Sun!!!! 30.8.08

Feeling quite hungover, i was tempted to just go back to bed, but for the first time since I arrived there was not a cloud in the sky! And being the second last day of summer I thought i better make the most of it. 

So Karen and I went and checked out Hoarse Guard Parade, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace and Harods. I was surprised to see that Harods is much more prestigious than Buckingham Palace. 

Harods is so strange. Most of it is really tasteful and classy, then they have their tacky Pet world. Its so scary. But what is scarier is that its August and they already have the Christmas Department open. Christmas Crackers range from about 60 pounds to 500. I think this Christmas ill be satisfied with a crappy plastic toy and pathetic  joke. 

My Aussie day 30.8.08

(Top: Blanche; R: Jenny)

I spent most of yesterday getting really drunk and playing drinking games and discussing the weirdness that is England. 

Fox's

Fox's seem to just roam around London

Brighton 25.8.08

On Sunday My cousin took me to Brighton, in the south of England, on the coast. Apparently it is still summer, but it was a good thing I took a jumper and a jacket. I thought I was going to get blown away. 

I thought the tiny patch of imported sand, amongst all the pebbles was hilarious! And as soon as the sun came out, so did all the people. Its clearly to cold to swim, so they have a huge pier, with an amusement park, restaurants and bars on it. Of course, we had fish and chips for lunch. The restaurant was were I discovered that the to the Poms, Spotty Dick is a dessert, not an STD. These people really are strange. 

It is quite a pretty city, and I'm looking forward to heading back down there for a weekend. Dont think i will bother taking my bordies though, but may try a bit of spotty dick.

Football

On Saturday, my cousin took me to a football match. We saw Crystal Palace Vs Burnly. Crystal Palace was my dads local team when he lived in London. I had a great day. And to finish off the day we had dinner in an old English Pub, which are everywhere. I cant believe how many pubs there are, I'm in heaven! 

The UK 17th of August 2008 -

So now I'm In England!! I arrived a bit over a week ago and finally feel like I'm over the jet lag and recovered from all the traveling. I am staying with my family in West Norwood, which is South London. 

So far I have been having a really great time and have been doing the touristy things like the London Eye. Today I did the"London Bridge Experience" which was really for kidds, so obviously I had a great time. I also met with the job agency today, which seemed to go quite well.

Zurich

After the Rein Falls tour I went into Zurich and walked around in the pouring rain. It is a beautiful city, not a high rise in site. I don't think they have built a new building in the last 200 years. Its also such tiny city. 

Lucerne

On the way back fro Mt. Titlis, we stopped in a beautiful little town called, Lucerne we had an hour there and we rushed around taking photos of everything.

Mt Titlis

I had booked to go on an all day tour, up Mt Titlis, the highest mountain in Switzerland. I ran into Anu at the main station, and she was going on the same tour. We took the Tour Bus from the station, and there was another Australian couple sitting with us on the bus. We dropped off other tour groups along the way.

When we arrived at Mt Titlis, we took a cable car to the top. It takes 45 minutes and 3 seperate cable cars. The last cable car has a revolving floor. The View is amazing! At the top of the mountain, there is snow all year round. It was beautiful.

At the top, we walked through the glacier, which was a little cold, but it was definitely worth it. Then we jumped on the sky ridder, another cable car, which took us to the snow sledds. It was so much fun, and quite hard to control. We then rushed back to the bus thinking that we would get there right on time. But we wer'nt paying attention to the time and got there an hour early. Knowing that it was 45 min to get back up, we went up halfway, and came down on the scooters. That was so much fun, though there were cars on the road and you couldnt see them when coming around the tight bends. I braked when one was coming towards me and went straight over the handle bars as the brakes were really jumpy. The driver was kind enough to stop for half a second look at me and keep going. Despite this it was still so much fun, and now I can say I rode down the Alps on a scooter.  

Rein Falls

I booked tours through the Hotel. I Went on a half day tour to the Rein Falls, which is close to the German Border. The weather wasnt the best, but we were going to see a water fall anyway. The waterfall was magnificent. It wasnt very high, but it was wide and extreemly powerful. We went really close to it in a boat, and walked up a rock in the middle of it, to stand right at the top. It was amazing. I met Anu on the tour, and it was nice to travel with someone and have someone to take photo's.

Switzerland 14 - 17.8.2008

Switzerland is a beautiful country. I was only there for a few days, so I tried to make the most of It. The day after i arrived I did a tour of the Rein Fall and explored Zurich in the pouring rain, which was great practice for England. The following day, I did a Tour of Mt. Titlis.

I loved the way my hotel was 5 minutes from the airport and 15 minutes from Zurich, but looked like it was in a Tiny Village. 

I had a wonderful time in Switzerland, it is quite an interesting country. I found that generally the people were not overly friendly, and could be quite rude by Australian standards, but they make amazing food, so that Kind of made up for it. Although they are quite happy to ruin the meal by smoking in restaurants. Bringing dogs into restaurants was also a little strange. 

Kanazowa

Towards the end of the trip we headed to Kanazowa, which is Tim's Prefecture. On the way we stopped at Kyoto. It was unbelevably hot! The heat made it hard to apprecieate the city. But we did go go to a temple (of course it was at the top of a huge hill!) with a beautiful view.

I explored Kanazowa, checking out the samurai district and the Kenrokuen Garden, another one of the top 3 Gardens. I prefered this one. You could spend half the day in there, luckily there were plenty of shops selling ice cream and water. That night we went on a pub crawl, which was a good opportunity to meet Tim's JET friends. 

Kanazowa was the last stop in Japan. The last day I travelled the 8 hours back to tokyo and headed to Switzerland the next day.

The Capsule Hotel

The capsule hotel is quite an interesting experience.  We stayed in one at Hiroshima, and when we passed back through Osaka. Its not the most comfortable night sleep, but when you're just looking for a place to crash, it is a cheap option. The ones we stayed in ranged from about $25-30/ Night. They are designed for business people who may want to stay in the city after work, and can b much cheaper than a cab ride home if you've had a few to many drinks. 

Miyajima Island

We took the ferry over to Miyajima Island, for one of the best views in Japan. The beautiful Otorri gate, standing in the sea and leading to the Itsukushima shrine, is the symbol of Miyajima Island. The Otorii, was built in 1875 with the wood of camphor trees. It is 16 meters tall, the roof is 24 meters long, and the main pillars, made from single trees, are 10 meters in circumference. The Otorii stands on its own support, having no part buried in the ground. 

Hiroshima

Hiroshima was an unforgetable experience. It was so powerful and disturbing to see that an entire city can be completely devastated by one bomb. We went to the A-Bomb dome, that was the only building left after the explosion, and there was not much left of it. For something so sad, it is really beautiful at night. We also went to the Hiroshima Museum which is a must if you're ever there. It really makes you wonder how we can continue to create bombs much more powerful than this one. People really are stupid. 

Okayama

Here we visited the Korakuen Garden, one of the top 3 Gardens in Japan, which was really pretty. We then went to Kurashiki, which is a town with traditional buildings. Its really beautiful, but is unfortunately spoiled by the horrid powerlines, which are an absolute mess. The tacky shops tops it off, especially the store that is full of cats that are tackier than hello kitty. You can only stay in the shop for a minute because the music of cats slowly dying will drive you crazy.

Himeji

Himeji Castle, is Huge! It was really quite spectacular. I think this was the first time the extreme Japanese heat and Humidity, but it was definitely worth it.

Osaka

                                  The first night that I arrived in Japan, i stayed in Tokyo and made my way to Osaka, the next day where I was supposed to meet Tim. We spent an hour looking for each other, before realising that I had gone to the wrong station. Luckily it wasn't to far away.

Osaka was were i discovered that town planning does not exist. The buildings all look like prisons! By day its such an ugly city, but by night it is quite beautiful. 

Japan 4.8.08 to 14.8.08

I had never really thought about going to Japan before, but my ticket allowed me to stop off anywhere in Asia, so I thought I may as well go see Tim. I had a great time in Japan and we packed in plenty of traveling in the 10 days I was there. A big thank you to Tim's friends, Greg Kana and Marie who we stayed with along the way! Tim was on holidays while I was there so it worked out really well. Also, because I don't speak the language, I would have really struggled outside of the main cities. 

One of the things I loved about Japan was the food. most of it was amazing. Some of it was not so amazing, but it was good to try it. But what i really loved was the people. Everyone was so friendly and would go out of their way to help you. They were so lovely

I really enjoyed Japan and would Love to go back and spend some time in Tokyo.

Melbourne 28.7.08 to 4.8.2008

Before settling in London I decided to do a little traveling. I visited Melbourne for a weekend about 18 months ago and it was not enough time. So I went for a week before leaving the country. I said goodbye to the family at Sydney Airport and Erin Picked me up from Melbourne, and i Stayed with her and Nick for the Week. They were great Hosts. The day after I arrived, we drove around Yarra Valley Wineries and tasted lots of wine. I have know Idea what wines we tried, but we had a great day. 

I spent the following few days exploring the city. The first time I went to the city, it seemed to take quite a while and I eventually realised that this was because I was on a bus going in the opposite direction. But I got there eventually and just thought that Im going to get so lost in London. I checked out the Eureka Tower and the Art Gallery, which i really enjoyed. 

On Thursday I Went to the Old Melbourne Gaol and discovered that being locked in a cell is not the most pleasant experience. I then made my way to St. Kilda, as I was staying there with Pascale. I love St. Kilda and if I was to live in Melbourne, I think it would have to be around there. Although when I come back to Australia, I think Im going to need some decent weather. 

I really Love just walking around Melbourne. It's like Pulp Fiction, everytime you see it you notice something different. 

On Friday I went to the Melbourne Museum and was the only one who turned up for the tour, which allowed me to do what I do best; Ask heaps of questions. And the guide was a retired social worker, so we had plenty to talk about. I then Made My way to an AFL game (Collingwood Vs Hawthorn). Knowing nothing at all about AFL, Erin explained everything that was happening and I actually had a really good night, despite the bitter cold, which was just england practice.  The getting pissed after the game was also a lot of fun!

Nick and Erin Introduced me to their Pommy friends who were a lot of fun and also provided me with more much needed practice of being surrounded by crazy english people. 

On my Last day in Melbourne we did the Great Ocean Road. It really is spectacular! And I would love to do the whole thing one day. 

I had a great time in Melbourne, and it was a little sad to leave, as this also meant leaving Australia. But mostly i was really Excited!