new and there's so much history. i'm glad we're coming back so we can explore it properly. we didnt make it out to sachsenhausen (a concentration camp) so we will definately do that when we get back. tomorrow we have a ten hour drive to amsterdam... lucky us!

I absolutely love Berlin. it is the most amazing place, so full of vibrance and colour and modern mixed with old. i love that it isnt swarming with a million people, because its nicely spread out. i love that the trains are only 3 minutes apart, 4 at the most. i love that you can look one way and see an ultra modern building, and then the other way and see a building hundreds of years old that has been half bombed or that the bombs just missed. the people here are very nice too, and mostly willing to help with directions. you were right tree and queta, i sometimes feel like we're on the Amazing Race!

on the first day we arrived as ange was saying, we had a tour guide, who was awesome. she knew everything about everything and then some. i was amazed by all the different architects that the city of Berlin invited from around the world to help redesign the city, as most of it was bombed to oblivion. as a result, you have a marvellous mix of time zones, captured in the form of a building, be it quirky with sloping floors, or plain with an air of sophistication. that night after the tour we went to the group dinner......OH MY GOD! we had a whole pork knuckle to ourselves!! it was delicious, and it came with some potatoes and saurcraut or however you spell it.. although, i couldnt finish all of mine, which is a first.

The next day, which was yesterday, ange and i just pretty much walked the main streets of the main platz. we found this department store, which is the most prestigious in the city...a bit like david jones but a million times more expensive, and we went to the 6th floor and it was like being in charlie and the chocolate factory except ange and i were charlie and the chocolate factory was a million shops with every single thing you could ever imagine to eat in your whole life! it was really something. the only thing we bought was some wasabi peanuts for ange.. but it was well worth seeing.

ok i think i am writing too much, and the key board is suspiciously sticky..

today we went to checkpoint charlie which was amazing and very interesting but a lot of reading.. we walked some more, and now we're about to go back the the hotel and relax!

thanks for the comments everyone, its really nice to see words from home :)

ps. even though the food is great here, ange and i both said last night that all we felt like was a nice home cooked dinner from our mums!

aha! praha!

Praha, we have learnt, is the czech way of saying Prague... interesting...

dont worry everyone, the food i have been pigging out on is included in the tour :)

so we made it to Prague, after a not too long bus ride. well, 9 hours.. but it didnt seem very long. the hotel was HUGE and all ritzy and glamorous. the rooms were ginormous! there arent any tour busses allowed in the main city, so we caught public transport in. it was a fair way, a bus and two trains..


prague is like stepping back in time, even more so than the other places we've visited so far. it is full of cobble stones and buildings that are older than old. the feeling here is more subdued, though it is buzzing with tourists. here is the only place that we have been warned to watch our bags and our pockets. we had a delicious dinner with the group, which was goulash and onion soup and pancakes. we went for a night walk over the charles bridge, which was spectacular. we could see the palace lit up, which is the biggest palace in the whole of europe. some of the group then went on to the cocktail bar, but most of us decided to go home and get some shut eye ready for a big day of sightseeing!


ange can tell you what we did the next day...



love jess

so the next day in praha we got up late (NOT hungover as the picture might suggest; that was our only beer...) and went in to town. it was our aim to do the 6 hour walking tour at 10.30, then it was our aim to do the 4 hour walking tour at 1.30, then the two hour one at 2.00... maybe next time. we walked around all day and did our own tour. we went to wenceslas square and did the whole touristy thing at the markets. then went to the old town square and did the 'wow look at that building' for 360 degrees. we also ate our lunch - pastries that we stole from the hotel breakfast buffet. we've started wearing baggy clothes to breakfast; you can fit more in the pockets. we walked over the charles bridge during the day and were cornered by 'sailors' with jamaican accents offering us boat rides. we rubbed the foot of a statue to guarantee us a trip back to prague(i hope its paid for!). kerri - our tour guide - said she rubs it every time she comes and she keeps coming back!

i've made up a scale of how to tell how awesome a city is: number of cobblestone streets per 10km radius. praha definately takes the cake; although they do hurt your feet after a while. the streets are crazy; some will start wide and end up narrow or they curve

around - buildings at odd angles. maybe they were drinking too much absinthe? anyway... we didnt get to see everything we wanted to see. i think if we'd had another day there it would have been better, but we will just have to go back instead. we had a quiet night as jess was not feeling 100% (probably from all the rich food we had) and it was off to berlin the next day.

first impressions of berlin: uber cool. but thats another story.

buda? pest?

we arrived in budapest yesterday around 10am. we didnt get stopped at the border, which was a good thing. as soon as we were in the country we had to change our euros to florints. suddenly we were millionares! on the bus people were saying they spent 3000 HUF on lunch (which only works out to $25) the exchange rate is 150HUF to $1. so confusing when converting mentally.

budapest is amazing. we went on a guided tour yesterday and the guide Csabá (chubba) told us 'only' 1000 years of hungarian history. we learnt that Saint Stephen was the first king and founder of practically every church in town. they all seem to love the guy. we also learnt that buda and pest were two different cities separated by the danube and they merged in the 1300s.

today we walked from pest, where our hotel is, to buda. it was an awesome walk and took us all day. buda is much more hilly and we certainly got a work out!

we went up to the royal palace which is almost the top point of the city (which hasnt been occupied since the 1200s because hungary was taken over like 30 times) and jess held the biggest eagle i've ever seen! we got some cool photos but we cant upload them to this computer. we'll be adding them to flikr soon. we sat in a cafe overlooking the whole of pest. we drank hungarian beer and were serenaded by a violinist playing my way and sweet georgia brown. it was perfect.

by the time we got back to the hotel we were knackered, so it was time for a quick power nap before going to the national monument: heroes square. chubba took us there yesterday and explained about all the statues (most of them were of this stephen guy) again, photos to come soon.

jess here. one thing ange failed to mention was the FOOD! i can tell you, you dont go hungry in hungary! last night we went to a traditional hungarian dungeon restaurant and had goulash and a delicions chicken dish and then apple strudel. everywhere you go, apple strudel! i swear i'll be farting apple strudel for weeks!! ahem. anyway, then today we had this delicious thing that was like a sweet bread thing that was coiled up. it was great. and then we had....oh my god...corn on the cob!!! my favourite. and then this meat skewer, that had pork, chicken and sausage and onion. kristian, i thought of you, you would have loved it! ange looked disgusted but ate some anyway. (only the onion!) she actually also took a bite of chicken.

anyway, all i can say is that Hungary has been an amazing place, everywhere you look is jam packed with culture and magic. pop, you have a beautiful homeland.

miss you all!
j

it's strange to see the mixture of decrepit buildings tucked in between beautifully restored ones. and people live in all of them. its hard to imagine what these people have gone through for the past 50 years and its sad to see the toll it has taken on many. but even so it is such a wondrous place. definately my favourite place so far.

jess also forgot to mention the traditional gypsy show we saw last night. (it's because i was too busy eating) they sang and danced in hungarian (yes it was danced in hungarian) and they did tricks and made audience "volunteers" drink lots and dance in hungarian. highly entertaining.

ok. lots of people want to use the internet and we are getting evil stares. must be off. talk to you in prague!

Bratwurst.. delicious bratwurst..

Well we finally made it to Vienna!

The flight over from london was beautiful. i still cant get over the fact that we flew over multiple countries in the time it takes to got to Northam and back!

Our time in vienna has been amazing. everywhere you look theres a beautiful building with intricate design, or a delicious bratwurst vendor or a fountain. We have been a tad jet lagged, but it hasnt stopped us from enjoying ourselves! Today we saw a palace, went to the museum of natural history, and attended a schnaps tasting and history lesson :)

vienna is so beautiful. i think there is more charm and history in one building here than anywhere in perth. we walked around for hours yersterday and every street we turned into was just awesome. definately the best place we've been to so far. we went to schrobann palace this morning and it was breathtaking. i cant believe it was just the summer palace. we learnt all about marie theresia and her 300 children. pretty cool! we've uploaded a few photos to http://www.flickr.com/photos/threesummers/ (more to come, we've just run out of internet time and cant understand german so its really hard to do anything hahaha)

the schnaps tour this afternoon was really interesting. the guy told us that because of all the australians coming through complaining about the lack of butterscotch schnapps the guy created one and won first prize because it was so good. go us!

off to budapest tomorrow so will write soon.

love us.

im not stressed!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so we got on the plane alright in the end. i'm still not convinced we got everything done, but thats ok. we survived the flight to singapore but it already feels like we've been travelling for days, so we arent looking forward to the next thirteen hours!

changi is nice. lots of shopping. shopping....... and food. fooooooooooooood...

off to eat some food... lucky we found this free internet station otherwise we'd be to stingy to pay $1 to write to you all.

love us.