rjdm's & sejb's travels abroad

post script

2008-05-12T18:01:00.003+10:00

Hi guys!! just a quick note to let you know that we've put heaps more photos up right the way back to Berlin and we've photorised some of the recent posts that required it, so feel free to check them out if you don't want to be subjected to the full onslaught of the complete slide show (currently in post-production).

the full collection of uploaded photos can be viewed at http://picasaweb.google.com/rjdmoore. if you want us to send you any of the (full res) photos or if you're wondering if we've got photos of something that's not uploaded, just let us know.

cheers,
rjdm & sejb

Beijing

2008-05-12T16:55:00.004+10:00

so after arriving in beijing to humid and smoggy 29c conditions and heading out to the acrobatics, then onwards to the bar district (via nearly every other district) and further onwards to bed; the 2nd day in beijing was quite uneventful. i awoke to extremely heavy rain which persisted in varying degrees of heaviness all morning. that afternoon, however was crisp and clear, so i headed (partly on foot, partly on bus) to the clothing market. the market, from the outside appeared similar to a large department store, however once inside this veil was lifted to reveal a typical, bustling asian market - full of small stalls stacked high with all sorts of clothing, shoes, bags, fabrics, etc.

it was quite busy and the vendors pounced on you as soon as you let your gaze linger too long on a particular garment so i wandered around for an hour or so - just looking thankyou. i decided i'd better pick up a couple of items for the missus and selected a couple of candidates, however the asking price was probably more than i'd pay back home so a heated exchange followed in which i think i walked away twice before handing over something like 10% of the asking price.

that evening i'd kind of arranged to meet a friend from melbourne for dinner. our agreed meeting place had been only slightly more specific than 'the general beijing area' and so i headed straight there. 90min of sms's and very badly spoken mandarin later mindy and i had assimilated our positions closely enough to make eye contact. we ate a nice meal which was fairly close to what we'd ordered but unfortunately didn't have the courage to try the 'fried wikipedia' which appeared to be some sort of green salad.

the following day was sunny and perfect for exploring around the centre of town. i checked out the tiananmen square area and forbidden city complex and attempted to have a look inside the working peoples cultural museum but was repelled by security for carrying a camera i think. after having my photo taken with an unknown chinese man by his unknown chinese wife i proceeded towards a cafe with an ex-pat flavour to meet up with a pom i'd met on the train. it was a warm and sunny morning and sitting in an outdoor courtyard eating a decent english breakfast was a breath of fresh air - the food (and everything else) in beijing was excellent but i was looking forward to getting home and this cafe had really hit the spot.

that afternoon i spent a couple of hours wandering around the temple of heaven gardens. some areas were a little touristy but there were plenty of superb areas with locals practicing traditional instruments or playing games - it was quite beautiful. the following day i jumped on the 919 express bus to badaling with Mindy to check out the wall. it was far better than i'd expected. i'd imagined that tourists would be able to view the wall from a bit of a platform and perhaps walk along a short segment of it. in fact we were able to walk along it for a number of (surprisingly strenuous) kilometers. there were crowds near the entrance and a toboggan, but the farthest stretches of the wall were the most mountainous, least visited and most spectacular.

we spent several hours walking and taking photos before returning to beijing via the 919, enjoying a quick, hearty and cheap meal and then i headed to the airport to fly home (but not before bumping into the bloody dutch again :P )! beijing airport was appropriately enormous and sparkling new, and even tho it was about 2100hrs i was forced to change into shorts and t-shirt before getting on the plane.

my flight back to australia was almost uneventful; i was flying with qantas and the flight to sydney was long but practically empty. i changed in sydney to a domestic flight and on boarding the plane discovered i knew one of the stewards! paul soon informed me that i had been allocated the wrong seat and quickly reseated me in business class :D if only he flew international flights..

so i landed in melbourne mid-arvo and breezed through customs before meeting (a very anxious) sarah in the terminal! because i was in business class i was one of the first off the plane and my bag was one of the first out too so all up i'd been in the airport for less than 20min. this was actually a bit of a theme for the whole trip - even flying from africa to europe the customs procedure involved the arduous process of walking through an automatic door. really glad i got all that documented evidence of vaccinations before i left..

so thanks for reading and commenting, the blog was mainly a personal memory aid but it's been good to be able to share a couple of stories and some photos as well. all up we have about 3600 photos so there might be a few distillations before an email goes around. hope to catch up with everyone soon!!

Ulaanbataar to Beijing (or: The Very Long Train Ride - Part 2)

2008-05-03T13:31:00.006+10:00

this part of the journey was going to be quite short, we departed UB at 8am and arrived in Beijing at 2pm the following day. still we were going to be passing through some interesting scenery (and a change of gauge).

in many ways i think the first part of the trip was more exciting - 5 days with about a dozen foreigners amongst 400 hundred odd locals. when you're the odd ones out you tend to bond much more quickly. the 2 georgian blokes who operated the russian restaurant car didn't speak a word of english (neither did their menu) but we got along with them really well and had a couple of great nights. the restaurant cars on the mongolian and chinese legs were cheaper, cleaner, spoke more english and, well.. were more restauranty. the trains during the leg to beijing was also predominantly tourists with few locals. the stops were unexciting with no dodgey goods being sold and the attendants running the show were much stricter and more likely to keeps things clean (like the toilets).

i was sharing my cabin with the australian bloke (only other one on the train as far as i could tell) and two mongolian women (who slept for pretty much the whole 30 hours straight). the pom was, again, way down the other end of the train so i spent most of my time with the two groups of dutch friends i had met along the way. although there was less mingling on this leg the scenery was much more exciting. after passing through the gobi and crossing the border (again a lengthy process although we were lifted in the air at one stage to change the wheels) we immediately encountered many more people, typically tending to their crops or (somewhat mysteriously) planting rows of trees next to the rail line.

as we drew closer to beijing the countryside became more hilly and we even caught glimpses of wall fragments (the 'great'ness and genuineness of which was hotly disputed). we passed through steep valleys, alongside wide rivers and under impressive bridges. unfortunately we also passed through countless tunnels of all lengths which made photography a 'blink-and-you'll-miss-it' kind of sport. on encountering the outskirts of beijing the scenery changed to heavy industry, construction and smog (although i've been repeatedly informed it's just fog, apparently common in springtime).

beijing itself it very busy, very neat and very large. at every opportunity there are neat flower beds (where in UB there were dust gardens) and the streets and back streets are lined with locals playing board or dice games and tiny shops selling all kinds of animal, vegetable and mineral. beijing is surrounded by 6 (!!) ring roads and the CBD is apparently about 40km across so you can imagine the size of the tourist map i picked up. navigating the streets is however very easy, as most signs have both english and mandarin and the city has a sensible grid layout. after leaving the train i said goodbye to all my friends and set off to my own (pre-booked) accomodation. after showering i set off down the street to find some lunch and promptly bumped into most of them again doing the same.

that evening i went to the see the national acrobatics group perform which was nothing short of spectacular. on the bus on the way there i met two australian girls who were about to set off on the train towards st petersburg. it turns out kat had studied at UQ so we exchanged information before the show. on the way home i again bumped into the (bloody!) dutch who were on the way to check out beijing's (apparently only??) bar and club district. well 'bar street' turned out to be a deceptively long walk, during which we didn't pass a single bar. when we got there though there were plenty of bars and people and the street surrounded a lake which was quite picturesque at nighttime. there was karaoke, heaps of tourists and expensive beer so we didn't stay long. on the way home (and only about 200m from my hotel!!) i found a bar with a mix of locals and foreigners, cheap beer, a live band and a much better atmosphere than anything we found earlier in the evening.

so this morning i woke up to the sound of thunder and heavy rain and decided to do a few inside things until the weather calmed down somewhat. the next couple of days i will check out the (real) wall (take the 919 express bus from some bus station) and the central tian'an men square and forbidden city and gardens complex. i might also swing by one of the closer markets to see if i can get my wallet stolen for a nice leather jacket.

ps. i'll be home tuesday afternoon if i don't get a chance to write again before i leave.

Ulaanbataar

2008-05-03T12:49:00.003+10:00

Now being completely and totally prepared i had not read a single book about the trans-siberian railway or any of the cities along the way until i was on the train and borrowed someone else's book. however, reading about mongolia i was getting more and more keen to arrive and more and more disappointed that i was only going to spend 3 days there! mongolia has a population of about 2-3 million with over 1 million of them living in the capital UB. the rest of the population still live nomadic lives moving about the rest of the country side. so basically mongolia's landscape is in almost pristine condition with few townships marking the rolling hills and steppes.

having only 3 days we (the pom, the belgian and i) decided to try and see a bit of everything and spend half the time in the terelj national park (about an hour and a half out of UB) and half the time in the city. well for a predominantly nomadic peoples (even in UB half the pop lives in tents) they have made a good effort at creating a very large city. the air when we arrived was thick with dust from the strong wind and 'gardens' (read: patches of fenced dirt) which are everywhere in the city, it was like a heavy smog and made it so that you could only just make out the hills which surround UB. the city itself is composed mainly of communist style appartment blocks which are in an advanced state of decay. the written language is a mix of traditional mongolian script (looks like a cross between chinese and arabic) and quasi-russian (looks like russian but apparently is not). actually speaking more than a couple of words is a laughable prospect but the people are invariably very friendly.

around the central square area and parliament building there are several nice and large buildings however the appeal of the large square was diminished somewhat by the clouds of dust blowing across it from the gardens surrounding it. while in the city i visited the mongolian historical museum which despite being housed in a smallish building was packed with information in english, rock art and tools (some dating back to the early paleolithic - about 800,000 BC), spear heads, whole rooms dedicated to Genghis Khan and objects from the pre-, post- and communist times. i also checked out the lama monastery which contained a 30m high statue of some buddhist deity and a lot of pigeons.

definitely the best aspect to UB was the food. it was very big and very nice and very cheap. the first night we ate at a place with the slogan 'meat is for men, grass is for animals' and that was pretty much the theme everywhere. the currency is one of those in which there are way too many zeros on every note but we had lunch for about $2 and dinner for $5. the final night we ate at 'The Great Mongol' - opposite the state department building near the state circus for those interested - with some people i had met in the national park and a local guy on whose couch Maarten intended to sleep for a couple of weeks. the house brewed beer was very good and i had a mixed grill. ok it wasn't very mongolian but there were 5 types of meat and it arrived on 3 plates!! it cost about $11 and the mongolian ate my salad.

the national park was beautiful. endless rolling green hills dotted with Gers (tent houses), horses and rocky peaks. i spent my time horse riding, meeting a local family and climbing some of the peaks surrounding my ger. the local family served me some sort of yak milk tea, little dried bits of curdled yoghurt (apparently a sweet, but basically yak milk which has been left outside for a couple of days) and some home made bread. i politely tried a bit of everything. camping next to me was group of 5 people including an australian bloke and 4 (more bloody!) dutch. we spent that evening playing a local game with goat's anklebones.

i was sad to be leaving but nearly everyone i had met so far was going to be travelling on the same train to beijing so i wasn't going to be lonely...

Home

2008-05-01T17:03:00.002+10:00

Hi All,

So now I am home and slightly depressed about it! I dont really have much more to add from Richards account of Berlin, Poland and being with my family.

As much I would love to tell more about Poland I feel it is best for Richard if I do not. All I can say is I was not happy and he is very sneaky! I will say however the reason for no photos of Poland is we had left our cameras is the car when we parked thinking that we were just meeting up with Will then would be heading back to the car, this was not the case sadly!

As for being with my family, it was a wonderful time even though Richard did turn up with a black eye. The funniest moments though which he did not mention was watching my 30ish year old male cousin dance! Undescriable and rather amusing. The other thing was going to a kitchen party and playing a game called circle of love!! It is a card game so dont get to many ideas, hard to explain in writng but had me in fits of laughter.

Well I would add the photos for Richard (ones I have anyway) but I sadly am not skilled in this department! So I will go back to counting the days when my love returns and being depressed its all over!

Love Sarah

Moscow to Ulaanbataar (or: The Very Long Train Ride - Part 1)

2008-04-28T19:13:00.003+10:00

Just a quick hello from Ulaanbataar, Mongolia!!

We arrived this morning at 7.30am after 5 days on the train from Moscow. The journey was quite amazing and definitely a great experience. The scenery gradually changed from spruce and pine forests in central Russia to rolling grassy hills and frozen lakes in Mongolia. The view was dotted at regular intervals with muddy wooden villages and wide icy rivers. Luckily we could open some of the windows and i was able to take a couple of photos - capturing the experience however was impossible.

the train itself was no less exciting. i was sharing my 4 berth cabin with a young Belgian ecologist named Maarten but we were the only english speaking passengers in our half of the train! it seemed nearly everyone else on board was a mongolian trades-person carrying dubiously large quantities of leather goods or clothing. most cabins were completely packed full of goods, with mongolian women and children perched on top while their husbands were all in the next cabin drinking vodka and arguing.

although none spoke english they were all very friendly and more than willing to wander into your cabin uninvited to recount tales of Genghis Khan and the mighty mongolian empire (in Mongolian) or to share some vodka (at like 9am in the morning). Or more usually just to see if you were in need of a genuine leather jacket or boots.

at dinner the first night we discovered that we weren't the only tourists on board as we passed through a carriage (which became known as the netherlands) on the way to dinner containing 16 dutch tourists (the carriage, not the dinner). we also discovered a young english journalist way down the other end of the train perched amongst several mongolian women and a lot of new leather handbags.

so we spent the journey swapping guide books to siberia, playing cards, learning dutch and buying 2 minute noodles off the locals at station platforms. about 30min before every stop there was a mass movement of goods throughout the train as the mongolians prepared to move their entire stock onto the platform. and at every station there was inevitably several hundred locals awaiting teh arrival of our train. what proceeded during the 10min stops was like a local market in fast forward! if we were lucky we could push our way through and stretch our legs for a couple of mins before resuming our journey.

so there will be more detail and hopefully some photos later but that's all for now!

Moskva!!

2008-04-23T20:58:00.007+10:00

РУДДЩ АКЩЬ ЬЩЫСЩЦ!!! Or equivalently 'Hello from Moscow!!!' when written on an english keyboard (if you can only see boxes don't worry, the real text doesn't look much different). it may look funny to you but try finding your way around when every street sign (when there is one) is written like that, as well as every metro (sorry, METPO) station, AND as well as my only map. i think there is a logic to the language somewhere but it's buried beneath a tonne of unpronouncable symbols. actually i think i'm doing alright - i recognise some of the greek characters and so PI (п) gives a P sound and so on. ie Photo becomes фото.

Even so, my train station is called Partizanskaya but in Russian that's ПАРТИЗАНСКАЯ... (Pi_A_P_T_back-to-front-N_3_A_H_C_K_A_back-to-front-R, for those with squares) and i had to find it at 1am in the rain after i landed at one of Moscow's 4 international airports. Not so hard i hear you say.. well it is when you understand that Moscow has something like 200 train stations and about 15 different lines (and that's just the metro), AND, you have to catch some private airport (which isn't even on the map) train to connect with the public lines... plus no-one speaks english.

anyway i did make it, only due to the directions i got from some considerate pimp (i had to decline his offer of entertainment for the remainder of the evening). unfortunately i hadn't been very successful in extending my accommodation to include sunday night over the phone - mainly due to the language barrier, but probably also due to the limited mental capacity of the staff member. so when i rocked up at 1am looking for a room i was informed that my booking was for monday and tuesday nights only. luckily the staff member (from phone conversation fame) called her manager over who told me that the hotel's day started at 2am and so my room for the following night would be available at 2am!! so i had to wait around in the lobby for an hour but in the end scored 3 nights for the price of 2 :) i think i was the only person in the lobby who didn't charge by the minute.

so this is all very interesting but doesn't really tell you anything about moscow except that it's full of dodgey people. Second only to the number of dodgey men and women are the number of police officers, although it's a close race between them and the stray dogs - at least the dogs aren't corrupt. however, other than all this moscow is quite a beautiful city - much like prague on a larger scale. this unfortunately means it's impossible to walk around and see everything. i did try a walking tour from my hotel (which is 4 metro stations from red square, well actually 5 but one is closed for some reason) but after walking for 2.5 hours in a state of semi-knowledge of where i was (the big landmarks like rivers and above ground train lines were where they should have been but the smaller land marks like roads and walking paths didn't correlate with what was on the map) i eventually stumbled into a station (i'll come back to this) to discover i had only advanced 2 stations down the line in 2.5 hours! i promptly jumped on the first train that came by and arrived at red square 10 min later.

now, about stumbling into the station: metro stations (ie the underground lines) are impossible to find. and i'm not joking, even ignoring the language barrier. every 2nd building in moscow looks the same. it's either a brick/concrete box or a gold encrusted church. the stations are some of the boxes but they're tucked away down back streets, miles apart and there's no signs. the only way i found this station was by walking in whichever direction there was more people.

but again, i digress. my hotel is located near the old olympic village, right next to a large park and a market area so the area is 'quite nice' (very relatively speaking). the area around revolution (red) square in central moscow is also very nice, with many beautiful buildings and parks right next to the river. i had a look inside the kremlin walls one afternoon (for 300 rubles ~ US$15) and i'm really glad i did. visitors are tightly restricted to a small area inside the walls but this area includes many small chapels, palaces and cathedrals. inside there are many tombs of kings from the middle ages plus some of the most decorated interiors i've seen, rivaling the raphael rooms in the vatican museum. the exteriors are no less impressive - gold capped onion domes ahoy.

there was also the tsar cannon and tsar bell. the cannon has a caliber of about 1m and each shot must weight a *&^$load. the cannon itself weights something like 40t and is about 3m high and 6m long but unfortunately i don't think it was ever fired (although the descriptive plaque was in russian so not 100% sure). the bell is even more ridiculous.. over 200t and 6m high. i don't think it was ever used either tho. apparently it was used as a chapel at some stage tho (i'm not joking, that's how big it is).

so moscow is very beautiful although it would probably be more so during winter when all the rubbish and concrete is covered with snow. tonight i'm getting on the train and heading towards beijing, therefore i'm not sure how much net i'll have until i arrive in china (2nd May). so that's why i've tried to update the posts if you're wondering why the sudden spurt in news. i'm in a 4-berth cabin but i don't know who else will be in there so that could be exciting. the first stop is at Ulaanbataar in Mongolia in just over 4 (!!) days. hopefully the windows are clear enough to get some decent photos. so that's all for now, hope everyone is well and keeping up with the posts. i'm off to the market to stock up on biscuits and vodka.

The end of the world

2008-04-23T05:51:00.007+10:00

Well I think Sarah can do a more thorough post on our stay with her family in Rodalben but since i've got command of a computer i put one up for the time being (still not photos tho folks - i know, i know, blame the russians).

In all we spent about a week and a half in Rodalben with Sarah's family. This was definitely not enough. Although Rodalben is not a well known tourist destination (in fact it's not a known tourist destination at all, or even a tourist destination) being in Germany it was well endowed with castles, ruins and forests. Rodalben (for those of you who haven't visited before, ok all of you), is very close to the french border and i think we spent almost as much time in france as we did in germany. we also ducked across to luxembourg one day to check out the capital (ie. luxembourg - they obviously weren't very inventive with names).

Sarah's cousins only speak halting english and their parents not at all so our stay was punctuated with hand gestures, novice german and schnapps (spelling unknown). our stay got off to a flying start when i rocked up with a black eye. the 'beat a polish bar owner in a vodka drinking competition' story went down a treat when translated. the most memorable aspect to our stay was the food. sarah's cousin frank is a professional chef and happened to be on holiday during our stay so he spent a considerable amount of time in the kitchen. including on one occaision to prepare my 'ideal animal' - a meal composed of chicken breast, bacon, cheese and ham. being a chef he went all creative and threw in some egg, beef and bratwurst as well. the meal received fairly positive reviews.

despite waking up after breakfast most mornings we were basically force fed traditional german meals for dinner (accompanied by considerable amounts of alcohol) with the result of both of us putting on about 100kg. one of the other german activities we participated in was going to a soccer (fussball) match. we saw kaiserslautern flog some other team 2-0 which apparently is a very rare event indeed so we were very privilaged. it was a home game for K which obviously held special meaning for us aussies. i came home with a scarf and sarah came home with a cold chest (you figure it out).

anyway i have 28sec left on net so gotta go!!!

Poland

2008-04-22T05:57:00.006+10:00

We spent Saturday / Sunday nights in Berlin and then we ducked over to Poznan in west Poland to catch up with Will on Monday night and then we headed back to Berlin Tuesday / Wednesday nights. So we didn't have all that long in Poland. The drive from Berlin to Poznan took about 3 and a half hours and was remarkable only for the rain and the extraordinary number of trucks and potholes on the polish roads.

We'd agreed to meet Will at the main square in Poznan so we headed in what we thought was that direction. Unsurprisingly neither Sarah nor I speak Polish and we didn't have a town map so our first two attempts were somewhat unsuccessful. Eventually we found a servo, admitted defeat and bought a map. After one more lap of Poznan (just to make sure we'd really seen the sights) we found the main square. Not much to it really, nor Poznan for that matter. Couple of nice looking churches and a lot of roadworks really.. the rain probably didn't help :)

After a short while we also found Will and his room-mate and set about finding the nearest watering hole. Will assured us he knew just the one and we headed that way. Apparently the barmaid was a friend and so we had a couple of beers. I might remind our readers at this point that 'a beer' in Europe refers to 500ml and not, as one might assume, a measly 275ml. So we were getting along alright and decided to grab some food (which wasn't bad) and hit up the local Aussie bar.

I'm not sure what about this bar distinguished it as the Aussie bar because as far as I could make out the owner and all the customers were (very) polish. In fact I think when Will and Martin first visited the establishment they were the first australians to do so. Anyway after a couple more drinks someone suggested shots. My recollection gets slightly hazy at this point but i remember tequila and vodka, lots of vodka, and something blue (which may have also been vodka). For some reason (which was obviously important but which now escapes me) i challenged the bar owner to an arm wrestle. This was probably my first mistake. Apparently 'arm wrestle' translates to Polish as 'vodka drinking competition'.

At this point I'll make a quick diversion to Sarah's memory. On returning from the toilet she found a disturbingly long line of empty shot glasses on the bar and the polish bar owner collapsed on the floor.

Back to my memory: I woke up at midday with a sore head. Apparently I had remained strong right up until the point where I had to walk somewhere. Also apparent (from my forehead) was the fact that I'd fallen over at some stage.

So.. Will's residence was located in a nice old (and large) building, now being used for a school about 30min out of town and we had lunch the next day in town at an interesting little place which served savory pancakes from around the world. The drive back to Berlin was surprisingly a lot better than the drive into Poland, probably because i slept for a large percentage of it.

Result: I don't actually remember a whole lot of Poznan and the only photos we've got are of a pretty decent sunset on the road back to Berlin.

Berlin (Part 3)

2008-04-22T05:46:00.002+10:00

Just thought I'd add a couple a things to the main Berlin post..

Travelling on the autobahns with a new peugot at some stage we were going to have to test out how fast it would go. Usually in the unlimited areas we'd been sitting on about 150 and the car was doing this pretty easy at about 4000rpm. I think it was on a quite bit of road on the way to Berlin from Prague we got it up to about 196 before we hit a 120km/h speed zone so thought we'd better ease back a bit :) wouldn't have got much quicker tho - the speedo only goes up to 210.. there's video evidence too.

The drive from Berlin to Sarah's family in Rodalben (south west of frankfurt right near the french border) took us about 7 hours for those playing at home. In other news I forgot to read the ODO when we dropped the car back but it would've been about 4600km. Anyway, I'd better leave this post here before i confuse you with more time jumps..

PS. I'm in mockva and sarah's probably just touching down in aus!

Berlin (Part 1 & 2)

2008-04-20T08:28:00.005+10:00

It's currently 12.29am Sunday morning - Sarah is flying home and i'm flying to Moscow later today!!

Back to the point... our time in Berlin was split between two short visits - we ducked over to Poland inbetween, but more about that later. We arrived Saturday evening and, due having obtained a map before entering the city limits, we arrived at our accommodation in record time. We were staying at another Wombats - the one in Munich was good and had a sister hostel - and so knew the drill. To obtain your room key you have to hand over some form of photo ID as insurance, our ID of choice was my MET concession card. To the uninitiated this may not seem out of the ordinary but if you've seen it before you'll understand when I say it scored us 8 free drinks in the house bar.

Since it was Saturday night and we'd heard Berliners liked to partay we decided to head out. Scouring the 'suggested night spots' we settled on a funky little bar with a swimming pool. No joke. To our great disappointment the pool was nowhere to be seen and is apparently closed during winter but the club was going off anyway and we got home about 5am. Sunday we arose slightly after breakfast closed and decided to head out and check out the sights. There were several markets setup and plenty of people about, a surprising percentage of whom were wearing inline skates. The reason for which turned out to be some sort of organised endurance event (complete with crowds, collapsing skaters and inappropriately worn bike shorts).

Our tour of Berlin's sights by foot led us to the Reichstag, which you can enter for free and climb the large dome on the roof - which apparently gives good views of the city. Being a sunday arvo the queue was phenomenal and being early spring in Germany it was raining and being still slightly drunk upon departing our residence that morning we had come out in light (un-waterproof) clothing. After a not so lengthy second glance at the queue we caught the train back to our hostel.

Sunday also happened to by our 1 year anniversary so we (read: Sarah) decided we'd better do something (or else..). Something turned out to be straightening Sarah's hair for what seemed like about 3 hours while Richard had a nap. By the time both parties were awake and ready to party it was approaching dinner time. However, we had 8 free drinks at the bar to make use of and being students it would have been rude of us not to do so. 3 romantic games of pool followed (in which Sarah was very unromantically flogged) before we realised it had approached dinner time quite some time before and was fast approaching not dinner time.

We were both pretty hungry and so settled upon the first open place we happened across. This turned out to be some sort of brauhaus, which also may have been in some sort of shopping centre. Some may claim this is not the most romantic setting by I'll take this opportunity to point out that we were having dinner in a traditional German restaurant in Berlin, which ought to be worth more than a couple of flowers.

So the next morning we headed to Poland to meet up with Will (Richard's cousin) and we returned to Berlin on Tuesday. We spent a day checking out the sights we'd missed on the weekend (including the Reichstag dome and Checkpoint Charlie). The most memorable aspect to the dome was the inordinately time consuming security check on the way in. The checkpoint Charlie museum was quite good but surprisingly huge and packed full of exhibits and information. It was a mix of personal stories, genuine and mock artifacts, artwork and a detailed history of the whole affair. The museum opened in 1962 and bits and pieces had been added ever since so it was a bit confusing at some times but worth a look.

We spent one more night in Berlin before heading across Germany to Sarah's relatives.

Postcript to Prague

2008-04-19T21:29:00.002+10:00

Hi,

Sorry I just have to add two small things that were quite amusing that Richard realised he had forgot to put in.

On our drive out of Czech Republic we were pulled over by the police. This made us both a little nervous as we were thinking about the visa that we did not have. We had to show our passports which were conveniently in the boot of the car, locked in our packs and somewhat buried. Then we had to show our drivers license which were in the glove box! Then we were asked for our car papers!! What??? We had no idea what he was talking about. Lucky for us we are Australian as this did seem to please the officer who called out to his mate "skippy" and pointed at us. He was looking at my passport and it seemed he recognised that I have a German surname, so he asked me in German do I speak German. I thought about what response I should give as I know a number of random sentences and decided that I would go with "we are having fun"!! I thought it would ease the nervousness I was feeling and everyone always laughs when I say it! Well it worked a treat! He laughed handed us back our stuff and did not worry about the car papers and we were on our way again

Not ten mins down the road from this there was a house on the side of the road with big windows. Richard was driving so I noticed it and he did not. I thought it was strange because before we got right in front of it I thought I could see what looked like a leg wearing stockings and a high heel in the window. I found this strange and was wondering if it was a real leg. Well it was!!! And it was attached to a prostitute who was displaying her wares in the window!!! I was so suprised and shocked that I let out some sort of cry which startled Richard! I almost wanted him to turn back so he could see because it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen (as well as a little shocking).

So we must go again. We will write more later.

Love us

Prague

2008-04-19T06:37:00.004+10:00

On the way to Prague we stopped by a German town by the name of Regensburg because we'd been reliably informed that it was a medieval town worth checking out. First impressions were to the contrary but after having a bit of a look around we found the old town centre which was nice and included a spectactular cathedral - why is it that all the massive churches are dedicated to St. Peter??

After Regensburg we continued towards the Czech Rep. and we had a quick read through the reading material we had whilst on the way. Unfortunately the only reading material material we possessed contained little information on Prague and the only information it provided for the C.R. was that Australian visitors required a visa. Well we didn't have one so we presumed (somewhat optimistically) that the C.R. had joined the EU since publication of this particular volume. We presumed correctly and cruised through yet another border gate without troubling our passports.

We had decided to make Berlin by the weekend so we only had 1 and 1/2 days in Prague. The first evening we ate and drank at our hostel - which, by the way we have decided was queer. It was called something inauspicious but their motto was 'for people like us' and the guys behing the front desk were wearing pink polo shirts. To cap it off, some of the TV's in the dining room were continuously playing 'GayTV'. BUT, the rooms were cheap, they had an indoor swimming pool, and there was an attached bar/restaurant with good pizza and cheap beer. Hence we ate and drank at our hostel the 2nd night as well.

We did, however, venture out into the city to check out the sights which included the impressive St. Vitus's Cathedral complex and the old bridge / town. On the Friday night we hit the town after dinner. It was pretty busy but we found a couple of nice places. One of which was advertising the opportunity to fire genuine AK47's, uzi's, pump action shotguns and high power rifles. Unfortunately we had to leave early the next morning.

So I found Prague a nice, old, cheap European city - worth spending longer in than we did. Sarah however found the locals decidedly unfriendly and dodgey (which is hard to argue with) and was unswayed by the beauty of the skyline.

Saturday morning we made extensive use of the free internet at our hostel then headed for Berlin!!

Munich

2008-04-19T03:12:00.004+10:00

After dropping Mick off at the station in Salzburg we made tracks for Munich. It was a ripping day and a pity to be wasting it in the car but it made the drive more relaxing than previous experiences..

We arrived in Munich in mid-afternoon. By arrived I mean the first time we exited the motorway. By the fourth time we exited the motorway it was more like late afternoon. Eventually we temporarily abandoned the car and continued on foot in search of some sort of map or tourist information. We had actually been told of a good place to stay in central Munich and had booked accom. (a relatively new experience for us which we starting to get used to). This however was a two sided coin because it meant we had to find a specific hostel in Munich rather than any of the countless hostels and hotels we were passing. Eventually we happened upon a detailed road map for $4.50 (can't find the cursed euro symbol) and discovered that our hostel was indeed in prime position over the road from the central station. We proceeded there (almost) directly.

The Wombats Hostel (some tenuous Australian connection tho none of the staff are aussies) was actually pretty flash and good value for money. One of the best things was the town map and suggestions for things to do / see / eat / drink / etc which you got given after checking in. That evening we headed to one of the suggested dining locations and dined heartily on the closest thing to a parma we've come across in Europe. After tea we decided to head for Ned Kelly's aussie bar. On the way we walked down the main drag - Munich is a very pretty town (it doesn't seem like a city at all). The centre of town is dotted with churches and cathedrals and the Rathaus is a large intricately decorated gothic building. The aussie bar was almost as tacky as expected and they weren't even playing afl on the big screen so we had the requisite couple of Fosters and headed home.

The next day we repeated our tour of the main drag and checked inside a couple of the churches and the townhall (Rathaus) before heading to the Hofbrauhaus for lunch and Mass beers (1L). That arvo we checked out the Deutches Museum which is meant to be one of the best (and biggest) technology museums in the world. It was Sarah's idea, obviously. Well all I can say is that when they offer multi-day passes at the entrance, they mean it. The place was huge. It was packed full of genuine pieces of technology ranging from windmills, to mining equipment, to laser cutters, production lines, cars, aeroplanes, space ships, rockets, submarines, diving equipment, boats, bridges, etc, etc. Sarah had a ball. We decided we'd better leave at closing time after nearly being locked in the toilets.

That night we met up with our local contact (Alister - a friend of Richard's) and got a bit of a guided tour around part of the city we hadn't seen and a great meal. We mustn't have disgraced ourselves to much because we scored the use of Alister and his girlfriend's bikes for the next day. We arose early at the indecent hour of 10am and proceeded to pick up the bikes from the agreed location. Munich is very flat so it's difficult to get an idea for the size of the city from street level so we cycled over to Munich's olympic park where there's a man made hill (from post WW2 rubble). The view was pretty decent but Sarah discovered on the way down that her bike was devoid of any form of braking equipment. We therefore proceeded at a fair clip to the English gardens - which are the biggest city gardens in Europe I think. The gardens surround a central lake, biergartens and nude bathing area. We checked out 2 of the 3 (to the great disappoinment of one of our party).

The most memorable bit about the gardens was the surfing area, no joking. Where one of the rivers flows into the gardens under a bridge a permanent wave has been created. The water was bloody freezing but there was about half a dozen well insulated surfers giving it a crack. It was pretty hilarious and unexpected.

The next day we decided to check out some of the castles surrounding Munich. Turns out the weather didn't agree and it was raining pretty solidly. We'd both seen Neuschwanstein before so Sarah decided to take me to her favourite castle from her previous trip. Linderhof is a pretty small castle compared to others but it the only one of Ludwig's castles to be completed and it was amazing inside. Packed with gold, silver, mirrors, chandeliers, and even a dinner table which rose up through the floor. In the surrounding gardens there was even a man made cave with a lake in which the king held concerts!

We'd decided to head to Berlin via Prague so we left Munich there and made tracks for the Czech Republic.

Austria

2008-04-05T21:53:00.001+11:00

Hi again!!!

We currently have free internet so we are trying to get as much updated as we can! Feel free to take your time to read them, one a day or all at once whatever you prefer!

After Unterwasser we headed into Austria. We decided that we would spend a night in Insbruck then head to Salzburg where we were to meet up with Richards old housemate form Hawthorn, Mick. We arrived not to late for a change! Still though with no accm organised and no town map! We parked the car (on the side walk!!!) and went to see if we could find a tourist info. We could not so we thought we better go move the car before heading for a longer search for the tourist info. We were lucky I think that we moved the car because we noticed later that all the cars parked there were taxis, so it was probably a taxi zone.

Parking the car was extremely funny. We found a spot easy enough but Richard had to reverse parallel park!!! I had to get out of the car to help guide (even though the car has reverse censors!!! It took many attempts to get it in right and a lot of laughter form both of us (and the people passing by on the street). I will just mentioned I am sure at home Richard can park with no problems, but it is extremely hard when you are on the wrong side of the car. It messes everything up.

After that, we managed to find the tourist info and get us a map and some accom info. I am not sure if we mentioned it before but for some strange reason you cannot book in anywhere between about 10am and 4pm because they close reception! So you have to wait til late in the day to see if you can get a room which is not a really comfortable thing. You will have no idea if everything is booked out or not and by time you do it is so late you really need somewhere! Most have a message bank that tells you though if they have rooms avaliable for that night which is helpful, they jsut dont say how much space they have.

So to waste time while we waited to get some accom we decided to do some touristy things. There was a crystal museum/cave thing that looked cool so we decided to head there. Well do you think we could find it??? Nooooo!!! So we changed plans again. We were sort odf in the direction of the olympic bobsledge stadium so we thought we would go check it out. It was late in the day when we got there but the gates were open so we drove up anyway. The first stop we made was at one of the bobsledge runs, but it did not really have any ice in it. It did have a shed underneath though so we got to check out some sleds. We then decided to drive up at bit higher.

Here it was compeletly unsecured and there was no one around. We walked on the track and all around the place. It was pretty cool. Richard nearly feel over when he stepped onto on of the tracks which was funny. He then founf a block of wood to try and ride it down but sadly it was too heavy. It was cold and as much as a free run of the place we had there was not a whole lot to do. We headed to where we parked the car where Richard got his brillant idea!!! There was a patch of snow in a largish area next to the tracks. He wanted to do some doughies in the car. I tried to advise against this and warned him if he got bogged I was not helping him get out!!!

He decided to do it anyway, saying that I approved!!! I filmed him on my camera while he acted soooo cool!!! hahahaha. Well he did some laps, rather slow if I must say so. Then he decided to head back in and guess what??? Thats right he got bogged. he stuck his head out the window while I was still filming and told me to come help him. It kinda makes the video! I was not going to help but it wwas cold and I did want to get going. It took a lot of pushing and back tracking but we finally made it out!

We then got ourselves a bed for the night and headed into town foe dinner. We had learnt that parking is quite hard in these big towns so we walked in. However we did not realise what a long walk it actually was into town and it was raining! We kept going anyway and had dinner at nice greek resturant. The food was great and we got given this shot of something rather! We were not actually sure what we were supposed to do with it, do you shot it all at once or sip it, was it for before or after dinner? So many questions and you done want to offend! We went with sipping band before dinner!

As the weather was crap and it was such a long walk home we did not go out and just headed back to our room. On the way I must add (Richard will kill me when he reads this hahahahaha) Richard needed to go to the toilet and could not wait so he went in someones front yard! Now if you are drunk this is probably a normal thing to do but he was not!

The next morning we headed to the highest zoo in Europe! Well for a zoo it was a little interesting. It had farm animals!! Richard nearly got attacked my some geese while trying to get a close up photo. It was rather funny as there was one particular geese that kept going after him. we got some great photos of that. Also after he stirred up the geese one of the keepers came and shut this gate so we could not get near them anymore! I dont think he was impressed with us. The zoo was smallish and did not have a great deal of animals. Lots of birds but I think they are boring! There was also the problem of animals and snakes being in hibernation! The zoo had a number of otter exhbits but there were no otters as they were hibernating. There were some sort of large cats (more medium size) that lived in trees. They were quite active so that was cool. The funny thing was I was taking a photo of one in a tree but with the glare from the sun I could not quite see my screen that well. I took the photo then had a better look at it only to realise I took a photo of the knob in the tree and no cat at all in the shot!!

After the zoo we went to visit a castle. It had a museum in it and cost to get in so we jsut walked in the parks and gardens around it (free and beautiful). It was really a very nice walk and we walked for about an hour. We then headed off to Salzburg. We stopped for lunch at a petrol sation/rest stop. It was huge and really nice. I got spag bol for lunch and it was massive! Richard had a curry sausage, he enjoyed it and my leftovers because it was so big.

For once we actually had our accm booked before we got into town but no map!! Neither of us can currently remember how we scored a map but we did! We had to pull over to ring our accom to find out where it was and it turned out we were two mins away. It was quit a good location as we could park our car and walk into town and anywhere else in a short time. There was a great view from the window of a castle of the hill. We set up our beds and headed in for a walk around. Salzburg was really beautiful. I liked it much better than Insbruck. It had such a nice feel. We walked around the old town and it was beautful. Some pretty fancy shops too. We had a drink at an Irish pub then dinner at an Italian Resturant. The funny thing about Europe is you can take your dog anywhere. The resturant was upstairs and some people came in with a dog!!!! Funny.

I had seen at the Irish pub earlier that they have live music ecerynight so we headed back there. it was getting full and we got some seats at the bar. We had a few quite drinks, beer, wine, jager bombs! The music started and it got fuller!! After a few (many) drinks we decided to hit the dance floor! Oh and we rocked!!! We also made some friends witht the locals. One of them was celebrating his 25th birthday so we joined the party!! What a great night. We decide to call it quits at around three am and head home. We were being silly though and walked a different way to richard thinking he would follow but in the state he was in he did not!!! So we then were both lost in Austria drunk as scunks and seperated!!! Oh dear! We had our phones with us so we kept in contact. Richard also had the map but appparently he was unable to read it?! I somehow (with my brillant sense of direction) stumbled across home first.

I have to admit this though because otherwise Richard will tell anyway, I was busting for the toilet, could not move, walk, go any further if I did not have a wee! Well there was nowhere to go sadly for me, so I did what any busting girl would do and went on the road!! It was a alley more like it and it was sort of dark and there was noone around. I had to!!! I then discovered (which Richard has not let me forget and teased me constantly about) is if I kept walking jsut a 20m further the was a park and some bushes I could have hid in to go!

We both eventually made it home after much time in the cold. We crashed!! We woke in the morning just in time for breaky, but Richard was looking very worse for wear. I was not great either but compared to him 100 times better! We were planning on doing some things before Mick came. this never happen we had to get some more sleep. We woke up when the phone rang, it was Mick he was at the staion and wanted us to come get him!!! Oh dear. It took us awhile to find the staion because we were given the wrong directions! We met up eventually.

We did some more sight seeing with Mick and had a hearty lunch to help combat the hangover. It helped pick us up. We still all had an afternoon nap though! We were jsut going to lay down for a min but we all crashed and woke three hours later! We headed out to dinner at a nice little place with great pizzas! Then back to the Irish pub. Mick and Richard had a few drinks but compared to the night before it was a relativly quite night. The only thing was Mick taught Richard how to say bow job in German! The barmaid came to take the order so in German for two blowjobs please!!!! She said what and then in english he order two beers!!! I was embarssed but it was pretty funny. Mick and Richard found it highly amusing. He wanted to do it again but I said no!

The next morning we got up in time for breakfast just! Headed down and it was all closed up and finished! Slightly confusing. So we packed up to head into town for some food. On the way out I noticed there was a sign at reception saying daylight savings had started and to change yours clocks! That explains why we missed breaky. We went to this nice little place for some food. We order drinks first, had those but the waiter did not come back for our food order. We called him over but he did not speak English, Mick was doing ok with his German though. We asked about food and said ten mins. He then went and made a phone call. It seems that the chef must have forgot to change his clock and was running late! We got some great food though and the Chef spoke english.

We then dropped Mick off at the station (hope you made the train Mick!) and we headed to Munich.

I will leave it here as this is very long!!

Love sarah

Interlaken

2008-04-05T21:39:00.005+11:00

So we'd had a pretty good run with the weather in Zermatt, and then it'd been pretty shit really on the way to Interlaken, but, we'd made it and we checked into our place. this was actually harder than it sounds because by the time we got into town it was dark and raining/snowing, the streets are windy and full of impossible-to-tell-who-has-right-of-way intersections and, as usual, we didn't have a map. Despite these minor inconveniences and one incorrectly rung doorbell we found our place. The hostel was above a seedy looking restaurant but it did have a decent (and free) internet connection!!

The next morning (Easter Saturday) we awoke early, well alright.. earlier, because we didn't have any accom for that night and had to find some quick smart. Luckily the tourist office was open (almost our first experience with such an occurrence) and one of the first places we tried had room. the place was called Heidi's Hostel and presumably it was Heidi i spoke with on the phone. Heidi was a charming old bird although obviously deranged. She must of been 100 if she was a day and repeatedly informed us that 'she tells us the true, only the not-so-good room is available!'.

Well that was good enough for us, after a quick inspection of the 'not-so-good' room well checked in. So the shower was in a tin box in the corner of the room, the toilet was in a cupboard and there was something living in the roof, but the room was clean, Heidi was an old dear and there was kitchen facilities so I don't know what Sarah was whingeing about. We stayed 4 nights.

Unfortunately the weather continued to be cold and snowy so we were confined to low altitude walking, chocolate eating and reading for most of the easter weekend. After the fun and total enjoyment of skiing the previous week this suited Sarah just fine thankyou.

We had planned to go para-gliding in Interlaken but the weather defeated us, so we left (it was still snowing) and set course for Austria. We did manage to pick up some music cd's for the car and some awesome raspberry white chocolate before we left tho. We'd read somewhere that the town of Chur in East Switzerland was worth a look so we swung by there for lunch. hmmm, bum steer. The weather had picked up tho and it was a beautiful drive. it was getting to that time of day when we started wondering where we were going to sleep so we dug through our books and started ringing around. closed, fully booked, no answer.. usual story. we eventually found a cheapish place just off our route in a quaint little town called Unterwasser. Small ski resort is probably an overstatement but technically correct. There was a really nice sunset, a good view and I think we were the only ones in the hostel - and the whole town as it turned out. We hit the local bar (star bar??) to find that they were pumping out tina turner, accadacca, and a whole lot of other old school stuff. this was pretty funny cos the barmaid (and everyone else for that matter - which admittedly was about 3 blokes) didn't speak a word of english, but was singing along anyway.

we ate dinner that night alone in a fairly decently sized restaurant then headed to Innsbruck the next morning. While i was checking out, the owner asked if he could 'make picture of me' because I was carrying my pack and backpack and i think i was the first real backpacker looking guest they'd had (they only opened their hostel this winter).

My version of Skiing!!

2008-04-05T19:57:00.003+11:00

Hi All!!

Sorry to write about Zermatt again but I feel that you need to hear the truth about skiing. Richard was very brief and did not quite cover how bad it actually was for me. So let me tell it how it really went. Please note this first photo was a before shot!! I had not started yet.

On the first day of skiing I was very excited as we went and hired our skis. They lady had to ask what ability you had (I guess this varies what type of skis you get), I told her never been before. She wished me luck but I think she was actually laughing at me! We then headed up to catch the train up to the slopes. We had been told by the lady would sold us our ski passes that this particular run was a good start for beginners, what a liar!!! We got to the top and it was just straight down. There was nowhere at all for me to have a bit of a practice and get used to the skis. I was scared and am not ashamed to admit it!!!!

So we went to the side of the run so Richard could show me the basics, like how to stop and turn. Then we had to go. I tried to wait until there were not so many other people going down but this was hard cause it was quite busy. Then off we went for about 3m then CRASH!!! And that is how it went for the next two and a half hours!! I would try to go from one side to the other. If I made it without falling that was a bonus!! I crashed so many times I could not keep count. I even face planted into the the side wall!!! Lucky it had snowed the day before, it made the wall nice and soft. I had snow everywhere!! It went in my pants, up my jacket, in my beanie and up my arm sleves. I crashed so hard my skis went flying and trying to put skis back on when you are on a slope is very hard! Especially when I had enough trouble getting them on anyway!

I will say I did start to get better over the two and a half hours. I managed to even string a couple of turns together before crashing. The thing about getting better is Richard would go slightly ahead then bang! I was down again. I had many people ask me was I ok. I lied and said yes. I also have to say over this first run there were so very many tears. I would be going ok then we would stop at a hill (that was massive to me) and I would panic and start crying cause I was to scared to more. Every bone and muscle in my body was aching!

I was improving though and we finally made it to the bottom!! Not after having to go through this horrible tunnel that was really narrow and fast (I crawled down the side to get through) which was made of stone and would have hurt a lot to crash into. Then we headed back up. Just to prove I had improve the second time only took an hour to get down! Far less crashes, no less spectular though! Then we did it again. I still had moments of tears and could not get through the tunnel at the end without crawling down the side, but I had improved ten fold.

We then had lunch because I could bearly move anymore. After lunch I headed home cause my body could not take anymore punishment plus I wanted richard to be able to have a ski without having to stop every min for me. That night I could hardly sleep. My body was so sore. Getting in and out of bed was so painful. Turning in my sleep woke me cause it hurt so much and going to the toilet was even painful as my bum was so bruised.

When we woke up for day two I was no longer excited! I did not even want to go, I hurt too much. I said to Richard that I would bring my skis up but was going to sit out the morning and I would start after lunch. We tried a new set of runs and when we got up there I was happy (and a little mad cause I had to start of the hard run the day before!) to see a nice easy, mild baby run!!! It was wide and had a few straights with a few hills that were managable to get you going on the straights. Well I was so excited I think I may have only crashed a couple of times per run!! Thats fantastic. I had problems with my turns because of my legs not wanting to work due to their soreness. We did this run a number of times because I could mostly get through unscared. There was just one hill that was beating me!! I even had all these good skiers overtake me then stand at the bottom and watch me. I was doing it so well, I thought I was going to make it!!! Then CRASH!! Right in front of everyone, so horrible! I dont think anyone laughed though so that was nice.

We then decided to go to another run to give it ago. This was mostly ok except for where you get off the lift. There was an extremely steep slope. I dont even think I was the only one side stepping down this bit!! I did not crash though. Here we found a ski tow (well they are interesting to ride on) and went up to a run I did quite like. It was very wide and the slopes were not steep at all. The only tricky bit was you had to ski through the people going up the ski tow. I was nervous about that. I thought I would take someone out for sure! I did not though so thats good news. I managed to do this run a couple of times with no crashes!! Yay! Richard then caught the tow up higher while I did halfway. We then headed home together as it was late and cold.

The third day we went back to the afternoon before runs. This time I went all the way to the top with Richard. It was not actually to hard and I did not crash but it was so cold. The wind was horrible. We decided to head back to my baby run in the home it was more sheltered from the wind. It wasnt. I was very excited though because I made it through with no crashes, even conquered the hill that was beating me!!! It helped me not hate skiing so much.

Richard then tricked me!!!He said we could go down this easy run to get onto a lift to another one. So I said ok and went along. Well the run was ok for a bit, but then we got to the lift and it was going the wrong way and was not what we wanted!! Thats ok says Richard we can just go down here and get to it there its an easy run! Liar, liar pants on fire!!!! It was a hard run (well intermedite, but hard for a first timer). I managed fairly well for most of it, no crashes and all. Then we got to this horrible steep and long slope. It was also evry bumpy. I was terrified! I tried to side step for awhile but it was not going well. I then decided I had to rty and ski down or I was never going to get to the bottom which was what I wanted more than anything else! I started ok and Richard went ahead because he wanted to get a photo of me kicking ass!! Well while he did that I picked up a lot of speed, went out of control and crashed hard! I hit my knee and lost a ski! It hurt quite a bit so I just sat there crying!!! What a baby! A man came passed and asked me if I was ok, I told him yes and that I did not need any help but he would not believe me (maybe the tears were a give a way that I was not ok) and insisted on helping me down.

He was very nice and told me that we all were here once but I was probably on to hard of a run for a first timer. I told him we got here by accident! I did not want to tell him my boyfriend was mean and had tricked me!!! Richard denies this but then at the same time says but I thought you could handle it you were doing so well! In the end I made it alive. After that though my aches and pains said no more and I headed home. Richard went for a bit more of a run, so he could actually ski non stop and down somewhere I would not do.

So overall, I sucked and was a sook!! I kept telling Richard I hated skiing but really it was fun in between all the crashing. I would still do it again but bring on the baby runs! Oh and I got a great skiing tan line on my face too!!!

Love Sarah

Zermatt

2008-04-03T06:14:00.009+11:00

Ok guys, currently in Munich hitting up the castles and beer halls and just about to head to Prague tomorrow night before Berlin on Saturday..

Well what can I say..? Zermatt was awesome!! We arrived in Zermatt late Sunday arvo from Tasch not having booked any accom. (as was to become our tradition) and quickly set about finding some. Unfortunately, every reception in Europe is closed between about 11am and 5pm so we had to wait around with our bags for a bit (we busted into the youth hostel to borrow their computer and warmth). Eventually we booked a couple of nights at the Matterhorn hostel which was cosy but nice.

We decided to spend our first day going for a walk in the 'hills' (read mountains) surrounding Zermatt. The walk was great tho the path was snowed under and slighlty difficult to follow in sections. Walking on the 1st day however turned out to be a great decision because the following 3 days were absolutely perfect weather and we spent them all skiing.

Sarah had never been skiing before, let alone touched real snow, so it was a pretty steep and spectacular learning curve. We started off catching the Gournegratbahn up to what we had been informed was the easy slopes. Well Sarah had never heard such lies in her life. The runs were wide and long and covered in fresh snow - which only served to give Sarah more ground to crash on. The views of the Matterhorn and surrounding mountains were spectactular and on the second day we caught the cable car up to one of the highest peaks. The cable car ride was slightly unnerving but definitely rewarding. We even discovered an underground ice cave at the summit.

Sarah also fared better on the 2nd day and we found a nice long baby run to get a bit more practice on. We'd reduced the crashes per day to about 4 by this point. This was down from about several thousand the day before however and Sarah was feeling almost everyone of them. To her credit she backed up for a 3rd day and we found a couple of awesome runs down from the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise. We even 'accidently' skiied down a medium run which both parties survived admirably (except for a teary incident towards the bottom of the last slope). Sarah has just informed me she will tell the real story in a post of her own shortly...

So skiing was fantastic and the weather was brilliant so we had a ball in Zermatt. To aid in our recovery each day we decided to hit up the local 'apres ski' bar which was totally bangin from about 5pm to 9.30pm each night. Their lime margueritas (read tequilla slushies) were fairly potent and the bar was attached to an Irish pub. St Patrick's day just happened to fall during the week we were there so we were forced to attend. Massive. The dude on the piano was insane, like actually.

It seemed that the second we left the ski slopes the weather turned bad. We had intended to drive to Interlaken from Tasch on the Friday (that would be Good Friday) via the shortest route. The roads were completely snowed under, visibility was down to about 100m and our Peugot was equipped with neither chains nor winter tires. Well, we were first stumped by closed passes, then the road to the car train to Kandersteg was closed just as we got to the turn-off. By this time we'd been driving for about 3 hours and it seemed every car in Switzerland was in the same situation. We eventually had to go via Bern (which is 'slightly' out of the way for those without maps handy) and stuck to motorways, on which we were almost able to hold an average speed of 30km/h!! Exciting times. Our trip also included a particularly hairy moment trying to cross a fairly low level pass - think brakes fully locked, car still sliding..

Well we eventually made it after dark to our night's accom which we had actually managed to pre book. Unfortunately we could only manage to book the one night on the easter weekend so the fun continued...

Nice and beyond

2008-04-02T06:47:00.010+11:00

Hi All!!

Hope everyone is doing well and missing us heaps. We are having a blast but occasionally take the time to miss you all!! So my update will be from Nice to Zermatt and maybe a little more (or a little less as I can go on a bit).

Well as mentioned earlier we were really unsure on where we were to disembark the train in Nice. It turned out we had no need to worry as the centre stop was marked as such and everyone got off (ususally a good indicator!). We were hungry so we headed across the staion to a cafe for breakfast. I also needed to go the toilet (as always) so Richard used his amazing French skills to ask the waiter where the toilet was!!! Well you think that a point in the direction or a simple answer would follow... but nooo the waiter gave us a bunch of numbers!! What??? So I did not get to go the toilet as we were so damn confused!!

After breaky we worked out how we were to get to the airport as that is where the car was to be picked up. It was fairly simple, just had to catch a bus to the airport that was clearly numbered in front of the train station. We jumped on one and headed out. We got to the airport a little early to pick up the car so while we waited we went through the aps and tried to make a plan of where to head too. All the looking at the maps made time fly and then we had in our hot little hands the keys to a brand new Peugot!!! Wooohooo!!!!

We took some time checking out the car, adjusting things, checking how the lights and blinkers worked before we even started the car to leave. The first few mins of driving were a little exciting!! Nothing happened but just getting used to the wrong side of the car and the wrong side of the road is fun!!! Richard, of course, was our driver (though it still stumps me why when my navigating skills leave a lot to be desired!). He did a great job though!

We headed back into Nice for a walk around and some lunch. We parked the car in a carpark and walked on the path that went along Cote D'Azure. It had beautiful views of the Mediterrainean Sea and Nice. The beach was beautiful apart for, the fact there is no sand (apart from a small imported bit) but black stones. The amazing thing was people were laying on the stones like you would lay on a sandy beach. I dont know how this could be comfortable at all. It was quite a sunny day in Nice but I wouldnt say it was swimming or even bather wearing weather but we blessed (read horrified) to see old people sunbaking in their g-strings on the beach!! Hot!!!

After a walk along and dipping a toe and hand into the water (just to say we have been in the Metiterrainean Sea) we had lunch at an Irish Pub! It was a great pub but the food was not as good as it could have been, which was a pity cause the menu was good. After lunch it was time to head off into the unknown!!

We took some time to get out of Nice but it is probably one of better exits of a city. We then headed up aiming towards Italy. As it was the first day in the car I was no so excied about the roads we were driving on. The were crazy!! Windy with a steep drop off to one side, cliff above us on the other. It had some amazing views though off snow capped mountains and down into valleys!! Spectacular (if a little scary)! I think Richrad was loving it but not me!! We had to stop at light for a tunnel before we entered Italy which took quite some time. It took us a couple of changes before we got through and each set went for ten mins!

Once we crossed the boarder we stop at a petrol station as we were told before hand, we needed to purchase a safety vest and triangle for travelling in Italy. Richard made me get out of the car and go ask. Well it was a very funny experience. No one there really spoke any english and my Italian is limited to swear words (which was not really going to be that helpful) so there were lots of arm waving, laughing and confusion. I had left my jumper in the car so I was cold so they thought I needed a jumper!! In the end I decided we would just risk not having them, got back in the car and headed off again.

We came to a town called Cuneo late in the afternoon so we decided to stay there. We parked the car and went for a walk to find somewhere to stay. It took us about one hour to walk from one end of town to the other with no luck. We could not see many hotels (except way out of our budget), no tourist info office, no nothing!! Eventually I seeen a sign for a two star place so we decided to head there (it was geting dark and we (I) wanted dinner). When we got to what seem to match the sign it looked a little flash for two star, we went in anyway. Richard asked the lady about a room and she turned to check what they had, as she did this though she looked at us and asked were we after two or four star??? Not really sure what gave us away, the packs or the volleys! She pointed us in the direction of the two star place. It was really quite nice, a little expensive but it was getting late so we took it. We then had to walk back to the car (miles away) to bring it to where we were staying.

We had dinner in a nice little restauraunt then headed back to our room for an early night (sleeping on the train the night before was tiring). On the way back some sort of church procession was walking through town. It was rather large and strange. we had no idea what it was about. In the morning we got up and headed off towards Switzerland. It was a nice drive except when we got to Turin. As our maps were limited we tried to go around it but somehow ended up in the middle lost!! It took us about an hour to fight our way out!! The most frustrating part was we would follow the signs to the motorway, then when we got to a large intersection all the signs would disappear!! No idea where we were supposed to go. Oh and we never passed a tourist info place either.

Eventually we found our way out but it put our plans back a little. We still made it into switzerland but only to Sion. It was quite a nice little town surrounded by snow capped mountains (I feel I may be repeating the snow capped mountains but thats exactly how it was!). We had dinner at the restaurant where we were staying. We decided to pick dinner without actually knowing what it was, they had no english menus and the lady did not speak very much english. Richard order and that was fine I then ordered and she went a bit funny, she told me to wait while she went over to another tables od diners to get a translation. When she came back she told me what I ordered was 'not cooked', I changed my order! Not really in the mood for raw meat.

We then spent the night in our room watching French MTV. There were stupid American shows on with french translation being played over it. Made for some funny watching as we made up what we thought they were saying and what the show was about.

This is getting long so I will round it up now. In the mornig we got up and headed to Tasch which was the last place you could drive to before Zermatt. Our next post will be from there.

Take care everyone.

Lots of Love SEJB and RJDM xxxoo

PS Sorry we are having computer troubles. There are photos to add in or you can look at our picasa albums, as they are up there.

Roma (or Pizza, not sure what we love best)

2008-03-26T02:17:00.002+11:00

Well it took bloody long enough to get there but jeez it was worth it. We'd spent 2 days on planes and in airports (including 8 hours sleeping on the floor of Dubai airport) and on arriving at our booked accom. we found that our room had been flooded and we'd been relocated to a hotel around the corner - an auspicious start. Our new dorm was pretty nice however (overlooking the British embassy, right near the central Termini station) and we still got the free dinner on offer at our original accom. The night we arrived it was pizza and beer night, sweet.

Our first job was to book us a train ticket to Nice so we'd know how long (or short) we had in Rome. It turned out we had 2 full days - and fill them we did. The first day we did the Pantheon, Spanish stairs, Trevi fountain, Colloseum, Roman Forum, Palantine, and a whole lot of other really old stuff. Everywhere we looked there were ruins, fountains, cars parked at weird angles and photo opportunities. We found the pantheon really impressive, although that might just be because it was the first really big thing we saw :)

We decided to join the queue and have a look inside the Colloseum which was expectably impressing. To imagine how it would have looked fully built and in action was impressive. We returned that evening to get some night-time photos (these, along with a whole lot of other photos are on Richard's camera. the contents of which was unavailable at the time of print). Our Colloseum ticket also allowed us into Palatine which was basically a big park and gardens with assorted ruins, and the Roman Forum which was spectacular. One of the highlights of the day, however, was the pizza we had for lunch in an unassuming little corner store in downtown Rome - probably the most amazing slices of pizza we will ever eat!!

Our second day we spent checking out the Vatican city and it's contents. We walked into the plaza in front of the basilica and our jaws dropped. Sarah's comment summed it up - "i've never seen such a big church". We wandered around for a bit, taking photos and generally in a state of shock before joining the queue. We'd been advised to join a guided tour and skip the line and the length of the line was only slightly shorter than the circumfrence of the plaza but the guided tours were fairly expensive so we settled in and took our chances. As it turned out the line was moving fairly quickly and we only spent about 20-30min waiting before entering the basilica. Inside was just phenomenal. It was too dark for photos but they wouldn't have done it justice anyway. The number of people inside was slightly overbearing but the building (roof, statues, shear size, dome, etc) was breathtaking. We did a lap in humbled silence then headed for lunch.

Post-lunch we continued our whirlwind tour and headed for the Vatican museums (again, some pics not yet available). There was no line to get in and we set out for the Sistine Chapel. We didn't actually possess a map of the layout which we thought may have been a slight oversight but turned out not to matter as everything was clearly signposted. It did mean however that we weren't aware the route to the chapel is slighly convoluted. We passed through room after exquisitely decorated room of statues, sculptures, ruins and artifacts. The rooms themselves were most impressive - especially the Raphael rooms which were decorated floor to ceiling with amazingly detailed frescos. The map room was also superb.

Once we finally got to the chapel we were ejected into a large, cavernous space crammed also as much with people as it was with paintings. It seemed we'd seen every painting before and although photos weren't allowed we snuck one of the Creation of Adam (flash off).

We were pretty tired from two days of non-stop walking and upon finding a quite side room we decided to lift our (and the statues') spirits slightly.

That night we dined at a cosy family restaurant (yes, pizza again) before jumping on our overnight train to Nice. We discovered when we boarded we had a whole compartment to ourselves so settled in for the 12 hour trip. Whilst on the train we passed up the coast through some pretty speccz towns such as San Remo and Monte Carlo - although it was either dark or we were underground for most of them so not much to tell!! Apparently there was some sort of strike in France (surprise) and the train had to stop at the border for us to change to a bus service. The bus service actually turned out to be another train, which we only discovered by accident, and so we continued to Nice. En route we decided that Nice was likely to have serveral stations - none of who's names we knew. On this note we'll leave you with the promise of more to come. So tune in next time for the next exciting installment of Richard and Sarah's Travelog!!!

Zanzibar 2

2008-03-26T01:29:00.003+11:00

Alright, finally a minute or two to catch up on some posts (currently in Interlaken by the way).

Following our Safari we spent about 2 days in the tour bus transitting from Arusha to Dar es Salaam. This was pretty uneventful except for one of our lunch stops by the side of the road which was invaded by a herd of goats who proceeded to drink the dishwashing water... anyway, upon reaching Dar we found we were staying in a fairly nice establishment on the beach (warmest water I've ever swam in). We also bumped into another couple of groups on Safari (this spot is a bit of a meeting spot for groups coming to or from Zanzibar). This made for quite a large evening (we'll never drink again, etc). This, in turn, made for quite a long boat ride out to Zanzibar the next morning.

We immediately liked Stonetown a lot more than Dar. The buildings were quaint and beautifully run-down rather than just being run-down, there were lots of narrow streets which wound their way around (and sometimes through) cafes and bars and there were boats with "Lovely Jubbly" written on them. Our hotel in Stonetown that night was even better with a rabbit-warren style interior and interesting rooms (our room opened into a hallway with our bedroom chained and padlocked on one side and the bathroom on the other).

After we got off the boat we had quite a busy first day, first looking around Stonetown and then heading off on a spice tour - which we weren't all that excited about to begin with. How wrong we were. Our local guide for this tour was bloody hilarious!! He'd been taught english by an englishman, and so while most of his words were spoken in the local Zanzibarbarian sing-song accent, every now and then he'd insert words in a (exaggerated) pommy accent. We first thought he was having a dig at James (the pom on our tour) but soon realised this was just how he spoke. It was so hard to listen without cracking up. But he was worth listening to. He first informed us that his name was "Ali-T in da bus" as opposed to "Ali-G in da house" - as we were being shown around in a minibus. He was also fairly well versed in Australian slang (tucker, sheila, dead horse, etc) to the confusion of the Americans.

Anyway, I digress, the spice tour was excellent - I hadn't even realised where most standard spices came from or what they looked like un-processed. We got to taste all of them (ginger, cardimon, pepper, cinnamon, lemongrass, cummin, plus a whole lot of others which I've forgotten about) and even saw one of the locals scamper up a palm tree to cut us some fresh coconuts. The following morning we headed out to a small island just outside the harbour which was used as a quarantine port in the colonial days. Here we did our first snorkelling (which was fantastic, except Sarah's mask leaked) and had a bit of a look around the island.

The main attraction on the island was the Giant Tortoise sanctuary. The main attraction of this was seeing one of the big males try (unsuccessfully) to mount one of the smaller females. This took sometime but provided for some good photo ops. We also got to hand feed them and hold some of the smaller ones which was good fun.

After returning from the island we went on a "swim with the dolphins" type tour. Which looked good on paper but actually involved a 90min drive to the other side of Zanzibar to what looked like someone's backyard, followed by a 90min goose(dolphin) chase in a small boat in fairly rough seas. To be fair we did see one dolphin flip out of the water and we saw plenty of fins but we only actually did any swimming once and the water was too stirred up to see anything (you could hear them tho). We were given dinner and had a beer to celebrate James' birthday then sat the 90min back to stonetown. The next morning we headed to the northern beaches.

I must say that the (mercifully) short trip from the 'highway' to our hotel was slightly interesting (read: travelled past some sort of unofficial refuse dump and murder ground). Our hotel was reasonably nice however and the beaches were stunning. We spent the majority of the next 5 days swimming, drinking, eating, relaxing, drinking, swimming, drinking and getting a stomach bug (not related to drinking, however. promise). The highlight would have to be the day-trip we took out to an island off the coast. The island was actually a private (!!) island and we couldn't step on the beach but we anchored off shore and did some pretty spectacular snorkelling (heaps of coral and beautiful fish of all sizes, starfish, seasnakes, anenomes and rays - and sarah maintains she saw a seahorse {unconfirmed}).

The accidental highlight tho was the pod of dolphins we passed through on the way out. They came right up to the boat and we all jumped in in our snorkelling gear and swam with them. The water was brilliantly clear and they must have only been 3-4m away - it was awesome, flogged the hell out of the "dolphin tour" a couple of days before. Please note the above photo is real and has _not_ been doctored in any way :) it jumped out of the water right next to us! Soon after we continued some of the locals on the boat caught a sizeable fish which they bbq'd for us (on the boat!!). It was delicious and probably the freshest fish we're likely to eat (~20min from alive and kicking to mmmmmm tasty...).

We spent the remainder of the week slogging it out at the restaurants and bars on the beach being forced to observe sunsets like this one. I reckon we took this identical photo about half a dozen times each night, every night. It was idyllic.

We actually left our tour on the beaches as the boys were heading back a day early to do the kili climb and we were staying on a day later to fly directly out of Dar instead of taking the tour bus back to Arusha. Our return trip through Stonetown and Dar wasn't all that exciting although we did get to try a chocolate and banana pizza at the Stonetown night market.

Rome ahoy!

Blog update

2008-03-22T08:11:00.002+11:00

Hi all, just a note to let you know we're still alive and haven't been kidnapped by some lederhosen wearing german. We've added a couple of pics to the Zanzibar, Rome and Zermatt albums but haven't had time to put a post up yet (i know, i know, but we're trying. well not really, we just spent 3 days skiing). There'll be more photos for those albums and of course a couple of posts to come.

Hope everyone is well (and truly jealous). Check out the albums here.

Safari

2008-03-10T02:55:00.006+11:00

Hi All,

Sorry if sometimes our blogs get a little out of order! It just depends on computers and time, but you get the idea anyway!

Just a note to my Mum, I am feeling much better thankyou and go The Saints!!! Oh and to James we have some sunset photos that will match yours and raise them!!! Will put up a collection when we can!

Now to safari...

We were picked up on the first day from our hotel with the rest of our tour group - which consisted of two other people, an Englishman called James and a fellow Aussie called Steve! The first day did not consist of much safariing as we just went into Arusha to get money and supplies for the next few days then we headed to a snake park run by the Massai. This was quite good as we got to hold a snake and a baby croc and seen some ginormous snakes!!! We also went into a Massai museum. This was a little funny because they had these models set up and they had the funniest expressions on their faces! Bit boring though. After that we just headed back to Arusha to a campsite for the night. We played pool, had some drinks and did not much else.

The next morning we headed off for a longish drive to Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater. We all feel asleep for the first part of the drive as there was not much to see really. We drove through a few little towns and on exiting one of these towns there were Baboons all over the road! I personally was very excited by this. The driver stopped so we could take some pictures before heading off to our lucnh stop. At lunch we were visited by some interestings birds. One in particular (we call it the ugly bird) was rather large and watching it fly into the lunch area was quite a sight. Lunch was on the Crater wall but the view was not fantastic. After lunch though we drove to a lookout point where we had a brilliant view of the crater.

That afternoon we drove to Serengeti. This was quite a speccy drive as we seen plenty of wildlfe including the end of migration of wildebeest with some zebra tagging on the end. We actually stopped the truck as they crossed the road all around us. The highlight of the day had to go to the spotting of two cheetahs with a kill! It was already half eaten so not sure what was so unlucky but did make you really feel in the wild. We also seen hippos, elephants (far away), zebras, giraffes, monkeys, gazelles, half hidden lion and a fully hidden leopard!!

We camped in Serengeti for the night and can say we did not get eaten though the snoring was proabaly scaring the animals away! James was rather drunk and very amusing. Next day would have to be the most amazing safari day ever!!! Within ten mins of leaving camp we came across a male and female lion. We sat and waited and cheered and were rewarded with a mating session!! Girls be thankful we are not lions it takes all of thirty seconds! Though it does happen every fifteen mins for about a week as we were informed.

From then on the day just got better and better. We drove around for awhile seeing much of the same as the day before until our driver got a call over the cb. We raced to the point he ewas told to go to only to line up with fifty other trucks!! It was worth it though in the tree a little off the road was a leopard!! This one you could even see with your naked eye! Though with the binos was pretty damn impressive. The best bit was it did not just sit there, it actually got out of the tree so you got a real good look at it. Once out of the tree though it disappeared and was time to move on.

On this most fantastic day all the animals were out and close to the road, We got to see elephants practically next to the truck rolling in mud, giraffes eating from trees 3m away. It was awesome! We even seen a hippo going for a walk (though I could be lying and that could have happened the night before!!). We headed back to camp for lunch then were off to the crater.

This would have to be my favourite moment. On the way to the crater our driver spotted two male lions so he stopped. We then sat for a while looking, taking photos, then one got up and starting walking towards us!!!!!!! So exciting. We were the only truck there at this satge as well so it was just for us! It came right up to the road and walked around the truck to the otherside of the road and then politely sat beside the road and posed for photos! I must say it was a little scary being this close to a lion in the wild but the driver said we were safe and that it was jsut after some shade and water. By this satge a few more trucks had stopped but we stiil had prime position. Then the other lion decide to come over. He came ven closer still!! I will swear too that he stopped at my side of the truck and looked straight at me!!! Scary!!

That night we camped on the crater rim and we could hear lots of animals munching around the tent overnight!! The next day we spent the morning down in the crater which was really spectacular. One of the most exciting moments was getting down there in the first place!! The road in was really steep and bumpy and you could see straight down off one side of the road. Once we got down into the crater the view was amazing - it was just after sunrise and there were animals grazing everywhere!! Mainly wildebeest, buffalo, zebras and gazelles. We also saw hyenas stalking a family of zebras, warthogs eating grass off the road right next to the 4wd and huge flocks of flamingos in the lakes. We also saw more lions mating (I don't think they ever stop). One of the highlights of the crater happened later in the morning when our driver spotted what he thought was a rhino. We the naked eye it could have been a buffalo but through the binos you could see it was a black rhino! This was really impressive as not many people get to see a rhino (apparently). Unfortunately it was a bit far away to get a good photo and not long after got there it sat down in the grass. Soon after this we drove into a pride of lions and even briefly got to see a cub!!! It ran down the road in front of us but there was a couple of other 4wd's blocking some of our view.

After we'd drank our fill of safariing we climbed back out of the crater (which was even more scary than coming in!) to our campsite for lunch - surrounded by a herd of zebras. We then headed back to Arusha for the night covered in dirt and tired and ready for a shower and a cold drink! The next morning we left camp early and hit the road - we had 2 days driving to get to Dar es Salaam, from where we were going to catch the ferry across to Zanzibar.

Hope everyone is well!! Miss you all lots (especially when I was sick)!!

Love, Sarah.

P.S. remember you can click on the photos to see others we've uploaded.

zanzibar

2008-03-08T01:20:00.003+11:00

hey guys, just a bit of a quick message to say thanks for all the comments, emails, etc. we do eventually read them all but can't write back to everyone (not many decent computers with quick internet connex over here).

right now we're in zanzibar on the north coast beaches relaxing after our 3 day safari through the serengeti and ngorongoro crater. the safari was awesome and we saw heaps of animals, most of them pretty close up. we had a couple of big male lions walk around our 4wd which was pretty speccy. we tried to upload some of our pics and do a bit of a post but a computer virus wiped all the pics on sarah's camera. hopefully everything up until stonetown is backed up on my mp3 player tho.. so you might have to wait until europe for the next batch of pics.

we've got another couple of nights here before we head back to stonetown, then catch the ferry back to dar to fly to rome. stonetown and where we are atm are phenomenally better than any of the towns we passed through in mainland tanzania. stonetown itself is really charming, with fantastic run down old buildings and rabbit warren streets. you'll get a better idea of the place when we can put up some pics but zanzibar is definitely worth a visit. yesterday we took a small wooden fishing boat out to a nearby island to do a couple of hours snorkelling. about 400m offshore we passed through a pod of dolphins (one of which we took an amazing photo off in the air!) and so we jumped in a got to swim with them which was great fun. the water is so clear you could see them easily and they only would've been 3-4m away. i'll fill you in more at a later date but basically we've spent every evening with a couple of drinks, watching the sun set over the crystal clear water and fishing boats - amazing :)

anyway, the sun is getting low in the sky so it's that time of day again. i hope it's raining and cold in melbourne :P

Diamox on the rocks!!

2008-02-29T02:48:00.004+11:00

Hey guys,

sorry about the delay in writing this post!! has taken a while finding a computer where we can put up some photos and a spare minute to do something about it :)

the flight from Dar to Kili was pretty uneventful - just an hour late leaving and overcrowded. the drive from the airport to our hotel was also nondescript. we didn't actually end up getting our first glimpse of Kili until we got up there because it was dark when we got there and clouded over teh next day!

anyway, when we finally got going up the mountain it was awesome. the first day was spent slowly climbing through rain forest from the Machame gate at 2000m to Machame hut at about 3000m. it was here that we first glimpsed the summit, but we weren't sure if was it cos it didn't look that daunting!

i think sarah has already commented on the quality of the campsite (toilets) so i won't go into that except to say that the food was good and we stayed dry. day 2 began climbing straight away and we got a good view out towards Mt Meru. the rest of the day we climbed from the rainforest up through some rocky terrain to the second camp at Shira 2 at 3600m. here we saw some of the best scenery of the whole climb, with clouds coming up the valley towards us and a spectacular sunset behind Meru. the moon rising behind the clear summit just capped it off.

day three we climbed from Shira 2 up to a rock formation known as the lava tower at 4600m before dropping back down to camp at 3900m. i woke up this day not feeling all that great - resting pulse of about 120bpm, headache, dizzy, etc. and so found the day pretty tough. sarah took the trouble to laugh at me. we rested briefly at teh lava tower to acclimatise before dropping down to camp. i pretty much went straight to bed with a couple of asprin and a diamox. the view of the summit that night was again spectacular with a near full moon and perfectly clear night. each day the summit was clear early in the morning and then clouded over about 9am. depending on the alt we were walking through cloud most of teh day before the summit cleared again late afternoon for a speccy sunset and clear, cold night. on the whole we were very luck with the weather, as it had rained heavily the week before.

day four marked the beginning of our summit ascent, and what a beginning it was. we climbed up what looked to be a pretty vertical rock wall straight after breakfast to 4250m and then worked our way around the mountain to our lunch spot and eventually camp for that night at Barufu at 4600m. again i awoke not feeling too flash but after more diamox and asprin managed most of the walk ok. sarah began feeling a bit nauseous after lunch while we climbed to base camp (Barufu). the climb was very long and tough and we were both wrecked by the time we got there. we had an early dinner and awoke at 11pm to begin our summit ascent. sarah hadn't slept much because it was unbelievably windy and i had come down off my diamox high so it wasn't with the most optimistic view that we left camp. add to this the fact that it was about -20 degrees (disregarding windchill), the wind was gusting to over 80kmh and it was pitch dark.

well. the climb. all i can say is long, cold, windy, dark, windy, cold and long. and cold. we had about 6 layers of clothes on (which we had slept in) and it was still the coldest, most exhausting thing i have ever done. by far. we crested the crater rim at about 5740m at about 6am - just as the sun was rising over teh second peak. it was beautiful and amazing and spectacular and uterly exhauting but so worth it. i had had difficulty breathing up the last part of teh climb and had pretty much been working on adrenaline. sarah was exhausted as well because the climb really was very steep and slippery up a scree slope and it had been too cold and windy to stop often.

the point we had reached is known as Stella Point and is at the summit on the crater rim at about 5740. the summit proper, however is about another hours walk around the rim and is at 5895. we both set off, however i only made it about another 15min before deciding i couldn't keep up to the summit - we still had to make it back to Barafu and then further down to camp that night! sarah by this stage was also feeling the effects of the walk but managed to continue on to get a postcard photo at the summit. standing at the summit once the sun had risen we were confronted with the enormity of our climb that morning - no wonder it's attempted in darkness! i descended with our assistant guide and sarah followed with our guide once summiting. the descent back down the scree slope would have been fun if not for being so exhausted - we basically skied down.

after resting at Barufu we were woken for lunch and then another 3hrs of walking down to our camp that night at Mweka hut. by this stage i had begun feeling myself again - although tired! all in all, in about 30hrs we had climbed from 3900m to 5895m and then descended back to 3100m - a total of about 20hrs walking! the final day we had a shortish walk back to Mweka gate at 2000m, which we further shortened by running! on return to our hotel in Moshi we had several very well earned beers and spent the day by the pool.

many people started on our route at teh same time as us so there was plenty of people to meet and talk to as we walked. disconcertingly, we passed a significant percentage of them who failed to make the summit as we ascended. in all it was a fantastic climb and, subtracting health issues, was not a difficult climb until the summit ascent. highly recommended!!

Photos added to Singapore

2008-02-25T01:55:00.002+11:00

Just added a couple of pics to the Singapore post, check out the album for some others. Sorry about teh lack of pics and size/res, internet access isn't exactly lightning speed in Tanzania.

Working on a Kili post and some pics, hopefully have one up before Safari tomorrow.

From Springlands to The Impala

2008-02-25T00:38:00.002+11:00

Hi All!!

I am just going to give a brief update on where we are now. Richard is currently uploading photos and sorting them before he will put some up and write about Killi and our trip from Singapore. I have been keeping a travel diary so I have had enough of writing about Killi as it took me quite some time to write down all that happened!

I also want to say thanks to everyone that has commented thus far. We do read them and I personally love it. Sorry if we dont reply to each one personally. For those who haven't commented - what are you waiting for???

From Moshi to Arusha we caught a shuttle bus. There was another couple on board for the first part that we actually met at the beginning of our hike. The lady took a photo for us. They then got off only for us to arrive at the same hotel in Arusha! It is quite good catching the bus because you see so much. Life here is so different from home. We (well I) were a little sad to leave Springlands as it was such a freindly and great place to stay. It was a little less hotel and more personal. You recognised the staff and they you, you felt comfrtable just wondering around and well it was just so nice!

Currently we are in the internet cafe of our hotel in Arusha (The Impala Hotel). On first impressions it is a very fancy place. The reception area is quite stunning, with wood carvings and statues all around. The pool has a waterfall behind it and also statues around the garden area. When we arrived this had us quite impressed. Its only when you look closer that you see looks can be deceiving! Parts are a little run down and old. There is some pretty interesting electrical work going on in the pool garden for night lights. I am interested to see it on (and prehaps how it fairs if it is raining).

Richard and I both agreed Springlands was nicer. Though we do have better internet access here!

Tomorrow we head off on our safari, so you may not get a blog for another week or so. I am very excited about this part of the trip. We spoke to a girl at Springlands and she said there are plenty of baby animals around at the moment!! Yay!!

Miss everyone heaps. Hope all is well.

Love Sarah

Flying high!!

2008-02-22T22:18:00.000+11:00

Hi All,

Just a quick update cause we cant put any photos on from this point. Had lots of fun flying from Singapore to Africa. Spent a lot of time in airports. Dubai was amazing, so huge and so many people. A little overwhelming.

Today we have come back from our hike of Killi. I am pleased to report we both made it to the top!!!! Whoo hoo!! Hard work though.

Heaps more info and pics to come. Love you all.

Singapore

2008-02-15T03:23:00.008+11:00

Departed Tulla' about 8.30pm and the sunset above the clouds was fantastic. Flight was really empty, practically had the back half of the thing to ourselves. Landed at Changi International approx 1.00am and started phoning a couple of likely looking hostels. Ended up at 'The Hive' backpackers at about 3am. Pretty clean but simple joint. Funny sign on the dunny..

Spent our 25 hrs in Singapore at Sentosa island and Jurong bird park. The cable car ride over to the island was pretty speccy tho it was overcast (still hot tho) and it looks like they're building another planet on the city side of Sentosa. We checked out the beach, a couple of walks thru the forest and the flower show. We only had a couple of hours at Jurong once we got there, tho we caught the birds of prey show and took our cameras for a bit of a gander round the rest of the circus.

We got back to our end of the town about 7.30pm and had a good meal and a couple of pints in a cosy cafe/bar in Little India. Post pints we picked up our packs from the Hive and got the last connecting train out to Changi Int. Bit fecked right now so might go and have a lie down at the gate lounge. Still, can look forward to breakfast in Dubai.

Hello From Lands Far Away

2008-02-15T03:17:00.002+11:00

Welcome to my first blog! Please excuse if it is crap but I am currently running on little sleep and high adrenaline. We had a safe flight from Melbourne to Singapore and quite a good one as it was empty so we were able to spread out. Once we arrived we had the fun task of finding somewhere to sleep. Once we did it was so hard to actually sleep due to excitement and time zones!

And now Richard can take over cause my brain hurts.....

Miss everyone already!! xxoo

Cathedrals

2008-02-03T10:24:00.000+11:00

Just put another few pics up. This time from up at the Cathedrals, which we visited this weekend with a couple of Sarah's friends. We parked at Cooks Mill and walked up to the Jawbones. On the way up we saw a fair bit of wildlife, including heaps of large skinks and geckos, a snake and plenty of birds. We then did a bit of a loop up to Cathedral peak, down Neds Gully and back to the car along the river. The walk was pretty good, didn't realise how much rock scrambling was required though!

As usual, if you click on any of the photos you can view the whole album using picasa

Feathertop

2008-01-30T23:12:00.000+11:00

Just testing the upload process by putting up a couple of pics from Mt Feathertop last weekend.

This is an image of the MUMC hut on the NW slopes of Feathertop. We stayed here Saturday night after getting heavily hailed upon that afternoon.

We also visited the new Federation hut but didn't camp there - although there were several other groups camping there. On Sunday afternoon we continued further down Bungalow spur and camped at the old Feathertop hut site. This photo shows some of the flowers we saw on the way down. I took this photo using the macro setting and used to 2sec timer to avoid motion from pressing the button.

That's all for now!

blogs away

2008-01-30T01:58:00.000+11:00

i've just set up this blog so i can keep a bit of a travel diary while i'm away. i'm not usually one for keeping diaries so we'll see how it goes but at least i'll be able to let you all know where i am and maybe put some pictures up as well (i'll put most of my pics up on picasa).