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!

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. :-)

A post from London!

Hello out there. We arrived safely in London. We are sitting in an internet cafe near the hostel, about 2 blocks from Oxford Street. It is the biggest internet cafe I have ever seen. It is open 24 hours, no staff, and I think there are about 150 terminals.

Today was a big day. We had breakfast at the hostel, as it's included which is great. Nothing too flash, just some cornflakes, bread and jam, that kind of thing. We then had to go to the bank in Regent Street, so we wandered down there. I have no idea how far we walked today, but it was quite a distance. At the bank, there was a special Australia and New Zealander suite for new account holders, so they obviously handle a great number of Australians!

We both really enjoyed the walk to Regent Street. I was just happy to be wandering around in a strange city, just drinking in the atmosphere, the sights, sounds smells of London. It was great! We walked through Piccadilly Circus, which was really busy, and had large neon billboards. From the bank we walked back down Regent Street to the British tourist office thingy where we swapped out London Pass vouchers for actual cards. These we bought in Australia, and they enable us to enter a great number of places such as museums and galleries etc for nothing, well it's obviously built into the cost of the ticket, but ultimately we paid for it in Aussie dollars, not in pounds, and there is apparently no waiting at attractions, which will save us time.

We then headed to Tottenham Court Rd underground station to get our three day travel tickets. These saved us a lot of time and money today, as we can hop on and off any red bus or tube train in zones 1 and 2. Which is exactly what we did today.

We saw the houses of parliament, the thames. We are staying very close to the BRitish Museum, but we will go there tomorrow, as we get free entry to the Inside a Mummy exhibition. YAY!! My time at the computer is running out. I will update more tomorrow, or soon after. I am having a fab time, hope you are too! :-)

Singapore!

Hello from Singapore! We were walking towards the transit lounge and shops and I spotted free internet terminals. Now we couldn't pass that up, right??

The flight was pretty good. 7 and a half hours I believe. I slept at least half of the way, but it wasn't great sleep. It never is when you are sitting up! Scott got coffee spilled on his pants by the stewardess, but he's ok. He didn't suffer burns or anything!

I have never been to Sinapore before, so I am keen to have a look around the shops. Our gate lounges are close together, but we have three hours to kill. So I want to look around the shops. I found the place that you can get massages from! YAY! So I'll see if we have time.

Free internet rocks. I hope we will be able to find more places like this.

I am tired, but a happy camper. We have begun our adventure, and I am looking forward to sleeping in my bed in London, so I can be rested enough to see some of the sights. I was warned not to see too much in the first few days. I think that is a wise move really. We will be seeing so much on the tour, that I think three days just hanging around London, people watching, and spending time in the British Museum will be a great start to our adventure. I will sign off now, and I will update from London!

Possibly the last post from Australia!!!

Hello out there!

I have my bag packed. It weighs 16kg according to the bathroom scales. It's pretty heavy, so I may take some stuff out of it yet, but it's under the 20kg mark, which I am happy about.

This may be my last post from the Land of Oz. I have several things to do tomorrow, and then we are out of here!

I am a mixture of emotions at the moment. I am SOOOO excited to be leaving, but at the same time I am afraid that I won't like it, scared of the unknown. I know Scott is feeling similarly to me. It's his first overseas trip too, which makes it even more scarey etc!

We have cash and travellers cheques, copies of documents. I think I am supposed to take one with me. And leave one at home? I have no idea! I thought so, but I will talk to mum about it tomorrow.

For all of those who will be reading this when we are away, I invite you to post a comment on my journal and/or on Scott's. Just click on the comment link (it will say 1 Comment or 0 Comments etc). Then click on Post comment and write to me! Simple!

It is here that I will sign off. Please keep in touch. Take care, and I will "speak" to you all soon!

Alex :-)

A big big weekend

I think my last weekend in Australia for a while was one of the busiest, craziest in a long long time!! Friday night was a great night. It was fantastic to see so many of our friends together in the one spot! The food was great, the people even better!! I still think they do the best satay chicken skewers ever. I got some photos on my shiny toy too, which is good. I may even post some to my journal. If i get the time over the next few days.

Scott has been unwell for a few days, so the next couple of days will be focussed on getting him ready to fly. I have complete faith that he will be ready to go. I believe in the power of positive thinking, what harm can it do, right?

As for me, at this point I am surviving on 4 hours sleep. I locked the keys in the car, in the ignition with the engine running tonight at the airport when we dropped my uncle Tony off after his weekend staying with us. It was very funny. You have to see the lighter side of life I say.

I am off to bed. Tomorrow is a new day. Gute Nacht. Schalfs gut. :-)

One week to go

Hello there. Well, it's one week until Scott and I leave the country. I just can't believe that in exactly seven days time, we will be at the airport! I pretty much have everything I need. Apart from that pesky stuff called money of course! We have to arrange/buy travellers cheques, probably on Monday. I will get my last pay on the day we leave, so I will withdraw all of that and exchange that too!

I have my bag pretty much packed. I am usually organised with that kind of thing when it comes to trips. I need to buy shampoo, an extra battery for my camera and a camera case, and I am all set!

As for the going away dinner, it's looking pretty good! People have been a bit slack with the rsvps, but I can forgive them! I am really looking forward to having lots of people in the one spot! I was asked today if there was anything I had not bought yet, as my friend L., the sweet thing that she is, wanted to buy Scott and I a going away present. We pretty much have everything. More money is always good, but I don't want it as presents from friends. From family it's different. From friends I just want to be able to enjoy a meal with them, and say good bye.

Photos

Thank you to my nerdy friend Nic who has taught me how to post phots in my journal. I did a test run today, and it worked perfectly.

As for the rest of the preparations, I have re-packed my bag. I weighed it, but it seems to weigh about 14 kilograms. Now from previous adventures, even to Melbourne, it is most unlike me, or any member of my family for htat matter, that I should be taking so little luggage! What is going on I asked myself? Well, I wanted to take my bag not full, which I seem to have achieved. But because I do not believe our scales at home, which are notorious at the best of times, I will be taking my pack to the airport. My uncle is coming up for the weekend this Friday, and I will take my pack to the airport when we drop him off. I will dump my bag on a set of scales there, and hopefully get a clearer picture of the weight of my baggage. In theory anyway!

Dreams

I think it must be the stress of the upsoming launching off into the unknown, but I have had two bad dreams this week, and noth are related to the trip. Last night's was related to the working in the pub. I dreamt that I forgot everything, like my wallet and my passport (although how I was able to enter the UK withou one is another matter), that the boss was the woman from that terrible movie Cyote Ugly, and that I was desperately unhappy. And I couldn't call home because I had no idea how to make a reverse charge phone call!! I really hate having bad dreams. They really throw me, and I wake up feeling awful.

In other news, hardly anyone has RSVPed for our party. I don't think people realise that we need to tell the restaurant how many people will be there. I NEED TO KNOW PEOPLE!! And besides, I would lke to know who to expect to walk thru the door rather than be surprised. If I haven't heard from people, I will send an email over the weekend, demanding to know.

My ears really hurt. I think they are full of fluid, which is great if I have to spend 22 hours on a plane with them like this, hey? Yeah, a whole bunch of fun! I have to go to the doctor sometime this week or next to get drugs for the trip, so I will mention my ears. Hopefully they will clear up by the time we leave! Keep your fingers crossed for me people!!

Big Purchase!!

I did it! I bought my camera. It's shiny and cute and pocket-sized! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I took a cool photo with it in black and white of the underside of the Riverside Expressway. It's very cool. I have to show Nic, a Canon fancier herself. It is just a matter of playing around with all the settings and stuff so I am completely familiar with it all.

Otherwise, it is two weeks until we leave. I still have a range of emotions going through my head. But, overall, the strongest feelings are excitement and happiness. I have wanted this trip for so long, and it's finally here. And I have a wonderful travel partner by my side too! What more could I ask for?