The End

Well, that's the end of my blog!

Thank you if you were interested enough to have a browse every now and then.

I feel very blessed that I was able to see so much of different cultures and God's creation.

Sarah, you were an awesome travel mate and great friend!

Bye

Hoi

Mach's gut

Ahoj

Do videnja
Ciao
Salaam

Enchanting Edinburgh

Edinburgh- again, a highlight. It's got a great vibe and impressive buildings. Sarah and I spent our days going to various Fringe gigs, watching street performers and eating haggis. We also went to see the Military Tattoo- a lot more fun than you might imagine! Enjoy the pics :)

A wee bit of scotch whisky to keep me warm during the Military Tattoo.

The various band of the Tattoo coming together- the Kiwis were the best- their routine incorporated the Haka, Tchaikovsky and music from 'Get Smart'- very clever!

Sarah and I before the show began.

Sarah and I both LOVED haggis. You just need to get past how it is made!

Drinking cider between gigs at the Fringe.

View of the castle from our hostel at night.

Crowds and clouds.

Crazy knife man who did a show every day along the Royal Mile.

Sarah was a whiz at making bubbles!

The Royal Mile- I loved the Reformation age buildings.

Paris: City of Love

Sarah and I LOVED Paris. Beautiful open spaces, exquisite buildings, a lovely river. Here are a few things we did there:

Spent 4 hours browsing the Louvre- very impressive, even after seeing plenty of other museums.

Had dinner beside the Eiffel tower and climbed it to see the views.

Toured Versaille’s beautiful gardens- the former palace of Marie Antoinette and King Louie XVI (not that she really lived there with him).

Here is a video of a musical fountain at Versailles.

Discovered the secret to slim French women- skinny stick men at the lights!

Took a night bike tour which involved a ferry ride down the river and free wine! Great night.

Got ripped off at a cafe- 7 euro for a glass of Coke! (Around $12)

Toured Montametre- definitely a highlight of Paris, this hilly area is full of – bars and cafes. We saw the Moulin Rouge and the set of Amelie here too.

In case you're wondering...

I'm now home! I had trouble finding time to update this blog as I didn't take a laptop with me to Europe and didn't always have net access. I do plan on updating my blog from my last week in Paris and Edinburgh so stay tuned!

In case your interested, photos can be viewed from my facebook page!

Mel x

The madness of Marrakech

A traditional Berber house we visited

View from a cafe balcony of the souks (markets) at night

Me with some snakes

Sarah was asked if she wanted to try some 'magic' clothes

Morocco has been the craziest place I have visited.
From the sky all you see is a grid of orange/pink flat roofs all fitted with satellite dishes.
Getting off the plane, the heat envelopes you.
On the ground, you are surrounded by hawkers, snake charmers, monkey tamers, donkeys and incredible food!
We stayed in a fancy-pants B&B which was heavenly after hostels with bedbugs, insufficient facilities and noisy roommates.

What we did:
- Bartered HARD in the souks- tourist prices aren't cheap! You are constantly hounded to check out stores. If lost, someone may lead you to a friend's shop instead of where you need to go...
- Went on a 4wd tour around Marrakech- we saw women extracting Argan oil for cosmetics and the like, visited a traditional Berber house and had tea, had lunch in a Berber wedding tent and rode camels in the desert! (You'll have to wait to see these pics on Sarah's blog as we used her camera)
- Chatted with some Moroccan guys- interesting to hear about their culture!
- Ate some amazing food- harrira, targine. Got food poisoning on the 2nd last night and spent day 3 cooped up in our room! Not nice food stall 117...
- Drank the best Moroccan mint tea EVER- turns out they put a BLOCK of sugarbeet in their tea and mint leaves to make it taste that good!

Spain- tapas, flamenco dancing and siestas!

We bumped into Christina in Madrid! :)

A main square in Madrid. The place is alive at night.

Hanging out on the beach in Barcelona

Barcelona's magic fountain

Gaudi's gingerbread house in Barcelona

Spain was incredible. It was a bit of an effort getting there from Rome, but we had a nice day stop in Nice to break up the travel time. We spent almost a week in Spain, visiting Barcelona and Madrid.

Barcelona:
Las Rambles- this is an amazing street in the centre- full of street performers, men selling annoying whistles and pet stores.
Tapas, paella and sangria- Sarah and I did a cooking course on our first night- great food and a sharing travelling stories over sangria.
Gaudi- very intresting architecture. His work isn't hard to spot!
Free tapas?? We did a tour and was told of a champagne bar where we could get free tapas. I was loving the cheese some guy had passed over for me to try and I got Sarah to grab some. Thing is, it wasn't free at all...
Magic fountain- a crazy water, music and light show.

Madrid:
THE place for tapas- we spent our first night strolling the streets, popping into various bars for drinks and free tapas. We fell in love with one place run by brothers. When we visited again, we were welcomed with open arms and kisses from the tiny Spanish barman.
We heard a street preacher and got details on an English-speaking church- it was nice to go to someplace for a change over podcasts...
We bumped into Christina on the street in Madrid- a girl we met in Badgestein! It was a great suprise and we caught up over tapas :).
Sarah and I got a taste of flamenco dancing with a show called 'Carmen'- a good night!

Italy- Naples, Cinque Terra and Rome

Drinks with some Aussie girls- Trastevere, Rome

Does this need a caption?

Yep, the cheesy Pisa shot :)

The amazing Cinque Terra- this was our village

Pompeii ruins

I haven't blogged in ages since it has been rather difficult to a) find time b) get good internet access. I'm now sitting in my awesome hostel (Castle Rock) in Edinburgh, but I thought I'd share some of my experiences over the last few weeks...

Italy. Home of pizza, amazing gelato and full of ruins basically.

Here's what we did:

- Stayed in Naples. Interesting place. Blondes are a minority and so you attract unwanted attention. One boy even spat on Sarah and I from a train- guess it was obvious we were tourists.

- Visited Pompeii- AMAZING. It is easy to imagine the Romans strolling through their city.

- Went to the Amalfi coast- sheer cliffs and busy beaches.

In Rome we:

- Checked out all of the amazing ruins, the Trevi fountain, Spanish steps (overrated), Michelangelo's various statues, the Pantheon...

- Toured to Vatican.

- Visited eerie catacombs where the Christians once worshipped.

- Ate ridiculous amounts of pizza (cheap and easily accesible) and amazing gelato.

- One of my favourite places was Trastevere- full of nice pubs and restuarants.

- Sampled wines in Rome's biggest wine bar.

In Pisa we:

- Did the tourist thing- lots of silly shots on the lawns.

In Cinque Terra we:

- Did the amazing walk between the five villages there along the coast.

- Hang out in our little apartment with our 'housemates' and actually cooked! (First time in the trip)

- Simply soaked in the sun...

Croatia- Split and Debrovnik

Debrovnik by night

View from the city walls

Sitting on the city walls

Sarah and I spent a LOT of time by our schedule in Croatia. We were in Split one night and Debrovnik 4 nights.

Croatia is really pretty and clean. It also had AMAZING weather. We went island hopping around Debrovnik and soaked up the sun. It wasn't as cheap as we hoped, but it meant we had icecream for some meals... Mmm.

Our accommodation was hilarious. It ended up being a room in an old Croatian lady's house- not how it appeared on hostelbookers. She couldn't speak English, but would continually shake your shoulder and say 'good'. She would suddenly appear everywhere- one morning Sarah was eating breakfast and raised her head to see her poking hers in to see what she was eating. Sarah also got into trouble for using the gas stove for breakfast because it was using electricity!

Anyway, I was going to post pictures but my camera just died... I'll add them soon :)

Austrian Alps- Badgestein

Sarah living on the edge!

Our mountain to climb...

Dinner with a view...

Love how they supply a frame

The Austrian alps have been a big highlight. We climbed a mountain, had dinners from our balcony with a view and relaxed in warm outdoor pools with mountain views. AMAZING. You have to stand in awe at the majesty of our Creator!

Coming soon- hiking in the Austrian alps and relaxing on Croatiaś beaches!

Vienna- amazing coffee, architecture and an obsession with Mozart

We were only in Vienna a day- so to celebrate Sarah´s

birthday we drank lots of coffee and looked at the sites...

A statue of Mozart- on every main street corner hawkers tried to sell us tickets to Mozart shows. He spent the last 10 years of his life in Vienna.

Viennaś beautiful parliament house- I found it hard to fit it on my camera

Street artists in Vienna- plenty of those around this time of year

Sarah enjoying a birthday coffee

In Vienna we:

- Visited 3 different coffee houses and ate a piece of worldćfamous chocolate cake from Cafe´Sacher.

- Admired the beautiful buildings, all within walking distance.

- Listened to some organ music in an old church, sounded very familiar.

- Visited a wine tavern suggested by a local and had some traditional food, yum!

Summary of Vienna:

- Again, some great architecure but hazy skies which made good photos hard to take.

- Obsessed with Mozart, as Prague was. They even have an opera toilet.

- Seems driven by tourism- plenty of street performers.

- Coffee shops are full of smoke- it seems Europeans smoke a bit more than Aussies.

- Plenty of scaffolding on the main tourist sites- as we have found everywhere in Europe.

- A great city to simply walk around in!

Prague- the pearl of Europe

Prague is known as the pearl of Europe, and it isn´t hard to tell why. Consequently, it is swarming with tourists peak season!

The over-rated astronomical clock.

View from our river cruise

The Alexander bridge

Prague´s fairytale castle

In Prague we:

- Admired the pastel buildings and diverse range of architectural styles- Gothic, Cubist, Modern, and ugly Communist buildings.

- Saw the famous astronomical clock- bit overrated truthfully.

- Saw a puppet opera show- Prague seems obsessed with both so we thought we would experience both at the same time.

- Took a relaxing boat tour along the Vlatva river.

- Got separated on the tram system- stressful!

- Drank beer at the famous U Zlateho Tygra and sampled Czech food.

Overall impressions:

- The prettiest city I have seen so far- it doesn´t seem as dark as other cities.

- FULL OF TOURISTS! It is a little ironic that WE got a bit tired of them.

- Cheap beer- as in Germany.

- It really is a must-see for the architecture and castle!

Germany- beer, bratwurst and riveting history

A pool in a river where we hung out to escape the heat

Watching the football finals on the streets of Berlin

An example of beautiful, old architecture and a communist TV tower


Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp- the gate reads: 'Work Liberates'



The cute German town of Bremen

In Germany we:

- Explored the German town of Bremen, "the equivalent of good things coming in small packages.˝ There are some great buildings, beer gardens and markets.
- Visited the Sachsenhausen concentration camp out of Berlin- a 'model' camp for the Nazis- this really brought home the impact of the Holocaust.
- Saw the Branderburger gate, the hotel where Michael Jackson hung his baby out the window, the Holocaust memorial, the old Nazi headquarters, the Rietschstag (parliament), the Berlin wall, Checkpoint Charlie, the magnificient Berlin Dom church (a fancy protestant one), Neptune's fountain and Museum island.
- Watched the World cup with our Aussie friend on the streets of Berlin (I wish Germany was playing!)
- Had a wander around Tacheles- an awesome artist hangout or pub.
- Swam in a pool in a river- called Badeshiff- to escape the heat.

Summary of Berlin:
- Riverting history that has had a huge impact on the landscape and vibe of Berlin.
- Beer, bratwurst and currywurst are everywhere!
- A very cool contemporary scene- loved the East side.
- Beautiful buildings- except the huge Nazi and Communist monstrosities.
- LOTS of bear statues- apparently due to some artist comp!