The Europe Entries

March 5, 2005 – Where on earth is the sun?

I arrived in London a week ago...

I arrived at Heathrow in minus 2 degree weather and a charming mix of snow and freezing rain thrown in for good measure. Just 14 hours earlier, I'd been in Bangkok where it was a lovely dry 36c with brilliant sunshine, enough to top up the last few weeks of tan...

South East Asia was incredible. You can check out a retrospective blog under SEAsia 2005… It was warm, it was charming, great food, and most of all, a lot of fun.  

On February 23rd I got on a plane and sadly left Asia to move to London. London is wicked. I love it. I am broke but that doesn't matter toooo much. The atmosphere is very cosmopolitan and cool, there are many old famous sites and the shopping will be intensely good once I'm earning some money. Have caught up with several old friends, one being Dan who is becoming a marine the day after tomorrow (the least likely person in the world I once thought...) and good mates from China who both agreed that it's really weird seeing each other in the English speaking world... oh, and not to mention that every 20 something New Zealander seems to live in this country, including me.

April 17, 2005 – Castles with dog collar museums, drizzle and the Heathrow Injection

I've been in London now for 7 weeks.  There have been a few ups and downs, but I'm mostly really liking it! Finding a job related to my degree so far has been a total mission but I'm slowly geting there and until then temping at the NHS isn't that bad (2007, IT SUCKED! I HATED IT!). Yes, I'm an office temp, ever so thrilling but it does pay the rent (and not much else) and the people there are really lovely. London has some of the strangest weather ever, it can't decide if it's going to be mild or freezing cold and grey with a bit of drizzle so therefore all my photos are really dull - grey is the word to describe this place. The nightlife however rocks and there's always loads of stuff to do.

A few weeks back I went to Leeds Castle with Grace, Susannah and Rebecca - it's actually in Kent and really cool - also helped along by the fact that we went wine tasting on the way there... It was quite interesting and even had a dog collar museum, the only one of its type in the world. James and I also spent a day in Greenwich recently - got to stand on the Prime Meridian and be a bit of a geek while he checked out the time museum (SO BORING!).

I've spent way too much time on Brick Lane eating curry which is starting to show on the waistline (have to go back on the Chinese diet!) and a couple of weeks ago we went to the most incredible restaurant I've ever seen - it was like I'd stepped into my imagination when I was 7 years old - swans wearing tiaras, handbags hanging from the ceiling and monkeys with crowns on holding champagne glasses - exquisite.

In a few weeks we're off to Paris for the weekend (ooh la la!) and in August Grace and I are going to Budapest, Prague and Berlin for 10 days - we've booked our flights and everything, can't wait for it.

May 9, 2005

Last weekend we went to Stonehenge and Salisbury for the day. Was quite interesting and Stonehenge was a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be. However, we also got to see one of 4 surviving copies of the Magna-Carta which was quite cool and hang out in Salisbury for the afternoon which is quite a lovely town. Yesterday Grace and I went to Notting Hill for the afternoon and then stumbled upon Speakers Corner in the middle of Hyde Park. Apparently all McDonalds toys are made in China - Grace's response was "DUH". Oh, and this one guy is god... (2007, don’t all guys think they’re god?)

I've joined the gym at last and am working on counteracting the Heathrow Injection (massive weight gain upon entering the UK). It's good and very East End (THE ACCENTS!!!) and everyone there calls you 'love.'

Jobwise: Still Looking. Still temping. Off to Paris in a few weeks so that'll be exciting.

London’s Greatest Temp…  

June 2005

I've been living in London now for four months. London is ok but I’ve freely admitted on several occasions that it’s not my favourite place that I’ve visited. But for now it’ll do. It’s expensive and when job opportunities aren’t so hot it can get frustrating.

For my first three months here I worked at Newby Place Health Centre as a secretary/receptionist in the community health clinic (i.e. I gave out condoms from 9-12 and milk powder to 15 year old mothers from 1-5). IT WAS SO BORING. I didn’t enjoy it much at all but the people there were nice to work with and it was close to where I live. They gave me notice of the end of my contract one day before I finished… charming.

So, there I was, unemployed and freaking out about not being able to make my rent the following week when I get a call completely out of the blue from another agency saying they’d found a role for me and to come in the following week. Within a couple of days I’d started working at the Department of Constitutional Affairs as a policy advisor – not bad huh! Originally I was supposed to be there for 6 weeks but they’ve extended my contract now til the end of November. (2007, this would turn out to be the best opportunity I ever had in the job world, phew!).

Finding a permanent job in this country has been a total nightmare. First of all, my first recruitment agency told me I don’t need to sign up with any other agencies as they’d be able to get me something no problem. After seeing through this I signed up to three others. The first totally and utterly blew the wind up my ass telling me I’d be able to get loads of cash and the perfect job through them. After taking a total of seven hours over various days to see them about stuff I’d had enough of being blatantly lied to and started looking at other agencies. Most agencies turned me away claiming that I didn’t have enough office experience or that my cv just didn’t contain what ‘their companies were looking for’ and rah rah rah. Eventually two agencies that dealt with government and non-profits were keen to take me on and that’s where I am now.

I’m still struggling to pay my bills. No one in this city will deny that it’s expensive!

Paris June 3-5 2005 - A Search for le Syrup de Menthe...

On June 3rd, James and I jumped on the Eurostar at Waterloo Station and three hours later arrived at Paris le Gare du Nord (north Train Station). The weekend started off a little odd because James had the cold from hell and we had to change hotels and move all the way to the other side of Paris (don't ask...) but the weekend turned out to be really good.

When we got to our second hotel James decided to have a nap while I hit the local bakery (bouloungerie?) where I got baguettes, éclairs and mille-fuille - I was determined not to miss out because he was being a grump. When I got back James magically felt good and was very happy to gobble down my mille fuille (fancy custard squares) and we hit the Paris streets. OH HOW WE WALKED.

We got off at the wrong bus stop and ended up walking from Saint Germain down the Seine to Notre Dame, through the Louvre (but not in it due to an attempt to escape the tourists, or denial that we actually were them) and up the Champs Elesees (I can't spell in French). After checking out the Arc de Triumph we went on the search for syrup de menthe which our flatmate asked us to get for him. Do you think we could find it??? No. We then continued on through the streets of central Paris til we got to la Trocadero where J saw the Eiffel Tower for the first time in his life (note: I have been to Paris before so I was showing him around). After checking it out and deciding not to go up (the weather was crap) we decided to walk back to our hotel which looked really close on the map. One and a half hours and some very sore legs later we eventually got back...

On the Saturday we got up reasonably early, took advantage of the hotel breakfast and went to Les Halles and the Centre Pompidou. We mucked around there for a while before heading to la Defense where there's some really cool modern buildings and sculptures. After that we decided to head back to the Eiffel Tower where we waited for a while in a queue before missing the sign for the elevator and walking up. Luckily I'd been going to the gym otherwise I would have died - how many stairs does that thing have!!! It was well worth the climb and after a while of checking out the view and refusing to pay 4 euro for a tiny bottle of water we headed back down the stairs into the crowds below.

On Sunday we went back on the search for Kristaan's syrup de menthe... We started out by the Arc de Triumph where they'd closed the roundabout to show off Paris for the Olympic decision (I really hope Paris gets them) and had heaps of scary policemen with the biggest batons I'd ever seen. French policemen don't look that scary actually - if I pulled out a baguette I could hit one on the head and they'd be down... Maybe they're not as wimpy as they look.

We still couldn't find the damned stuff so we headed to Mon Martre and checked out the Sacre Couer (the big white Byzantine looking church) and the artist markets before walking down the hill through quiet little streets. Somewhere amongst them we found le syrup de menthe and of all things - the Moulin Rouge which J was rather excited about and me too because I couldn't find it last time. At 4pm we were bored of Mon Marte and headed back to Les Halles before having a little walk back to the Louvre for one last try to see the Mona Lisa - still didn't see it as was closing time but on the way out there was this opera singer in the arches outside. Sounded so lovely. It was the perfect ending to a really cool weekend (if you forget about J’s very annoying cold, men seem to think they’re dying when they’re sick~).

We then hopped back on the Eurostar and three hours later were back at Waterloo Station... I can't wait to go back to Paris a third time - hopefully soon.

July 5th 2005 – The beginning of some crazy times

I’m single – yep, back in the world of Bridget Jones and fun girly nights. YIPEE! James and I tried to make it work for 2.5 years but it doesn't work when one of you stops putting in the effort. In the end we were just too different and couldn't keep it together anymore. Life goes on. We move on.  

Also went to Live 8 a couple of days before. It rocked.

July 7th 2005

So here I am again...  two months short of four years since September 11, 2001 I am in yet another city that's been the victim of terrorism. The last time I was in Washington DC with widespread panic stuck with a massive commute home to Capitol Hill from Georgetown. Londoners are much calmer.

This time the commute was in the world's bitchiest new shoes, a two hour walk from Westminster to the East side walking amongst the crowds, in silence with people listening to their i-pods or other technology. There I was having no idea what would happen next or when I would get back to Grace's house where I'm staying at the moment. This morning I had planned to go to work late but changed my mind and went in at 8:30 instead. I got on the tube at Old Street and changed to the Victoria Line at Kings Cross at 8:40. By 9am I'd reached work, sat down with my cup of tea when I get an email saying that there's been a blast at Liverpool Street and that it's just a power failure, no need to worry. 10 minutes later I got another email saying that another explosion had happened. Then I get an email from my friend Lisa saying a bus had exploded at Tavistock Square and that perhaps we shouldn't meet up tonight until we know what's going on. The next thing the office starts to panic (very much unlike the Brits) and two more explosions have happened on the Tube - one at Kings Cross. The work intern hadn't turned up to work - he was caught in the chaos. At 11am he finally turned up having walked from somewhere on the East - the same walk I would take home later that day. We spent the day on the internet keeping up with the news. No one knew for sure what was going on. Some thought that it was still a massive power failure but when it was confirmed that the bus exploded we knew that London had been hit.

July 31st 2005

Well, July's been not the coolest month of my life but hey, it goes on. Tomorrow's a new month and in two weeks Grace and I are off on our whirlwind tour of 3 Eastern European cities - Budapest, Prague and Berlin.

Have moved into a new flat. I'm now sharing a room with two other girls - both Aussies - very loud but very cool. There are six of us altogether but it works really well - everyone's fun and the best thing is we're all here for one reason - to travel and have a good time. Last night we had our flat warming which had some interesting results. I've turned into a real London Antipodean and have ended up at the Shepherds Bush Walkabout TWICE now! Not cool.

My job is going well. Its great experience and the people I work with are really cool (just in case my boss ever reads this I think I don't have any option but to say that) and I'm really enjoying working there.

Not much else to tell. I'm just busy planning my next trips. When Grace and I get back from our 10 days away I'll be off to Holland with the folks a couple of weeks later and will plan my next moves after that… it’s all very exciting!  

August 13, 2005

Greetings from Budapest!

Excuse the tzpos in this email. The kezboards here are totallz screwed... seriously, who puts a z where a y should be and who knows how on earth to put the ‘at’ sign in... anzwaz, Grace and I have finally made it to Budapest after five months of talking about it.

Budapest is crayz - see what i mean about those zs and ys... ok, again, Budapest is crazy! It's such a bizarre city... First of all, you feel like you've time-travelled back 20 zears or so. Currently we're in 1985. Everything is done by hand including the train tickets which have no time specified (hence why I am writing in an internet cafe due to missing the train to Prague and having to wait 3 hours for the next one) and all that jazz, the ticket sellers actually have to look up in a book to find out the time. Even China was more ahead... Then, the fashion... very soviet I must say. It's all brown and beige and very loose. The Hungarians are some of the most interesting people I've ever seen. They all have very heavy set jaws, wavy mousy brown hair and seem to carry a spare tyre around the middle which I'm assuming comes from the food they eat. The food, not my kind of thing really. It's very heavy. A lot of pasta, a lot of gravy and meat meat meat. Everything has meat in it. They do a great hot dog however...

The architecture is cool. It's very gothic with a bit of communist bland housing thrown in. The old town (buda) looks very medieval while the new town (pest) is very renaissance or baroque, again with a bit of communist architecture thrown in. On our first daz we hung out in Buda, checking out the castle and walking all the way down the hill through medieval architecture mostly unscathed from World Wars One and Two. We were extremely tired having been up since 3am (if only easy jet had cheap flights that went out at decent hours) so it was a very lazy walk on the mission to find coffee or something to keep us awake. We ended up having dinner on this lovelz street that thez claim was supposed to imitate the Champs Elyzsees of Paris... Not quite but it was lovely. Grace had some mammoth scary thing with gravy all over it plus a Budapest dumpling which was basicallz overcooked pasta and not much else. I had the chicken stuffed with aubergine which was great.

Yesterday we went on the mission to find Statue Park which we had to take several different forms of transport to. We ended up going the wrong direction on the wrong tram and ended up in some dodgy Budapest neighbourhood full of communist era housing - high rise apartments grey and clearly built in the 1960s. 2.5 hours later we were there. It's this crazy place on the edge of town filled with the old soviet statues that are not allowed in the town centre anymore. It was basically a propaganda cemetery. Verz very interesting... I've never seen such a big version of Lenin in my life. He was HUGE.

After a brief wonder around Statue Park it took us 45 minutes to get back to Buda where we spent a glorious afternoon in the famous Gellert Baths. A leftover from the Turkish influence. AMAZING and very beautiful. The roofs are full of mosaics and the main swimming pool is actually inside but with an open roof. To our great delight and surprise we found a wave pool outside which meant an hour of hilarious fun and a morning today covered in bruises due to the fact that we kept slipping over something terrible. We ended our visit to the baths by soaking in the ladies bath which was heated to 38 degrees and was pure heaven. Only thing was that we didn't have towels and were instead given sheets with which to dry ourselves... very interesting but surprisingly efficient.

So we made our way back to Pest and found Heroes square which is a tiny version of Tiananmen Square. To another delight we found an outdoor recreation park where kids were jumping on trampolines and adults were playing table tennis. We stumbled on the other baths in which we were thrown out of 'NO PICTURES!' ok... So we walked further around the park only to find a random castle which again we were pleasantly surprised by.

We had dinner in the same area we were the night before and this time we settled for seafood pasta and feta stuffed turkey breast... Much better than overcooked pasta soaked in heavy gravy... We then went back to our hostel which was great except for the street noise which kept us both up ALL night and now we are here awaiting our train which isn't for another two hours.

If we get to our next train then tonight we will be in PRAGUE!!!.

August 18, 2005

Prague

So,

After a long train trip from Budapest filled with some verz interesting characters (the zs and ys are still confused on this kezboard) we made it to Prague. Oh, it was so gorgeous. Prague was stunning, we walked and walked and walked and walked, until we got to a point where if we bumped into any more tourists we might have had a fit. Prague was gorgeous but sadly totally taken over by tourists and the crappy shops and rip offs that come with too many money spenders in a place that should be a perfect city.

To make this short, we walked through the gorgeous winding streets, across the Charles Bridge which is famous for its statues, up to the Castle where the view was magnificent and back down through the old and new towns. Highlights were the St James Church where a dead hand hangs having been taken from a thief who tried to steal the Empresses crown jewels. The decorations in that church were intense and really beautiful; the Charles bridge if it wasn’t so overcrowded with tourists, the castle and this great night club where we danced away to sixties and seventies music. Oh, and not to mention the really cheap food and beer.

The castle was amazing and made Prague look like the setting for many fairy tales. We were really blown away by it, especially at night.

Food in this part of the world is way too heavy for my liking and I´m actually desperately craving a salad.

So far we’re having such a blast. Shame to think that this time next week we’ll both be back at work.

So Prague was lovely. I’m thinking of going back in Winter to see it without so many tourists on package holidays because without them it would have been so much better.

August 21st 2005

We left Prague and made it to Berlin on the Thursday afternoon.

Grace and I were both rather excited about Berlin after the chaotic tourism that is Prague.

We had a great day on Friday checking out all the sites ranging from the TV tower to Checkpoint Charlie (a former checkpoint to go through the Berlin wall) which had a fascinating museum. We saw the Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, opera houses, a fabulous museum as well as the actual Berlin wall that the government has given to the hands of Graffiti artists. We also checked out Europe's largest flea market as well as fantastic sausages... mmm.

Berlin is too big with too much history to see all in one weekend so we did what we could without getting too exhausted and had a downright great time. Berlin has so much to offer. On Saturday night we joined one of the cities' famous pub crawls which meant a fantastic night and a crappy Sunday morning of barely being able to function. We set off to Potsdam on Sunday which is the German version of Versailles and where they divided Germany into East and West in 1949 - it would have been much more interesting if our tour hadn't all been in German and we could understand...

Sadly we had to end the trip Sunday night. We arrived back at Luton Airport at some stupid hour of the night and a few hours later were back at work.

Next destination - Holland in 2 weeks. Hooray!

The Netherlands and Belgium - 11 September 2005

Another year goes by and so September 11 passes yet again. It's been 4 years now since DC - the start of my big excursions around the world. It's quite weird thinking of all the places I've been since then. Close to 20 countries and I've lost count of cities... Anyway, I've been on some more travels!

Mum and Dad arrived in London on the 7th of September and we flew out of Gatwick to Amsterdam the following morning. Not having seen them in close to two years hadn't really changed much so we got on with doing what we do best - renting a car and seeing the countryside. We didn't actually go to Amsterdam itself - we were on a mission to visit some of Dad's business contacts in the ship building world so off we went to Gorichem and Vlissingen - both smallish fishing villages on the coast of Holland.

Gorichem was beautiful. Cobble stoned streets with canals running through it and with lots of Dutch riding their bicycles along with them. We met up with Pim, a rather large Dutchman with excellent taste in restaurants, food and wine. We had a great lunch with him and left rather a little wobbly footed after slamming my fingers in a door and left for Vlissingen.

Vlissingen is a gorgeous little seaside town - known for its excellent seafood and atrocious weather. Being right on the coast it's rather windy and most of the year is sprayed with a fine mist from the sea - not the most pleasant but the town was cute and the people were nice enough. After having an afternoon nap to sleep off the amazing lunch that Pim provided us it was time to meet up with Kathy, my Chinese friend who I managed to set up an internship with Schelde ship builders. Kathy was in great form having a wonderful time in Holland if not a bit weary of the heavy Dutch food and the fact that most people around her speak Dutch yet she can really only communicate with them in English. We had dinner with her and her boss Hein where I tried some of Vlissingen's famous seafood - Belgian mussels - and they were to die for.

On Friday morning Mum and I woke up early to check out the Vlissingen markets - sold the usual stuff like fresh fruit and veggies, seafood, nuts and lots of cheese. Yummy. It took us all of an hour to walk around the town so we went back to the hotel for another nap after a walk along the board walk. Dad took forever in a meeting with Hein and eventually met us around 2pm when we went for a drive around the coast of Holland - very rough and wild seas next to flat farmland dotted with windmills - quite impressive to look at really.

The following morning we got on the road and drove to Belgium. After driving through rolling farmland we eventually made it to our destination - the battlefields close to Paschendale - now generally filled with brussel sprouts or corn but also many war graves from World War One - also the resting place of my Great Grandfather. It was quite emotional being the first in our line to go and pay our respects but it worked out well and he's in a good place.

That night we stayed in a stunning little village called Popperinge. Popperinge is built as it would have been for centuries except that 2 World Wars went through it so most of the buildings are fairly recent. Everything revolves around the 'Centrum' or town square which has a huge cathedral in, surrounded by cute little restaurants, cafes and the general things you'll find in a small European town. We found a nice little restaurant in the Centrum for dinner where Dad and I probably consumed a bit too much Hoegarden - the local beer and a good one at that and dined on Sole - some of the best tasting fish ever.

Sunday morning we woke up early, went back to the grave site to pay our final respects and started our drive to Eindhoven Airport back in the Netherlands. We made it with plenty of time to spare after getting lots in heaps of small towns, had lunch and then hopped on a plane back to London. The next day it was back to work for three days.

 Brussel Sprouts?

Ireland - 19 September 2005

Have just got back from 5 days in lovely Ireland with Mum and Dad.

Ireland was stunning. With its rugged coastline and green pastures it actually reminded me a lot of home: clean, green, fresh and with the friendliest people imaginable. What sets it apart from New Zealand however is its history - ancient and intense. Some places showed the scars of living against the elements and countless invasions whether it be from the Romans, Vikings or the English. Short of living memory were remnants of feudal eras and the potato famine which impacted my family quite dramatically - hence me being born a 5th Generation New Zealander, a direct result from the famine in the 19th Century. Today Ireland shines. Its economy is booming and development is strong but not in an over-riding obvious way and the people share a land of 1000 smiles with anyone willing to do the same in return.

We arrived at Shannon Airport on Ryan Air on Thursday. We quickly discovered it was rather chilly and that I should have brought winter clothes with me. Oops. I ended up wearing the same outfit for 5 days in a row for that very reason. We rented a car and drove to the Lough Derg area which is where Mum's ancestors are from. Mum was determined to piece together the last few bits of her family tree so after driving through beautiful Killaloe we spent time in Scarriff and Mount Shannon. That afternoon we visited some people who we thought might be distant relatives - they turned out not to be but after having high tea and slightly stale tea cakes with them they sent us in the direction of relatives who would actually be related.

After having tea with the second lot the following morning we set off to the South West coast to the Ring of Dingle - an area of intense rugged coast dotted with small fishing villages. We spent most of the day driving through tiny seaside villages with their catholic churches and pubs with huge guinness signs outside, got lost somewhere and ended up staying in this great bed and breakfasts where I had one of the most amazing meals of my life - for breakfast! Yep, freshly caught salmon with potatoes, tomatoes and a good pot of peppermint tea. Again we got on the road and continued around the Ring of Dingle. The scenery was so spectacular with giant cliffs extending out into the wild atlantic. People had lived there since 400a.d at least and there was still evidence of their existence along the coast with reconstructed ancient homes including stone "beehves", tiny man made caves on the edges of cliffs.

That afternoon we drove around the Ring of Kerry which was lovely but not as specacular as the Ring of Dingle. We stayed in Glengariff, drove up to this lake at the top of a peat laden hill, had a pub dinner and got a good night's sleep.

Yesterday we took it easy and drove to Cork which is a lovely city. Again, very historical and with a beauty that has survived a history of conflict, famine and a strong sense of catholicism. We drove around Cobh, a small village just out of Cork which was cool with its multi-coloured houses and massive cathedral set on the water. On the way there we stopped in Blarney where I kissed the famous Blarney Stone which is supposed to bring me luck - I'm hoping financial luck!

Around 5pm we met up with my friend Erika who showed us the classic Irish hospitality with a grin and took her to dinner at this great Italian restaurant called Luigi Malones. We had a great hearty meal and then Erika walked us through some of Cork's ancient streets which date back to the Vikings. We had coffee with some of her friends - again - smiles smiles smiles - and then it was time to say goodbye before tucking in for our last night of sleep in Ireland.

Today we woke up and had one last intense Irish breakfast - sausages, bacon, tomatoes, black pudding, white pudding, eggs and bread... and then drove to Shannon stopping at a small town called Ennis to grab a quick coffee and scone before jumping on Ryan Air back to London.

Tomorrow it's back to work where they've made me permanent member of staff. I'm now officially a Policy Officer for the Department of Constitutional Affairs.

For the next three months I'm not going ANYWHERE. I'm so broke from all this travelling that now it's all about getting debts paid off and attempting to save a bit. The next big adventure will be to Edinburgh for New Years with all my good friends. Until then I'm going to make more of an effort to discover London and the strange world that can only exist there,

February 12 2006 - Dodgy Part time Jobs, Scotland, Paris and turning 25

Happy New Year everyone. Sorry an update of this has been so long in coming. Have I been busy or what!

Just a quick summary really:

Didn't end up going to the Christmas markets due to lack of funds so I took on a part time bar job... at the WALKABOUT - the dodgiest pub on the entire planet but convenient for me since it was close to my house. I somehow managed to last there for three months until I gave up smelling of stale beer after every shift and went back to my life of being the poorest blonde on the planet (but only for a few weeks). Since then I've taken on an events waitressing job where I get paid cash in the hand and all I have to do is put meat on a plate and take it to a table - here they call it silver service... It's for really posh events so I get to see some cool venues and wear some rather interesting outfits - the other night I was a French Maid. The management are horrid – wanna-be posh people on a power trip because they get to pour champagne for Prince Charles and then take it out on the rest of us if he doesn’t thank them for doing it.

Apart from slaving away working 2 jobs I've also been doing some travelling:

New Years - 4 of us rented a car and I drove the gaggle of girls to Edinburgh - the day after a blizzard blanketed the entire country in snow. Made for an interesting and rather slow drive which included a stop at Wimpy - the worst fast food outlet on earth, and driving in black ice. Lots of fun. Somehow we made it up in one piece where we met up with Dan - my old mate from home who's now a Royal Marine, and Rachael - my darling friend and travel partner from way back (see SE Asia 2005 for tales of our mad adventures). Lisa's boy Bernie joined us and we also managed to find Grace on New Years Eve.

Edinburgh rocked. However, before we explored Edinburgh we drove through the middle of Scotland - rather accidentally actually. We meant to drive to Inverness in the North to check out Lock Ness and catch sight of Nessie but got a bit stuck in snow and drove off through the Scottish countryside through little farming villages and stopping at a whiskey distillery that was shut for Christmas. We didn't let that ruin out fun though and spent the best part of an hour rammaging eachother with snowballs. We drove back to Edinburgh for six hours, all soaking wet, freezing cold and listening to Queen OVER AND OVER again. Lots of fun but I’m still struggling to get Fat Bottomed Girls out of my head.... That night we went on a pub crawl and found ourselves very very hungover New Years Eve.

New Years Eve was AWESOME. Everyone was really happy. Some of us super high on Red Bull. I brought it in with my best friends in the entire world - Grace and her group were with us, as was Rach, Dan, Caz, Lisa and the love of her life and my flatmates. Pip was nowhere to be found but everyone was happy and all was good. 

Edinburgh's a great place and I'm hoping to go up there again and check it out in summer.

Three weeks later it was off to Paris for mine and Caz's 25th Birthdays (mine is the 22nd of Jan while hers is the 23rd, I'm a day older but she is SO MUCH WISER). We had a great time checking out galleries, wondering the streets, doing a bit of shopping, more than our fair share of eating, doing a few more sites that I hadn't seen in my previous 2 visits (mostly the Louvre, Musee D'Orsay, the Picasso Museum and the Latin Quarter) and had some great nights out. It's definitely re-confirmed that Paris is my favourite city in the world.

Oh yeah, and eeek, I'm 25! That's so scary. Starting to wonder if I should start facing up to some responsibilities back home like a serious career and sorting out my student loan... but then I thought about it and was like, nah, I'll think about that when I'm 26. 25 is going to be a very fun year for this girl.

The weekend after Paris it was Chinese New Year. I'd had food poisoning earlier in the week which wasn't very cool so we kept it low key and went into China town and checked out the celebrations - it was packed with so many people from different cultures turning up to celebrate it. I love that about London.

Next big plans is my month travelling around Europe in April by inter-rail on my own. I'm hoping to meet lots of locals through Couch Surfing and really get to know Europe rather than the wham bham thank you mam hostel and tour version. Can't wait!

                         EUROPE EXCURSION 2006

Munich

On April 7 2006 the UK was in full panic about bird flu. What did I do? I went and got on a plane right outa there, to Munich where 2 cats had already caught it... does another Kat need it? Who knows, but so far I seem to be following bird flu, or does it follow me? First Vietnam, then the UK and now Germany. That's all good, terrorism seems to follow this girl too!

So off I went, leaving my dear flat in Shepherds Bush, my bed being taken care of by the lovely Caz and my makeup hopefully not being raided by the darling roomie Rachael I set off for an adventure. First stop? HEATHROW AIRPORT.

Talk about a line and a half. Thinking that taking the posh British Airways rather than Chav Air Easy Jet would be nicer, friendlier and just downright cooler I was horribly dismayed that not only was I there 2.5 hours early, I would be stuck in line between two rather loud nagging South Africans who could complain bitterly for the next 35 minutes and a large group of guys going off for a stag weekend who would check out every girl and then give a full commentary on the way they looked, walked and fit into their low rise jeans. I was desperate for a coffee, so desperate, and not being a morning person was not at all prepared to give sweet smiles and laugh happily when the stag party would occasionally attempt to flirt with me. The line went on, the saffers went on and on, the stag party went on and on and all I could think about was why oh why had I decided that leaving at a super early hour would be good idea.

But I checked in without killing one. All was good and I still had two hours to go. What does a girly traveller in a cool new green coat do when she leaves her makeup beind? HEAD TO DUTY FREE. Having absolutely no cash I walked into the fluorescent lighting and was like a deer caught in headlights the moment the makeup lady showed me a mirror and how my skin looked today. Blotchy, red and terribly unforgiving bags under my eyes I was a prime target for her - yes, I'll take it, all thirty pounds worth, I clearly need it. Out comes visa, out goes one days budget and I come out with a bunch of expensive completely unnecessary crap that will only clog my pores and make me broker later in life. But at least I was momentarily happy while she made me look a million dollars - had to be the light - and I could go to Pret and buy my double shot macchiato in peace knowing that for the next week I would have to not spend a thing.

Expensive makeup, a pret coffee and breakfast in hand I precede towards the gate. But where's the gate? Why hasn't my flight appeared on the board yet? I only have 15 minutes til it takes off... I panic. What if it's left without me even though I got to the airport TWO AND A HALF HOURS EARLY??? F#ck! So I think "Katherine, keep calm." 20 minutes later my flight still hasn't appeared, I fret a little more... And finally it appears. I jump on the plane and we leave 30 minutes after the planned departure time. My seat is a window seat but turns out right on the wing so I can't see a single thing.

12pm and I've arrived in Munich, the Barvarian capital, home of beer halls, oompah bands, castles, a big old clock in the middle of town and oh yeah, sausage, lots of sausage.

*For the next 3 days I would eat nothing but sausage and meatloaf. I'm serious. I was craving fruit in the worst way ever by the time I left.*

Olivia, my first Hospitality Club/Couch surfing person, met me at the Central Station. I knew we'd get on the moment we met. We really hit if off, dropped my stuff at her place and then jumped on a bus tour around the city - Munich is gorgeous - clocks and churches everywhere, lots of parks and statues, plus a river that runs right through it. Everywhere you look are buildings of a grander era, shops with great window displays and people just taking their days easy - they know they've got it good in this city.

Following the bus tour, Olivia took me to the centre of town where we checked out the shops, had espresso at her favourite cafe and then went to this store where she insisted I try on the traditional Bavarian dress, most people know it as a German beer girl outfit. Hilarious. I could barely breathe as it was so tight but it actually kind of looked alright with my curves spilling over the top - I could easily work in a Munich beer hall...

We then walked around the city lots. Everywhere you go are strange statues of lions painted all sorts of patterns and colours - bizarre but rather cool. We strolled past amazing old buildings ending up at the beautiful English gardens - a huge park with a river running through the middle, lots of bridges and lots of birds that appeared not to have the flu.

That night we went out on the town and met up with Olivia's friends - they were CRAZY. One of them way this big heavy set German guy wearing a pink shirt, wolves tail and of all things, a white visor. He didn't take to well to me calling him David Hasselhoff. After a few drinks it was 2:30am and time for Currywurst - chopped up sausage covered in curry sauce served with chips - brilliant alternative to McDonalds at the end of a night and damned good stuff.

So we packed it in fourth night and got up the next day to visit Neuschwanstein - a massive castle two hours out of Munich and well worth the trip - it's the castle that Disney based Cinderella's castle on. It was built by a slightly crazy monarch of Bavaria who wanted to live in his own fantasy land. The interior was amazing - decorated with bright colours, fantasy scenes of knights slaying dragons, and jewels everywhere. He actually only lived there for 180 days before being found mentally ill and ending up drowned in a lake the following day along with his psychologist under suspicious circumstances.

We left the castle, walked back down the 1.5kms that we walked up to get there, had another meal of sausage - Bratwurst this time- with chips, and as a result missed our train back to Munich. We had to wait two hours. So we went and had espresso and ice-cream, a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

That night Olivia and I went out. Oh did we go out. We went to some amazing clubs, didn't have to pay for a single drink as socialite Olivia knows bartenders, and just had an awesome awesome night. 6am the next morning we get back to her house after chatting away to this punk girl in the central train station about how her boyfriend is horrible while having more currywurst.

I wake up at 1pm determined to see what else Munich has to offer. I discovered that meatloaf in a bun is the best hangover cure EVER and went on my slightly offish

little way into town. It was lovely. I went to the big palace in the centre of town which is truly massive with incredible detail and then just explored little churches, big churches, ladies churches and the town square where lots of street musicians were doing their thing. It was a lovely afternoon. I got to the town square just in time to see the Glockenspiel go - huge huge clock that has these wooden puppets that dance away and even have a sword fight. Very cool.

Olivia met up with me later on and we went out for a traditional Bavarian meal. It was huge and had nothing but meat and a bread dumpling - stuffing- with it. I have never been that full on just meat in my life. With our bellies full to the brim Olivia and I had one last chance to spend an evening in one of Munich's famous beer halls. We ended it on a great note. The beer hall was huge, we had an awesome couple of pints, chatted away to some locals and got home in time for a good night of sleep.

I loved Munich. It's one of the best places I've been yet. Can't wait to go back for Octoberfest. And I definitely recommend doing things the way the locals do - try out http://www.hospitalityclub.org or http://www.couchsurfing.com - they're the best things I've discovered on my travels yet.

Switzerland

April 12, 2006

So I'd made it to Switzerland at last, home of Heidi and the Matterhorn. To me though 3 words sum up the place - beautiful, boring and expensive - but not necessarily bad! It's a nice place, it genuinely is gorgeous but I just found it really similar to the South Island at home. It's not bad, it just didn't blow me away like a windy Wellington day. Had I not been to the South Island or Canada I probably would have found the place majestical but instead I found myself comparing it to a really expensive version of Queenstown only with shit loads of cheese fondue and cook coo clocks thrown in.

We spent Monday night in Zurich. Stayed in this awesome student flat (Thanks Astrid!). They made us great espresso and were really nice people. Dan and I set off to explore the town - but it was wet. SO WET. It rained and it rained and it rained a little more. We had no umbrella, no warm clothes and my fake diesel sneakers from Bangkok were finally giving up the ghost - my feet were soaked and it was 4 degrees. Not a happy Kat to say the least. So we trekked Zurich searching for a shoe shop. Could we find one? Nope. Zurich has loads of chocolate and Rolex stores and even the occasional English book shop (quite good ones actually!) - but shoe shops... where on earth were they!???

After wandering for two hours we finally found one. My feet screamed a sigh of happiness and soon they were bound in black sneakers with cool pink stripes on the side. Stylish and very much matching my threadbare merino top that was 5 years old and my new green coat that created no warmth whatsoever. So now I must thank my holy red shoes - buried deep in some Zurich rubbish bin, you did me well, took me to all corners of the globe... may you rest in peace. Blargh! They were filled with holes from day three and my feet were freaking cold for an entire winter!

Anyway, we set off in the rain searching for something that would make us remember Zurich fondly. We found it. A massive chocolate shop with chocolate bunnies bigger than a 10 year old. We were happy. mmm, truffles. Waistline not happy. Outside rain was turning to sleet, sleet turning to snow but we didn't care, we were surrounded by 4 foot high chocolate bunnies costing more than my entire month's salary.

We eventually strolled into the old part of Zurich. It's actually lovely being set on a hillside overlooking a lake. Has lots of cute little boutiques filled with all sorts of expensive things, nice German style town houses painted in lovely pastel colours, churches with massive clocks on the steeples and basic wooden interiors and then we found it: the world's best coffee shop. The Swiss KNOW how to make coffee. Warming ourselves with espresso and being super hyper for the rest of the night we gave in and succumbed to Astrid's warm flat out of the snow. We were cold, tired and wet and just wanted somewhere warm for a night. I'm hoping Zurich is much more fun in summer. But it does have impressive watch stores - I saw a watch costing 200,000 Euros.

We woke up the next morning to two inches of snow outside. Threadbare merino top on with green coat that provides no warmth and new pink striped shoes I made my way to the train station thinking (weirdly) that surely Interlaken would have a lot to offer. Well, it did - instead of two inches of snow there was two feet! Our hopes dashed of running through fields of wild flowers singing the Hills are Alive, Dan and I set off for two cool little towns - Thun and Speiz. Thun has this great little castle with proper knights in shining armour so we spent a good hour checking that out, had lunch and headed off to Speiz where we frantically ran for 15 minutes downhill hoping to get a boat back to Interlaken thinking the scenery would be amazing. Well, it was but we didn't see much of it as we both fell asleep for three quarters of the hour and a half boat ride. oops.

We woke up enough to stuff ourselves with our first (and possibly last?) cheese fondue - wow, intense. I've never eaten so much cheese in my life. It's um, very cheesy if you like that sort of thing but I can’t imagine craving cheese for a while now...

Interlaken was lovely when we got back there - the cloud had cleared and all of a sudden we could see snow capped mountains against a pinkish sky during sun set - made the trip there fully worth it. A site well worth seeing, especially when followed by a Swiss hot chocolate. The Swiss really do know how to make one.

Bern

Bern changed my mind about Switzerland. It's gorgeous, lined with cobble stoned streets and cute town houses and tons of stunning little churches. Protected by Unesco, the Swiss capital is perhaps the most surprising place I've see yet. They randomly have a bear pit with real life bears in it which is somewhat disturbing! We walked around the city for a few hours but having only made the decision to go to Bern that morning we were impressed. It's got a gorgeous parliament building, awesome museums, a clock to rival any other European central square clock and a cathedral offering views rivalling that of Notre Dame in Paris. Weirdly there is also a statue of a baby eating ogre there...

We had an awesome time in Bern - great place and made me see why people adore Switzerland. The people there are fantastic with surprisingly good senses of humour, and they really do wickedly good tasting chocolate bunnies.

Italy – Venice

Dan and I left Switzerland at 7am on April 13th and after a loooooong train journey with a rather frustrating but brief stop in Milan we eventually made it to Padua. And what a great three days we would have there.

First stop was the Chapella Scrovegni - the same place Giotto did his frescoes from 1303-1305 that I'd studied years ago in 7th form art history. They'd been carefully restored and turned out to be way more vivid than I'd pictured them to be from the dodgy old slides our teacher used to show us. In the scene of the last judgement he'd included falling angels, ogre eating babies, the lot...

After spending our allotted 15 minutes in the Chapel, Dan and I moved onto the bus station where we were to jump on a bus to Trambacche, about 45 minutes out of Padua in the countryside, where Loretta and her family live. And what a family to stay with! First off we were introduced to Loretta, her sister, her husband Roberto, her two sons, and daughter Danila. The first thing Loretta said was "my life changed in one week when I had one son and the other 2 arrived from Africa." Her life has been one great cool crazy rush ever since. So she sat us down for a proper Italian home cooked meal with lots of olive oil and oregano thrown in and then we went for a bike ride around the lovely countryside. By the end of this and the non-stop chatter of her lovely family we were exhausted and it was time to get some sleep!

We woke up early on Good Friday to go to Venice for the day. Loretta had packed us a lunch of sandwiches, bottled water and fruit and we set off for the city of canals, carnival and gondoliers. Venice was so stunning and gorgeous that I hesitate to write much more on it except to say check out the pictures of it or buy a plane ticket and go there yourself. It blew me away completely.

Dan and I spent the day strolling and getting lost through the sinking cities' side streets and canals. It has an eerie feeling to it like you know that you should not get lost there after dark. The canals are just like you imagine them to be, the gondolas look just as cool and are just as expensive as they live up to be, masks and Venetian glass are sold in the trillions of souvenir shops that you can't resist taking one home. We ate loads of gelato, took far too many pictures, got slightly tipsy over a cold bottle of Pinot Grigio in the hot Venetian sun and then it was time to return to Padua for the night.

The following morning we got up and went to Venice again to relive much the same experiences as the day before. We returned to Padua to a great night out with Loretta's nieces and daughter who all took quite a fancy to Dan, had the best pizza I've ever had in my life and got ready to leave for Florence the following day. The Italians are phenomenal people - they're so lovely and passionate, particularly when you get them talking about politics, and went out of their way to make us feel so welcome. The same hospitality would reoccur over and over again on this trip.

Florence

So we left Padua and jumped on a train to Florence - or Firenze as the locals call it. 2.5 hours later we arrived to a cloudy, damp, smelly city with pretty colours set on a river.

People had raved about Florence to me so I was utterly determined to give it a go. We checked into our hostel - an old converted convent which the Lonely Planet describes as somewhat spartan but good value - a pretty accurate description - and then headed out to explore and get a bit of lunch.

THERE WERE SO MANY PEOPLE. Tourists were everywhere and so much more obvious than Venice but we would keep trying... Gelato was expensive, Florence was getting hot and muggy and Dan was starting to get sick of having me as his only company. We walked around for ages and ages and eventually succumbed to a one hour wait to check out the statue of David. It was well worth the wait - quite the work of art I must say.

That evening we met up with Simo and Georg - a couple I'd met through the hospitality club. They were lovely and had an interesting group of friends. After drinking a little too much pinot grigio we said our goodbyes and went back to the old convent for some sleep. Being in a girls only dorm I finally got a night of sleep without being woken up by some obnoxious snoring.

The following morning we got up and waited in line for the Ufuzzi gallery. We waited for more than two hours. Again though, like David, it was well worth the wait - so many famous paintings it's ridiculous, starting with the Birth of Venus to name but one. Afterwards we walked around in the hot Florentine sun checking out a few churches, having the most expensive lemonade ever ending the day with a Sicilian meal - damned good stuff. Florence didn't blow me away like I thought it would - but it's still absolutely stunning.

ROME

What an overwhelming place. So much to tell so I'm going to list the highlights:

- Frederica - our amazing couch surfing host - awesome girl who knew literally everything about the place

- Walking in on the Pope giving an audience to St Peter's Square

- THE COLLESEUM

- Gelato gelato gelato - yum.

- Fighting through crowds of tourists to see the Trevi fountain

- The "joke of Rome" - a secret key hole in a door where you can see St Peter's Basilica by night

- Spanish steps with no-one on them in the middle of the night

- The Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museum

- Amazing Italian food with Frederica at her favourite restaurant

- Espresso

- The Pantheon

It was an amazing city. Really enjoyed myself there. Cinque Terre would be equally as stunning and as different from Rome as one could possibly get in Italy.

Cinque Terre

We woke up to leave Rome extremely early on a Saturday morning to get to Riomaggiore - the first of five Unesco villages in the Cinque Terre. The village was absolutely gorgeous. We checked into our hostel where we were supposed to have a 7 bed dorm but for the same price the guy put us in our own room with ensuite - this was a good start to a good few days.

The Cinque Terre has some of the most amazing coastal scenery I've ever laid eyes on. We spent the next 3 days wandering in and out of the villages with day 3 walking all 5 of them over a gruelling 8 hour period up and down cliffs in the sun. It was followed by a few hours of drinking ice cold beer at the end. I can't really describe the place and its beauty so I'm just going to say to go there and check it out for your-selves. You wouldn't regret it. The houses were lined with shutters, the villages built into cliffs with olive groves and orange trees growing up the sides. It's just amazing.

Nice & Monaco

And so it was we climbed the Cinque Terre, lived the easy life and got on a train to Nice - not to sound cheesy, but what a nice city it is! We arrived at the Tourist info desk and were relieved to be pointed to a hostel less than one block from the train station. Since we only had one night in Nice, timing was of the essence.

We checked into the nice enough hostel, dropped our stuff, did a quick brush of the hair and decided that a fleeting visit to Monaco was in order. To be honest I found Monaco rather unremarkable - it's expensive and kinda boring unless you're absolutely loaded (which I must admit… I'm not).

We had a quick dash around the place, had an expensive sparkling water and biscuit and decided that we'd actually be better off checking out Nice for the night - we were right.

Nice was exactly how I'd imagined it - French but in the nice Southern French laidback-ness to it (not that you could ever really call the French laid back but anyway...). Its beach stretches for miles and is as blue as the name Cote d'azure lends itself to. We had dinner in this really good restaurant with fantastic service by a rather hot waiter then walked around Nice for a few hours, took in the fresh sea air and by this point were so exhausted collapsed into our hostel beds for a brilliant night of sleep.

We got up the next morning to just stroll the streets of Nice and really just enjoy it. Nothing really stands out about the place except the really nice atmosphere - which is sometimes all you need. We had lunch on a park bench which consisted of filled baguettes, sparkling water and yummy French biscuits and then decided to head to Marseilles.

Marseilles

It took us over an hour and a half to find Maria's place - another Hospitality Club/Couch Surfing member. When we finally found the place there was a note pointing to a key - Maria had gone out for the night leaving us her GORGEOUS apartment right in the centre of town. We were so lucky - it was such an amazing place.

We unpacked, did some laundry and then made our way down to the waterfront - it's lovely. So many boats in a harbour surrounded by very old fortresses and abbeys - also the place where the Count of Monte Christo is based - very historic.

The next day we woke up to Maria arriving home. What a cool lady. She's super alive, gorgeous & loves to shop. We chatted to her for ages and then went exploring Marseilles by day. Such a lovely city - really sunny with sand coloured buildings in that proper French-Mediterranean style. We walked up to this church at the top of a hill which overlooks the entire city. Talk about a view! After an hour or so we wandered down through cobble stoned streets and narrow alleyways ending up at the port where we had a quick bite to eat. We continued the day walking Marseilles strolling in whichever direction we felt the need to going into the occasional church or shop and finally ending the day in a nice French restaurant.

On Day three in Marseilles we got up reasonably early and Maria took us to this cool market close to her place. We hung out there for an hour or so before going to Aix en Provence for the afternoon. Due to there being no luggage room at the train station nor anywhere in town Andy checked out the place while I sat in a cafe minding the bags, eating ice-cream and reading a good book. And then...

Avignon - a rather spooky experience!

And so it was Andy and I turned up in Avignon, super excited about being in Provence, home of L'Occitane and apparently the nicer breed of French person. Or so we thought!

We jump off the train, book our tickets for Barcelona in a couple of days, get into a taxi and set off for Boris' house. Boris is one of my HC contacts whom I was crashing with all around Europe. So far all had been amazing so surely Boris would follow in their footsteps.

Taxi driver reads the address about six times and eventually looks at us and says "Please tell me you are staying with a friend" and we just go "um, yeah, we are" and he goes "you know,  this street is very dangerous" so we put our seatbelts on. Taxi driver laughs at us and says, "No (in pretentious French accent), hold on to your purse and be careful where you go." Andy and I roll our eyes at each other in an oh the French think we have no idea about anything way...

So he drives the long way around the city as taxi drivers that want to rip glary eyed backpackers do and we eventually arrive in this decrepit council estate. "You sure you want to stay here?" he looks at us with a worried look on his face. "Yes, we are staying with friends, we're fine" says Andy. So we get out of the cab, pay him almost 20 Euro and push Boris's button. "Um, oh, you don't speak French?" in heavy Russian accent. "No, can you please let us in?" I say.

Hesitantly he buzzes us up and we walk the narrow cold concrete staircase up to his apartment. It is sparse, he answers the door. This little balding man with jet black hair of Russian descent with equally as heavy Russian accent, white wife beater top and dodgy track pants that hide nothing appears. "Yes, you are here." "Hiya, you must be Boris, I'm Kat and this is Andy" - grunt. "Rules, do not walk on the carpet in shoes, do not flush the toilet if you pee, do not make ANY noise at all after 11pm, do not shower, do not stand on the balcony, do not open the window, do not use anything. This is your mattress, here are directions to my house, if you ever find your way back... (whispered in heavy Russian accent)

"So Boris, what do you do?" I ask.

"I was night receptionist but now I don't work" (in heavy Russian accent)

"Oh, ok"

"No, not ok. I lost my job and cannot drive my car or do anything!"

I rush into the loo and leave Andy to do the talking, all the while being careful not to flush in fear of making any noise at all.

We go for a walk into town following Boris' strict directions and memorising every corner in order to find our way back in the dark. First is 15 minutes of council estate, next is a cemetery, after that is the red light district interdispursed with creepy alleyways and finally a very quiet and expensive restaurant district. We were creeped out so we thought "Let's have pizza for dinner" - that's nice and cheerful.

It was the nastiest pizza I have ever had. It took 40 minutes to make and 40 minutes after finishing it to grab the waiters attention so we could pay the bill and go.

We begin the walk home. Some guy jumps out from an alleyway and makes some strange noise at us. We are creeped out big time. So we make an executive decision that if we survive the night we leave a day early and get out of Avignon AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. We decide that the earlier we leave the less likely we are to wake Boris up.

We walk through dark alleyways, past the red light district, past the cemetery and finally to the council estate. It is so much scarier in the dark. Can we find Boris's building? Of course not! We are both freaking out yet pretending that everything is fine. Some guys come straight toward us having jumped out of their minivan - oh f&%k we look at eachother. Walk speedily ahead, pass the guys on drugs and eventually make it to his door. Where are the keys? For Christ's sake, where are the keys! Keys found we run inside, narrowly missing some guy about to jump us following leering noises heard from behind the building. We go up cold dark staircase and quietly creep into Boris's apartment careful not to make a sound and wake him up. Andy panics "kat, which switch is the bathroom light? What if I wake him up? What will happen if he wakes up to it, shall we just not go at all?" We eventually decide the bottom switch. Phew, it's the right one...

Teeth cleaned we get into our sleeping bags, pack our stuff for the morning, set the alarm for 6:55am and try to fall asleep. We can't. Every sound we hear creeps us out. There is an intense wind outside that bangs everything only making the night even more creepy and weird. I read myself to sleep, Andy barely sleeps at all. The alarm goes off "Get out of bed Kat and grab your bag, we are leaving".

Careful not to wake Boris up we don't flush the loo, we leave a note saying that a friend requested us in Barcelona a night early, and make a run for it. We walk through the council estate, past the cemetry, past the red light district and finally to the train station. We are safe, well, almost, we have 2.5 hours to wait for the train to Barcelona.

And finally we're on it. At ease we laugh, and we laugh, and we laugh and vow never to go back to Avignon, even if offered money for it.

In Barcelona now - with Gaudi and Sangria it’s a completely different world and free of Boris... we hope.

Barcelona

So we'd escaped Avignon. It would take us several days to laugh about it but once we started we couldn't stop. We were finally rid of its curse and Barcelona would bring me under its spell. What an amazing place!

We arrived in Barcelona a night early and it would prove quite difficult to find accommodation being that it was Saturday night, May Day weekend... Stressing out I called every hostel listed in my love/hate Lonely Planet and finally the last pension I called had room for the two of us. Talk about relief!

We checked in, cleaned ourselves up a bit and went out. First stop was a rather unremarkable restaurant that served equally unremarkable Paella but we scoffed it down and went to meet my friend Hinesh who also happened to be in Barcelona for the weekend. We had a very drunken evening which swore me off Sangria for life (well, until the next night anyway!). The next day, heads aching, we would set off to find our hostel that we'd booked a month before hand. It took two hours to find the place! But what a gem - worth the walking round in circles with a killer of a hangover. The Itaca hostel is lovely, cosy and well run in a good quiet location. We dropped our stuff off and went to do a small amount of site seeing.

First stop was the Sagarda Familia - Barcelona's most famous site designed by Gaudi. Brilliant stuff. We hadn't had enough of Gaudi so went to a park that's completely devoted to his works - the architecture looks like a Dr Seuss book - it's so cute.

That night we were both asleep fairly early and got up the next day to have a very chilled out one strolling Barcelona's streets ending up on the beach drinking Sangria in this really cute little beach bar - there was hardly anyone on the beach and it was really nice - made me realise that perhaps it's almost time to return to NZ.

Tuesday Andy flew out of Girona so we went there for the day. It's a really nice town, quite pretty and historical but having travelled around most of Europe by this point I wasn't exactly blown away by it - if anything a bit jaded.

So Andy had left leaving me to go out and make friends or face being alone for five days. First stop - the hostel. Second stop- the bar with my new found hostel friends. This nice English brother and sister took us to the coolest little bar ever. It was like walking into a forest! Waterfalls, trees and everything - not to mention your better than average Spanish bartender.

The next morning I got up and went SHOPPING. Barcelona has some fantastic shops. I was so impressed that I massively overspent and am now paying for it back in London! A day shopping led me back to the hostel where I met this crazy Canadian girl who was really into internet dating and told me all the virtues of it - I'm still not convinced but she was a great laugh and we had a good night out back at the fairy bar. I got back to the hostel only to find out that my "booked" hostel in Seville was not in fact booked and that there was no accommodation anywhere for me in the city - so what do I do? Stay in Barcelona of course! It's a great place!

The next morning I got up and went to Mont Deuc where I checked out the view and the Miro gallery. Miro is one of the great artists from the 20th century and this museum honoured him well. I then spent two hours waiting to change my train ticket to Seville, had a falafel for lunch (for some reason in Barcelona they're awesome...) and did the Picasso Museum in the afternoon. Yet another brilliant gallery.

I met this great Aussie girl called Alex the next day and together we discovered this great little bar that does the best Caiprinas I've ever had. We met some English guys who owned a bar around the corner and they took us out for the night. First stop was this very trendy bar called Sugar that they happened to own, next stop a couple of exclusive bars, stop after that - stumbling back to the hostel with Alex - a brilliant evening only confirming just how much Barcelona has to offer!

On my last day in Barcelona - the city that I'd fallen in love with - I spent the morning at the Dali Museum which was well worth the €8 entry fee - talk about one eccentric man! After that I meandered through Barcelona's streets ending up at a nice cafe to reflect on the trip. I still can't put my finger on why Barcelona is so overwhelmingly cool - is it the people? The beach? The art? Architecture? Who knows - but I think I'll be back there again sometime soon! What a great place to end my trip.

I was blown away by Europe so much more than I thought I'd be. It was an incredible experience, I met some awesome people along the way, took some great shots and maybe even learned a thing or two about the world. I've now booked my flight out of London for October 5th. Next big stop? INDIA. But first I'm going to make the most of my last 4.5 months in London – it is summer and it's going to be good.

October 3, 2006

Hi Everyone!

I leave London for good tomorrow. Far out. I've updated my site yet again with pictures of my last few weeks in London. There's a bunch of a protest I was in whilst in Manchester, quite a few random ones of my leaving do at the Big Chill, and plenty of Rachael celebrating her birthday with special guests (including the Hoff). Check them out under Last London Days.

Visa for India is organised. I'm almost packed and provided I don't give everyone food poisoning tonight (a practice run for Delhi Belly) then I'll be on that plane at 5pm tomorrow.

I've been having the most amazing time lately. A couple of weeks ago I went up to Liverpool and watched a "real" football match. Everton vs Wigan - I'm now a converted Everton supporter. A right real scouser now. ;-)

Went back to Manchester a week later and ended up in an anti-war rally which was fantastic. Had such a good time and took some good photos so will post those up if I get a chance.

Also have a new camera - all ready for the Big Asia Adventure. 

I'm super sad about leaving London. I've had the most amazing 20 months here and it's going to be a shame to leave. Sadly visa expires and there's really not much one can do about that. I've made the most amazing friends here and have had some incredible experiences. Got to work with a great bunch of people and get the CV looking half decent. I also worked as a silver service waitress twice a week and have now vowed NEVER to wait tables EVER again.

So my big adventure is about to start. I'm SO EXCITED but also sad - I'm never going to forget London - sure it's had its ups and downs but the ups have been so amazing it's not funny.

Thanks everyone for the good times. Watch out Asia - I'm coming back next week!

K. J