I've writen before about the fun we had in greece this year and the funky people we met there....so, upon flying into sydney yesterday amid a swirly whirly storm which delayed us by 1.5 hours, the first thing on our agenda was to scrub up quick and meet up with some of the fabulous sydney and canberra-ites....going for dinner with bec, lidia and jeff in sydney was a surreal but fun experience....we had so much to catch up on so chatted at a million miles an hour before bec took us to 'the ivy'...the 'It' bar of the city centre with several bars, dance floor, open air courtyard and the sort of pretentiousness that just makes you want to get in despite the fact that you're not wearing designer and 10 inch heels like the girls getting pulled out of the line...thrusting their noses up as they waltz past the 'others' still in line because they are obviously not quite as cool....pretentious yes but oh so hip and the dj spun tunes that were anything but pretentious....killers meets JT meets TLC....I danced till my 4 inch heels were killing me and felt oh so at home back in my birthplace....Sydney...
tomorrow it's waterskiing - my first time which should make for a very interesting blog...stay tuned!! xxx
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Friday, December 26, 2008
the return of princess kirsh
two weeks seems an awfully long time for a non-camper to have been camping....it's been fun, relaxing, sunny...i'm full to the brim with bbq-ed steak and coronas plus lime, chilled in eskys filled with ice. but i'm very much over sand through all my stuff, hot and stuffy tents and airbeds that dont protect my aging back!! needless to say that i'm quite looking forward to making a triumphant return to civilized society tomorrow as we fly to the bright lights of sydney...parties, cocktails, pretty dresses, make-up and hair straighteners...a triumphant return indeed of princess kirsh...
i've missed her!
stay tuned! xx
i've missed her!
stay tuned! xx
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
It's christmas time in Australia
It was all i'd ever known....a hot, steamy, southern hemispherian christmas....only when we started travelling did I experience the 'white christmas' of the christmas carols...stumbling around on the snow fields in austria – we didn't have to dream of it that year....
and then there are the christmases in southern england....freezing cold but snowless....dreary, grey....but filled with fun and cheer, surrounded by our 'english family'...mulled wine...hot mince pies....a roast with all the trimmings....crackers...champagne....paper hats....christmas eves spent at 'bar vin'...dressed in my party season finest with the girls...drinking cocktails....
and then there are the christmases in southern england....freezing cold but snowless....dreary, grey....but filled with fun and cheer, surrounded by our 'english family'...mulled wine...hot mince pies....a roast with all the trimmings....crackers...champagne....paper hats....christmas eves spent at 'bar vin'...dressed in my party season finest with the girls...drinking cocktails....
but this year its back to my roots....it looks like it will storm – quite normal for christmas day in queensland – tropical storms by the beach....our plans for tomorrow are for plenty of big, juicy aussie prawns, cold ham and fresh salad – it's too hot for roasts and we are camping so we're keeping it easy. ..croissants for brecky....aunty sandy's legendary christmas cake and pudding...Christmas eve means chocolate and port after dinner....lots of cold beer.
The kids are excited. Santa comes tonight. But in our family they are also taught the true meaning of christmas. As i write they are putting tea towels on their heads, helped by their grandma, ready to be shepherds and joseph....They will perform a play for all the adults...Ella is an angel and laura is mary....one of her little dolls will play baby Jesus....they accept it all with wide eyed innocence and fun...they have spent days drawing pictures of mangers and donkeys and reading picture books about their Lord Jesus who came to earth that first christmas day...
Merry Christmas everyone....we are thinking of all our friends and hoping that christmas day brings you family and fun....just like it will for us....and, if you're lucky, maybe it will bring you some sunshine...
Sunday, December 21, 2008
of soothing rainfalls and racing along the sand...
Rain smells different in australia...it's a heady aroma of eucalyptus...dusty heat....cold relief...it's fresh and beautiful and is welcome in our drought stricken country...we love the sound of it hitting the dusty tin roofs and, in our case, our tent last night....finding it's way into the screens we had left open to catch even the slightest cool breeze so we could sleep.
my blogs, i'm afraid, have been few and far between as one day blends into another here on the sunshine coast. we have had visits by old school friends, spent hours chatting over cold beers and I particularly have spent many long hours just reading novels and thinking about the one i will write one day.
Today marked the most important day next to christmas on Matt's family's camping calender....it was the day of the big race...an annual tradition which involves every member of the family (including the most reluctant ones - ie me) racing across the sand for 50meters. This race has been run as long as I can remember....this year i'm sure we had the biggest field....11 kids, 12 or so adults....we had been psyching ourselves up for days....in the end the older kids (with a slight advantage of a headstart) thrashed the adults with PE teacher Sam and my fast and fit friend Clare close behind....exhilarating excitement amongst a quiet life of sun and sand...we have another week of this....
This is the longest we have stayed in one place in the past 3 months and I'm not particularly surprised to find myself with itchy feet again...ready to move on....i'm not used to doing nothing....i feel uneasy and antsy with no plans....nothing to do....nothing to explore when i know this part of australia back to front....but I'm forcing myself to relax....soon enough we will be hitting the road and, no doubt, i'll be wishing myself back on the sands of Maroochydore...
stay tuned. xx
my blogs, i'm afraid, have been few and far between as one day blends into another here on the sunshine coast. we have had visits by old school friends, spent hours chatting over cold beers and I particularly have spent many long hours just reading novels and thinking about the one i will write one day.
Today marked the most important day next to christmas on Matt's family's camping calender....it was the day of the big race...an annual tradition which involves every member of the family (including the most reluctant ones - ie me) racing across the sand for 50meters. This race has been run as long as I can remember....this year i'm sure we had the biggest field....11 kids, 12 or so adults....we had been psyching ourselves up for days....in the end the older kids (with a slight advantage of a headstart) thrashed the adults with PE teacher Sam and my fast and fit friend Clare close behind....exhilarating excitement amongst a quiet life of sun and sand...we have another week of this....
This is the longest we have stayed in one place in the past 3 months and I'm not particularly surprised to find myself with itchy feet again...ready to move on....i'm not used to doing nothing....i feel uneasy and antsy with no plans....nothing to do....nothing to explore when i know this part of australia back to front....but I'm forcing myself to relax....soon enough we will be hitting the road and, no doubt, i'll be wishing myself back on the sands of Maroochydore...
stay tuned. xx
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
camper than a row of tents...
I was 6 weeks old when i met my first friend for life....Alex had just been born....her mum was my mum's flatmate in their wild and single party days....we spent our first 5 years playing in eachother's backyards before my family moved away from sydney....so we became penpals - the old fashioned kind before emails and instant messaging where you actually sent a letter, in our case usually 10 pages long....as teenagers she came to queensland to see me and i went to sydney to see her and we were as close as ever....we've hung out in our mutally favorite city, paris, and when, a couple of years ago, alex spent a few months in london we partied hard together. so when it turned out she would be in brisvegas last weekend we arranged to catch up for brunch....a little catch up before we meet again in london in a few months time....pancakes and coffee and a sad 'see ya' later we were whisked off to the 'sunshine coast' of queensland....an iconic holiday spot for aussies - beach after beach of golden sand stretching up the coast....caloundra, mooloolaba, maroochydore, coolum, the fashionable noosa....we are in 'cotton tree' a tinsy winsy village with a campsite stretching out between the maroochy river and the pacific ocean....
It has not taken long for princess kirsh to acclimatise to a camper's life...waking with the sun and making tracks to the beach, the whole day continues in the same vein....maybe a little nap, another swim....I've been known to make a little trip up to the shopping mall and slowly mozzy around checking out the aussie fashions....as the evening draws in the beers come out and the bbqs around the campsite start to smoke....Im hanging out with my old school friend, clare and her boyfriend, Joel, matt's 3 siblings and their partners, their collective hoard of 9 children, and his parents....it's a crazy gang - a laugh a minute....stories, memories, children playing...life is good.
It's hot...my tan is glorious....i'm more chilled out than mr chilled and all his chilled out friends....and there are 2 gorgeous weeks of this stretching out ahead...
stay tuned....xxx
It has not taken long for princess kirsh to acclimatise to a camper's life...waking with the sun and making tracks to the beach, the whole day continues in the same vein....maybe a little nap, another swim....I've been known to make a little trip up to the shopping mall and slowly mozzy around checking out the aussie fashions....as the evening draws in the beers come out and the bbqs around the campsite start to smoke....Im hanging out with my old school friend, clare and her boyfriend, Joel, matt's 3 siblings and their partners, their collective hoard of 9 children, and his parents....it's a crazy gang - a laugh a minute....stories, memories, children playing...life is good.
It's hot...my tan is glorious....i'm more chilled out than mr chilled and all his chilled out friends....and there are 2 gorgeous weeks of this stretching out ahead...
stay tuned....xxx
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Princess Kirsh
I'm a fairly easy going kinda girl i think....it doesn't take much to make me happy....some interesting company, a few drinks (preferably alcoholic of course) at hand and perhaps some kind of food item and you've got Happy Kirsh....pick up that scenario and place it somewhere amazing and exotic in the world and I'm estactic.....i'm easily pleased....
....but sometimes...a little 5 * luxury does not go astray for a girl like me....and, since we've now been married for 9 years, matt and i thought we'd shout ourselves to a bit of that to celebrate. A huge apartment (bigger, i think, than our old flat in horsham!) overlooking Brisbane's botanical gardens and seconds from the shops and cafes lining the streets we were smack bang in the centre of the 'Sunshine Capital'. drinking bubbles and watching mysterious goings on in the park from our birds eye view (what WERE those cops doing?) we spent the first night in. after all...if you pay for the luxury you may as well spend as much time there as you can....
Brisbane is hot. Always muggy....always time to relax in a cool pool complete with fountains and waitresses that bring you cocktails...needless to say we spent significant time there before heading for dinner the next night....
a table by the river, a menu crammed with the best australia has to offer - steak and seafood and deep rich reds...so, greedily, i had it all.....a bloody mary oyster shot first to get the senses going...crab cakes...then a petite eye fillet so tender and juicy complete with prawns and Bearnaise sauce....'surf and turf'...an all australian specialty....
But now our 5 * living comes crashing to a close as we head this afternoon to the Sunshine coast where we will swap our big bed and white sheets for a mattress and a sleeping bag and camp in a tent for 2 weeks....no more Princess Kirsh.
but first - brunch with my oldest friend....
stay tuned. xxx
....but sometimes...a little 5 * luxury does not go astray for a girl like me....and, since we've now been married for 9 years, matt and i thought we'd shout ourselves to a bit of that to celebrate. A huge apartment (bigger, i think, than our old flat in horsham!) overlooking Brisbane's botanical gardens and seconds from the shops and cafes lining the streets we were smack bang in the centre of the 'Sunshine Capital'. drinking bubbles and watching mysterious goings on in the park from our birds eye view (what WERE those cops doing?) we spent the first night in. after all...if you pay for the luxury you may as well spend as much time there as you can....
Brisbane is hot. Always muggy....always time to relax in a cool pool complete with fountains and waitresses that bring you cocktails...needless to say we spent significant time there before heading for dinner the next night....
a table by the river, a menu crammed with the best australia has to offer - steak and seafood and deep rich reds...so, greedily, i had it all.....a bloody mary oyster shot first to get the senses going...crab cakes...then a petite eye fillet so tender and juicy complete with prawns and Bearnaise sauce....'surf and turf'...an all australian specialty....
But now our 5 * living comes crashing to a close as we head this afternoon to the Sunshine coast where we will swap our big bed and white sheets for a mattress and a sleeping bag and camp in a tent for 2 weeks....no more Princess Kirsh.
but first - brunch with my oldest friend....
stay tuned. xxx
Friday, December 12, 2008
dreams....don't stop dreaming
It's been a busy few days....when Matt and I come home we sometimes feel like 'Australia's most wanted'.....its nice that everyone wants to see us but makes for a busy time...
But this week has been all about spending time with my sister, Tam. While matt went back to work for his old employer (making him REALLY feel like the past 4 years hadnt happened!) Tam and i have spent our time shopping and swimming and generally relaxing. being a high school teacher means that she works like a dog during term time....the fact that many of my good friends are teachers has helped me realise just how hard these guys work... and she needs her summer holidays to recupe....and it's my job to help her do just that!
but on Wednesday we made ourselves even more exhausted by going to Dreamworld and regressing to circa 10 ans....we made ourselves sick on crazy rides....marvelled over magnificent tigers... and pigged out on ice cream and pizza....unfortunately not only had it seemed we'd chosen the hottest day of the year so far, we also chose a day where the park was filled to the brim with students on excursions during their last week of school....i've never seen so many bratty kids in my life...but we fit right in and played with the best of them...
spending time with my god-daugher, Harriet and her sister Georgia in the pool yesterday we continued to play like children....horsey rides and underwater ballet....how far can YOU swim underwater?? marco POLO!!
but tonight i must once again pretend to be an adult for, to celebrate our 9th (yes 9th) wedding anniversary Matt and i are treating ourselves to some five star luxury in brisvegas...right on the river and in the city....the weekend might include some strawberries...perhaps some champagne....a little chocolate....a nice dinner or 2 in the city....a stroll along the waterfront....perhaps some magic....
then...to top it all off we will spend a gorgeous sunday morning relaxing over lunch with my oldest friend, alex....(old as in length of years spent as dear friends rather than years of age....!)....
stay tuned. xx
But this week has been all about spending time with my sister, Tam. While matt went back to work for his old employer (making him REALLY feel like the past 4 years hadnt happened!) Tam and i have spent our time shopping and swimming and generally relaxing. being a high school teacher means that she works like a dog during term time....the fact that many of my good friends are teachers has helped me realise just how hard these guys work... and she needs her summer holidays to recupe....and it's my job to help her do just that!
but on Wednesday we made ourselves even more exhausted by going to Dreamworld and regressing to circa 10 ans....we made ourselves sick on crazy rides....marvelled over magnificent tigers... and pigged out on ice cream and pizza....unfortunately not only had it seemed we'd chosen the hottest day of the year so far, we also chose a day where the park was filled to the brim with students on excursions during their last week of school....i've never seen so many bratty kids in my life...but we fit right in and played with the best of them...
spending time with my god-daugher, Harriet and her sister Georgia in the pool yesterday we continued to play like children....horsey rides and underwater ballet....how far can YOU swim underwater?? marco POLO!!
but tonight i must once again pretend to be an adult for, to celebrate our 9th (yes 9th) wedding anniversary Matt and i are treating ourselves to some five star luxury in brisvegas...right on the river and in the city....the weekend might include some strawberries...perhaps some champagne....a little chocolate....a nice dinner or 2 in the city....a stroll along the waterfront....perhaps some magic....
then...to top it all off we will spend a gorgeous sunday morning relaxing over lunch with my oldest friend, alex....(old as in length of years spent as dear friends rather than years of age....!)....
stay tuned. xx
Sunday, December 7, 2008
hot stuff
One of the things the British seem to like the most about the idea of Australia is the heat...the idea that the sun is always shining while bronzed aussies run down the beach in a slow motion, baywatch-esque manner...what non-aussies don't seem to realise until they get here is that our country's famous heat can be uncomfortable, humid and oppressive...
It's the kind of heat where you lie in your own sweat at night....where there's no point putting on makeup as it runs off your face immediately....where drying your hair with a hairdryer becomes a thing of the past unless you want to faint of heat exhaustion....where the only thing to do is to float in the pool and be cool....
so that's what we've been doing....yesterday and today at my parent's pool...sipping ice cold water and watching the tropical storms roll in...
I feel more relaxed than I have in a long while. there's nothing I have to do but laze around and the biggest decision I have to make is whether I can be bothered to move from poolside to the water or vice versa....
And the best thing about it is that I have weeks of this stretching out before me....jealous much?
stay tuned....xxx
It's the kind of heat where you lie in your own sweat at night....where there's no point putting on makeup as it runs off your face immediately....where drying your hair with a hairdryer becomes a thing of the past unless you want to faint of heat exhaustion....where the only thing to do is to float in the pool and be cool....
so that's what we've been doing....yesterday and today at my parent's pool...sipping ice cold water and watching the tropical storms roll in...
I feel more relaxed than I have in a long while. there's nothing I have to do but laze around and the biggest decision I have to make is whether I can be bothered to move from poolside to the water or vice versa....
And the best thing about it is that I have weeks of this stretching out before me....jealous much?
stay tuned....xxx
Saturday, December 6, 2008
A trip down the stairs
When you wake up with a raging headache and cuts and bruises down your leg it usually means one of 2 things....a) that you've had some sort of minor accident or b) that you've had an awesome night out in your home town with some crazy friends. Apart from falling down the stairs due to some sort of mohito induced haze our big reunion was everything I'd been looking forward to and more.
Clare and Megs are my girls....my schoolyard friends, the three amigos - together we have seen eachother through everything from the playground to first kisses to teenage anxst to break ups and to weddings....they know me back to front and inside out and somehow still they love me!! I miss them terribly when I'm in England....so to see them again yesterday and to fall back into fun banter as if we'd gone for lunch the day before was such a treat...
and their friends.....that crazy fun gang that we met and loved last year at Megs and James' wedding were there to join the girls in welcoming us home...drinking and chatting and falling down stairs at Megs and James' place (and I vaguely remember trying on hats???) we laughed and chatted till the wee hours, even bringing the poor neighbour in on the act, before heading into town to Tomba's. Toowoomba's main nightclub...new since I moved to England...the place is huge and pumping. Gorgeous Stace, cocktail designer extrodinaire, knows the people in the high places and got us in and cutting up the rug before we could say 'margarita please'....
Toowoomba might not change so much in 4 years...and it might not be one of the hot spots of the world...but i tell you what - it can be a pretty cool place...and the people here are legends...
i'm off to nurse my wounds....stay tuned. xxx
Clare and Megs are my girls....my schoolyard friends, the three amigos - together we have seen eachother through everything from the playground to first kisses to teenage anxst to break ups and to weddings....they know me back to front and inside out and somehow still they love me!! I miss them terribly when I'm in England....so to see them again yesterday and to fall back into fun banter as if we'd gone for lunch the day before was such a treat...
and their friends.....that crazy fun gang that we met and loved last year at Megs and James' wedding were there to join the girls in welcoming us home...drinking and chatting and falling down stairs at Megs and James' place (and I vaguely remember trying on hats???) we laughed and chatted till the wee hours, even bringing the poor neighbour in on the act, before heading into town to Tomba's. Toowoomba's main nightclub...new since I moved to England...the place is huge and pumping. Gorgeous Stace, cocktail designer extrodinaire, knows the people in the high places and got us in and cutting up the rug before we could say 'margarita please'....
Toowoomba might not change so much in 4 years...and it might not be one of the hot spots of the world...but i tell you what - it can be a pretty cool place...and the people here are legends...
i'm off to nurse my wounds....stay tuned. xxx
Thursday, December 4, 2008
I still call Australia home
That qantas song keeps playing on repeat in my head. You aussies know the one i mean...
"I've been to cities that never close down
from New York to Rome and old London town
but no matter how far or how wide i roam
I still call Australia home..."
I can't ever imagine not referring to Australia as 'home'. No matter how long I continue to live in England or if I ever live out my dream of living in France...those places will also be home and I love them....but nothing compares to the sunburnt country where i spent my childhood. Where I was formed to be the person I am - a fun loving, beer swilling aussie who, just like the majority of my fellow countrymen, just loves to have a good time, who cheers on the underdog, believes strongly in loyalty and mateship and who is, and always will be, immensly proud to call this great country home.
and yesterday as i walked up to the immigration officer and passed him my blue australian passport and as he greeted us with 'gday guys, how ya goin?'...I knew I was home. Driving the familiar 2.5hrs to my home town of Toowoomba from Brisbane through a tropical queensland storm I began to feel the same way I always do when I come home - that the last 4 years of living overseas may have just been a dream...that I was home and I had never left. Getting to my sister's house and enjoying delicious food and some bubbly to welcome us I was content to put down my backpack for a while and just relax...at home...
stay tuned. xxx
"I've been to cities that never close down
from New York to Rome and old London town
but no matter how far or how wide i roam
I still call Australia home..."
I can't ever imagine not referring to Australia as 'home'. No matter how long I continue to live in England or if I ever live out my dream of living in France...those places will also be home and I love them....but nothing compares to the sunburnt country where i spent my childhood. Where I was formed to be the person I am - a fun loving, beer swilling aussie who, just like the majority of my fellow countrymen, just loves to have a good time, who cheers on the underdog, believes strongly in loyalty and mateship and who is, and always will be, immensly proud to call this great country home.
and yesterday as i walked up to the immigration officer and passed him my blue australian passport and as he greeted us with 'gday guys, how ya goin?'...I knew I was home. Driving the familiar 2.5hrs to my home town of Toowoomba from Brisbane through a tropical queensland storm I began to feel the same way I always do when I come home - that the last 4 years of living overseas may have just been a dream...that I was home and I had never left. Getting to my sister's house and enjoying delicious food and some bubbly to welcome us I was content to put down my backpack for a while and just relax...at home...
stay tuned. xxx
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Wilderness
to say we have traveled through the most remote of New Zealand wilderness over the past few days would not, i dont think, be too much of an exaggeration.
after my skydiving disappointment in queenstown we left on a gorgeous day (perfect for little hops out of high-flying aircraft....typical!) and headed towards franz josef....a glacier halfway up the west coast of NZ where, also typically, it was absolutely pouring. I had hoped to walk on the glacier itself....a 4.5 hour hike that would have taken me up the terminal face of the glacier, the part of the glacier that, scarily, tends to break off every now and then....strangely - perhaps due to remnant adrenaline from queenstown, that didn't worry me as much as the prospect of getting soaked. unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it...) the hike was booked out so we instead walked, dripping, to the public access point where we looked at ice and oohed and ahhhed appropriately before heading quickly back to our lovely boutique hotel and feasting in the dry and warm dining room on homemade pavlova...a much nicer, if not quite as dangerous, experience!
it does seem as though the gods of NZ weather are conspiring against me though. we left franz josef this morning on another gorgeous day which would have been perfect for glacier hiking....well, that, alongside jumping out of planes, will be experiences kept for the next time we are in the south island, which, if i have my way, will definitely not be in too distant a future....for, as we drove across Arthur's pass and the Alps which stretch across the centre of the island, I was again floored by the breathtaking beauty of this country....over the past few days i've fallen in love with the lakes, the sounds and the fjords....this time i fell in love with the mountains....wilderness indeed - i imagine there are sections of this part of NZ which are almost unaccessible by humans....the colours of the rock...the sheer ruggedness of the granite....forests which seem to go on for miles - untouched, i imagine, by a human's axe. True, pure wilderness....
But for now, we are back in civilization...in fact this afternoon I went shopping! and tomorrow we are experiencing 'antarctica' before getting on a plane bound for home sweet home......we will arrive in brisbane and embark on the familiar 2 hour drive to our home town, where my beautiful sister will have put together a delicious, warming, welcoming meal and her husband will have picked wines to match....i can't wait.
stay tuned. xx
after my skydiving disappointment in queenstown we left on a gorgeous day (perfect for little hops out of high-flying aircraft....typical!) and headed towards franz josef....a glacier halfway up the west coast of NZ where, also typically, it was absolutely pouring. I had hoped to walk on the glacier itself....a 4.5 hour hike that would have taken me up the terminal face of the glacier, the part of the glacier that, scarily, tends to break off every now and then....strangely - perhaps due to remnant adrenaline from queenstown, that didn't worry me as much as the prospect of getting soaked. unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it...) the hike was booked out so we instead walked, dripping, to the public access point where we looked at ice and oohed and ahhhed appropriately before heading quickly back to our lovely boutique hotel and feasting in the dry and warm dining room on homemade pavlova...a much nicer, if not quite as dangerous, experience!
it does seem as though the gods of NZ weather are conspiring against me though. we left franz josef this morning on another gorgeous day which would have been perfect for glacier hiking....well, that, alongside jumping out of planes, will be experiences kept for the next time we are in the south island, which, if i have my way, will definitely not be in too distant a future....for, as we drove across Arthur's pass and the Alps which stretch across the centre of the island, I was again floored by the breathtaking beauty of this country....over the past few days i've fallen in love with the lakes, the sounds and the fjords....this time i fell in love with the mountains....wilderness indeed - i imagine there are sections of this part of NZ which are almost unaccessible by humans....the colours of the rock...the sheer ruggedness of the granite....forests which seem to go on for miles - untouched, i imagine, by a human's axe. True, pure wilderness....
But for now, we are back in civilization...in fact this afternoon I went shopping! and tomorrow we are experiencing 'antarctica' before getting on a plane bound for home sweet home......we will arrive in brisbane and embark on the familiar 2 hour drive to our home town, where my beautiful sister will have put together a delicious, warming, welcoming meal and her husband will have picked wines to match....i can't wait.
stay tuned. xx
Monday, December 1, 2008
Dreams of flying...crushed!
I'm gutted...after spending a night of very little sleep psyching myself up for my skydive the bloody NZ weather turned on me....today dawned with a thick layer of cloud and, when i turned up at the skydive shop i was told that they weren't jumping in the morning but would book me in for later in the day...much nervous retail therapy later I went back...only to be told they still weren't running and probably wouldnt for the rest of the day....and there went my dreams of flying over queenstown.....the dream of jumping out of a plane lives on though and, one FINE day I will do it....maybe, in fact over my own home state of queensland...us aussies know how to do extreme too you know!!
I did not miss out on adreneline altogether though...this arvo I went with Matt to watch him do the 'Nevis' bungy....134 meters off a pod suspended over a rocky canyon...his life depended on a few elastic bands tied together! Trying to be brave for him since he was so nervous I kept pretty quiet but I have to say I was very glad when it was over. The scream he let out as he jumped was a sound I never want to hear from him again! But he was so glad when he'd done it - a big tick off the 'must do' list for Matt!!
Tomorrow we leave queenstown behind and head for the beautiful franz josef glacier...our time in NZ is drawing to a close but ahead we have our reunion with all our friends and family back home to look forward to and i'm starting to get very very excited!
Stay tuned... xx
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Crazy queenstown
The main street of Queenstown is mostly filled with various shops advertising and selling extreme and wacky adventure sports - bungy, skydiving, rafting, river surfing, para gliding....you name it, they do it in queenstown.
yesterday we started off our adreneline rushed few days with a gentle luge down the 'scenic' (as opposed to fast and furious) part of a mountain after a quiet gondola ride to the top....queenstown really is beautiful...nestled beside the lake it is really only a small town but caters to a young, thrill seeking crowd....so there are countless backpacker hostels, bars, cheap burger joints....
after a scenic overview from the mountain top we got down into the thick of it and had lunch in a busy little cafe before going our separate ways - mum and dad went shopping in the little boutiques scattered around the town....matt and i went to the famous Shotover Jet....
500 horsepowered little red bullets...these jet boats have so much power it's unbelievable....they can skim across as little as 10cm water and turn on a dime. our driver must be crazy.....so many times i seriously thought we would crash into one of the sharp boulders at the side of the shotover canyon....or get bogged in the shallow water....and, yes, at one stage, during a fast 360 degree turn i very nearly went flying out of the boat!!!! but it was great fun and a must do if you ever find yourself in queenstown.
we ended the day with hot mexican and cold cocktails as we froze our little fingers off in the 'minus 5' bar....queenstown's equivalent of london's 'ice bar'
so, we've got the adreneline pumping....and now it's time for the big one. in an hour or so i will be heading to an airfield somewhere in the centre of New Zealand to meet the hopefully incredibly experienced and brave jump instructor who will teach me the moves and be strapped to my back as I step out of a plane at 12 000 feet before freefalling for 45seconds. I could barely sleep last night with the butterflies having a party in my stomach!! i'm crazy - if there was ever any doubt..!
stay tuned....xx
yesterday we started off our adreneline rushed few days with a gentle luge down the 'scenic' (as opposed to fast and furious) part of a mountain after a quiet gondola ride to the top....queenstown really is beautiful...nestled beside the lake it is really only a small town but caters to a young, thrill seeking crowd....so there are countless backpacker hostels, bars, cheap burger joints....
after a scenic overview from the mountain top we got down into the thick of it and had lunch in a busy little cafe before going our separate ways - mum and dad went shopping in the little boutiques scattered around the town....matt and i went to the famous Shotover Jet....
500 horsepowered little red bullets...these jet boats have so much power it's unbelievable....they can skim across as little as 10cm water and turn on a dime. our driver must be crazy.....so many times i seriously thought we would crash into one of the sharp boulders at the side of the shotover canyon....or get bogged in the shallow water....and, yes, at one stage, during a fast 360 degree turn i very nearly went flying out of the boat!!!! but it was great fun and a must do if you ever find yourself in queenstown.
we ended the day with hot mexican and cold cocktails as we froze our little fingers off in the 'minus 5' bar....queenstown's equivalent of london's 'ice bar'
so, we've got the adreneline pumping....and now it's time for the big one. in an hour or so i will be heading to an airfield somewhere in the centre of New Zealand to meet the hopefully incredibly experienced and brave jump instructor who will teach me the moves and be strapped to my back as I step out of a plane at 12 000 feet before freefalling for 45seconds. I could barely sleep last night with the butterflies having a party in my stomach!! i'm crazy - if there was ever any doubt..!
stay tuned....xx
Saturday, November 29, 2008
the kingdom of mordor....
Queenstown....just the name brings images to mind of crazy, adrenaline pumping, extreme, adventure sports....and here i sit, on the banks of Lake Waktipu, in a luxurious apartment, drinking a cold beer and tossing up the pros and cons of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane...here is what i've come up with so far:
Pros:
- I pride myself on being a 'try anything once, no matter what' kinda person
- I've always said i'd do it
- It would be awesome fun
- I could use it for boasting material/dinner party stories/drunkenly exaggerated tales for the rest of my life
- there'll be someone behind me who (hopefully) has done it before and will therefore pull the right cords thereby making it much more appealing than bungy
- the view would be spectacular (if my eyes aren't squeezed too tightly shut)
Cons:
- It could be slightly unsafe (ie. i could die!!!!!)
yep...i think i'll do it!!!
So tomorrow we'll go and arrange that little activity to take place for sometime over the couple of days while we are here in the adventure sports capital of the world...now that i've told you i'm thinking of it i cant back out!
today we enjoyed something a bit less extreme....a chilled out boat cruise on Milford Sound. Driving there i half expected to see Frodo Baggins, Legolass and Aragon come flying through the forest chased closely by the dark knights.......this is lord of the rings country.....spectacular, breathtaking wilderness....craggy mountains, rivers, fjords....everything you imagine when you think of new zealand....it was a rainy day (as it is 2 days out of 3 in the fjordlands apparently....almost as bad as england!) but the mist only served to make the sound more mysterious and beautiful....as we cruised along we saw more wildlife - fur seals and a little penguin who amused us by hop skip and jumping down the rocks to the water....we putted right up to a waterfall 3 times higher than niagara falls....so close that i could feel the heavy drops on my face and was soaked to the bone...but worth it to feel the power....
I find it really hard to describe to you the immense beauty of what we're seeing here.. soon i will post some photos but even they wont do it justice. I'm really falling in love with new zealand....perhaps one day we might consider it our 4th home...?
I'll keep you posted on adventure activities here in queenstown...should be an exciting few days.
stay tuned. xx
Pros:
- I pride myself on being a 'try anything once, no matter what' kinda person
- I've always said i'd do it
- It would be awesome fun
- I could use it for boasting material/dinner party stories/drunkenly exaggerated tales for the rest of my life
- there'll be someone behind me who (hopefully) has done it before and will therefore pull the right cords thereby making it much more appealing than bungy
- the view would be spectacular (if my eyes aren't squeezed too tightly shut)
Cons:
- It could be slightly unsafe (ie. i could die!!!!!)
yep...i think i'll do it!!!
So tomorrow we'll go and arrange that little activity to take place for sometime over the couple of days while we are here in the adventure sports capital of the world...now that i've told you i'm thinking of it i cant back out!
today we enjoyed something a bit less extreme....a chilled out boat cruise on Milford Sound. Driving there i half expected to see Frodo Baggins, Legolass and Aragon come flying through the forest chased closely by the dark knights.......this is lord of the rings country.....spectacular, breathtaking wilderness....craggy mountains, rivers, fjords....everything you imagine when you think of new zealand....it was a rainy day (as it is 2 days out of 3 in the fjordlands apparently....almost as bad as england!) but the mist only served to make the sound more mysterious and beautiful....as we cruised along we saw more wildlife - fur seals and a little penguin who amused us by hop skip and jumping down the rocks to the water....we putted right up to a waterfall 3 times higher than niagara falls....so close that i could feel the heavy drops on my face and was soaked to the bone...but worth it to feel the power....
I find it really hard to describe to you the immense beauty of what we're seeing here.. soon i will post some photos but even they wont do it justice. I'm really falling in love with new zealand....perhaps one day we might consider it our 4th home...?
I'll keep you posted on adventure activities here in queenstown...should be an exciting few days.
stay tuned. xx
Friday, November 28, 2008
"I wish i was a glow worm..."
"I wish i was a glow worm
A glow worm's never glum
Cause how can you be gloomy
When the sun shines out your bum?!"
The grotto is pitch black.....so dark that you couldn't see your hand if you held it to your face. You hear a waterfall in the distance but no one makes a sound for fear of scaring the creatures and causing their bright lights to dim....tiny pricks of light scattered over the ceiling and walls of the caves....lying in wait for their prey, sticky poisonous beads of death draping down from the hammock where the glow worm lies languidly, ready to catch unsuspecting bugs and moths as they happen past, fatally attracted to the light...
To get to the glow worm caves at Te Anau we are ferried across beautiful Te Anau lake....I feel as though, for the past month or so, all I have done is gaze at beautiful scenery....from the Canadian Rockies to the South Island of New Zealand I have lost count of the number of breathtaking lakes, snow capped mountains, rolling green hills and pretty little babbling brooks. But I am in no way complaining. How fortunate am I to be able to say I have seen and experienced some of the most beautiful places in the world!?
The name Te Anau is translated from the Maori to mean 'cave of swirling water' and it is the second largest lake in NZ. The water is deep and pure - so pure you can drink it straight out of the lake....the tiny township of Te Anau itself stands on its shores but in the main it is surrounded only by farms and wilderness....it feels untouched by time and civilization....
Today i took some time to be alone and drink it all in....I find that sometimes, when travelling this far and wide it is important to just stop and think about where I am, what i'm seeing, what i've seen...where i'm going....wandering to the lake I sat with hot sunshine beating down on my back and stared at the lake, the trees, the mountains, watching a cheeky dog chasing sticks thrown into the shallow water by her daddy just below me...I could not have been more relaxed....
tomorrow an (other!) early start takes us to milford sound where, I believe, awaits even more spectacular, breathtaking, indescribable scenery!
stay tuned! xx
A glow worm's never glum
Cause how can you be gloomy
When the sun shines out your bum?!"
The grotto is pitch black.....so dark that you couldn't see your hand if you held it to your face. You hear a waterfall in the distance but no one makes a sound for fear of scaring the creatures and causing their bright lights to dim....tiny pricks of light scattered over the ceiling and walls of the caves....lying in wait for their prey, sticky poisonous beads of death draping down from the hammock where the glow worm lies languidly, ready to catch unsuspecting bugs and moths as they happen past, fatally attracted to the light...
To get to the glow worm caves at Te Anau we are ferried across beautiful Te Anau lake....I feel as though, for the past month or so, all I have done is gaze at beautiful scenery....from the Canadian Rockies to the South Island of New Zealand I have lost count of the number of breathtaking lakes, snow capped mountains, rolling green hills and pretty little babbling brooks. But I am in no way complaining. How fortunate am I to be able to say I have seen and experienced some of the most beautiful places in the world!?
The name Te Anau is translated from the Maori to mean 'cave of swirling water' and it is the second largest lake in NZ. The water is deep and pure - so pure you can drink it straight out of the lake....the tiny township of Te Anau itself stands on its shores but in the main it is surrounded only by farms and wilderness....it feels untouched by time and civilization....
Today i took some time to be alone and drink it all in....I find that sometimes, when travelling this far and wide it is important to just stop and think about where I am, what i'm seeing, what i've seen...where i'm going....wandering to the lake I sat with hot sunshine beating down on my back and stared at the lake, the trees, the mountains, watching a cheeky dog chasing sticks thrown into the shallow water by her daddy just below me...I could not have been more relaxed....
tomorrow an (other!) early start takes us to milford sound where, I believe, awaits even more spectacular, breathtaking, indescribable scenery!
stay tuned! xx
Thursday, November 27, 2008
the tale of polly the penguin and other wild creatures
They sit proudly in their little breeding huts, guarding their babies while their mate marches off busily in search of food....as we peer out of the camouflaged viewing huts we quietly watch as the little one pops its head up and nestles into the soft down of his mummy's tummy. The yellow eyed penguin is incredibly rare and endangered and this area of new zealand, near dunedin, is one of only a few areas that they nest, coming back to their territory year after year. They are quite unusual penguins in that they like to be alone...just them and their mates, no friends, no bill and betty round for dinner....they do things their way and they do them alone....
Dunedin is known as the 'wildlife capital of new zealand'. and we continue on after watching the penguins to watch the albatross...a slightly bigger bird (3m wingspan!) which also breeds in the area...learning about the albatross is fascinating....after being bought up by mum and dad (the albatross mates for life...) the young albatross is fed and kept safe but is never taught to fly....when along comes a windy day the mum and dad say 'bugger off' and the poor little thing runs down the hill and flies for the first time....and does not come back for 5 years. the scientists aren't sure where they go....but they do know it travels the world at least as far as south america....then back they come, do a little song and dance to find a mate, and settle down to raise a family....it all reminds me of the life cycle of many an aussie i know....!
below the albatross a colony of stewart island shags nest on the waterfront watching a frolicking seal....
So our road trip is cruising along just fine. we're covering a lot of ground but it's beautiful ground, and we're doing it with style and finesse. we do have our 'blonde' moments....mum: generally doors open when you push or pull them, rather than just stare at them hoping to use kinetic energy! dad: in new zealand we drive on the LEFT hand side of the road...this generally reduces the risk of crashing into oncoming traffic.... Matt: it may surprise you but Ireland in January has been WINTER rather than summer for, i dunno, forever....?
I, of course, have not said or done anything remotely 'blonde'...!!
tomorrow we move on to Te Anau...stay tuned. xx
Dunedin is known as the 'wildlife capital of new zealand'. and we continue on after watching the penguins to watch the albatross...a slightly bigger bird (3m wingspan!) which also breeds in the area...learning about the albatross is fascinating....after being bought up by mum and dad (the albatross mates for life...) the young albatross is fed and kept safe but is never taught to fly....when along comes a windy day the mum and dad say 'bugger off' and the poor little thing runs down the hill and flies for the first time....and does not come back for 5 years. the scientists aren't sure where they go....but they do know it travels the world at least as far as south america....then back they come, do a little song and dance to find a mate, and settle down to raise a family....it all reminds me of the life cycle of many an aussie i know....!
below the albatross a colony of stewart island shags nest on the waterfront watching a frolicking seal....
So our road trip is cruising along just fine. we're covering a lot of ground but it's beautiful ground, and we're doing it with style and finesse. we do have our 'blonde' moments....mum: generally doors open when you push or pull them, rather than just stare at them hoping to use kinetic energy! dad: in new zealand we drive on the LEFT hand side of the road...this generally reduces the risk of crashing into oncoming traffic.... Matt: it may surprise you but Ireland in January has been WINTER rather than summer for, i dunno, forever....?
I, of course, have not said or done anything remotely 'blonde'...!!
tomorrow we move on to Te Anau...stay tuned. xx
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
of rivers and oceans and hills and mountain peaks
It can be difficult, sometimes, when participating in activities of a purely english nature to remember that we are actually in New Zealand... Punting down the Avon river yesterday alongside ducklings and goslings - with a plummy accented english boy in straw boat hat and waist-coat we could well have been in oxford....the only thing that flagged this trip as kiwi was the 'extreme adventure' nature of the originally quiet punt as we became stuck on a rock (perhaps if i hadn't had the pizza for lunch it wouldnt have been as much of a problem!) and our poor punter earned his wage by jumping into the freezing stream in bare feet to dislodge us...
continuing our road trip in the afternoon we made our way down to dunedin via world famous custard slices...i'm afraid i must now wax lyrical as, to describe the countryside we drove through with anything less than excessively flowery adjectives would not be doing it justice. Imagine the lushest, richest green, rollling hills you have ever seen...filled to the brim with chubby calves and skittish lambs...an ocean on one side, snow capped mountains on the other...Dunedin itself is a sprawling metropolis filled with scottish heritage and a hip and happening university city vibe which we hope to experience tonight.
today we visit penguins and albatross and a scottish castle....remind me which continent we are in??
stay tuned.. xxx
continuing our road trip in the afternoon we made our way down to dunedin via world famous custard slices...i'm afraid i must now wax lyrical as, to describe the countryside we drove through with anything less than excessively flowery adjectives would not be doing it justice. Imagine the lushest, richest green, rollling hills you have ever seen...filled to the brim with chubby calves and skittish lambs...an ocean on one side, snow capped mountains on the other...Dunedin itself is a sprawling metropolis filled with scottish heritage and a hip and happening university city vibe which we hope to experience tonight.
today we visit penguins and albatross and a scottish castle....remind me which continent we are in??
stay tuned.. xxx
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
la ville par la mer
the last thing you might expect whilst traveling around a overtly english country like New Zealand, is to stumble across a little village with a distinctive gallic flavour.....yet little Akaroa, on the banks of a beautiful harbour, with street names like Rue Jolie and Rue Lavaud made the francophile in me jump for joy...settled by the french in 1838 the town is full of picturesque cottages, restaurants with names like l'hotel and french flags flying proudly next to kiwi over teeny tiny boutiques....
lunch (pizza - hmmm italian rather than french, oh well...) and an ice cream by the sea later we mozied back into christchurch and matt and i headed out to enjoy the last of the evening's sunshine and the famous christchurch river....with a river named 'Avon' lined with old willows and a neo-gothic cathedral you could be forgiven for mistaking christchurch for a forgotten corner of old england. old fashioned trams are juxtaposed with post-modern sculptures....the city has a calming feel about it - i would have liked to spend more time here - but i'm finding i feel that way about any and all of the places we've visited here...guess that means i'm coming back!!
tomorrow we move on to dunedin.
stay tuned. xx
lunch (pizza - hmmm italian rather than french, oh well...) and an ice cream by the sea later we mozied back into christchurch and matt and i headed out to enjoy the last of the evening's sunshine and the famous christchurch river....with a river named 'Avon' lined with old willows and a neo-gothic cathedral you could be forgiven for mistaking christchurch for a forgotten corner of old england. old fashioned trams are juxtaposed with post-modern sculptures....the city has a calming feel about it - i would have liked to spend more time here - but i'm finding i feel that way about any and all of the places we've visited here...guess that means i'm coming back!!
tomorrow we move on to dunedin.
stay tuned. xx
Monday, November 24, 2008
see ya
everyone knows that goodbyes can truly suck...unfortunately, when traveling, they tend to become a part of life....you meet people you like, you hang out, one or other of you moves on, goodbyes are said, promises are made to keep in touch....
goodbyes are even worse if the people you are saying goodbye to are your own flesh and blood and the city you are leaving holds special memories of a week spent with them...as i've said before though, family is family, and when that is the case, goodbyes always have a way of becoming just 'see yas'...
our last day in auckland was spent first having lunch with Gina, a gorgeous aucklander we met and loved in canada....to celebrate her 21st birthday we dallied over chardonnay at spectacular city restaurant 'Mecca', soaking up the warm auckland sunshine and reliving memories of a week spent drudging through ice and snow in the rockies....it seemed a world away and a lifetime ago!
having sent gina on her way for further birthday celebrations we rejoined the family for our last supper....the last for now as, remember, this is only 'see ya'....laughs and wine and hugs and family photos later we left the city of sails with very fond memories and the most well meant promises to come back as soon as possible.
and so the road trip began....the 4 of us, mum, dad, matt and i, have travelled far across these little islands over the past 2 days....first all the way down to wellington where we walked through a pumping windy city and had dinner in a busy little italian with great food and a fun atmosphere....we continued the next morning on the 'inter islander', a 3.5 hour ferry journey across the seas to the south island after which these intrepid adventurers needed a drink....or how about a whole vineyard's worth? Mum, the brilliant little tour guide that she is, had found out about a beautiful restaurant called the 'twelve trees', nestled into one of the wineries of the malborough region we let the tiredness from an early start and all the driving drift over the grape vines and ate and ate and drank and drank....followed by, of course, more drinking, as we sampled sav blancs and rieslings from various wineries across the region.
and now we have arrived in christchurch....by way of a colony of NZ fur seals (oh so cute and furry!) randomly sunning themselves by the side of the coastal road, we are safely ensconced in a stunning apartment smack bang in the city centre...and, suddenly, after months of travelling as simple backpackers, i'm starting to get used to this life of luxury...! oh dear.
stay tuned.. xxx
goodbyes are even worse if the people you are saying goodbye to are your own flesh and blood and the city you are leaving holds special memories of a week spent with them...as i've said before though, family is family, and when that is the case, goodbyes always have a way of becoming just 'see yas'...
our last day in auckland was spent first having lunch with Gina, a gorgeous aucklander we met and loved in canada....to celebrate her 21st birthday we dallied over chardonnay at spectacular city restaurant 'Mecca', soaking up the warm auckland sunshine and reliving memories of a week spent drudging through ice and snow in the rockies....it seemed a world away and a lifetime ago!
having sent gina on her way for further birthday celebrations we rejoined the family for our last supper....the last for now as, remember, this is only 'see ya'....laughs and wine and hugs and family photos later we left the city of sails with very fond memories and the most well meant promises to come back as soon as possible.
and so the road trip began....the 4 of us, mum, dad, matt and i, have travelled far across these little islands over the past 2 days....first all the way down to wellington where we walked through a pumping windy city and had dinner in a busy little italian with great food and a fun atmosphere....we continued the next morning on the 'inter islander', a 3.5 hour ferry journey across the seas to the south island after which these intrepid adventurers needed a drink....or how about a whole vineyard's worth? Mum, the brilliant little tour guide that she is, had found out about a beautiful restaurant called the 'twelve trees', nestled into one of the wineries of the malborough region we let the tiredness from an early start and all the driving drift over the grape vines and ate and ate and drank and drank....followed by, of course, more drinking, as we sampled sav blancs and rieslings from various wineries across the region.
and now we have arrived in christchurch....by way of a colony of NZ fur seals (oh so cute and furry!) randomly sunning themselves by the side of the coastal road, we are safely ensconced in a stunning apartment smack bang in the city centre...and, suddenly, after months of travelling as simple backpackers, i'm starting to get used to this life of luxury...! oh dear.
stay tuned.. xxx
Friday, November 21, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
the world in her hands
tattoos can have all sorts of connotations...and I fully understand and accept that some people hate them....others, like my cousin Trevor, love them...and when he tattooed me on Wednesday we made a mark which has significant meaning to me and will always remind me of this time in my life when i'm young and free, exploring the world and indulging my passion for seeing and exploring new and amazing places....
the fairy is kneeling at the back of my right hip...with her head of luscious dark hair thrown back she is dreaming of flying far far away...somewhere exotic and interesting. her wings are ready to take her there...she can fly, she is free....she holds the world in her hand...
trevor is a very talented artist. originally a jewellery designer his passion was always tattoos and tattooing and eventually he fell into the profession himself...I was excited to have my cousin tattoo me and thrilled to see a design i had been thinking about for over a year finally on paper....it adds an extra special dimension to my tattoo that Trev was the one to do it....but by the end of 2.5 hours I could have killed my masochistic cousin for putting me through the pain!! the pain is soon forgotten though - and i love my fairy. photos will be up soon.
...and yesterday another event I had been looking forward to for over a year came about....my parents joined us in auckland. picking them up from the airport I could not have been more excited to see them....the breathless suspense of waiting at the airport gate, the rush of excitement as they walked through the door....we have two lush weeks to spend time with mum and dad as the 4 of us travel round the south island together. tomorrow we hit the road again...but for today there are final meals and fun to be had with my lovely family.
stay tuned....xx
the fairy is kneeling at the back of my right hip...with her head of luscious dark hair thrown back she is dreaming of flying far far away...somewhere exotic and interesting. her wings are ready to take her there...she can fly, she is free....she holds the world in her hand...
trevor is a very talented artist. originally a jewellery designer his passion was always tattoos and tattooing and eventually he fell into the profession himself...I was excited to have my cousin tattoo me and thrilled to see a design i had been thinking about for over a year finally on paper....it adds an extra special dimension to my tattoo that Trev was the one to do it....but by the end of 2.5 hours I could have killed my masochistic cousin for putting me through the pain!! the pain is soon forgotten though - and i love my fairy. photos will be up soon.
...and yesterday another event I had been looking forward to for over a year came about....my parents joined us in auckland. picking them up from the airport I could not have been more excited to see them....the breathless suspense of waiting at the airport gate, the rush of excitement as they walked through the door....we have two lush weeks to spend time with mum and dad as the 4 of us travel round the south island together. tomorrow we hit the road again...but for today there are final meals and fun to be had with my lovely family.
stay tuned....xx
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
the boy
i refer to them as 'my boys' (or when in england 'the aussie boys') ....they are some of our dearest friends....i adore them....
I remember the first time i met Dane and Ashman like it was yesterday....though i doubt very much that they remember the moment quite as clearly...! we were in a dark, sleazy bar in the red-light district of amsterdam 4 years ago....i saw them from across the bar and decided that they looked quite interesting. So i went over and introduced myself. the conversation went something like this:
me: hi. where are you from?
ashman: newcastle
me: (very excited) Oh WOW that's so cool......do you know daniel johns?? (for the ignorant Dan is frontman of my fave band Silverchair and comes from newcastle, australia...)
dane: (not so excited) um. no.
me: oh ok....see ya!
and off i flounced to get another vodka before spending the next 15 days traveling round europe with these boys from 'newie' and discovering that they're pretty damn awesome.
since then the conversations have improved somewhat (thank goodness) and over the years we have snatched as much time together as we can considering we live on opposite sides of the world....luckily, we all travel far and wide and therefore tend to find ourselves meeting up in many an exotic location....london (where they and 3 of their mates lived with us for a month...that's a whole other story...!!), munich, sydney, stuttgart, dublin....and, now, auckland.
At any particular moment in time, it seems, Ashman could be anywhere in the world.... So it was a lovely surprise when we worked out he would be in NZ at the same time as us....and i could not have been more excited! It has been over a year since i last saw the boy...WAY too long for my liking!
Ash has traveled the world extensively...from asia to europe to the usa to south america....and an airline has never lost his bag...fly 40 minutes from new plymouth to auckland, however, and the thing disappears into thin air. not ones to let such a thing spoil a fun day we had a yummy lunch, watched penguins and stingrays at the aquarium and picked up where we left off last year in New South Wales with a few kiwi beers...
meeting my cousins Joe and Trev for dinner we were the rowdy table in the restaurant before coming home to trevs for a chilled out evening....spending the day with close friends and family...what could be better? thanks for coming to see us Ash....luv ya.
stay tuned...xx
I remember the first time i met Dane and Ashman like it was yesterday....though i doubt very much that they remember the moment quite as clearly...! we were in a dark, sleazy bar in the red-light district of amsterdam 4 years ago....i saw them from across the bar and decided that they looked quite interesting. So i went over and introduced myself. the conversation went something like this:
me: hi. where are you from?
ashman: newcastle
me: (very excited) Oh WOW that's so cool......do you know daniel johns?? (for the ignorant Dan is frontman of my fave band Silverchair and comes from newcastle, australia...)
dane: (not so excited) um. no.
me: oh ok....see ya!
and off i flounced to get another vodka before spending the next 15 days traveling round europe with these boys from 'newie' and discovering that they're pretty damn awesome.
since then the conversations have improved somewhat (thank goodness) and over the years we have snatched as much time together as we can considering we live on opposite sides of the world....luckily, we all travel far and wide and therefore tend to find ourselves meeting up in many an exotic location....london (where they and 3 of their mates lived with us for a month...that's a whole other story...!!), munich, sydney, stuttgart, dublin....and, now, auckland.
At any particular moment in time, it seems, Ashman could be anywhere in the world.... So it was a lovely surprise when we worked out he would be in NZ at the same time as us....and i could not have been more excited! It has been over a year since i last saw the boy...WAY too long for my liking!
Ash has traveled the world extensively...from asia to europe to the usa to south america....and an airline has never lost his bag...fly 40 minutes from new plymouth to auckland, however, and the thing disappears into thin air. not ones to let such a thing spoil a fun day we had a yummy lunch, watched penguins and stingrays at the aquarium and picked up where we left off last year in New South Wales with a few kiwi beers...
meeting my cousins Joe and Trev for dinner we were the rowdy table in the restaurant before coming home to trevs for a chilled out evening....spending the day with close friends and family...what could be better? thanks for coming to see us Ash....luv ya.
stay tuned...xx
Sunday, November 16, 2008
land of the long white cloud
have we really only been in new zealand for 2 nights? we have fit so much in that it feels like we've been hanging out in this awesome city forever....and that we only saw my family a week ago rather than 12 years....
with the sun threatening to hide over the land of the long white cloud, my aunt and uncle took us on a road trip yesterday to the beautiful Bay of Plenty...rolling green paddocks and surprisingly very few sheep later we were checking out some kiwi surfing beaches and having lunch overlooking the waves...
heading back to the city full of ice cream and fresh sea air we went to meet my little baby cousin, Joe....only to find that he's grown up a bit since last we saw him! Its quite obvious that joe and i are cut from the same cloth....he's full of life and fun and laughs and we immediately fell into the kind of fun and easy banter usually only born through familiarity. taking us to a south african 'braai' thrown by some of his friends we spent the night enjoying a good steak and a few beers...and exchanging teasing aussie/kiwi jabs with some very fun people.
today was auckland sightseeing day...the clouds were nowhere to be seen as we ventured downtown - the sky tower with spectacular views over the city and it's beautiful harbour, the museum....being led around by my 7yr old 2nd cousin, Natasha, we couldnt help but catch her enthusiasm on seeing 'Sue' the T-rex...! 10 pin bowling (i need practice!), racing car comps and a very lovely pub dinner ended the day. there is no doubt that my family is awesome and i'm loving spending the time with them in the 'city of sails'.
stay tuned. xx
with the sun threatening to hide over the land of the long white cloud, my aunt and uncle took us on a road trip yesterday to the beautiful Bay of Plenty...rolling green paddocks and surprisingly very few sheep later we were checking out some kiwi surfing beaches and having lunch overlooking the waves...
heading back to the city full of ice cream and fresh sea air we went to meet my little baby cousin, Joe....only to find that he's grown up a bit since last we saw him! Its quite obvious that joe and i are cut from the same cloth....he's full of life and fun and laughs and we immediately fell into the kind of fun and easy banter usually only born through familiarity. taking us to a south african 'braai' thrown by some of his friends we spent the night enjoying a good steak and a few beers...and exchanging teasing aussie/kiwi jabs with some very fun people.
today was auckland sightseeing day...the clouds were nowhere to be seen as we ventured downtown - the sky tower with spectacular views over the city and it's beautiful harbour, the museum....being led around by my 7yr old 2nd cousin, Natasha, we couldnt help but catch her enthusiasm on seeing 'Sue' the T-rex...! 10 pin bowling (i need practice!), racing car comps and a very lovely pub dinner ended the day. there is no doubt that my family is awesome and i'm loving spending the time with them in the 'city of sails'.
stay tuned. xx
Friday, November 14, 2008
family ties
Family is family... and, in the mind of my whole family- both immediate and extended...it really is as simple as that.
My dad's brother Steve, and his family, have lived in Auckland as long as I can remember...although there was a stint in Sydney when I was a very little girl. growing up in 2 different countries meant, of course, that we didn't spend as much time together as any of us would have liked. My childhood memories of my aunt, uncle and cousins though are even more vivid and special as a result....my cousin Trev as a teenager hanging out at our grandad's house....(as an 8yr old i thought he was just so cool....and i still do....)! The whole family hanging out together at Movieworld on the Gold Coast.....Trev on my wedding day laughing with me as we wired up my bouquet of colourful gerberas....
as we walked through the arrival gates at Auckland airport this morning, to be met by Uncle Steve and Auntie Maria, I knew we would be met with hugely welcoming arms even though we had not seen eachother for 11 years....We could not have asked for a more warm reception back to our home hemisphere....and as we stepped into the warm southern hemisphere sunshine - it felt like we'd never left...
coffee...lunch...eagle eye views of auckland....an all encompassing tour of big boy's toys....indian for dinner....and lots of fun laughs and chats with very special, loving family...
more tomorrow - stay tuned.... xx
My dad's brother Steve, and his family, have lived in Auckland as long as I can remember...although there was a stint in Sydney when I was a very little girl. growing up in 2 different countries meant, of course, that we didn't spend as much time together as any of us would have liked. My childhood memories of my aunt, uncle and cousins though are even more vivid and special as a result....my cousin Trev as a teenager hanging out at our grandad's house....(as an 8yr old i thought he was just so cool....and i still do....)! The whole family hanging out together at Movieworld on the Gold Coast.....Trev on my wedding day laughing with me as we wired up my bouquet of colourful gerberas....
as we walked through the arrival gates at Auckland airport this morning, to be met by Uncle Steve and Auntie Maria, I knew we would be met with hugely welcoming arms even though we had not seen eachother for 11 years....We could not have asked for a more warm reception back to our home hemisphere....and as we stepped into the warm southern hemisphere sunshine - it felt like we'd never left...
coffee...lunch...eagle eye views of auckland....an all encompassing tour of big boy's toys....indian for dinner....and lots of fun laughs and chats with very special, loving family...
more tomorrow - stay tuned.... xx
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
of icy canyons and ice cold beer
i know i've been having an awesome time when i forget to update this rambling diary and my loyal readers start to bay for blood....or at least a few bits of gossip about what we've been up to....!
we are back in vancouver....exausted after spending the last week partying every night before getting up early to hop on the lurve bus and cruise around the canadian rockies - peering out at more and more spectacular scenery....and enjoying good times with some very fun and cool people.
some highlights:
- our night in a timber cottage, drinking vodka and playing cards before taking our booze and jumping into the outdoor hot tub....staying there till we were all wrinkly....chatting away till all hours with great new friends.
- lake louise....everything i imagine when i think of a canadian lake....spectacular
- the feeling of relief having not fallen over and broken leg, hip or head whilst scrambling up and down an icy pathway on the way to Johnson canyon....
- snowfights and snowmen. if there was snow, there were fights....quite often the bus bore the brunt of the attacks...and so would have i if jeremie, our fearless tour guide, hadn't been quite as quick at closing the door when a barrage of balls came towards me - a sitting duck in the front seat!!
- karaoke night in banff....4 key ingredients - an awesome hostel bar swarming with travelers, lots of vodka, some pumping tunes, and some great friends. and, no, i didn't sing...though i won't say i wasn't tempted!
and much much more....all in all it was a trip to be remembered....
and, tomorrow, we leave canada and head to nz. in a way i am sad.......we've had some great times in canada....and, having been in north america for 6 weeks now it feels strange to leave...but leave we must and, with my family waiting at the other end i am so excited to be getting closer and closer to home.
my next post, therefore, will be from the southern hemisphere....in the meantime these pics should give you a taste of the good times we've had this week.
canadian rockies 1
rockies 2
rockies 3
stay tuned...
xx
we are back in vancouver....exausted after spending the last week partying every night before getting up early to hop on the lurve bus and cruise around the canadian rockies - peering out at more and more spectacular scenery....and enjoying good times with some very fun and cool people.
some highlights:
- our night in a timber cottage, drinking vodka and playing cards before taking our booze and jumping into the outdoor hot tub....staying there till we were all wrinkly....chatting away till all hours with great new friends.
- lake louise....everything i imagine when i think of a canadian lake....spectacular
- the feeling of relief having not fallen over and broken leg, hip or head whilst scrambling up and down an icy pathway on the way to Johnson canyon....
- snowfights and snowmen. if there was snow, there were fights....quite often the bus bore the brunt of the attacks...and so would have i if jeremie, our fearless tour guide, hadn't been quite as quick at closing the door when a barrage of balls came towards me - a sitting duck in the front seat!!
- karaoke night in banff....4 key ingredients - an awesome hostel bar swarming with travelers, lots of vodka, some pumping tunes, and some great friends. and, no, i didn't sing...though i won't say i wasn't tempted!
and much much more....all in all it was a trip to be remembered....
and, tomorrow, we leave canada and head to nz. in a way i am sad.......we've had some great times in canada....and, having been in north america for 6 weeks now it feels strange to leave...but leave we must and, with my family waiting at the other end i am so excited to be getting closer and closer to home.
my next post, therefore, will be from the southern hemisphere....in the meantime these pics should give you a taste of the good times we've had this week.
canadian rockies 1
rockies 2
rockies 3
stay tuned...
xx
Friday, November 7, 2008
moosing about
sometimes, when you're traveling, it's fun to let someone else do all the hard work, relax and just go along for the ride. So, when it came to exploring the canadian rockies we turned to a moose....
we are traveling with 'moose tours' for a week....led by a crazy, fun quebecois and surrounded by 23 aussies, kiwis, brits and irish - all travelers, all on their way somewhere interesting, having been somewhere interesting...all with a story to tell...
together we have spent the past 3 days driving through spectacular, picture postcard scenery.....craggy mountain peaks, deep blue lakes, waterfalls, canyons, rustic litttle ski villages.....fresh mountain air and gently falling snow...by the time we arrive back at our hostel we are ready to party....and last night Banff showed us how it's done. The place is swarming with aussies as they start to pile into town for the ski season....the hostel pub was pumping and, as we drank shots off skis we got to know our travel buddies the best way possible....with a drink (or three) in a hand....
there are 4 more days to go in the rockies....more parties, more mountains, more snow....more fun.
stay tuned. xx
we are traveling with 'moose tours' for a week....led by a crazy, fun quebecois and surrounded by 23 aussies, kiwis, brits and irish - all travelers, all on their way somewhere interesting, having been somewhere interesting...all with a story to tell...
together we have spent the past 3 days driving through spectacular, picture postcard scenery.....craggy mountain peaks, deep blue lakes, waterfalls, canyons, rustic litttle ski villages.....fresh mountain air and gently falling snow...by the time we arrive back at our hostel we are ready to party....and last night Banff showed us how it's done. The place is swarming with aussies as they start to pile into town for the ski season....the hostel pub was pumping and, as we drank shots off skis we got to know our travel buddies the best way possible....with a drink (or three) in a hand....
there are 4 more days to go in the rockies....more parties, more mountains, more snow....more fun.
stay tuned. xx
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
passions
Vancouverites are passionate about food....the city is drowning in plush and interesting, little restaurants....none more so than in the gastown district which is a hop, step and jump from our hotel....so when we met our old school friend, Layne, for dinner on Saturday night we only had to wander down a couple of streets to find a modern irish gastro pub serving the kind of food we've been craving....bangers and mash...fish and chips....pies with lashings of gravy....There's something special about meeting up with childhood friends - sometimes it can seem as if you only met up yesterday, and as we reminisced with Layne about the old school days and mutual friends we felt so lucky to have dear old friends dotted around the globe...
it's refreshing, when you're visiting a new city to have the opportunity to hang out with locals who are passionate about their country and their city and are keen to show how beautiful, how wonderful, the place is...somehow they manage to infuse you with the same passion and, by the end of the day, you love their city too.
John, Jorden and Marty took to their roles as our vancouverite tour guides like ducks to water on Sunday....taking us first to the famous Granville island, we visited a microbrewery and downed a beer that tasted like chocolate (seriously) before heading to the 'sandbar', a waterfront seafood restaurant where Christine works...delicious, succulent, fresh crabs are their specialty and i enjoyed mine on a 'benny' (benedict)....mmmm....
piling back into the tour bus (!) we headed next to Stanley park...a large and lush parkland filled with autumnal trees, picnic areas, beaches (1st beach, 2nd beach and 3rd beach...these vancouverites prove themselves very creative beach namers!!), an aquarium, a golf course and spectacular views....the park is so huge we felt as if we were driving around it for hours...
John, like many canadians it seems, is a passionate ice hockey player and we were were excited to end the afternoon by watching him and his team chasing a 'little black thing' around the ice...eventually winning in a nail biting finish...
now and then, in life, one is lucky enough to stumble across kindred spirits...people who share the same passions, and often, similar goals in life. In our case, it seems we share with john and jorden a passion for food and a passion for travel....preferably both at the same time....and so we decided to indulge ourselves by ending our perfect day at their favourite restaurant, Guu...modern japanese cuisine served with a bite of humour and a ladle-full of loud and eclectic atmosphere, we enjoyed strange and wonderful 'japanese tapas' ...a little bit of this and a little bit of that....and by the end we were full as guu and rather happy on some sort of bubble-gum flavoured, vodka laced beverage.
What a perfect day in Vancouver...thank you so much to our vancouverite tour guides....we love your city.
xx
it's refreshing, when you're visiting a new city to have the opportunity to hang out with locals who are passionate about their country and their city and are keen to show how beautiful, how wonderful, the place is...somehow they manage to infuse you with the same passion and, by the end of the day, you love their city too.
John, Jorden and Marty took to their roles as our vancouverite tour guides like ducks to water on Sunday....taking us first to the famous Granville island, we visited a microbrewery and downed a beer that tasted like chocolate (seriously) before heading to the 'sandbar', a waterfront seafood restaurant where Christine works...delicious, succulent, fresh crabs are their specialty and i enjoyed mine on a 'benny' (benedict)....mmmm....
piling back into the tour bus (!) we headed next to Stanley park...a large and lush parkland filled with autumnal trees, picnic areas, beaches (1st beach, 2nd beach and 3rd beach...these vancouverites prove themselves very creative beach namers!!), an aquarium, a golf course and spectacular views....the park is so huge we felt as if we were driving around it for hours...
John, like many canadians it seems, is a passionate ice hockey player and we were were excited to end the afternoon by watching him and his team chasing a 'little black thing' around the ice...eventually winning in a nail biting finish...
now and then, in life, one is lucky enough to stumble across kindred spirits...people who share the same passions, and often, similar goals in life. In our case, it seems we share with john and jorden a passion for food and a passion for travel....preferably both at the same time....and so we decided to indulge ourselves by ending our perfect day at their favourite restaurant, Guu...modern japanese cuisine served with a bite of humour and a ladle-full of loud and eclectic atmosphere, we enjoyed strange and wonderful 'japanese tapas' ...a little bit of this and a little bit of that....and by the end we were full as guu and rather happy on some sort of bubble-gum flavoured, vodka laced beverage.
What a perfect day in Vancouver...thank you so much to our vancouverite tour guides....we love your city.
xx
Sunday, November 2, 2008
remembering ouzo
less than six months ago we were relaxing and partying on the beaches of some of the most beautiful grecian islands...mykonos, santorini, ios and paros...surrounded by some of the most fun, interesting and crazy people you could ever hope to meet....(most of them read this blog so that was for you guys....!! hehe). they came from all over the world, had traveled far and wide and together we had an awesome nine days soaking up sun and ouzo....
...ouzo has it's own special place alongside the islands in the fond memories of that group of people and when that liquid gold came out of hiding last night we knew we were in for a good time. John, Jorden, Marty and Christine are Vancouverites we met in greece and for a long time we have all been looking forward to getting together to party on halloween in vancouver...and the night did not disappoint. starting with ouzo and ending with 'frites' - the perfect late night, greasy, gravy covered snack - we partied late into the night at the Roxy - THE club of choice in the downtown area...dancing to live music and drinking the night away alongside a bevy of strangely costumed canadians. by the end of the night my head was spinning with skeletons, ghosts, many jack sparrows, various action figures and a very brave Borat...(who, incedently, i saw on the news the next morning...certain parts of his anatomy discreetly blurred....)
Vancouver is a friendly, fun place and we're so lucky to know some incredibly friendly and fun people here.....
more socialising to follow...though hopefully accompanied by less ouzo....stay tuned.
xx
editor's note: (!!) for historical accuracy i must point out that the delicious late night snack we enjoyed was actually 'poutine' not 'frites'....'Frites' was the shop we went to to get the 'poutine'....obviously the ouzo had affected me greatly by this point.
...ouzo has it's own special place alongside the islands in the fond memories of that group of people and when that liquid gold came out of hiding last night we knew we were in for a good time. John, Jorden, Marty and Christine are Vancouverites we met in greece and for a long time we have all been looking forward to getting together to party on halloween in vancouver...and the night did not disappoint. starting with ouzo and ending with 'frites' - the perfect late night, greasy, gravy covered snack - we partied late into the night at the Roxy - THE club of choice in the downtown area...dancing to live music and drinking the night away alongside a bevy of strangely costumed canadians. by the end of the night my head was spinning with skeletons, ghosts, many jack sparrows, various action figures and a very brave Borat...(who, incedently, i saw on the news the next morning...certain parts of his anatomy discreetly blurred....)
Vancouver is a friendly, fun place and we're so lucky to know some incredibly friendly and fun people here.....
more socialising to follow...though hopefully accompanied by less ouzo....stay tuned.
xx
editor's note: (!!) for historical accuracy i must point out that the delicious late night snack we enjoyed was actually 'poutine' not 'frites'....'Frites' was the shop we went to to get the 'poutine'....obviously the ouzo had affected me greatly by this point.
Friday, October 31, 2008
sleeping in seattle
allow me to give you a very intimate insight into a day in the life of a backpacker...a long term traveler....a vagabond....
TODAY
4am - woken by alarm clock owned by one of the 30 other people sleeping in hostel dorm room. 10 minutes later it goes off again....and again...and again...until every fellow hostelleer in the room is awake apart from the owner of the alarm. much muttering and cursing is heard throughout the room until someone goes and hits the guy's shoulder and tells him to turn the bloody thing off...
5am - 7am - light goes on and off, people move about, banging lockers and doors....sleep comes and goes
7am - give up trying to sleep even though i don't have to be awake for another hour
7 - 9.30 - shower in tiny, dirty cubicle...in a bathroom shared with at least 50 other women. breakfast of stale coffee and waffles - but it's free so whatever....check out of hostel.
9.30 - 2.30 - taxi to subway, subway to yet another airport, airtrain to terminal, check in, eat drink, fly
2.30 - another new city and no idea where to go...catch local bus (could get taxi or shuttle but we're cheapskate backpackers...). change buses....still have very little idea about where we're going....pray that we'll get off in the right place and not end up in Woop Woop...(or, worse, somewhere where people like to shoot backpackers with the arms they have the right to bear...)
4pm - jump off bus and walk, and walk....and walk, backpacks heavier by the minute, till we come to our hostel 20 mins later. luckily we have met a fellow traveler along the way who is also staying at the hostel and knows where to go....he explains that we have managed to book the hostel in Woop Woop after all...and that for all intents and purposes we're not even in Seattle...hey....it was cheap....and there's free breakfast and internet...what else could a backpacker ask for?
.....and tomorrow we do it all over again on our way to Vancouver....
it's not always glamorous.
it's not always fun.
it doesn't always feel like a holiday.
we are very very tired.
but it's a means to an end and as i've written before in this little literary masterpiece that is my blog (haha!!) it's days like these that make the fun, interesting and glamorous days possible. I hate them but they get us where we want be....and that's what matters.
tomorrow, you see, is halloween and we plan to celebrate it canada style with some fun and fabulous canadian friends....
stay tuned.....
xx
TODAY
4am - woken by alarm clock owned by one of the 30 other people sleeping in hostel dorm room. 10 minutes later it goes off again....and again...and again...until every fellow hostelleer in the room is awake apart from the owner of the alarm. much muttering and cursing is heard throughout the room until someone goes and hits the guy's shoulder and tells him to turn the bloody thing off...
5am - 7am - light goes on and off, people move about, banging lockers and doors....sleep comes and goes
7am - give up trying to sleep even though i don't have to be awake for another hour
7 - 9.30 - shower in tiny, dirty cubicle...in a bathroom shared with at least 50 other women. breakfast of stale coffee and waffles - but it's free so whatever....check out of hostel.
9.30 - 2.30 - taxi to subway, subway to yet another airport, airtrain to terminal, check in, eat drink, fly
2.30 - another new city and no idea where to go...catch local bus (could get taxi or shuttle but we're cheapskate backpackers...). change buses....still have very little idea about where we're going....pray that we'll get off in the right place and not end up in Woop Woop...(or, worse, somewhere where people like to shoot backpackers with the arms they have the right to bear...)
4pm - jump off bus and walk, and walk....and walk, backpacks heavier by the minute, till we come to our hostel 20 mins later. luckily we have met a fellow traveler along the way who is also staying at the hostel and knows where to go....he explains that we have managed to book the hostel in Woop Woop after all...and that for all intents and purposes we're not even in Seattle...hey....it was cheap....and there's free breakfast and internet...what else could a backpacker ask for?
.....and tomorrow we do it all over again on our way to Vancouver....
it's not always glamorous.
it's not always fun.
it doesn't always feel like a holiday.
we are very very tired.
but it's a means to an end and as i've written before in this little literary masterpiece that is my blog (haha!!) it's days like these that make the fun, interesting and glamorous days possible. I hate them but they get us where we want be....and that's what matters.
tomorrow, you see, is halloween and we plan to celebrate it canada style with some fun and fabulous canadian friends....
stay tuned.....
xx
Thursday, October 30, 2008
escape artists
alcatraz...one of the most infamous and notorious federal prisons in the world - the subject of hollywood films and many a popular myth. you can see the island from san francisco itself of course...a mile and a half off-shore and usually covered slightly in mist it looks spooky and uninhabitable. but today we took a deep breath and traveled to the place where the most hardened criminals were sent when there was no where else to go...the place that most san franciscans would have preferred to forget existed only 40 years ago.
the rangers on the national park that is alcatraz island obviously take great pride in regaling the general public with the stories of former inmates. as we followed 'ranger joan' (who could well have been an inmate herself by the look of her...) she told us stories of escapes and attempted escapes...made all the more real as we looked over the frigid water and swirling currents which, it is said, killed those escapees who were never found....the government is very quick to make the statement that no one ever successfully escaped from alcatraz....but there were convicts who escaped and whose bodies were never found floating on the shoreline....did they survive??
There is one inmate who certainly did not escape...who is, in fact, still at alcatraz. admittedly he no longer sleeps behind bars but has written a book, presumably about his horrific experiences, and now sits on a comfy chair in the cellhouse bookshop, signing his autograph and answering the questions of curious tourists. (sir, did you ever meet Al Capone....? um lets see shall we you stupid tourist....NO - alcatraz wasn't exactly a social club..) Seriously though - if you had done time in what was, in the day, the most hardcore prison in the USA...would you really go back of your own free will to work each and every day years later?? having heard what i did of life as a convict as i walked around the now empty cells, I found the whole idea quite strange.
this afternoon i made my own escape...for me the forbidden land is the magical world of american department stores...Macy's, Bloomingdales, Saks 5th Avenue.................for a few free hours i was in heaven. San Francisco has awesome shopping and i'm still making good use of a very nice exchange rate. God bless America.
tomorrow we escape again - this time to Seattle for one night only and then escaping the USA entirely as we finally make our way back into canada....
stay tuned. xxxx
the rangers on the national park that is alcatraz island obviously take great pride in regaling the general public with the stories of former inmates. as we followed 'ranger joan' (who could well have been an inmate herself by the look of her...) she told us stories of escapes and attempted escapes...made all the more real as we looked over the frigid water and swirling currents which, it is said, killed those escapees who were never found....the government is very quick to make the statement that no one ever successfully escaped from alcatraz....but there were convicts who escaped and whose bodies were never found floating on the shoreline....did they survive??
There is one inmate who certainly did not escape...who is, in fact, still at alcatraz. admittedly he no longer sleeps behind bars but has written a book, presumably about his horrific experiences, and now sits on a comfy chair in the cellhouse bookshop, signing his autograph and answering the questions of curious tourists. (sir, did you ever meet Al Capone....? um lets see shall we you stupid tourist....NO - alcatraz wasn't exactly a social club..) Seriously though - if you had done time in what was, in the day, the most hardcore prison in the USA...would you really go back of your own free will to work each and every day years later?? having heard what i did of life as a convict as i walked around the now empty cells, I found the whole idea quite strange.
this afternoon i made my own escape...for me the forbidden land is the magical world of american department stores...Macy's, Bloomingdales, Saks 5th Avenue.................for a few free hours i was in heaven. San Francisco has awesome shopping and i'm still making good use of a very nice exchange rate. God bless America.
tomorrow we escape again - this time to Seattle for one night only and then escaping the USA entirely as we finally make our way back into canada....
stay tuned. xxxx
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
If you're going to san francisco
"If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you're going to San Francisco
You're gonna meet some gentle people there
For those who come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
In the streets of San Francisco
Gentle people with flowers in their hair"
sing along with me....oh....you don't know the words? no...in my defence neither did i till i googled them..but the tune has been in my head all day and now i've passed it on to you...hhehehe!!
we were given the guided tour of SF by mr toad this morning - or more precisely his more attractive sidekick - 'ms tour guide'....we saw it all, including, and most importantly, a close up of the iconic golden gate bridge.
who needs disneyland when you have SF and its famous cable cars? the way those things go up hills and down dales is slightly scary but when ours landed me in the middle of shopping heaven i figured it was worth missing a heartbeat or 2....so tonight we shopped and we ate guacamole (handmade at our table to our specifications of course...) and drank tequila and went to a movie....and generally tried to behave like 'normal' non-tourists for once...
tomorrow we're going to prison...stay tuned. xx
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you're going to San Francisco
You're gonna meet some gentle people there
For those who come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
In the streets of San Francisco
Gentle people with flowers in their hair"
sing along with me....oh....you don't know the words? no...in my defence neither did i till i googled them..but the tune has been in my head all day and now i've passed it on to you...hhehehe!!
we were given the guided tour of SF by mr toad this morning - or more precisely his more attractive sidekick - 'ms tour guide'....we saw it all, including, and most importantly, a close up of the iconic golden gate bridge.
who needs disneyland when you have SF and its famous cable cars? the way those things go up hills and down dales is slightly scary but when ours landed me in the middle of shopping heaven i figured it was worth missing a heartbeat or 2....so tonight we shopped and we ate guacamole (handmade at our table to our specifications of course...) and drank tequila and went to a movie....and generally tried to behave like 'normal' non-tourists for once...
tomorrow we're going to prison...stay tuned. xx
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
the wild wild west
California has some pretty spectacular landscape. one minute you're beachside, ducking roller-bladers, palm trees a-wavin in the sky....the next, if Gabby has anything to do with it, you're in the wild wild west...
i guess we weren't THAT far west but it certainly felt it as we drove over desert mountains, through towns named san this and los that....you could be excused for thinking you're in mexico round here. and when gabby took us through a town called los hicksville (well, maybe not but you get the idea...) we stopped for lunch at a restaurant with a sign saying 'hippies use the back door. no exceptions'. i guess we couldnt argue with that so to the back door we headed...
around here it's so easy to imagine what it must have been like - well, just like an old western movie i guess. close your eyes and you can hear the click of cowboy's spurs, a skewbald pony pawing at the ground, saloon doors being thrown back...and the smell of gunfire in the air....or perhaps i just have an overactive imagination...
on we drove to arrive in san francisco. may i once again state the obvious - america is bloody huge. it took us ages....when we did arrive we felt as though we'd arrived in another country - it is so much colder here, that much drearier than it was in los angeles and las vegas....but we are keen for today as a certain 'mr toad' is going to show us round this hilly city.
stay tuned. xx
i guess we weren't THAT far west but it certainly felt it as we drove over desert mountains, through towns named san this and los that....you could be excused for thinking you're in mexico round here. and when gabby took us through a town called los hicksville (well, maybe not but you get the idea...) we stopped for lunch at a restaurant with a sign saying 'hippies use the back door. no exceptions'. i guess we couldnt argue with that so to the back door we headed...
around here it's so easy to imagine what it must have been like - well, just like an old western movie i guess. close your eyes and you can hear the click of cowboy's spurs, a skewbald pony pawing at the ground, saloon doors being thrown back...and the smell of gunfire in the air....or perhaps i just have an overactive imagination...
on we drove to arrive in san francisco. may i once again state the obvious - america is bloody huge. it took us ages....when we did arrive we felt as though we'd arrived in another country - it is so much colder here, that much drearier than it was in los angeles and las vegas....but we are keen for today as a certain 'mr toad' is going to show us round this hilly city.
stay tuned. xx
Sunday, October 26, 2008
stars in their eyes
we have spent the day starry eyed...of course, when it comes to hollywood it's hard to be anything but....hollywood boulevard, the walk of fame, sunset boulevard, rodeo drive, beverley hills, bel air...all are as famous as the stars that live and shop in their streets.
Personally i don't agree in principal with the process of stalking the houses of stars... but please understand that i was desperate to spot a celebrity - any celebrity would do....so when, while walking down hollywood boulevard, someone thrust a map of the stars' homes in my hands, what was a girl to do??!!
with the help of our new best friend Gabby (more about Gabby to follow...), we meandered our way through beverley hills, bel air and mulhulland drive....watched by a million security cameras we peeked through thick hedges and over heavy black gates to see a glimpse of a roof here and a statue there belonging to some minor (and some major) stars....but to my dismay, on this saturday afternoon in the hollywood hills, there was not a celebrity to be seen....
a word about gabby....our friend gabby is dark and sexy with a soft, gentle voice. she never gets upset, never raises her voice and, most importantly, never gets lost. she never even has to get out of the car to ask for directions despite the incomprehensible maze that is Los Angeles. Gabby is, of course, a GPS and we are deeply in love with her. (mum and dad, if you're reading this, we have decided that we need to rent a 'Gabby II' whilst traveling through new zealand....!)
when you've had a rough day - whether you've been let down by a friend or work has been tricky....or if your efforts to rival the paparazzi have been dismally unsuccessful...there is nothing quite like being by the water to wash your cares away. and, as we found ourselves watching the sunset dip over the ocean on santa monica beach tonight, we looked into the sky....and finally we saw stars...
xx
Personally i don't agree in principal with the process of stalking the houses of stars... but please understand that i was desperate to spot a celebrity - any celebrity would do....so when, while walking down hollywood boulevard, someone thrust a map of the stars' homes in my hands, what was a girl to do??!!
with the help of our new best friend Gabby (more about Gabby to follow...), we meandered our way through beverley hills, bel air and mulhulland drive....watched by a million security cameras we peeked through thick hedges and over heavy black gates to see a glimpse of a roof here and a statue there belonging to some minor (and some major) stars....but to my dismay, on this saturday afternoon in the hollywood hills, there was not a celebrity to be seen....
a word about gabby....our friend gabby is dark and sexy with a soft, gentle voice. she never gets upset, never raises her voice and, most importantly, never gets lost. she never even has to get out of the car to ask for directions despite the incomprehensible maze that is Los Angeles. Gabby is, of course, a GPS and we are deeply in love with her. (mum and dad, if you're reading this, we have decided that we need to rent a 'Gabby II' whilst traveling through new zealand....!)
when you've had a rough day - whether you've been let down by a friend or work has been tricky....or if your efforts to rival the paparazzi have been dismally unsuccessful...there is nothing quite like being by the water to wash your cares away. and, as we found ourselves watching the sunset dip over the ocean on santa monica beach tonight, we looked into the sky....and finally we saw stars...
xx
Saturday, October 25, 2008
the magical land of disney...
....where once upon a time becomes once upon a day...
i consider myself quite the disney veteran....i was at the disneyland in paris in both 07 and 08...albeit on either side of midnight as we saw in the new year by watching the fireworks over the princess palace...so i was interested in comparing the californian version to the european...unfortunately it didn't quite meet the standard set by paris. but nothing ever really does in my eyes - so i guess i shouldnt be surprised...but we had a fun day anyway. where else can you pretend to be indiana jones, buzz lightyear and captain jack sparrow all in the space of a day!
and when matt's eyes lit up at the banner saying that 'ASIMO' was in the house the day became even more worthwhile. Now apparently ASIMO is Matt's favorite humanoid robot....which worries me twofold. Firstly - that matt even HAS a favorite humanoid robot, and the subtle suggestion the statement makes that he may have favorite robots of other types also??! dog-anoid perhaps? cat-anoid?! But apparently ASIMO is quite the celebrity in the robot world...and i have to say he was quite impressive. actually - i want one!!
so between ASIMO and buzz and jack and donald and a poohie bear....and of course mickey....the day passed in a blur of magic and happily ever afters...
xx
i consider myself quite the disney veteran....i was at the disneyland in paris in both 07 and 08...albeit on either side of midnight as we saw in the new year by watching the fireworks over the princess palace...so i was interested in comparing the californian version to the european...unfortunately it didn't quite meet the standard set by paris. but nothing ever really does in my eyes - so i guess i shouldnt be surprised...but we had a fun day anyway. where else can you pretend to be indiana jones, buzz lightyear and captain jack sparrow all in the space of a day!
and when matt's eyes lit up at the banner saying that 'ASIMO' was in the house the day became even more worthwhile. Now apparently ASIMO is Matt's favorite humanoid robot....which worries me twofold. Firstly - that matt even HAS a favorite humanoid robot, and the subtle suggestion the statement makes that he may have favorite robots of other types also??! dog-anoid perhaps? cat-anoid?! But apparently ASIMO is quite the celebrity in the robot world...and i have to say he was quite impressive. actually - i want one!!
so between ASIMO and buzz and jack and donald and a poohie bear....and of course mickey....the day passed in a blur of magic and happily ever afters...
xx
Friday, October 24, 2008
foto frenzy
when it rains it pours! knock yourselves out my photo-loving-blog-reading friends...
boston - biking around and willy the whale
Sea World
San Diego Silliness
Halloween party in the OC
Viva Las Vegas
boston - biking around and willy the whale
Sea World
San Diego Silliness
Halloween party in the OC
Viva Las Vegas
Thursday, October 23, 2008
leaving las vegas
for a few days now today, thursday the whatever (ive completely lost track of dates!), has been etched in my mind as 'D' day....the day we leave las vegas....and i didn't want this day to come. I love it here. man, it's my kinda town!!! the kind where you party all night, sleep all morning, spend the arvo sipping cocktails by the pool in the desert sun, then party all night again. last night, for example, was filled with laughter as we made our way to Treasure Island (thats the other thing i love - the names of the hotels make you feel like you have spent a week at disneyland!!) for a comedy club night. we were worried that we wouldn't 'get' a lot of the humour - that it might be based mainly on Obama and McCain....but it wasn't and we did and we laughed. a lot. but that may have also been due also to the free drinks we consumed whilst gambling downstairs beforehand.........whatever the reason it was a very fun night.
today we are traveling in style. after spending a few more hours mooching round vegas....milking the place for all it's worth....we are gettin ourselves some wheels.....no more grey dog for us.....and making our way to anaheim ready to play with Mickey Mouse tomorrow....!!
xx
today we are traveling in style. after spending a few more hours mooching round vegas....milking the place for all it's worth....we are gettin ourselves some wheels.....no more grey dog for us.....and making our way to anaheim ready to play with Mickey Mouse tomorrow....!!
xx
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
russian roulette
what do 2 english chicks, a couple of swedes and some mad aussies have in common?? well, in this case, both a passion for travelling and the fact that we were all in vegas at the same time. we met Eric and Lovisa in NYC, Jo in San Diego and Charlene in Las Vegas...it's one of the most wonderful things about backpacking - you can easily meet awesome, fun, interesting, incredibly well travelled people from all over the world...and, if you have a little bit of vegas luck, you might even end up meeting up with them again...and again. we all met up for a couple of drinks after dinner yesterday evening and ended up staying out all night...its easy to do in sin city. we moved from hotel to hotel...a dollar in the pokies here and a couple of drinks there...sometime in the wee hours we found ourselves in downtown Las Vegas - the original vegas of the rat pack era...where nowadays the streets are seedy and the bets are cheap. It was here that i found myself somehow winning $90 on roulette (must have been cause i was wearing my lucky undies!) and floating home on a cloud....one very happy gambler.
vegas can be an expensive city for the budget conscious backpacker. the place is drowning in glitz and gold, prada and gucci, but if you're a little savvy and are prepared to do a few strange things to save a buck - you can enjoy all vegas has to offer. in the spirit of this we sacrificed our morning to get our hands on $20 tix to a vegas show (usually $80). you dont get anything for nothing in this town and so we allowed ourselves to be dragged miles outside the strip and sit through 4 hours of incredibly boring spiel...do we want to buy a timeshare? no thanks....we just want our cheap show tickets thanks - we're backpackers. and out the door we fled.
but tonight, as we watched high flying acrobats, trampolining fairies, swirling whirling costumes and comedic babies a morning lost in las vegas became an evening gained. 'Mystique' by cirque du soleil was an exotic, eye popping show......incredible and beautiful - i don't think i blinked for 2 hours!
viva las vegas!
xx
vegas can be an expensive city for the budget conscious backpacker. the place is drowning in glitz and gold, prada and gucci, but if you're a little savvy and are prepared to do a few strange things to save a buck - you can enjoy all vegas has to offer. in the spirit of this we sacrificed our morning to get our hands on $20 tix to a vegas show (usually $80). you dont get anything for nothing in this town and so we allowed ourselves to be dragged miles outside the strip and sit through 4 hours of incredibly boring spiel...do we want to buy a timeshare? no thanks....we just want our cheap show tickets thanks - we're backpackers. and out the door we fled.
but tonight, as we watched high flying acrobats, trampolining fairies, swirling whirling costumes and comedic babies a morning lost in las vegas became an evening gained. 'Mystique' by cirque du soleil was an exotic, eye popping show......incredible and beautiful - i don't think i blinked for 2 hours!
viva las vegas!
xx
Monday, October 20, 2008
Californication
california - in itself a pop culture legend. crooned about by everyone from the beach boys to the red hot chilli peppers...movies not only set on its beaches and in its cities but born in it's hills...
its not surprising then, that california feels familiar...i've already mentioned how at home we felt as we arrived in san diego and, the only thing that was missing - the thing we had yet to experience as part of our californication experience was the sand between our toes and waves lapping at our feet. so on friday we headed to mission beach to check out for ourselves the sand and surf. and it was everything you would expect from a californian beach...the sand was a welcome relief from the pebble beaches of england and we delighted in ducking away from rolling waves....again i was homesick...but this time for the beautiful beaches of queensland rather than the pebble beach of Brighton....california - despite its fame - has nothing on home.
that night we hit the town and boy did we paint it red. our friend Christy is an Orange County local. a world traveller in her own right we met Christy in England where she had been living in Brighton for 7 years. but now she's back in her home country and was keen for us to go out in the gaslamp quarter of san diego. literally a hop step and jump from our hostel and we were in some of the funkiest bars in the city, drinking margaritas before sushi-ing it up in a japanese restaurant. meeting a couple of fun local chicks in the restaurant, we had interesting conversations on various topics including religion and politics...american politics are, of course, a rather hot topic in the states at the moment and it's interesting to discuss the candidates with the locals... several more margaritas, an insulting waiter and even more margaritas later we were closing an irish bar and stumbling back the hop step and jump to the hostel. awesome night.
waking the next morning with tequila headaches we packed up shop and piled into christy's car. meandering up the famous pacific highway 1 t0 the OC (i kept my eyes out for seth and ryan but must have missed them...) we stopped at Laguna beach for an ice-cream and a taste of how the other half live in these parts. our destination was christy's brother's place and a home bar that could well have charged an entry fee. John and Lisa have converted their garage into the ultimate party venue (matt and i now want one just like it....) we're talking velvet drapes, luxurious sofas, neon signs, smooth timber bar, um....stripper pole (yes, you heard me!) and, most important - an alcoholic selection to rival your average pub. in our honour John and lisa had invited round a heap of mates for a last minute halloween party. we dressed up to the nines - matt was batman (gotta love the 6-pack!), i was a sexy vampiress and Christy had several costume changes from lady of the night to 60s chick to geisha girl to grecian goddess. Bartender Ben mixed up some killer drinks and we had a lot of laughs in this backyard bar in Orange County. Thanks so much Christy for including us in your family and showing us how to party californication style...
and now - viva las vegas!! we're safely ensconced in the Luxor on the strip. the neon lights of vegas are winking at us out the window and we're looking forward to enjoying the treats in store in Sin City itself.. stay tuned!
xx
its not surprising then, that california feels familiar...i've already mentioned how at home we felt as we arrived in san diego and, the only thing that was missing - the thing we had yet to experience as part of our californication experience was the sand between our toes and waves lapping at our feet. so on friday we headed to mission beach to check out for ourselves the sand and surf. and it was everything you would expect from a californian beach...the sand was a welcome relief from the pebble beaches of england and we delighted in ducking away from rolling waves....again i was homesick...but this time for the beautiful beaches of queensland rather than the pebble beach of Brighton....california - despite its fame - has nothing on home.
that night we hit the town and boy did we paint it red. our friend Christy is an Orange County local. a world traveller in her own right we met Christy in England where she had been living in Brighton for 7 years. but now she's back in her home country and was keen for us to go out in the gaslamp quarter of san diego. literally a hop step and jump from our hostel and we were in some of the funkiest bars in the city, drinking margaritas before sushi-ing it up in a japanese restaurant. meeting a couple of fun local chicks in the restaurant, we had interesting conversations on various topics including religion and politics...american politics are, of course, a rather hot topic in the states at the moment and it's interesting to discuss the candidates with the locals... several more margaritas, an insulting waiter and even more margaritas later we were closing an irish bar and stumbling back the hop step and jump to the hostel. awesome night.
waking the next morning with tequila headaches we packed up shop and piled into christy's car. meandering up the famous pacific highway 1 t0 the OC (i kept my eyes out for seth and ryan but must have missed them...) we stopped at Laguna beach for an ice-cream and a taste of how the other half live in these parts. our destination was christy's brother's place and a home bar that could well have charged an entry fee. John and Lisa have converted their garage into the ultimate party venue (matt and i now want one just like it....) we're talking velvet drapes, luxurious sofas, neon signs, smooth timber bar, um....stripper pole (yes, you heard me!) and, most important - an alcoholic selection to rival your average pub. in our honour John and lisa had invited round a heap of mates for a last minute halloween party. we dressed up to the nines - matt was batman (gotta love the 6-pack!), i was a sexy vampiress and Christy had several costume changes from lady of the night to 60s chick to geisha girl to grecian goddess. Bartender Ben mixed up some killer drinks and we had a lot of laughs in this backyard bar in Orange County. Thanks so much Christy for including us in your family and showing us how to party californication style...
and now - viva las vegas!! we're safely ensconced in the Luxor on the strip. the neon lights of vegas are winking at us out the window and we're looking forward to enjoying the treats in store in Sin City itself.. stay tuned!
xx
Friday, October 17, 2008
north, south, east, west
NEWSFLASH. America is a big country. we have literally spent 2 days travelling...bus (i would say 'coach' but that would be an over-exaggeration) from boston to nyc. a night in nyc back in our trusty hostel near central park....2 hours in the wee hours to commute on the new york subway to jfk....jfk to lax (are you loving the abbreviations?) 6 hour flight. 4 hour bus (yes, bus) from LA to SD and FINALLY we're here in San Diago...and in San Diago we've landed on our feet .
I feel like im home (the aussie one...). as we drove down the coast from LA and watched the sun set - waves on one side, mc-mansions on the other, the heat of the day turning into a chilly night, i could have sworn i was in australia...maybe one of the glitzier, more showy parts...the gold coast perhaps....but aus all the same. and as we stepped out of the taxi into our hostel in the gaslamp quarter, SD's party central, i could tell i was going to be right at home here.
i know i've already complained about backpacking, I imagine there will be more complaining, and i know i've got just under 7 months of it to go (so you're just going to have to put up with it i guess! as am I!)...but backpacking can be quite a strain. and when you've been staying in mixed dorms for 2.5 weeks, in a bunk bed - one of 10 or so strangers - you begin to realise how much you value the odd bit of privacy and the luxury of spreading your stuff wherever you damn well please. so, coming to SD we booked a private room in order to preserve what little bit is left of our sanity - but couldn't imagine the luxury we would be met with - a loft bed, our own sink, sofa, desk.........................and to think we used to take these things for granted!!! Pure, unadulterated, bliss (i can't imagine the pleasure i will feel when faced with a 4* hotel room in vegas!! i mean - our very own ensuite...!!!!!!!!!!!!!! dont be surprised if i don't leave the room...!)
and today we had another special treat....we met matt's cousin, louiza, for the first time. due to the fact that she grew up in vancouver, canada (later moving to san diago) and matt obviously grew up in toowoomba, australia...worlds apart...the two had never met....but families are funny things and somehow it felt like we'd known eachother forever. from the moment we hugged on the street when we met in the morning to the moment we hugged on the street saying goodbye late tonight, it was like we'd only seen eachother yesterday. we chatted non-stop all day and in between and around we played with dolphins (and more whales). the three of us spent the day at sea world, marveling at killer whales and seals and dolphins and puppies and kitties (no, i didn't think they fit in the mix either but the dogs and cats had their own special show - my personal favorite in fact). The day was topped off in absolute style with a meal at Louiza's cousin's (the other side of the family...) restaurant in Little Italy....gorgeous food, a family atmosphere (not surprisingly!!) and plenty of wine....the day couldn't have been any better. Thank you Louiza....was such a pleasure to finally meet you and what a day to remember in beautiful San Diago....
xx
I feel like im home (the aussie one...). as we drove down the coast from LA and watched the sun set - waves on one side, mc-mansions on the other, the heat of the day turning into a chilly night, i could have sworn i was in australia...maybe one of the glitzier, more showy parts...the gold coast perhaps....but aus all the same. and as we stepped out of the taxi into our hostel in the gaslamp quarter, SD's party central, i could tell i was going to be right at home here.
i know i've already complained about backpacking, I imagine there will be more complaining, and i know i've got just under 7 months of it to go (so you're just going to have to put up with it i guess! as am I!)...but backpacking can be quite a strain. and when you've been staying in mixed dorms for 2.5 weeks, in a bunk bed - one of 10 or so strangers - you begin to realise how much you value the odd bit of privacy and the luxury of spreading your stuff wherever you damn well please. so, coming to SD we booked a private room in order to preserve what little bit is left of our sanity - but couldn't imagine the luxury we would be met with - a loft bed, our own sink, sofa, desk.........................and to think we used to take these things for granted!!! Pure, unadulterated, bliss (i can't imagine the pleasure i will feel when faced with a 4* hotel room in vegas!! i mean - our very own ensuite...!!!!!!!!!!!!!! dont be surprised if i don't leave the room...!)
and today we had another special treat....we met matt's cousin, louiza, for the first time. due to the fact that she grew up in vancouver, canada (later moving to san diago) and matt obviously grew up in toowoomba, australia...worlds apart...the two had never met....but families are funny things and somehow it felt like we'd known eachother forever. from the moment we hugged on the street when we met in the morning to the moment we hugged on the street saying goodbye late tonight, it was like we'd only seen eachother yesterday. we chatted non-stop all day and in between and around we played with dolphins (and more whales). the three of us spent the day at sea world, marveling at killer whales and seals and dolphins and puppies and kitties (no, i didn't think they fit in the mix either but the dogs and cats had their own special show - my personal favorite in fact). The day was topped off in absolute style with a meal at Louiza's cousin's (the other side of the family...) restaurant in Little Italy....gorgeous food, a family atmosphere (not surprisingly!!) and plenty of wine....the day couldn't have been any better. Thank you Louiza....was such a pleasure to finally meet you and what a day to remember in beautiful San Diago....
xx
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
playing with the monsters of the sea
you hear them before you see them. as they come up for air and blow water high in the sky the fountain of spray attracts your attention and you watch in amazement as they gracefully arch their backs out of the water, sliding along with fin in the air before flicking up their tails in one final wave and diving back down into the depths. humpback whales are supposedly solitary creatures but today a pod of six played beside our boat...only 5-10 meters away from us. the experience was incredible to say the least. only seeing them in real life helps you get a feel for the size and power of these amazing creatures. if you ever find yourself in boston...you must play with the whales.
from playing with whales to playing baseball...i can't say i've ever really sat down and watched a full game of baseball...despite the fact that my brother-in-law used to play it fairly seriously... but keen to experience this american phenomenon and with the 'sox' playing at their home ground...fenway park....we followed the crowd of red down to the ballpark to soak up some of the atmosphere. sitting in a bar drinking red sox sponsored 'bud lights' we tried to get into the game..............and failed. we were bored and we couldnt understand what the drawcard is....but a drawcard there must be cause the crowd was in its thousands...you might even say the figure was 'in the ballpark' of 35 000 (sorry....!) and the most patriotic i've ever seen. but the tabacco chewing, saliva spitting, non ball hitting boringness of it all had us leaving the pub before the game was up...three strikes, you're out.
xx
from playing with whales to playing baseball...i can't say i've ever really sat down and watched a full game of baseball...despite the fact that my brother-in-law used to play it fairly seriously... but keen to experience this american phenomenon and with the 'sox' playing at their home ground...fenway park....we followed the crowd of red down to the ballpark to soak up some of the atmosphere. sitting in a bar drinking red sox sponsored 'bud lights' we tried to get into the game..............and failed. we were bored and we couldnt understand what the drawcard is....but a drawcard there must be cause the crowd was in its thousands...you might even say the figure was 'in the ballpark' of 35 000 (sorry....!) and the most patriotic i've ever seen. but the tabacco chewing, saliva spitting, non ball hitting boringness of it all had us leaving the pub before the game was up...three strikes, you're out.
xx
Sunday, October 12, 2008
ride 'em!
is there better way to spend a crisp, sunny sunday morning in boston, usa than with a 2.5 hour, 12 mile cycle ride around the city?
i think not. however, after a very very VERY long night in one of the most rickety old buses known to man, making our way (with very little sleep) from montreal to boston, we weren't sure we would have the energy to pull it off. but pull it off we did and are so glad we made the effort. the weather was perfect, warm sunshine, slight breeze. the streets were quiet save for people taking long strolls or jogs in the parks...our guide was fun and interesting, a working muso who studied at a music college in boston and could tell us all about college life in this college town to beat them all....there are over 60 unis and colleges in this city and therefore the vibe is very cool...countless student bars, chilled out live music all over town every night of the week...a very young and hip atmosphere. it's a beautiful city too...we cycled through expensive neighbourhoods of brownstones, and along the esplanade next to the river...through 'downtown' where we saw the buildings and landmarks relating to the bostonites' turbulent war against the british.
we've only just scratched the surface of this town really cause, after satiating our ravenous appetite with some mexican for lunch, we came back to the hostel and fell into the kind of coma that only comes with complete and utter exhaustion!!
but tomorrow we'll be recovered and we plan to spend our day with whales and red sox....stay tuned!
xx
i think not. however, after a very very VERY long night in one of the most rickety old buses known to man, making our way (with very little sleep) from montreal to boston, we weren't sure we would have the energy to pull it off. but pull it off we did and are so glad we made the effort. the weather was perfect, warm sunshine, slight breeze. the streets were quiet save for people taking long strolls or jogs in the parks...our guide was fun and interesting, a working muso who studied at a music college in boston and could tell us all about college life in this college town to beat them all....there are over 60 unis and colleges in this city and therefore the vibe is very cool...countless student bars, chilled out live music all over town every night of the week...a very young and hip atmosphere. it's a beautiful city too...we cycled through expensive neighbourhoods of brownstones, and along the esplanade next to the river...through 'downtown' where we saw the buildings and landmarks relating to the bostonites' turbulent war against the british.
we've only just scratched the surface of this town really cause, after satiating our ravenous appetite with some mexican for lunch, we came back to the hostel and fell into the kind of coma that only comes with complete and utter exhaustion!!
but tomorrow we'll be recovered and we plan to spend our day with whales and red sox....stay tuned!
xx
Saturday, October 11, 2008
quaint quebec
Not much has been happening here in vieux quebec...we are discovering that long term travellers need weekends or they become burnt-out backpackers. so we've been taking it easy, booking and planning the next few weeks and wandering around shops and cafes. later today we will catch the coach back to montreal and then, a couple of hours later, we have another all-nighter on the coach back to the usa. tomorrow morning, bright and early, we'll be in Boston and will hit the ground running again.
check out the pics from Montreal and Quebec
xx
check out the pics from Montreal and Quebec
xx
Friday, October 10, 2008
continental confusion (plus links to pics)
i am suffering from a serious bout of continental confusion. if someone had blindfolded me and dropped me in Quebec City and then asked me where i thought i was, i would have said I was in a beautiful, historic small city anywhere in europe....certainly not north america! I adore europe...i call it home...and many of our travel experiences have been in small, quaint cities or towns just like this one. Maybe that is why, after only one afternoon, quebec has become my favorite place that we have visited so far on this trip...it feels like home.
We spent our afternoon wondering around the old town, dodging hail storms by ducking into quaint boutiques and relaxing in various cafes for a glass of wine here and a cappuccino there. I did like Montreal but somehow Quebec has even more character, more charm, more history...it is a fortification, with castles and citadels and ancient walls. The french influence on this place is everywhere - from the language of course, to the way the locals dress with European flair...even down to the Gaelic tendency towards hand gestures....
As a tourist you can do all sorts of cruises down the st lawrence river for $30 or so....but as backpackers we took our taxi driver come tour guide's advice and caught the local ferry after dark. for a fiver each we had the most amazing views of the sparkling lights of the city from the water. unforgettable.
j'adore Quebec!!
PS - due to the loud and insistent demands of our adoring, blog-reading public (pls keep leaving those comments...we want to know who's reading this thing!) we have finally got our act together with some photos. it's a hassle to upload them to this blog thingy-me-ging so at the moment we're uploading to facebook and providing a link here for those of you who are still living in 2003 and therefore aren't on f/book...so here are the first bunch and we promise to be a bit better on the photo front.
New York Photos
Toronto Photos
xx
We spent our afternoon wondering around the old town, dodging hail storms by ducking into quaint boutiques and relaxing in various cafes for a glass of wine here and a cappuccino there. I did like Montreal but somehow Quebec has even more character, more charm, more history...it is a fortification, with castles and citadels and ancient walls. The french influence on this place is everywhere - from the language of course, to the way the locals dress with European flair...even down to the Gaelic tendency towards hand gestures....
As a tourist you can do all sorts of cruises down the st lawrence river for $30 or so....but as backpackers we took our taxi driver come tour guide's advice and caught the local ferry after dark. for a fiver each we had the most amazing views of the sparkling lights of the city from the water. unforgettable.
j'adore Quebec!!
PS - due to the loud and insistent demands of our adoring, blog-reading public (pls keep leaving those comments...we want to know who's reading this thing!) we have finally got our act together with some photos. it's a hassle to upload them to this blog thingy-me-ging so at the moment we're uploading to facebook and providing a link here for those of you who are still living in 2003 and therefore aren't on f/book...so here are the first bunch and we promise to be a bit better on the photo front.
New York Photos
Toronto Photos
xx
Thursday, October 9, 2008
it's not the journey...it's the destination
sometimes the most fulfilling and rewarding things in life are the ones that you work hardest for...the ones that might cause pain and suffering but end in that blissful feeling you get when you know you've arrived somewhere amazing and you deserve the end result. today we climbed a mountain. not something that our fitness levels suggest we do every day and, yes, the last 250 steps almost killed me (the people jogging up them with hardly a grunt made me sick...)...but the result was an amazing view of the city of montreal, made all the more special by the hard work it took to get there. it is a beautiful time of year in canada. the trees are changing colour and we walked up mountain paths with a rainfall of red and orange drifting down around us. the air was crisp and, since we've spent so much of our time in dense, urban cities these past couple of weeks, it really was a breath of fresh air.
we followed our little stroll with a crepe and chardonnay in the old part of the city - vieux montreal...think little cobbled streets leading up from the river, tiny french bistros, art galleries, stone cathedrals with hundreds of years of history....as i closed my eyes and listened to the french being spoken around me i could imagine i was strolling through st germain des pres - one of my favorite districts in paris...it made me miss my favourite city but montreal has its own charms. a touch of retail therapy later (everything is so cheap here if you're on the good old british pound!) night drew in and we settled in for a cocktail or three in a dimly lit bar full of atmosphere. Perhaps it was the romance in the air...or more likely the alcohol in our systems...but we decided to wrap up our day with a horse and carriage ride through vieux montreal...totally corny i know...but so lovely to trot through the windy streets and watch the lights on the old buildings (and save our hardworking, mountain-climbing legs!)
so you see, a backpacker's life is tough... ;-) tomorrow we move briskly on to quebec city for more french-canadian charm. stay tuned.
xx
we followed our little stroll with a crepe and chardonnay in the old part of the city - vieux montreal...think little cobbled streets leading up from the river, tiny french bistros, art galleries, stone cathedrals with hundreds of years of history....as i closed my eyes and listened to the french being spoken around me i could imagine i was strolling through st germain des pres - one of my favorite districts in paris...it made me miss my favourite city but montreal has its own charms. a touch of retail therapy later (everything is so cheap here if you're on the good old british pound!) night drew in and we settled in for a cocktail or three in a dimly lit bar full of atmosphere. Perhaps it was the romance in the air...or more likely the alcohol in our systems...but we decided to wrap up our day with a horse and carriage ride through vieux montreal...totally corny i know...but so lovely to trot through the windy streets and watch the lights on the old buildings (and save our hardworking, mountain-climbing legs!)
so you see, a backpacker's life is tough... ;-) tomorrow we move briskly on to quebec city for more french-canadian charm. stay tuned.
xx
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
the plight of the backpacker
i'm going to have a whinge now. i don't expect anyone to feel sorry for me of course...i do fully realise that i am on the trip of a lifetime and that many of you would kill to be me (hahha! suckers!)...but backpacking, while obviously fabulous much of the time, can also be exhausting, disheartening and generally annoying. one spends much of one's time with one's entire world on one's back, sitting on various means of public transport for hours on end (usually - if you're anything like me- not at all sure whether you're even going the right direction - thank God for Matt or i'd be in Timbucktoo by now...!) and sleeping in rooms of questionable cleanliness full of strangers.
Today we spent a full day getting from toronto to montreal. the train journey itself took only 5.5 hours but then it took another few hours to find our hostel...only to discover, when we arrived, filthy and exhausted, that our beds weren't ready. guess that's what you get for booking the cheapest rooms in the city! hours...and i do mean hours....later we finally have a bed to sleep in and i can put my world down and rest my weary head.
but the thing about travelling is that i know tomorrow will be better. the excitement of discovering what is around the corner makes up for the mundane in-between existance. montreal is waiting to be explored...the beautiful park with amazing views...the old town full of boutiques and french bistros...tres bien. i'm a happy little backpacker again.
xx
Today we spent a full day getting from toronto to montreal. the train journey itself took only 5.5 hours but then it took another few hours to find our hostel...only to discover, when we arrived, filthy and exhausted, that our beds weren't ready. guess that's what you get for booking the cheapest rooms in the city! hours...and i do mean hours....later we finally have a bed to sleep in and i can put my world down and rest my weary head.
but the thing about travelling is that i know tomorrow will be better. the excitement of discovering what is around the corner makes up for the mundane in-between existance. montreal is waiting to be explored...the beautiful park with amazing views...the old town full of boutiques and french bistros...tres bien. i'm a happy little backpacker again.
xx
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
sky high
i'm not afraid of heights. i have a healthy respect for them of course...but it wasn't until today when there was only a sheet of glass separating me from a 114 story drop that I felt my heart jump - just a little. luckily, i discovered later, the glass is built to withstand the weight of 14 hippos and, while i'm sure i've put on a couple of kilos pigging out on new york pizza slices, i dont think ive quite reached hippo proportions yet...
We were, of course, at the top of the CN tower in toronto....the tallest tower in the world at a height of 553 meters (the empire state building, as a comparison for future pub quiz knowledge, is 448 meters). the views, of course, were spectacular, if a little scary...
tomorrow we jump on an early train to montreal...a city famous for its joie de vivre. i'm looking forward to being surrounded by all things french once again...though i do anticipate a yearning for my dear old friend, la belle Paris...
We will miss Toronto...it's a nice little town and we have had such a good time with Will and Carlee. Thank you soooooo much for putting us up guys and showing us such a good time. We have felt so chilled out and comfortable in your lovely flat....THANK YOU!!! we love you!
xx
We were, of course, at the top of the CN tower in toronto....the tallest tower in the world at a height of 553 meters (the empire state building, as a comparison for future pub quiz knowledge, is 448 meters). the views, of course, were spectacular, if a little scary...
tomorrow we jump on an early train to montreal...a city famous for its joie de vivre. i'm looking forward to being surrounded by all things french once again...though i do anticipate a yearning for my dear old friend, la belle Paris...
We will miss Toronto...it's a nice little town and we have had such a good time with Will and Carlee. Thank you soooooo much for putting us up guys and showing us such a good time. We have felt so chilled out and comfortable in your lovely flat....THANK YOU!!! we love you!
xx
Monday, October 6, 2008
ice ice baby
the canadian $5 note has a short statement on it that reads as follows:
'The winters of my childhood were long, long seasons. We lived in three places - the school, the church and the skating rink - but our real life was on the skating rink.'
Canadians and skating go hand in hand and they are as obsessed about ice hockey as the english are about football or the aussies are about just about any sport under the sun. So, when, on our way to climb the CN tower, the four of us were approached by scalper trying to palm off cheap tickets to a pre-season Toronto Maple Leaf game that had just begun down the road, we were tempted to ditch our original plans in order to have the opportunity to be a part of an ultimate canadian experience...
the game was so exciting!the crowd was pumped, the game fast and aggressive. fights broke out on the ice and were left unchecked by the refs...sticks were broken, helmets went flying...it was thrilling and completely entertaining!
the CN tower can wait till tomorrow...
xx
'The winters of my childhood were long, long seasons. We lived in three places - the school, the church and the skating rink - but our real life was on the skating rink.'
Canadians and skating go hand in hand and they are as obsessed about ice hockey as the english are about football or the aussies are about just about any sport under the sun. So, when, on our way to climb the CN tower, the four of us were approached by scalper trying to palm off cheap tickets to a pre-season Toronto Maple Leaf game that had just begun down the road, we were tempted to ditch our original plans in order to have the opportunity to be a part of an ultimate canadian experience...
the game was so exciting!the crowd was pumped, the game fast and aggressive. fights broke out on the ice and were left unchecked by the refs...sticks were broken, helmets went flying...it was thrilling and completely entertaining!
the CN tower can wait till tomorrow...
xx
Sunday, October 5, 2008
tequila falls
there's nothing like finally experiencing something you have imagined your whole life. and when i felt the mist of niagra falls on my face yesterday, another childhood dream had come true.
our mate Will is one of the most prolific travellers i know. so, when i emailed him a few months ago telling him about our travel plans I suggested that the world is a small place and that, chances are we might 'bump' into eachother at some stage. And bump into him we have...in Toronto, Canada, where he is now living with his gorgeous Canadian girlfriend, Carly.
in Will and Carly we had the perfect tour guides. a lunch of burritos and pitchers of margaritas welcomed us to canada and set us up for the Maid of the Mist...the boat that took us into the heart of the falls. the power of the water streaming off the cliffs took our breath away and the mist soaked our faces...it was incredible and everything i had imagined as a little girl.
niagra falls is a strange place. in contrast to the awesome natural beauty of the falls the town is filled with casinos and wax museums, restaurants and neon lights. Will and Carly have only recently returned from a year teaching in south korea and were excited to stumble across a small korean restaurant where we had a delicious dinner of various dishes recommended by them after an afternoon of blackjack and the pokies. following that up by some canadian beer and tequila shots in a r&b club our niagra falls experience was complete.
today we go up the tallest tower in the universe....stay tuned!!
xx
our mate Will is one of the most prolific travellers i know. so, when i emailed him a few months ago telling him about our travel plans I suggested that the world is a small place and that, chances are we might 'bump' into eachother at some stage. And bump into him we have...in Toronto, Canada, where he is now living with his gorgeous Canadian girlfriend, Carly.
in Will and Carly we had the perfect tour guides. a lunch of burritos and pitchers of margaritas welcomed us to canada and set us up for the Maid of the Mist...the boat that took us into the heart of the falls. the power of the water streaming off the cliffs took our breath away and the mist soaked our faces...it was incredible and everything i had imagined as a little girl.
niagra falls is a strange place. in contrast to the awesome natural beauty of the falls the town is filled with casinos and wax museums, restaurants and neon lights. Will and Carly have only recently returned from a year teaching in south korea and were excited to stumble across a small korean restaurant where we had a delicious dinner of various dishes recommended by them after an afternoon of blackjack and the pokies. following that up by some canadian beer and tequila shots in a r&b club our niagra falls experience was complete.
today we go up the tallest tower in the universe....stay tuned!!
xx
Friday, October 3, 2008
of cupcakes and cocktails, sparkles and sunsets
the thing i love most of all about carrie, charlotte, miranda and samantha (from the show 'sex and the city' for the uninitiated!) is the glamorous life they led in one of the sexiest cities on earth. coffee and luncheons by day, and many a cocktail by night the girls knew how to work new york...and now i know too...! i was shown how by a fabulous, single new yorker, dressed much like my 4 favorite new york city girls, who guided us to all the show and movie hot spots. my amazing work colleagues had shouted matt and i on this tour and while matt came along semi-reluctantly...(secretly he was thrilled im sure!) he ended up really enjoying himself. we drove past trendy restaurants, cafes and bars that the girls frequented, enjoyed a cupcake from the famous magnolia bakery in the east village and a cosmo from 'scout's bar' and visited the 'pleasure chest'...enough said really!!
and when, the following day, we visited Tiffany's on 5th I imagined i was Charlotte..(Trey - "Why don't we go in here and buy you the most expensive ring they have". Charlotte "alrighty"!) and although i couldnt afford even the smallest of charms on my backpacker budget, i lost myself in the sparkle and dreamt of a little blue box to call my own. one day...
a must do for any tourist in nyc is the view from the top of the empire state building...its a classic sight...the tick of all ticks. so with a sparkle in our eye we climbed to the top (yes, literally for the last 6 floors...what were we thinking?) and watched the sun set over this sexy city, the lights came on one by one over Manhattan and we felt like, at last, we'd felt the city buzz.
a yellow taxi ride later we were deep in the heart of the trendy east village enjoying good thai food and a few sexy cocktails...the night before we had found ourselves in a small and intimate comedy club on broadway, and the night before that, of course, the musical 'chicago'...new york has something for everyone..and, though we only have a few nights here, we are definitely trying to 'glam' it up just like my 4 fabulous new york friends.
xx
and when, the following day, we visited Tiffany's on 5th I imagined i was Charlotte..(Trey - "Why don't we go in here and buy you the most expensive ring they have". Charlotte "alrighty"!) and although i couldnt afford even the smallest of charms on my backpacker budget, i lost myself in the sparkle and dreamt of a little blue box to call my own. one day...
a must do for any tourist in nyc is the view from the top of the empire state building...its a classic sight...the tick of all ticks. so with a sparkle in our eye we climbed to the top (yes, literally for the last 6 floors...what were we thinking?) and watched the sun set over this sexy city, the lights came on one by one over Manhattan and we felt like, at last, we'd felt the city buzz.
a yellow taxi ride later we were deep in the heart of the trendy east village enjoying good thai food and a few sexy cocktails...the night before we had found ourselves in a small and intimate comedy club on broadway, and the night before that, of course, the musical 'chicago'...new york has something for everyone..and, though we only have a few nights here, we are definitely trying to 'glam' it up just like my 4 fabulous new york friends.
xx
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Give em the old razzle dazzle...razzle dazzle em...
well...have we been ticking the sights off the list today or what!! lets see....statue of liberty? tick. times square? tick. wall street (complete with sobbing bankers...)? tick. the ENTIRE borough of Brooklyn? tick. new york style pizza slice? tick. Little italy and china town? tick tick. Hit broadway musical? tick. (10 points for guessing which one...clue is in the title...)...and all that jazz...a busy and successful day.
tell you what...when it comes to fitting it all into a day in nyc...the barths sure do razzle dazzle em!
a point about wall street. though i did take some poetic license with the whole sobbing bankers thing...the state of the financial markets in this country and, of course therefore, the world are anything anyone can talk about in this town. the financial district was chockers with sattelite dishes and reporters - the mood in the city is somber. matt and i have been commenting that new york doesnt have the buzz we were expecting. for the city that never sleeps there seems to be a whole lot of sleeping going on and we're surprised that, to us, many european cities feel more vibrant...and london has a whole lot more buzz and pizazz...but i wonder whether to put it down to the state of affairs in this country and the grip of anxiety that has, understandably, grabbed many in manhattan. the big apple could sure do with some of the old razzle dazzle at the moment.
well, enough of the deep analysis...tomorrow brings sex - and lots of it....sex and the city that is...the tour....!! matt cant wait!! ;-)
razzle dazzle em!
xx
tell you what...when it comes to fitting it all into a day in nyc...the barths sure do razzle dazzle em!
a point about wall street. though i did take some poetic license with the whole sobbing bankers thing...the state of the financial markets in this country and, of course therefore, the world are anything anyone can talk about in this town. the financial district was chockers with sattelite dishes and reporters - the mood in the city is somber. matt and i have been commenting that new york doesnt have the buzz we were expecting. for the city that never sleeps there seems to be a whole lot of sleeping going on and we're surprised that, to us, many european cities feel more vibrant...and london has a whole lot more buzz and pizazz...but i wonder whether to put it down to the state of affairs in this country and the grip of anxiety that has, understandably, grabbed many in manhattan. the big apple could sure do with some of the old razzle dazzle at the moment.
well, enough of the deep analysis...tomorrow brings sex - and lots of it....sex and the city that is...the tour....!! matt cant wait!! ;-)
razzle dazzle em!
xx
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Of stars and star spangled banners
you know youve hit america when one of the first people you see is a movie star...ok....not a huge movie star by any stretch...in fact i don't even know his name (help me out....was in superbad...looks like richard crabtree...!! 1st to name him wins a prize...) but we saw him coming out the backstage door of the late nights with david letterman show...random. let me back up...
we are of course, in new york city. jetlagged, emotional, sick....but happy to be in the land where everywhere you look is patriotism (anything to do with elections or are there always star spangled banners at every turn?) and service is always with a smile...
going into hsbc to solve a banking dilemma (nothing to worry about...not broke yet) i found a kindred spirit in the form of a young customer service representative who could have chatted all day about where i should go shopping for designer handbags (i quite like the fact that i look the type to purchase designer handbags in nyc...the backpacker chic look is obvioulsy working!) and who went so far as to google and print out the name and address of a bar she was recommending with apparently awesome cocktails and chocolate fondue....a combination that almost had me jumping in the next yellow taxi.
we walked for hours today - through central park, down avenues of fancy apartments and along broadway....the whole time feeling like we were in a movie. complete with stars...
the script has yet to be written for tomorrow but for now theres jetlag to overcome...
xx
we are of course, in new york city. jetlagged, emotional, sick....but happy to be in the land where everywhere you look is patriotism (anything to do with elections or are there always star spangled banners at every turn?) and service is always with a smile...
going into hsbc to solve a banking dilemma (nothing to worry about...not broke yet) i found a kindred spirit in the form of a young customer service representative who could have chatted all day about where i should go shopping for designer handbags (i quite like the fact that i look the type to purchase designer handbags in nyc...the backpacker chic look is obvioulsy working!) and who went so far as to google and print out the name and address of a bar she was recommending with apparently awesome cocktails and chocolate fondue....a combination that almost had me jumping in the next yellow taxi.
we walked for hours today - through central park, down avenues of fancy apartments and along broadway....the whole time feeling like we were in a movie. complete with stars...
the script has yet to be written for tomorrow but for now theres jetlag to overcome...
xx
Of Bubbles and Butterflies
I have never pretended to possess anything but extreme naivety...some might call it trust...others, probably more correctly, would call it gullible...whatever you want to call it, when our amazing friend Mel told us that she wanted to treat us to a special surprise meal on our last night in the UK I was touched and honoured...looking forward to relaxing with a glass of red and something delicious after a long day of packing and sorting (...and nose blowing..!!). Indeed it was a busy day and when Mel and Liam suggested that Liam take Matt and I to the Norfolk before dinner so Mel could get on with the cooking, i tried to plead out. Excuses flowed....i wasnt dressed appropriately for going out (one doesn't need to 'dress' for the local, mel insisted...true). I had too much to do...(Mel looked pointedly at my loaded backpack). I wanted to help with dinner preparations (apparently i had been banned from the kitchen)...so with the promise of that glass of red even earlier than expected I decided that a trip to the pub probably was exactly what the dr ordered and that my friends knew best as always...and happily toddled out the door...
In hindsight i now realise that in between and around convincing me to drink (who would have ever thought i would need convincing?!!) Mel had been acting rather oddly i guess...answering the door and conversing in hushed tones with the 'neighbour', writing long texts with no explanation...but it wasnt until we got back from the pub (after only 10mins and only half of my vino because suddenly 'dinner' was ready....) and walked into a room filled to the brim with some of our dearest friends and a 'bon voyage matt and kirsh' banner across the window that i put 2 and 2 together and realised we'd been had - and that my reluctance to go to the pub had almost ruined an amazing surprise party!! thank you so much liam and mel – once again you've outdone yourselves as incredibly generous and thoughtful friends....to spend our last night surrounded by some of the people who have meant the most to us over the past 4 years was just so special...being toasted with bubbly champagne and laughter and the most sincere of well wishes polished off a week of being completely spoilt and loved by so many special friends.
and as i woke at 4.30 this morning with a bubble induced headache i felt butterflies in my stomach...nervous yes....who wouldnt be with such a trip before them...? but, the excitement had finally set in and i was finally ready to go...
so as i write i'm on the flight to NYC....Ive just watched the 'Sex in the City' movie once again and lapped up the scenes of the girls striding round the city in their jimmy choos...I cant believe im only 4 hours away from being that girl myself (minus the heels...see previous post on backpacker chic)!
and now to sleep off the champagne hangover...is there any better kind of hangover?
stay tuned for adventures from new york city!!
xx
In hindsight i now realise that in between and around convincing me to drink (who would have ever thought i would need convincing?!!) Mel had been acting rather oddly i guess...answering the door and conversing in hushed tones with the 'neighbour', writing long texts with no explanation...but it wasnt until we got back from the pub (after only 10mins and only half of my vino because suddenly 'dinner' was ready....) and walked into a room filled to the brim with some of our dearest friends and a 'bon voyage matt and kirsh' banner across the window that i put 2 and 2 together and realised we'd been had - and that my reluctance to go to the pub had almost ruined an amazing surprise party!! thank you so much liam and mel – once again you've outdone yourselves as incredibly generous and thoughtful friends....to spend our last night surrounded by some of the people who have meant the most to us over the past 4 years was just so special...being toasted with bubbly champagne and laughter and the most sincere of well wishes polished off a week of being completely spoilt and loved by so many special friends.
and as i woke at 4.30 this morning with a bubble induced headache i felt butterflies in my stomach...nervous yes....who wouldnt be with such a trip before them...? but, the excitement had finally set in and i was finally ready to go...
so as i write i'm on the flight to NYC....Ive just watched the 'Sex in the City' movie once again and lapped up the scenes of the girls striding round the city in their jimmy choos...I cant believe im only 4 hours away from being that girl myself (minus the heels...see previous post on backpacker chic)!
and now to sleep off the champagne hangover...is there any better kind of hangover?
stay tuned for adventures from new york city!!
xx
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Backpacker Chic
I have been surrounded by sick people for weeks and only yesterday was patting myself on the back for having managed to steer clear of the dreaded flus/bugs/colds etc which are buzzing around the place at the moment, only to feel a slight tickle at the back of my throat. Fast forward to today and I have had raging fevers, streaming eyes and a niagra falls style runny nose, curled up in bed with the novel I bought especially for long, boring bus rides on the journey (Stephen Clarke's new one - 'Dial M for Merde'...funny so far and perfect for fellow francophiles ;-))...hence how i come to be home on a Saturday night - my last in England for some time - considering bed at 9pm while a brilliant party rages on without me. But I must get rid of this flu NOW as New York awaits and I doubt runny noses are the fashion of choice in the chicest bars in town...
Which brings me to my next rant. Through a mountain of tissues, I have today been packing. Now, for those of you who have spent any time with me at all over the past month you will know that I am definitely steering clear of my normal packing style (chuck it all in a backpack the morning you leave and hope for the best - usually resulting in a pile of clothes I never wear and a gaping hole where, say, a ski jacket might well have been more appropriate than a bikini) and have, in fact, been completely obsessed with 'what not to wear' in order to maintain my (if i may say so myself) generally fairly trendy/stylish/chic fashion sense whilst remaining relatively practical. It is, let me tell you, easier said than done. The highlight of my year so far was finding what I considered to be the perfect trousers for the kind of 'backpacker chic' look i'm going for. Tailored, lightweight (makes for easier washing and less backpack weight than jeans you see..) ...are they jeans? are they not? who knows??!! comfortable and flattering. perfect. Practical yet stylish shoes are a WHOLE other story...one best told another time...perhaps when I'm feeling better and less likely to sob into my lemsip about the unfairness of the shoe industry that they have not considered the 'chic backpacker' market. There's a business idea in there somewhere...dragons den anyone?
So my bag is packed - usually I take a 75 litre backpack travelling - for 2 weeks...this time I'm taking a 50 litre one...for 7 months. See my dillemma? But it zipped (ok - it doesn't have my jewellery yet and, lets face it, that could well take up half the pack - but i'll try to keep a handle on the bling...seriously - seven months with little bling?? What AM i thinking?!).
well...i'm off to blow my nose (*sniff*).
x
Which brings me to my next rant. Through a mountain of tissues, I have today been packing. Now, for those of you who have spent any time with me at all over the past month you will know that I am definitely steering clear of my normal packing style (chuck it all in a backpack the morning you leave and hope for the best - usually resulting in a pile of clothes I never wear and a gaping hole where, say, a ski jacket might well have been more appropriate than a bikini) and have, in fact, been completely obsessed with 'what not to wear' in order to maintain my (if i may say so myself) generally fairly trendy/stylish/chic fashion sense whilst remaining relatively practical. It is, let me tell you, easier said than done. The highlight of my year so far was finding what I considered to be the perfect trousers for the kind of 'backpacker chic' look i'm going for. Tailored, lightweight (makes for easier washing and less backpack weight than jeans you see..) ...are they jeans? are they not? who knows??!! comfortable and flattering. perfect. Practical yet stylish shoes are a WHOLE other story...one best told another time...perhaps when I'm feeling better and less likely to sob into my lemsip about the unfairness of the shoe industry that they have not considered the 'chic backpacker' market. There's a business idea in there somewhere...dragons den anyone?
So my bag is packed - usually I take a 75 litre backpack travelling - for 2 weeks...this time I'm taking a 50 litre one...for 7 months. See my dillemma? But it zipped (ok - it doesn't have my jewellery yet and, lets face it, that could well take up half the pack - but i'll try to keep a handle on the bling...seriously - seven months with little bling?? What AM i thinking?!).
well...i'm off to blow my nose (*sniff*).
x
Sunday, September 21, 2008
7...6...5...4...
The clock is well and truly ticking now...7 days from tomorrow we will hit american shores and the neon lights of the big apple. How on earth has this coming week crept up so fast!? anyone who knows me knows i'm not great with goodbyes. who is really? and this weekend marked the beginning of a dreaded week of them...but luckily it was also marked by significant amounts of partying which somehow made the reason for the parties seem slightly easier to bear...
my lovely work colleagues gave me a fab send off on fri eve - we're talking a million cocktails (give or take a few...), a lot of laughs and memories...and, for the die-hard amongst us, a late night mexican feast washed down by a tequila cocktail. my colleagues are a fun, talented, amazing team...they make going to work a laugh...and i'm going to miss them so much.
scotland is a long, long way away. especially when you're traveling by train...albeit first class sleeper! but my incredible friends Kirsty and Terri made the trip to spend time with us this weekend and to boost the aussie numbers at our leaving do. Thank you so much girls - it meant the world to me that you were here.
And the party itself...? well, i had of course been planning this event for months and it went off with a bang! our local, the norfolk arms, did us proud. you gotta love sharing a party venue with a pink panther and mr cat in the hat...random. but we loved having all our gorgeous friends from all the different parts of our life surrounding us and wishing us well. Thank you everyone...we had a great time. luv you all...
and now for the week im kind of dreading. but it's not goodbye really....just see ya lata....
my lovely work colleagues gave me a fab send off on fri eve - we're talking a million cocktails (give or take a few...), a lot of laughs and memories...and, for the die-hard amongst us, a late night mexican feast washed down by a tequila cocktail. my colleagues are a fun, talented, amazing team...they make going to work a laugh...and i'm going to miss them so much.
scotland is a long, long way away. especially when you're traveling by train...albeit first class sleeper! but my incredible friends Kirsty and Terri made the trip to spend time with us this weekend and to boost the aussie numbers at our leaving do. Thank you so much girls - it meant the world to me that you were here.
And the party itself...? well, i had of course been planning this event for months and it went off with a bang! our local, the norfolk arms, did us proud. you gotta love sharing a party venue with a pink panther and mr cat in the hat...random. but we loved having all our gorgeous friends from all the different parts of our life surrounding us and wishing us well. Thank you everyone...we had a great time. luv you all...
and now for the week im kind of dreading. but it's not goodbye really....just see ya lata....
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