Sunday, November 28, 2004

Job search begins

Hello there.

I forgot to mention, that I set up a mobile phone here, so I can now be reached on that too. Please email me if you would like the number. I can send international text messages too!!

I am still in London at my cousin's house. She has been incredibly generous taking in a very distant relative (she is my mum's third cousin) whom she has never met, as well as Scott.

Scott and I went to see an exhibition today called "Hungary's Heritage". Twas quite good really, but my only disappointment is that most of the objects in the display were merely owned by the particular Hungarian family, not actually made in the country. But the collection (not the Hungarian bit though) included quite a few micromosaics. These are amazing. The pieces of marble etc used in them are so small (we were actually given magnifying glasses at the beginning), I would say the maximum length is 4mm. Quite stunning really, and they were mostly of scenes like the Roman Forum, as people in the 18th century used to buy them as the modern equivalent of postcards. It was lovely to be able to recognise the buildings in the mosaics, and be able to say "I've seen that!!"

Apart from that, life rolls on really. We are keeping our fingers crossed about jobs etc tomorrow. We will keep looking for jobs, chase up employment agencies, talk to people etc etc.

Bye for now!!

Thursday, November 25, 2004

in london.. again

Yes, I am here again. We have had a nightmare of an adventure over the last few days. My last post I think spoke of our future of working in a pub. Well, as I sit here, back in London in the lounge room of a distant relative, I can safely say that I think I don't even want to start!! We have been led on a wild goose chase, crossing three counties of southern England, and we are back on London, four days later and some 10 miles away from where we started on Monday morning!!

Let's start at the beginning shall we???

So on Monday morning Scott and I head off to Guildford for our first pub job. To get there we have to catch a tube to Waterloo, a train to Guildford and then a bus to a place outside Guildford to the pub. We get there, after some two and a half hours travel time, only to find out that the people who were supposed to leave decided not to only the day before. So there was no job there for us. We rang the company who placed us, and they arranged another placement for us. So we had a noght in an English pub. The pub itself was great, real character. The staff there were so helpful too.

So the next day we travelled back into Guildford, then caught a train to Havant, where we were picked up by our second employer who took us to the pub in a place called Emsworth. Nice enough town, but the pub had a funny feel. It was kind of a yuppy bar in the middle of a seemingly sleepy riverside village. I didn't feel comfortable there at all. We met the wife of the guy who picked us up form the station. The guy was really nice, but his wife was an absolute bitch. She basically told us that they were under the impression that we had experience, and that she did not have time to train us. In other words, for the second time in as many days, we were told that the place that we had lugged all of our luggage to, had no job for us.

We made the most of the day though. We headed into the next town and organised our mobile phones. So I can be contacted now! And I can send smses home which is fun too.

The company arranged a third placement for us in a place called Newdigate. Spoke to the boss, who sounded nice on the phone. Basically it was his idea for us to be there and get trained and then start getting paid when the other staff member left. Sounds good in theory right? Okay, so we get there, after catching two trains to get there from Havant (and going through Guildford where we had been some two days previously). So we get there, meet the boss. We were basically ignored by the guy and his wife all day, which was fine as they were busy. So we try, much later that evening, to do some washing. We asked another staff member about the washing machines etc, and placed our stuff in one of them. I have never used a front loader before, so i mentioned it to the boss. He then told us that it doesn't work. So we asked if there was a trick to get it open. Apparently I looked at him funny (and who wouldn't at the prospect of losing all of your underwear to a hungry washing machine, and given the previous few days), and he decided that because of that, that we were no longer welcome. WTF? I still don't get it. So I rang a cousin of mums and explained the situation to her. I had spoken to her the previous day from Emsworth. She said that we will have to stay with her. Bless her! I had not met her until today, but she is just lovely. So we have a roof over our head, we are back in civilisation and on our way to getting jobs. And not in pubs!

We have been turned off pubs, and I think this whole debacle has proved to me that I am a city girl at heart. The countryside is nice, but only if you have a car. Not if you have to deal with public transport.

I am falling asleep here though, so I shall sign off. I hope all is well with all of you. :-)

Sunday, November 21, 2004

back in london!!!

Oh my God!! The last three weeks have flown by and Scott and I are back in London. We made it back to London this evening. We were caught in traffic. We left Amsterdam this morning. It seems like so long ago already! We left early and drove almost to the border of Belgium to stop at Macca's. Had 45 mins there and drove thru Belgium straight to Calais to the ferry. We had to go through UK customs and I GOT A STAMP!!!! Now I have four. Liechtenstein (which I had to pay for, but it was so worth it!), Heathrow, departing Australia and now entering the UK again. Small things...

I must tell you about Amsterdam. On our first night we had a "cultural" evening. We (as in most of our group of 51) went to a live sex show. 'Twas a bit lame really, as it looked pretty much like an Aerobics Ozstyle display. Then we had free time to wander the streets of the Red Light District. There was porn everywhere, really in your face. It was an eye opening experience to say the least. As for the marijuana, that too was everywhere. There were quite a few in our group that tried it. So there were many giggles on the bus back to the hotel. WE spent the rest of the night packing as we had to fit everything into as few a bags as possible. We did it, only just though. And tonight we are staying at the Generator in London. We are starting work in a pub in Guildford,Surrey in two days time, so we head out there tomorrow. Anyone who would like the address, please email me and I will gladly send it to ya.

The tour overall was great. There were bits I would change or do differently, but it was a fantastic way to see some of the many sights of Europe. It was hectic, with late nights, early mornings, drinking, sleeping in the bus, taking lots of photos, meeting new people and making friends, laughing with and at people, climbing stairs, squeezing into hotel lifts, enduring cold showers, being hounded by black men with rip offs of designer bags, beggars, public transport systems, foreign languages, post cards and stiff legs from hours on the bus.

So that is it from me for now. I will next update from our new home of Guildford in Surrey. Take care peoples, and I would love to hear from y'all!! :-)

Thursday, November 18, 2004

The Rhine Valley

Hello from Germany! We are staying in a place called St Goar, which is very close to the Lorelei rock. It was dark as we drove past, but I can still say I have seen it. Today we travelled from Switzerland to Germany. We took the cog railway down early this morning to the base of the mountain. From there we drove about three hours to the border of Germany/Switzerland. Stopped at border control, then drove 20 metres for our first stop. We got lunch of schnitzel and potatoes which was pretty good. They had lemon mentos there too, but I didn't buy any. I love just looking at all the different stuff that is in the shops here, the different versions of the stuff we have at home.

We went to a Bierstein shop today too. Under the hotel (Contiki seems to be big on group deals and kick backs) and it was a little tacky, well not tacky, but I didn't want to buy one. There was also a teddy bear shop. And for Caroline and Delicia, they had Stief teddy bears, the MEGA expensive ones. So again, no purchases made.

Tomorrow we head to Amsterdam. I am looking forward to that I tell ya what! We get to see clogs and cheese! I want a pair of clogs. Well, not really, but I want to try some on.


switzerland...

again...

well, i had spare swiss francs to spend so i pumped them into the computer thingy. why not hey? still have not found the shift key though

we had a day in lucerne today. to get there from the top of the mountain, we had to take two cable cars and a bus. unbelieveable!! the views were spectacular. the first cable car was large, fitting about 25 people in it. the next ones were small with only four. i think i had a grin on my face the whole way down!!!

day in lucerne was spent wandering around, taking it all in. bought sme post cards, a gorgeous watch. lucerne is beautiful, with the swiss alps surrounding it. stunning

oh and i bought a tee shirt too, with the characters from south park on it, dressed in leder hosen etc with swiss park on it. funny

ok, thats it from me, take care people, and hopefully i can update from amsterdam...


Wednesday, November 17, 2004

top of switzerland

helloo

i cannot find the shift key so i hope you can read it.

we are currently staying on the top of mt pilatus, which is about 2300 metres above sea level. the views are aewsome. we caught the cog railway up the side of the mountain. awesome views. all of my photos are of mountaïns...

we also got to go to liechtenstein today too. dad, i sent you a post card so check out the stamp, apparently they are highly sought after...

i cannot believe that in one weeks time we will be at the pub in surrey. we have done so much on the tour and seen so much. it will be sad to leave, but exciting at the same time.

not much of an entry i am afraid, but it is all that mountain air ;-)


Saturday, November 13, 2004

No Kangaroos in Austria

Helloo!!

We are in Vienna! We have free time today for a few hours, so it is nice to be able to catch up on emails etc. We could check them at the flash hotel we are staying in (the flashest of the tour) but it costs the equivalent of $4AUD for 10 minutes.

I am having a great time. I am sooooo tired, but it is all worth it. I must admit tha tI am happy that we have left Italy. As much as I enjoyed seeing the ruins of the Roman Forum and the Colosseum, it is a really dirty country. Compared to France which was just stunning...

Rome. What can I say? We we staying quite a way out of town, so we got to experience the Rome Metro. That was fun. So many people!! We also got to go on a bus, which had so many people on it that every time we went around a left hand turn the side of the bus would grate along the road. Extremely funny.

We went to Vatican City. Saw the Sistine Chapel. We were standing there and an annoucement came over the loudspeaker, in four different languages and at some volume, telling everyone to be silent. Ironic really.

From the Vatican City we caught a bus into Rome itself for our walking tour of Imperial Rome. I was disappointed, as I was hoping the guide would paint more of a picture of what life was like and what the buildings were like. But I bought a book instead. Then we went to the Colosseum. Oh my God!! It really made me happy to just wander around. Sad as it sounds...

From Rome we travelled ALL DAY to Venice. We stayed on the mainland (in Hotel Vienna, run by Asians...go figure), but travelled there the next day for a full day on the islands. It was supposed to flood in Venice, as it does 70 times a year. So the main square was full of water, and we bought "emergency" gumboots. These are basically plastic bags with soles. Amusing though. And we have embarrassing photos to prove it. Speaking of photos, I will soon be burning my cd of photos from my camera, so i should have photos for you all to see soon.

And now we are in Austria. We had dinner in the hotel last night instead of going into town as we are tired. We had a picnic on our bed. It was fun.

And today is a free day!! A good day to telephone people.

Monday, November 08, 2004

Florence

Hello from Italy. Italy is a beautiful country, dirty and full of beggars etc, but a nice place. We drove from Nice to Florence yesterday. We stopped at a French perfumerie on the way and had a tour. Spent money in the shop on perfume and some other yummy stuff. Then it was into Italy. Between the border of France and Italy to the town of Pisa which was our next stop we went through a total of 157 tunnels. I stopped counting after about 36. There was a prize for the person who got the correct number.

We stopped at Pisa, which is of course home to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Smaller than I thought it would be. I was happy to see it though, after seeing it in books etc, it is fantastic to be able to see it in reality. And yes, we did the photo with me trying to hold up the tower, but it didn't really work! In Pisa they have a great number of stalls selling fake brand name bags. We bought a carpet bag and I got a hand bag as well. I have no idea what brand they are supposed to be, but the hand bag is really nice and I didn't bring a going out type hand bag with me, and the carpet bag will come in handy for our purchases, as well as stashing our sleeping bags, which we have not used yet.

From Pisa we drove into Florence. Florence is a Renaissance town with gorgeous architecture. Did not really see all that much on the first night however. We had dinner in the hotel, then it was out to some bar nearby for a drink. There was karaoke, so Scott got up with someone and sang. :-)

Today was another early start. We had a group photo taken overlooking Florence, then it was into the town itself for a tour of a leather place. I spent a bit of money today, but considering I have hardly bought anything, I think I did well. I bought a Florentine box, which is a box handcrafted out of one piece of leather. Gorgeous. I also bought a pashmina, really cheap! Some post cards, two leather bracelets. That's it I think.

Tonight is a Tuscan dinner, then to some Discotheque. We are skipping the disco thing, as we are tired, and we have only been on tour for a week. There are still two more weeks to go.

I hope everyone reading this is keeping well. :-)

Friday, November 05, 2004

The beautiful French Riviera

Hi there! I am sitting in an internet cafe in Nice. Please forgive me if I make spelling errors as the French keyboard is really difficult to use. All the letters are in the wrong places and you have to press the shift key for a full stop.

Our tour so far has been pretty full on. Two days in Paris, one spent wandering around on our own which was great. Saw Notre Dame, walked down the Champs-Elysees, watched Paris walk by. It was great. Sent three post cards too, so it will be a surprise as to who gets one.... And we also went up the Eiffel Tour on our first night in Paris, really takes your breath away when you see it for the first time.

From Paris we drove to Lyon, a nice place on the Rhine River. We did a walkabout dinner as out tour manager calls them. Basically it means that we are left to our own devices in a certain part of town to get food. We went off in search of food with a couple from Melbourne (yes there are heaps of Aussies on the tour). We found this great restaurant in a side alley. I had the best duck i have ever had. Absolutely devine. I don`t think I will be able to eat it anywhere else now!!

From Lyon we went to Nice, stopping in a town called Avignon on the way. Tried the local food of course. I remembered from home that mum made something called Pisaladiere, which is basically a tart thing with anchovies and olives and onion on it. I found one and it was so good!!

Arrived in Nice last night. Changed and drove to Monaco for dinner (as you do). We saw the palace, which is surprisingly open. There are guards but it is not behind walls at all. Dinner was good, nice food. Then it was back to the bus for a trip to a casino in Monte Carlo. I spent nothing but Scott did some gambling on the black jack table. Lost some but had fun.

Then we came back to the hotel and went out for drinks. This turned into a very long night and we got back to our room at 4.30 this morning. So I am tired, but having a great time.

All in all I am loving Europe. Apart from the cigarette smoke everywhere. The buildings are awesome. I feel really lucky to be here and to be able to experience all that we are.

Internet cafes are expensive here so I hope I can update soon. Keep looking to see what I am up to! And comments are welcome. Bye bye for now!

Monday, November 01, 2004

Still London!

Two busy days to fill you in on.

Yesterday: Walked to Covent Garden, found the bus to London Tower. Not a double decker, but we had one of those later on! Very cool. The Tower of London was very well done. It reminded me a little of Sovereign Hill with the people in costume wandering about, but it was all very well done. We walked over the Tower Bridge. But we found that halfway along we could actually (pay and) go inside the bridge. So we went up to the top of the bridge to the covered walkway bits and walked along both sides, taking pictures. The weather has been so great, clear and fine, even sunny at times! Then we wandered down to the end of the bridge, to catch the lift to the roadway. The lift attendant told us that we might just be in time for the bridge opening (for a ship that is). And we were! We came out of the lift, and the bridge's middle was rising. Talk about timing! So of course we took photos. I will hopefully be posting photos after our Contiki tour. Promise :-)

We then caught a bus to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, which is a reconstruction of the 17th century theatre in which his plays were performed. The place is very well done. Everything was done using medieval tools too. The sponsors of the project (ie those who gave money) were each given a stone in the courtyard. John Cleese bought two stones, one for himself and one for Michael Palin, but deliberately had Michael's name spellt Pallin to annoy him. But, according to the guide, it was ironic as in doing so, Michael Pallin had a larger stone than John Cleese!

Caught a bus to Waterloo Station, then another from there to Russell Square (the double decker). We made our way to the Royal National Hotel, as we had a Jack the Ripper tour starting at 7.15. The tour took us to the east end of London, which was great, as it gave us an insight into the area, both in 1888 and today. Had fish and chips in a pub called the Prospect of Whitby. In the time of Jack the Ripper, they used to hang people behind the pub, then stopped, and took to drowning them. Lovely!!

Today:Got up early, and headed to the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221b Baker Street. Not really my thing, but interesting nonetheless. Caught the train to the Museum of London. Excellent. :-) I love museums. I gotta find me a badge that says that. Caught a train from St Pauls to near our hostel. So we could see the Mummy!! The British Museum have an exhibition on at the moment called Inside a Mummy. It was fantastic! They used hospital imaging techniques to see inside the mummy and determine what he was entombed with. It turns out that the embalmers left the bowl behind his head, or so the theory goes, and realised the next day, and just wrapped him up bowl and all hoping that no one would notice! Love it. The 3d film was brilliant. And then we got to "meet" the mummy, as he is in the museum's collection.

And that is the story so far. We are off on our Contiki tour tomorrow morning, really early. :-)