I'm baaack

Did anyone miss me?.......Come on even just a teensy bit [img]graemlins/wonder.gif[/img]

I left Vienna airport at 2.55pm European time and started my stopwatch. I sat at Heathrow airport for about 6 hrs. I then flew to Bangkok where I sat at the airport for about 7 1/2 hours. Then I flew to Brisbane where I sat for about an hour. Then finally to Auckland where I stopped the clock at 40 hours and 10 minutes Legend! [img]graemlins/plane.gif[/img]

I'm still trying to get used to being back in my own country, its quite funny to think that I have to re-adjust so much.

I had a most awesome time which I will document here as soon as I've managed to tidy all the stuff I brought back with me.

I am also totally broke both my credit cards are pretty much used up and I owe my mum about $2000 but I have no regrets and at least I can be poor yet dressed stylishly. [img]cool.gif[/img]

Speaking of which, how cool is my mum, when I got back she had washed and polished my car and I've just learned that there is kinda a surprise (well not anymore) welcome home party for me tomorrow night. She has managed to get hold of most of my mates and they are all coming over for dinner at our house.

My mother really does surprise me sometimes
[img]biggrin.gif[/img]

Welcome back Chaos! Sounds like you had lots of fun and I'm all kinds of jealous. Are there pictures to share?

Looking forward to hearing your stories Chaos.

Oh yeah...stories!

welcome back chaos... and we gotta have the stories...

*gets comfy in anticipation of good storytime*

Eeep! The pressures on. Yes there will be heaps of pics I only took oh... a moderate *ahem* 26 rolls of film's worth. I'm getting them back tomorrow, unfortunately it may take me a while to get a few of them on here as I will have to get my sister to scan them for me and I think the free site I stored my other pic on only has room for 25 pics at a time so if anyone has any other free sites for hosting the pics on tell me, I'll probably load them up in sections any way then change them after a couple of weeks. This also relies on me finding the site I put my other pic on and remembering my password. I will make the 3peanuts Sarabiga and I photo a priority tho' [img]wink.gif[/img]

I am going to attempt to at least try to get on the net quite a bit over the next week or so and relay my exploits although at the moment I'm looking at the first few pages of my travel notebook and seeing 5 word sentences and hoping that is enought to jog my memory, I'm sure I was a bit more eloquent in the later pages surely *frantically flicks thru notebook looking for longer sentences with bigger words*

OK here goes you'll have to forgive me and correct me if my history and art and geography facts get mixed up it was alot to take in and I never did much of those subjects at school.

First of all I am travelling with my friend Tarin whom I used to work with, she's the one who inspired the frantic saving, she was actually planning her big OE - overseas experience (Kiwis and Ozzies automatically can apply for and get a 2 year working visa for the UK as long as they're under 30)but she wanted to do a Contiki of Europe first so she would have some idea where she wanted to go back to on her working holiday.

We agreed to meet at the airport about 2 1/2 hours before our plane was due so we could check-in together, of course neither of us rang the airport in the morning to check the flight time (that would be just too responsible) so when we got there we discovered the plane was running 3 hours late so we had to hang around for a while. My mum had had a really bad cold all week and I knew as I sat at the airport that I had just caught it *sarcastic Yippee!*

We checked in and unfortunately struck the most unhelpful woman in the airport, we accidentally almost got our bags checked all the way thru to London ( not good as we were spending 3 days in Bangkok) but managed to realise just in time. She asked us if we were together and we said yes (well that's why we checked in together so we could get seats together) So we get on the plane and she has managed to put us at completely opposite sides of the plane [img]graemlins/wonder.gif[/img] What part of We Are Together didn't she understand. At least at this point the plane wasn't too full and we ended up just changing seats and sitting together. We left NZ at 4:30pm and arrived in Bangkok at 2am which is 7am NZ time. Flight was uneventful, food was good, we flew Thai Airways and I definitely had a cold by this point so I fell asleep halfway thru Xmen2. We'd already arranged transfers from the airport so we met our driver and went outside the airport building and were greeted by a blast of very warm, very humid air it was a bit of a shock to the system how hot it was in the middle of the night. Our drive to the hotel was a bit of a hair raising experience, I was sure some one was going to hit us at least twice, but we made it in one piece.

Day 2

I have a cold, luckily I came prepared because I know I'm prone to sinusitis, my Dr. gave me some tablets that are basically pure pseudo-ephedrine so they wake you up and help clear your sinuses (and if you know how you can grind them up and make Speed that's why they make you sign your life away when you buy sinus relief tablets containing pseudoephedrine from the chemist in NZ)Luckily with the heat and humidity it also helped me avoid sinusitis.

There was actually a mall attached to the hotel se we checked that out first looking for some breakfast (hehe straight to shopping without even stepping outside) unfortunately this area wasn't air conditioned so it was very hot. I had BBQ pork noodle soup for brekkie and it only worked out to be NZ$2. [img]graemlins/bowl.gif[/img] The Thai currency is Baht which is really weak $1 NZ = 23B so you end up carrying round these 100B and 500B notes like monopoly money. There was some cool stuff in the mall, 1 shop had these amazing lifesize metal sculptures of wire/ bike chains/ scrapmetal they were of Alien, Terminator, Predator and Bobba Fett they were so detailed they looked like the real thing unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take any photos of them.

In the afternoon we went on our half day city and temples tour. By this time it was sunny and sweltering hot like a sauna, and of course because we were going to temples you had to have appropriate dress that covered your knees and shoulders *wilts just remembering the heat*

Our first stop was the Golden Buddha, its about 5-6ft high and is made out of solid gold. I found a pic on the net.

http://home.wanadoo.nl/deva.deep/ima...ddha%204cr.JPG

I was surprised to find you were allowed to take photos as I thought that you weren't allowed to (Aah! The seductive powers of the tourist dollar) [img]graemlins/money.gif[/img] Some of the attempts for the tourist dollar were a bit cheesy on the way into the temple complex random locals snapped digital pic of you then by the time you came out they were trying to sell you a badge with your photo on it (I wonder if anyone ever actually buys one)

Some more scary driving in a bus followed we drove past the flower and fruit markets and at one point there was an attempt to fit roadside stalls, our bus, an oncoming car and pedestrians with death wishes onto a 1 lane street.

Our next stop was the Reclining Buddha, I thoght that this was really impressive it was huge I wish I'd had someone take a picture of me standing near it. Buddha's giant feet are inlaid with mother of pearl designs and pictures showing the 100 ways to happiness. I liked this Buddha.

http://www.photo.net/philg/digiphoto...uddha.half.jpg

This was at the big Wat pho temple.

We then went to the Marble temple (the marble was imported from Italy by one of the King's of Thailand) And saw more Buddha's

We drove down a whole street selling statues and images of ..you guessed it... Buddha.

By now we were a bit all Buddha'd out so we were glad when the next stop involved cold drinks, air-conditioning (Praise Buddha!)and shopping. We went to one of the best gem galleries in Bangkok, it was amazing we saw them making the jewellery (Thailand is well known for its rubies and sapphires) and were then taken to the show room it was huge (at least 3 time the size of my housese even maybe more.) Every thing was beautiful and sparkly, the minute you tried something on that shop assistant became you're personal shop assistant and followed you round the whole room so that whenever you wanted to try stuff on you could. There were huge tropical fish tanks positioned between show cases with a fantastic array of fish including Lion Fish. The piece de resistance being the central tank which housed only baby (as in 1/2 meter long) Sharks.

And yes we were both tempted even Tarin who isn't into jewellery, for me it was like being a kid in a candy store. I now have a very nice 18K gold and sapphire ring which is lovely and compared to buying it anywhere else very cheap.

When we got back to the hotel we went straight to the pool it was so nice after walking around in the heat.

We had an included dinner at the hotel that night it was very yummy and we were also entertained by some traditional Thai dancing. We even had a bit of a go ourselves at the end, its a bit more difficult than it looks, my wrists felt like they might fall off.


<font color="#a62a2a"><font size="1">[ September 23, 2003 04:15 AM: Message edited by: Chaos Butterfly ]</font></font>

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ September 23, 2003 06:14 AM: Message edited by: Chaos Butterfly ]</font>

Before I get on with Day 3, there is this one guy who is a workmate/friend of mine, he was the only one giving me shit before I went about how I was going to be kidnapped and all. He didn't come to the dinner party my mum threw me he rang up to say he couldn't make it (talked to my mum) coz he was feeling unwell. I started back at work this week and he hasn't uttered one word to me not even Hi! I thought he would be the first person to come over and and basically give me shit.

Boys are Strange! [img]confused.gif[/img]

Day 3

We were woken up in the morning by alot of whistling, turns out it was traffic wardens attempting to lend some sort of order to the mess that was Bangkok traffic, they have to wear face masks all the time the pollution must be that bad.

Today was basically shopping day and basically there was tons of it you'd walk into a building one way, get completely lost and come out in totally different arae. There were lots of clothes in these market type stalls either inside or outside, the problem was hardly any places had somewhere for you to try stuff on, I once liked these jeans so much I tried them on sort of sandwiched in this makeshift fitting room between 2 racks of clothes and a guy holding a sheet up. (They didn't fit in the end and he didn't have a bigger size [img]frown.gif[/img] )

It was quite funny when we walked pass racks and racks of pants and jeans and then we'd suddenly appear in this shop full of sequined underwear, and kinky stuff made out of PVC and chains *sniggers*

There was alot of tropical fruit at the roadside markets so it was great to eat some of that.

Of course it was still sweltering hot, but true shoppers are tough.

Buddha's are always so attractive! *stops being a buddhist, then she realizes she can't stop being a buddhist because she's kinda buddhist and shuts up* [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

Actually I think this is officially day 3.


Today we did a whole day tour of the River Kwai and floating markets. Our tour guide for this tour was really excellent she knew a lot and was also very funny. Our first stop was to be dropped off for a ride in one of those long tail speedboats as seen in James Bond – The Man with the Golden Gun, this took us along the canals and past the houses of many of the locals. Many of the houses looked like shacks tho’ some did look a bit flash in certain areas of the canals. Some were the local grocery store (of course with the Coke advertising out the front). Everyone gets around by boat, as it is the fastest way to get anywhere. Even tho’ it feels like you’re in this absolute backwater full of shacks, people washing their dishes outside with the one freshwater tap, and bathing in the canal there are still power lines running along the canal, and you’d often passed the most rundown house and spy the huge screen TV inside or hear the stereo blaring. It was an interesting clash of old and new. Every single house also had a little, often ornate ‘Spirit house’ on the property where the people leave offering to the spirits to protect their home.

The speedboats dropped us off at Damernsaduak (means ‘easy way’, years ago the Prince wanted people to be able to get from one riverside to another quickly so he ordered canals to be dug). This is the site of the famous floating markets, so we had time to wander around for a bit. About ? of it is now very touristy but the other ? is still where the locals go to buy their fruit and vegetables etc. There was also a good range of the famous Thai silk items here and yes I did have to buy a sarong.

We then got back on the coach and went to a local craft centre. On they way we passed by salt fields and there seemed to be a snack/fruit stall every few hundred meters. The best part was driving past a large traffic island with grass and trees at a highway turnoff and seeing a most unexpected site. Two mahuts had bought their charges to the traffic island to eat the long grass. So in the middle of this traffic island were 2 elephants quite happily grazing as we drove past.

At the craft centre they make paper out of one of the local plants, but more importantly they do Teak woodcarving and it was really amazing. The carvings are very intricate and detailed; some of the carved furniture was gorgeous. They will have a few people working on a Masterpiece, this can take anywhere from 9 months to a year to carve and they never even sell it, but they are on display and you can take photos, I will definitely try to get one scanned when I can because it is so impressive.

We then went to the Death Railway War museum and found out how and why it was constructed and about the suffering of the POWs who worked and died building it. It was constructed in WW2 by order of the Japanese who needed a safe land supply route to Burma so they built a railway through Thailand to Burma. They used the POWs to build it and 100’s if not thousands of them died as the conditions were so poor. They were most often buried along the railway route and most of the remains have actually been found and relocated to an immaculately kept war cemetery opposite the museum. The museum can even trace relatives who worked on the railway if people want them to.

We moved on to the River Kwai and had a buffet lunch looking out over the river. This area is also where a lot of the sapphires and rubies come from. It was very, very hot by this time of the day. We walked to the ‘Bridge over the River Kwai’ and then walked all the way over it to the other side because no trains were coming. The current steel bridge was built in 1943; the original wooden one was demolished at the request of the locals. Parts of the steel bridge have also had to be restored as the middle bit was blown up. We then wandered around on the lookout for old ladies with red lips and black teeth. This is caused by chewing beetle nuts over a long period of time. An addictive habit a bit like chewing tobacco.

On the way back into the city we stopped at the biggest Royal pagoda, which was basically huge, and there is a tiny little ladder going up it because sometimes the monks have to climb up to the top.

So today I learnt lots about war Buddhism, the King of Thailand and the royal family, markets, the people, the language and the beliefs it was very cool.

Buddha fact of the day, nobody ever actually saw Buddha, so that’s why Buddhas from different countries will look different. The question that bothered me the most is why Buddha was sometimes frowny and sometimes smiley. Today I learnt it is dependant on the sculptor and the state of the country at the time the Buddha was made. So war, drought etc.= [img]frown.gif[/img] Buddhas, prosperity and peace = [img]biggrin.gif[/img] Buddhas.

Our last important task in Thailand was to drink Mai Thais [img]graemlins/martini.gif[/img] at the bar before we left for the airport to fly out at 1am.

So Thailand was a really cool place to visit, I'd love to go back to a different area next time, the beaches probably. I probably wouldn't have felt safe on my own but me and Tarin stuck together the whole time and it was fine.

And I have hopefully finally fixed this post so it doesn't keep repeating itself Weird!

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ September 30, 2003 08:48 PM: Message edited by: Chaos Butterfly ]</font>

Day 4

The flight was about 12 hours and we got to Heathrow Airport about 7am London time. [img]graemlins/sleepy.gif[/img] We had to take the underground to my friend?s apartment where we were staying. It turned out to be quite easy although we were a bit surprised when it turned out that the underground isn?t all underground. This meant we were able to actually see some of the outskirts of London. I was just commenting on how cool it was that in the area we were passing through the houses looked just like those in Bend it Like Beckham a few minutes later we stopped at the Hounslow stop. Doh! [img]confused.gif[/img] (for those who haven?t seen the movie it is set fairly close to Heathrow and the name of the fictional girl?s football team is the Hounslow Harriers, so we were in exactly the same place). We managed to find my friend Jo?s place OK; it had a great view over the Thames. There was still a heat wave it was easily about 29 ?C. [img]graemlins/sun.gif[/img] Once we had settled in we went for a walk, there seemed to be a pub about every 500 meters if that. There also seemed to be a few little neat parks with perfect grass (I wonder what would have happened if I walked on it.) When we got back I found my first major foreign challenge of the day was how do I get the ice out of the rubber ice tray, in the end I had to TXT Jo at work and ask her. Jo and Greg shouted us dinner at a Spanish tapas restaurant.

Day 5

Checked out a wee bit of London today. I was thrilled to find Eddie Izzard DVD?s as well as my favourite old English comedies on DVD; I bought ?Allo ?Allo and Hi-Di-Hi. We checked out the West End, there were so many theatres; we managed to get half price tickets to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. We went to Convent Garden to check out the market and the buskers. We watched a guy called ?Singular Chainsaw? he was quite entertaining, he was a juggler/comedian who also rode a unicycle and somewhere along the line his act involved taking of almost all his clothes and juggling a chainsaw. We went to the Palladium theatre for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, it was fantastic, they had all the gadgets from the movie and a few more. They had real dogs running amok in the sweet factory. The car was awesome it was just like the real thing; they had it floating away from the warship complete with explosions (rather unnerving if your in the front row like we were). And the wings Ohmigod! it was so cool all the hydraulic tricks were so seamless it really seemed like the car sprouted wings and flew. Contiki starts tomorrow Yay!

[img]biggrin.gif[/img]

Very cool, very cool. Keep the stories coming.

Day 6

Jumped on the Contiki Coach and met Paul our driver (an Aussie) and Steph our tour manager (Canadian). As we drove towards Dover for the ferry we passed Blackheath, this empty grass area which will never be built on as it is where most of the ?Plague? victims are buried. It is quite a popular park area tho? for flying kites etc. which is interesting in a dark sort of way. We went on the ferry and it was as we stood outside to catch our view of the ?White cliffs of Dover? that I realised I had left my one and only jumper at Jo?s. I hope its warm in Europe, as it was a bit chilly on the ferry. I had my first cooked English breakfast on the ferry; it took a while to get my head round the cafeteria style ?grab your food then go pay? thing. Anyway breakfast was an adventure in itself, I don?t think I even had eggs as both options looked a bit unappealing (probably a good call). I had baked beans, tomato, sausage, bacon and fried bread. Baked beans OK, sausage..er..interesting but edible, bacon impossibly salty, fried bread a memorable experience indeed. I don?t know what everyone else calls fried bread but at home its basically you use a slice or 2 of bread to mop up the left over bacon fat in the pan and fry it in the pan, so its fatty but not too much and really tasty. Fried bread UK style was lets dunk the bread in oil ?til its soaked, then we?ll deep fry it ?til crunchy and golden.? I took one adventurous bite and eeewww! 100% pure fat, Yuck! [img]graemlins/gulp.gif[/img] Yet I saw people eating 2 or more pieces of it. We were informed of our arrival in Calais by the ship announcement system requesting everyone to NOT congregate by the exits; which everyone then promptly went and congregated by. [img]graemlins/sure.gif[/img]

From Calais we drove into Belgium, not that we would have known except that Steph pointed out the tiny sign, which said Belgium. We drove for a while then Steph announced that we were now leaving Belgium. Woohoo! Yay for Belgium! We drove thru the countryside towards Amsterdam it was very pretty. Checked out the BMW/Mercedes cows. They are used for leather car seats as they are in paddocks separated by canals not fences so, no scratched hides. (The things you learn on Contiki) Our Amsterdam challenge is to figure out why all the cows face the same way. On our coach we get our Dutch language lesson, our Amsterdam map orientation and a pep talk for our impending adventures in Amsterdam otherwise known as Basic Substance Abuse 101. We were told which were the reputable ?coffee shops? in town. Told about what was available if we wanted it, and just basically cautioned about the effects, especially about hash cakes as you never know how much is in it and its effects are much slower to take affect. It was just an education so that Steph could avoid, if possible, some of her more interesting challenges as a tour manager which included trying to calm the couple who had locked themselves in their room, absolutely terrified as they were convinced Armageddon was upon them and a girl who ate one space cake then went ?Oh it had no affect? (slow effect of hash-cake) and had another one, the result, one rather traumatised young lady for the rest of the Contiki tour.

Our hotel was quite nice it was right by the marina. This evening we went into town, the soundtrack for our journey in seemed to consist mostly of songs about marijuana. We went for a canal cruise thru the canals. We saw many houseboats, it seems like a pretty cool way to live, I think the locals are pretty used to all the tourists trying to peer in their windows. We passed the Amstel hotel, where the rooms run at a minimum of 800 euro per night. We all waved because the Rolling Stones are staying there right now. Steph took us on a little walk thru the red-light district; it was a bit of an eye-opener, walking past the many windows, the women standing there in sexy lingerie trying to look appealing for the men passing by. Some of them don?t like the tourists too much as they know they aren?t ?looking to buy? a couple of them opened their doors/windows and yelled at us. If you walk past and the curtain?s closed the girl?s not in or she?s ?busy?.

A few of us decided to go to ?The Grasshopper? a famous ?coffee shop?. It has 3 floors, the lower ground floor being mainly for smokers, you?d certainly be pretty chilled out even if you just sat in there for 30 minutes or so, the whole place reeked of marijuana. The other 2 levels were a bar and dance floor. You buy the marijuana at this little window downstairs after perusing the menu (I didn?t realise there were so many kinds). A few of us put money in to buy a couple of joints (White Widows which came in a pretty, shiny package) but we decided to go back to the hotel and sit by the marina and smoke them, mainly a safety thing as most hadn?t smoked pot before so this was just in case we ended up too stoned [img]graemlins/whatever.gif[/img] to find the right bus and our way back to the hotel. We lost a few people when we got back to the hotel but me, Tarin and 2 others met up, Kathy found that the marina was actually really busy as far as people went so we went to the car park (I?m sure no one would have cared at the marina but I think it?s the residual guilt of doing something you shouldn?t be) So Zolt and Kathy are smokers and they?d smoked marijuana, Tarin doesn?t smoke and I?ve never smoked a cigarette in my life. So anyway Tarin seemed to be doing OK but because of my total non-smoker status I was a bit of a disaster, I was coughing all over the place and in the end I gave up as it just burnt too much. (Some of the regular cigarette smokers even mentioned it burned more and they coughed a bit too) So yeah, Smoking marijuana class 102 : FAILED [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I'm enjoying reading about your adventures. I especially liked the Amsterdam story(so far). Good on you for getting into the spirit of the trip. Sounds like somewhere I should avoid, or I may never leave! (Not that I'm into that anymore, but think it would be just too tempting!)
I suspect the next installment may be a censored version [img]wink.gif[/img]

I know people keep checking in on this, waiting for the next installment and believe me I'm trying to get it done; I'm just realising I did an awful lot so what seems a paragraph in my notebook turns into a page. I did manage to get Crystal Princess to scan a couple of photos for me in the weekend. And I'm sorry they're huge I tried to make them smaller and it just wasn't happening so I gave up.

OK this should theoretically be a picture of one of those Teak mastercarvings I told you about from Thailand.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-...5/carving2.JPG

And this one should be the houses by the canals complete with their little spirit houses.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-...haihouses2.JPG

Day 7

This morning we went out to Edam for a bike ride. It was very cool cruising down little lanes. We stopped by a windmill for a photo opportunity. We stopped at one of the dams and stood on the dyke to watch a ship come in. As the ship come in from the sea the gate behind it closes and water is pumped out until it reaches the same level as the canal. Then the front gate opens so the boat can continue travelling down the canal. We went to Cheese and Clogs to watch them making?cheese and clogs. We went into town to watch the cutting of diamonds at a diamond jewellery shop.

We split up after that and our little group decided to wander through the flower markets where they sell various flowers, seeds and bulbs the majority of course being tulips. There also seemed to be about 20 types of marijuana seeds. Not far from there was a shop called The Magic Mushroom which we decided to check out, it sold a huge range of drug paraphernalia and herbal concoctions. We hadn?t hit full speed as organised tourists yet so we actually missed the Van Gogh museum and the Heineken brewery but we did manage to go through Anne Frank?s house. I?m sure I had to read the book at school, it was actually really interesting, the house has been fully restored with some original walls still there and various displays including pages from the original diary.

Crossing the road was fun in Amsterdam you never knew if you were about to be run over by a car, tram or bike. Even as we were getting out of the coach we were warned to be careful, as we would step straight into a bike lane and if you were unlucky ?Ding, ding?SPLAT!? [img]eek.gif[/img]

We wandered up to the main shopping street and decided it would be better to wander off on our own. Being suddenly on my own I ended up feeling really homesick, I rang my mum but she was asleep and didn?t wake up so I and went to MacDonald?s to sit and be miserable over a Big Mac and fries with mayonnaise. [img]graemlins/cry.gif[/img]

Steph had been organising our extra activities on the coach and she discarded the dinner option and gave us the option to go to a sex show, which about half of us decided to go to because Hey! We?re in Amsterdam. Why not? So back to the red-light district we went: to a place called the Casa Rosso whose emblem happened to be a leering pink elephant (well it looked like a sleazy elephant to me). We got a couple of free drinks which was just as well as the sex bit was actually really boring and kind of funny, every couple had the same routine. The stripper in between was more entertaining, she had a few interesting tricks. The following has been censored to protect the morals of all readers. [img]tongue.gif[/img] First she???then there was??burning candle?..string of beads??guys from audience??..banana??..guy in a gorilla suit.

None of our Contiki guys would get up on stage when she asked them, chickens! They also had a male stripper who came to grab 2 of our girls, Vanessa and then he was in our row and I was trying to look invisible and he chose Tarin who was sitting right next to me. Well, the first thing Vanessa did when she found herself on stage was to run off as quickly as possible leaving Tarin to completely undress him and rub lotion on him. He had fantastic washboard ab?s and we cheered Tarin on as it all looked a bit dodgy and rather embarrassing but she did great.

We left in good spirits and went to dinner in the red-light district, we saw a few obvious visitors having a bit too much of a good time pass by. We actually passed the same group of guys when we left and one was actually laying paralytic drunk in the middle of the street. We went back to The Grasshopper for a drink and a smoke, by this time I had decided that I was obviously crap and had given up I think I?ll stick to drinking, I just amusingly watched everyone else. Me, Tarin, Nina, Daphne and Sam went and sat outside watching the world go by and having a laugh. Nina had managed to buy a ?hash lollipop? earlier in the day. She kept telling us how disgusting it tasted but we couldn?t prise it off her with a crowbar if we tried. We were actually joined by a stoner local who was just funny because he was so stoned. A couple of English guys sitting near us hassled him a bit; it was very entertaining as half the time he didn?t know what they were talking about. We went to the taxi stand to get a cab back to the hotel and somehow managed to pick the only ?Disco taxi? in Amsterdam. We had already had a great night and this iced the cake, his cab was full of junk, mirror balls, flashing lights, he had a mini DVD player showing Michael Jackson clips, he pumped his stereo up playing disco hits and sang karaoke disco to us all the way back to the hotel. It was hilarious and fantastic. Awesome night! [img]graemlins/party.gif[/img]

[img]wink.gif[/img] [img]smile.gif[/img]

Gorrilla Suit?! [img]eek.gif[/img]

Sounds like quite the adventure, keep the stories coming. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Yay! I have my computer back now so I can continue.

Day 8

Nina and I had returned to the hotel before Tarin who had gone with some of the others to a nightclub. We, of course, had the key and couldn?t be bothered returning it to the front desk; so at 2am Nina had to get up and let her in when she came back. This was because I was absolutely fast asleep and didn?t hear a thing even when Tarin tripped over the end of the bed and started swearing. This was to set the scene for quite a few nights on the tour; Nina and I get back to the room first, then quite a few hours later Nina has to get up and let Tarin in because I am absolutely dead to the world, I still can?t believe I slept that deeply. [img]graemlins/sleepy.gif[/img]

Today we journeyed into the Rhine Valley, a wine region in Germany. We passed many vineyards; a lot of them seemed to be on the very steep slopes of the valley. We took a boat cruise down the Rhine River past more vineyards and castles. Some Chinese or Japanese guys came up to say hello to Tarin. She had no idea who they were and their English wasn?t that good. We managed to finally understand them, they said they?d seen Tarin last night (we were like Huh!) then they managed to elaborate they?d seen Tarin in Amsterdam at the sex show. By now I was beside myself with laughter at Tarin?s newfound celebrity status (in a completely different country to the day before, no less). They said they?d recognised her smile and asked if they could have their picture taken with her. I think they were definitely Japanese as they were definitely keen on her blonde hair; she had to take her hat off. I can just imagine what they?re telling their friends back home. *ROTFL*

We cruised past Loreley Rock, in this stretch of the river the currents are very tricky and many ships run aground on the rock. It is believed the beautiful mermaid/sea nymph Loreley used to lure men to their deaths on the rocks. There is even a statue of her a bit past the cliff. Actually 2 weeks after my trip there was a ship run aground at Loreley on the news.
We finally ended up in the little village of St. Goar where we were staying the night. We went to a place that makes beer steins, there were so many different ones including the special Berlin Wall collector?s one which has a piece of the original wall set onto the lid. We saw the world?s biggest cuckoo clock and went to the Steiff Teddy Bear Shop the home of the original Teddy Bear. They were very expensive bears. In the evening we went wine tasting at a little local winery, I bought a bottle of ice wine as it was quite nice. We had a lovely roast beef dinner at the little hotel and of course had to sample the local Abermunstel beer. We finally got around to doing official introductions at the bar so you could finally put a name to the face you?d been chatting to for the last 2 days. There were mostly Australians on our tour and about half our tour was couples but they were cool and mixed a lot with the others rather than go off on their own. One couple had already left their passports under the mattress in Amsterdam, we shall have to smuggle them into Switzerland without passports.

Day 9

Today we travelled to Switzerland. We went to Lucerne to shop Hehe! Did the typical buying of watches, chocolates and Swiss army knives. It is an extremely beautiful area. We walked across the Chapel Bridge, a beautiful bridge over one side of the lake. It had to be rebuilt after a fire, which left only the water tower standing. The paintings depicting the history of the village painted near the ceiling of the covered bridge, were also lost, they too have been replaced. A good part of our coach journey involved looking out for the Swiss Military. Steph is really rather obsessed with the Swiss Military and told us all about them. Switzerland is completely land-locked and likes to remain neutral and they seem rather concerned about being invaded should war happen. Apparently there are facades on the slopes of Mt. Pilatus, which hide missile silos. Military service is compulsory for all men, pretty much for their whole lives. The entire Swiss army can be mobilised in 3? days. Steph had us looking out for firing ranges and landing strips disguised as the main road of little villages, complete with hangars that have grass growing on the roof, so they are less able to be spotted from the air. The roads leading into Switzerland are rigged too; either with hydraulics or something so that a section of the road will move and become a blockade or they are rigged to be collapsed ?tank traps? which make a noise as you drive over them.

We went on a cruise on the beautiful Lake Lucerne with commentary by our Swiss hosts who thought they were comedians. The truth is always the funniest tho? as we discovered the nun?s living on the hillside had a fantastic view of the nudist beach on the other bank. We drove thru windy forested roads to get to Engleberg, it reminded us a lot of New Zealand. Engleberg is nestled in a little space between mountains, it is totally surrounded by them it was so amazing. We had this great hotel, the Bellevue, and we had a great room with a balcony that looked out at the mountains. We had dinner at another hotel around the corner, great service, then we wandered back to find a bar, Nina?s mission: to find Margaritas, [img]graemlins/martini.gif[/img] which was not to be, we settled for strawberry daiquiri?s instead and it is becoming apparent I can?t afford to drink in Europe everything is very expensive.

Day 10


Today we went up Mt. Titlis, [img]wink.gif[/img] *snigger* 10,000ft or 3020m high. First we had to take a 2 stage gondola ride, then switch to a big rectangular cable car, then then switch to the rotair a round cable car with a rotating floor for 360? views. Nina has a problem with heights but she decided to come in the end and she was petrified. There is a huge glacier at the top of the mountain. It was about 0-2? at the top and of course I?d left my one and only warm jacket in London so I was wearing 3 T-shirts and a ? sleeve light jacket. We played in the snow at the top and of course I had to call my family from the top of a Swiss mountain on my cell-phone. The view was really awesome I seem to have lots of photos of Swiss mountains. One of the nearby rock formations you can see from the top is a natural Buddha statue, it was discovered by some Olympic athlete who was training/meditating on Mt. Titlis. In the afternoon I wandered around town. The Swiss really like their dogs they seem to be allowed in many shops and restaurants, even McDonald?s, it seems to be like this in many European countries.

Bought more chocolate (for everyone back home I swear)
[img]biggrin.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ November 04, 2003 04:48 AM: Message edited by: Chaos Butterfly ]</font>

Day 11


Today we went to Liechtenstein a small principality between Switzerland and Austria. It is a very rich country because everyone puts their money there for the tax benefits. The Prince lives up in a castle on the hill. We stopped for lunch and sent ourselves post cards from Liechtenstein because it?s the only thing to do in Liechtenstein. I wrote ?I went to Liechtenstein and all I got was this postcard? I should have added ?and a kebab in a bun? (what is up with that ?kebab burgers? [img]confused.gif[/img] ). We drove through the mountains into Austria where we all sang to ?The Sound of Music? [img]graemlins/music.gif[/img] , which is cheesy under normal circumstances but extra cheesy driving through the hills of Austria. Steph asked about 3 times if we really wanted to hear the story of the real ?Maria? and we said ?yes? you should have seen the glum faces as we all learnt she was actually something of a cold-hearted bitch who, later on, had one of the children she had with von Trapp lobotomised. :sad: We dropped a lot of the gang off as they were going white water rafting. Then all us non-white water rafters went and lazed around in the sun at the end point having lunch.

We went to the town of Innsbruck and saw the ?Golden roof?. We went to the Swarovski Crystal Gallery, which was gorgeous and I found a little crystal dog that looks just like my dog and I also bought the 2003 Christmas star. I found an amazing Christmas shop (Christmas decorations being one of my long time obsessions) there were about 5 rooms full of decorations, mostly hand made, and hundreds and hundreds of hand-painted egg decorations they were wonderful I was so tempted by a glass bauble with Edelweiss flowers painted around it but it all looked so delicate I was sure it would break even if I packed it carefully and I?d just bought my Xmas star so I managed to tear myself away without buying anything which was a rare occurrence indeed on my holiday.

In the evening we had ?Schnappy Happy Hour? which went on for about 6 hours. The prices were reasonable so we went about trying different Schnapps, the liqueurs and the real thing (some could double as paint stripper). I tried chocolate schnapps, which was OK but my favourite was a local brew, which I am gutted that I didn?t have time to buy a bottle of before we left the next morning. It was called Glacier Ice and it was bright blue and it pretty much blew your head off then cooled you down with a real minty fresh after taste. [img]graemlins/martini.gif[/img] I drank many shots of this I seemed to be one of few people who actually liked it. The most popular shot of the night however was a creamy vanilla liqueur called a ?Sperm shot? it came in a little liqueur bottle shaped like a sperm with a wiggly tail and a head as the lid which had big cute cartoon eyes. I took some empty bottles home with me to brighten up the area at work where we process fertilities and post vasectomy checks. (And that was a completely normal sentence for a microbiologist.)

I'm hoping to go and get a few photos scanned next weekend.

"Sperm shot"?

Oh dear God Almighty...ewww...

Not like the communist cocktail I created called "Palmiro"... [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Finally got around to some photos.

Different kinds of flowers are not the only things you can purchase at the flower markets in Amsterdam.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-...t.cannabis.JPG

Market day canal-side in Amsterdam

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-...Amst.canal.JPG

Vapour trails at sunset - Amsterdam

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-...mst.sunset.JPG

Latest suicidal extreme sport equipment - Amsterdam

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-...skateclogs.JPG

Vineyards on the steep slopes of the Rhine Valley as we cruise the Rhine River - St. Goar Germany

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-...hinevalley.JPG

Beer anyone?

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-...beersteins.JPG

Day 12

We travelled through the Brenner Pass to Italy. We went through the Italian countryside with lots of vineyards, orchards and the occasional castle. It rained for a while and it looked like our luck with the weather was going to run out. We stopped at the Autogrill for lunch. Yet more confusing attempts to buy food, this time round you had to look for what you wanted, find out what it was called, go up and pay for it and get a ticket, then take the ticket back to where you were in the first place and give them the ticket to get the food. Somehow, in a funny way that seems to make a ?hangi? (digging a hole, filling it with hot rocks, putting your covered food in it covering it with dirt then digging it up a few hours later when cooked) sound like ?fast food?. Or you could just get pizza or pasta, which seemed a bit easier, I got mystery pasta [img]eek.gif[/img] because I was too nervous to ask what was in it. (We hadn?t really had much of an Italian lesson yet apart from ?Grazie-thankyou? and ?Uscita- exit? to make sure we found or way out of the autogrill.) It turned out to be mussels so that was OK.

By the time we actually got to Venezia it was brilliantly fine Yay! We took a boat ride over to the island, past the Church of Maria Therese. We went into St. Marks square, it was beautiful. We took pictures of the beautiful St. Mark?s Cathedral. I didn?t actually go inside, as there were so many things to see and not much time. We went to a pretty amazing glass blowing demonstration, they had awesome stuff but it was really, really expensive. The we were left to wander around and get lost in Venice which is very easy to do, the streets are really narrow and you keep walking over canals, it is very cool I wish I had more time to get lost. There were heaps of shops selling carnival masks, I was really keen to buy one but I never found one I really, really liked and if I did see one I fancied it was the most expensive one in the shop. So I settled on dangly earrings with carnival mask faces on them. I bought a few pairs, I made the mistake of buying the first pair too close to St. Marks square so I paid more than I should as I discovered further away from the main tourist area where I bought my other earring for much cheaper. Oh well, I suppose you have to get ripped off at some point on holiday. Continued with the getting lost and actually found some of my Contiki friends, then we stopped for gelato as it was now quite hot and then found a cute gondolier to have our photos taken with, hehe, lots of ?OK now its your turn to hold the ice-cream and my turn to hold the gondolier? [img]wink.gif[/img] . We finally managed to find our way to the Rialto Bridge just in time to have to turn back and try to find St. Marks square again so we could meet up with the group. On the way back we did manage to find dozens of designer shops with gorgeous clothes and bags that we could never afford in the windows.

Once the Contiki group met up, we were off for one of the highlights of the evening; a gondola ride through the canals, it was really cool. Then we went out for one of the organised Italian dinners. [img]graemlins/dish.gif[/img] It was awesome, not to mention huge. First there was bread, then antipasti, then pasta, then a main course, and dessert, all served with plenty of wine and plenty of entertainment from a few guys who sang and played the accordion. After all this food we waddled back to St. Marks Square to soak up the night atmosphere and the music. You can get a seat outside at a caf? and have a coffee, it?ll cost about 12 euros but you can sit there all evening and be entertained by the excellent classical musicians playing Italian music. Unfortunately we had to get back on a boat to go to the hotel. However, Steph did announce that we get to sleep in an extra hour tomorrow. Hurray! [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

Ahahaa! So you discovered the Italian way to buy food: pay before and eat it perhaps...
Autogrill...eh eh eh

Mystery pasta: 'twas probably pasta alla marinara or something like spaghetti con le cozze.
A mystery revealed....

I never got to visit Venice...it would be great.
But 12 euros for a coffee? It's not so expensive in Rome...tourist things I guess.

Just wondering where those glass sperm things got to!
Did you have one of those drinks?
Now, more on Italy please.

Day 12

All roads lead to Rome today. We pass through the Appenine mountains into the Tuscan region. We keep passing huge fields of sunflowers; unfortunately they have passed their moment of glory and are probably going to be harvested soon. Steph has in fact been bombarding us with more trivia throughout the trip so I took advantage of the drive to note some of it down. The patent for the triangle shape of Toblerone chocolate was signed by Albert Einstein when he was working at the patent office before he became famous. The CH on the numberplates of Swiss cars stands for Confederation Helvetica (the old name). ?Mad Cow? disease originated in Switzerland because all the cows (and this is true I saw it) have huge bells around their necks so the farmers can find them, and every time they move ?Ding-Dong? no wonder they went crazy.
We arrive in Rome and after checking in at the hotel Paul drops us at the metro station, as Steph is going to take us on an unofficial walking tour of Rome.
The train pulls up and it is a lot different to the sterile London underground. Every single train I saw in Rome (and I used the metro a lot) was completely covered in graffiti. We went to the Spanish Steps, Trevi fountain, the Four Rivers fountain in the Piazza Navona, the Pantheon. We were left to hunt out our own dinner, our waiter was a comedian after everything we ordered he would say ?OK you want pizza? even if that wasn?t what we ordered. We wandered back to the Piazza Navona to meet Steph eating gelato on the way, Polizio are everywhere it feels really quite safe, [img]graemlins/hmmm.gif[/img] well at least ?til a couple tried to ?pick us up? especially Sam and Daphne, one even gave them his phone number to ring him when he was off duty. It was funny. Nina and I decided to stay in town to wander around and soak up the atmosphere but the others went back to the hotel to get ready to go clubbing. We made wishes at the Trevi fountain and ate more gelato. We met up with a few others who had stayed in town and took the train back, but we weren?t quite sure which way to go from there as we had been dropped off at the station and weren?t paying attention. I was designated ?ask for directions person? so I popped into McDonald?s and showed them the name of the street and hotel I wanted to go. They found me highly amusing [img]rolleyes.gif[/img] and weren?t much help so I returned to the group and we just went in the most likely direction and found the hotel. I think the others got back from clubbing at 5am with rumours of Daphne meeting up with her policeman and Sam being followed from the club by a guy yelling ?Sam, come back I want to make love to you? [img]graemlins/broken_heart.gif[/img]

I am so jealous. [img]frown.gif[/img]

A-hem...guess your Polizio were "Poliziotti", we cut words a lot...

So, how was our gelato? Tried Nocciola and Mint? My fave...slurp.

Clubbing in Rome can get very risky: kind of Sandman risky thing where you wake up into the city's dreams .

Eh...

[img]wink.gif[/img]

Quote:

---

Originally posted by 3peanuts:
A-hem...guess your Polizio were "Poliziotti", we cut words a lot...

---

<font size="2" face="Comic sans ms, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well thats what it said on the car [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Here are some Swiss Mountain photos.

Me in front of the glacier on top of Mt.Titlis
Look snow! It doesn't snow in Auckland and this was only the 2nd time I've seen it.

http://photo.starblvd.net/Chaos/1-1-3.jpg

The view from our hotel balcony
http://photo.starblvd.net/Chaos/1-1-4.jpg

A view from the top of Mt.Titlis
http://photo.starblvd.net/Chaos/1-1-5.jpg

And some Venice ones too.

http://photo.starblvd.net/Chaos/1-2-1.jpg

http://photo.starblvd.net/Chaos/1-2-2.jpg

http://photo.starblvd.net/Chaos/1-2-3.jpg

Day 13

This morning it is looking like a scorcher of a day, first we are going on an official walking tour of ancient Rome, the 5am people are going to struggle. The guide was really serious every time you stood more than a meter or two away, usually to take photos, she?d go on about how we didn?t seem interested. It was like being in school. We walked around the outside of the Colosseum and through the excavated ancient city, it?s amazing to think there is even more underneath it all.

We all took a bus to the Vatican city, it was quite amusing 60 or so people trying to jump on two already full buses, like a tin of sardines which was very hard to get out of when you heard Steph call ?Andiamo!? as we reached our destination. We congregated under one of the huge pillars of the Piazza San Pietro and slipped on more appropriate church dress over our shorts etc. We walked into the Vatican museum, there are large rooms of pilfered Egyptian relics. There are more obelisks with hieroglyphs in the squares of Rome than there are in Egypt. There are rooms full of sculptures especially of Roman emperors and there was a room of cool animal sculptures too. We walked through dozens and dozens of rooms covered in paintings, not in frames but all over the walls and ceiling. The scale was enormous. We finally got to the Sistine Chapel, it was pretty amazing, what I actually thought were lines of statues near the roof were actually painting of statues. Steph had given us a few clues what to look for. We found Eve tucked under God?s arm as he reaches out to Adam. We checked out the ?Final Judgement? the painting on the far wall. We found the face of Michelangelo cleverly hidden the stripped skin of a man being held by another guy. We found the ?naked woman? hidden in the knee and shin of the main guy. All the people in the painting were in fact naked when first painted but one of the accountant?s complained so much to the Pope that Michelangelo had to cover them up some how with fig leaves and wotnot. However he did it so that when the painting was restored years later the company doing it could remove the cover-ups. At the bottom right-hand corner in Hell he painted the accountant as a horned figure being constricted by a large snake, which also happens to be biting his balls off.

We went to St. Peter?s Cathedral, it was really huge, saw the Pieta, rubbed St. Peter?s foot, scratched head over the people taking photos of a dead Pope lying in a glass case. Oh and I had to take a photo of this huge statue that fascinated me because it was a strange thing to have in a church and if anyone can explain it I?m dying to know. There was a huge statue of a man sitting on a chair/throne with long flowing robes (this was all above head height) and when you looked up when standing all you saw was a skeleton angel holding an hourglass being smothered and crushed by the robes. It was sweltering hot and it was good once we left St. Peter?s to be able to take the extra T-shirt and unzip the bottoms of my zip-off pants and turn them back into shorts.

I spent the afternoon wandering off on my own again. I think the 5am crew went back to the hotel to sleep. I found the Ponte D?angelo and wandered down a tree-lined street where almost everything was closed for an afternoon siesta. I wandered down the main shopping street and bought a really cool wallet, ate more gelato by the Trevi fountain (I have so many photos of the fountain I must?ve taken one every time I walked past it).

I didn?t quite make it back to go inside the Colosseum I instead decided to try find the Capuchin Monastery. I finally found it after a slight detour into a shop to avoid a rather strange man, must?ve been fate as I ended up buying a cute outfit there. It turns out I was the only one of our Contiki to actually go to the Monastery. The main attraction? Five rooms are completely made out of the bones of dead monks, its all a bit ooky spooky all the stuff in the rooms is made of bones, all the walls decorated with bones and one room has a monk kitted out like the Grim Reaper peering at you from the ceiling with his scythe ready to chop you down. What can I say, I saw it on TV some time before I went and weird but cool appeals to me.

Returned to the hotel for dinner, heard rumours that Paul and Steph had spent the entire afternoon drinking with the leaders of the other Contiki group in Rome and then while the others looked out for Polizio had stripped down to bra and shorts (or just shorts in Paul?s case) and jumped in one of the fountains at the Piazza Navona. Paul was still drinking in the evening and he had an argument with the waiter because he brought his drink with him from the bar to the restaurant. Step had to intervene before Paul got thrown out and then spent most of the rest of dinner arguing with Paul at their own table. We watched the whole thing it was very entertaining.

I have decided Italy is totally cool, I just wander around saying Ciao and eating gelato and it seems a perfectly decent way to spend the day. I have also TXTed 3P and Sarabiga as I?ll be meeting them tomorrow in Florence. Wicked!

Oh and I couldn't tell you what my fave flavor of gelato was I had a different one every time.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ January 01, 2004 08:15 PM: Message edited by: Chaos Butterfly ]</font>

I'm being harassed to finish this and hurry up with the photos by friends so here's a start anyway.


Day 14

Today we travelled to Florence, we stopped at a prime spot overlooking the city for our Contiki group photo. We arrived about 12pm and were taken to a leather/jewellery shop for a leather demonstration. I bought a Nomination bracelet there. Nomination.com I decided to make one of my trip so it has the flags and monuments of countries I went to on my trip. Then we were left to wander around the city for the afternoon. I went for a wander while I was waiting for 3peanuts and Sarabiga to arrive. I eventually met up with them at the Ponte Vecchio a cool, old bridge. So after the initial shy greetings, they became my tour guides, I got chatting to Sarabiga about horses which is one of my pet topics that I could talk all day on, luckily for 3P we?d reached the Duomo a big Cathedral so she could interrupt horses with history. Now I know that in Europe, history is one of the compulsory school subjects (hmm, I could fit my history knowledge into a shotglass) but 3P and Sarabiga seem to know everything, especially 3P. She said I was very quiet but that?s because I was listening to her running commentary (hell I had to show some students around the lab. last week and I?m sure I wasn?t that good). After the Duomo we went to Santa Croce. All the tombs of famous people like Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli etc. are there I can?t remember if Da Vinci was there or not, there is one for Dante the founder of the Italian language but he is actually buried outside Venice somewhere. After that I had to meet up with the Contiki group again to go to the hotel. So sad, [img]frown.gif[/img] only 2 hours with 2 great people who had actually taken a train for about 2 hours to meet me. I am trying to get them to come to NZ. I had better start remembering some NZ history now so I?ll be prepared.

We got dressed up for our Tuscan dinner which was fantastic, I think part of the place used to be a monastery and there were some musicians dressed as monks as we came in although I have to say they were slightly dodgy for monks, even pretend ones. There was lots of entertainment. A woman their sang some fabulous opera arias during dinner. After dinner there was dancing and proof that even the beauty of Tuscany isn?t safe from YMCA, the chicken dance and the Macarena. [img]graemlins/party.gif[/img]

After dinner we went to the Space electronic disco. It was rather strange for a nightclub, even a very touristy one. There was a karaoke bar downstairs and a big dancefloor upstairs. Upstairs the DJ was playing hip-hop and R&B and not very good examples of either of those so after a valiant attempt at dancing to bad music I went downstairs to the karaoke where it seemed the real party was. Nina had found her Margarita?s and Steph was just a bit wasted and the karaoke was really going off with Steph hogging the mike most of the time. Once again drinks were expensive but at least value for money with JB and coke a 50/50 concentration in the glass. Just as I was starting to warm up the club closed at 3pm.

I went with the group going back to the hotel. Nina got to the room with the help of Daphne and kind of passed out on the floor by the door. I managed to coax her to crawl a bit further in so I could close the door. Then I sat down contemplating what to do next and decided that taking a photo of her with her camera seemed like a good idea. [img]graemlins/devil.gif[/img] I helped her take her boots off and she managed to crawl onto her bed. I got ready for bed and left one of the lights on for her, I was trying to go to sleep about 10 minutes later when Nina woke up and came to the conclusion she was too drunk and too sick to sleep and decided to get up and pack or party or both. I woke up and said What? And discovered her up and about half pie throwing things in her suitcase, turning on Italian MTV to maximum volume, dancing around and poking me telling me I had to wake up and party. [img]eek.gif[/img] I say again What??? I have never seen anyone who once they?d passed out drunk turned around 10 minutes later into peppy party girl, I only just managed to convince her that drinking the contents of the mini bar was probably not a good idea. I tried to ignore her and pretend to go to sleep but she opened a packet of pretzels and I ended up eating pretzels in bed having absolute hysterics at her. I tried once again to sleep but she kept poking me and telling me I couldn?t go to sleep and we had to party ?til 6:30am. I eventually dozed off and didn?t hear Tarin come in at 5am.

Nina you're a legend!

Oh and for my friends who haven't seen the pics of me Sarabiga and 3P

Photos of 3P & Sarabiga

Day 15

It?s a very quiet bus this morning; in fact we have lost Ren and John, they we?re too hung over to wake up for the bus. They will have to take the train to Nice later, oh well at least Ren speaks a bit of Italian as he?s an Italian Aussie. The quiet trip was relieved by a hilarious but vicious neck pillow fight between Steph and Vanessa and the fact that Brooke has taken the honour of the first person to puke on the bus (Thankfully into a plastic bag). We stopped at the Tower of Pisa for photo opportunities. My personal fave is the one of me pushing the Tower over with a mischievous look on my face. [img]wink.gif[/img] A rather sorry for herself Nina has topped Brooke by being the person to puke at the Leaning Tower. [img]graemlins/gulp.gif[/img]

Apparently we passed through 217 and a ? tunnels going along the mountainous coast between Italy and France. The ? is because one is on the border. I got another handy hint TXT from my friend Terry at home, today?s gem is: Always wear fresh underwear?in case you get body searched. We drove into Carros near the French Riviera where our hotel was.

Tonight we drove into Monaco in Monaco to see the palace and the sights. Apparently the Prince is busy changing the rules so that not just the male family line is heir to the monarchy but the female side will be as well so they won't lose the principality, Steph says this is because it looks like he may be a bit more into boys than girls. We had an absolutely exquisite dinner and a great view of the marina.

Paul took us for a drive onto the main street that is part of the main Grand Prix track. Steph played big revving engine and tyre screeching noises on the stereo as Paul weaved the coach dodgily down the street.

We went to Monte Carlo. Even the outside and foyer of the Grand Casino are beautiful I wasn?t quite feeling up to paying the 10 euro cover charge just to go inside the main floor. Outside all the cars were, Porsche, Mercedes, Ferrari etc. I had my photo taken with a nice red Ferrari. [img]graemlins/car.gif[/img] There is an awesome park right near the casino; it has great fountains and all these incredibly amazing statues of people doing everyday things. They seemed to be wearing real clothes, sort of soaked in plaster so they were hard and painted over. They were so life-like sometimes you didn?t realise they were statues until you got really close. There was a man walking his dog, people sitting chatting, reading the paper, looking at the view, carrying children and even taking photos of the casino.

the mysterious statue is San Girolamo.
The angel represents the emptyness of life and the passing of time.

Thanks for meeting us.

We've been nervous on our train to Florence. i was nervous about photos and sarabiga was nervous about her English.

So it turned out to be pleasant btw, and in spite of nervousness...


[img]biggrin.gif[/img]

Chaos, those pictures look so fabulous, and you look so cute in the mountain one!! Would you mind giving me permission to post that picture on the other sip forum site, because you've been posting regularly over there now, and I'm sure people would love to see how cute you look.

If you don't want me to, don't feel afraid to say, "No way Gem! Bug off!"

I will understand. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Sure Gem if you like tho' its a bit blurry, I'm hoping to put up a few more Florence ones that may be better.

I'm in no rush. It was just an idea. If you want to post some other pics, I am happy to wait. Looking forward to seeing them actually. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Day 16

Yay! Ren and John have shown up. We went into Nice for the day to explore or as many people did just sit on the beach all day. The beach is all rocks and pebbles, no sand at all, there is only sand at Cannes and that sand is imported and dumped on the beach. There are free sections of the beach and there are paid sections with comfortable sacking underfoot, loungers, beach umbrellas and people to bring you any drinks you order. A lot of the Contiki handed over their 15 euro for the day and went to blob on the beach. I decided to do some exploring.

I went up to Le chateau first to get a great view of the coast. I found the little public toilet you had to put coins in to open the door a bit unnerving; I mean what if it got stuck while I was in it. I had toyed with the idea of taking the train to [img]graemlins/star.gif[/img] Cannes because I?m such a movie freak but considering it would take over an hour to get there I decided not to. I walked down through the old town it was quite interesting as there was a local food market going on. I walked up the main shopping street and into a posh mall. It was funny watching people with little dogs being allowed inside a shop where I couldn?t afford a lot of the stuff. I wandered off into side streets and picked up some really cool jeans quite reasonably. I got completely lost despite occasionally looking at the map and actually seemed to be getting further away from the beach which I was actually desperate to find by now as it was so hot. [img]graemlins/sun.gif[/img] I was however probably the only one to find an amazingly groovy building which I took a photo of.

I finally made it to the beach but with dismay realised I couldn?t go swim because I had no one to look after my bag. So I wandered up the beachfront towards our eventual meeting point and who should I spy under the same beach umbrellas they had hired that morning but Contiki. So I wandered down to the free section of the beach and yelled ?Hey Contiki!? over the partition and Tarin came over and I said hey guard my bags and handed them over. [img]biggrin.gif[/img] Hurray! I could go for a swim the water was really warm.

The coach took us back to the hotel then and we all went and swam in the pool. And I learned never to put your microfibre quick-dry towel on the grass as absolutely everything sticks to it and it doesn?t shake off you have to pick it off piece by piece.