Berlin:
The rest of our time in Berlin was this insane mixture of partying, sightseeing, eating anything with bacon, sausage, or fried, and just generally being amazed at it all. hit the Xmas markets in Alexanderplatz, saw the main museum who's name escapes me right now... starts with a 'P'... it was epic! this incredibly massive marble construction. Went to this cool underground actors party that our new dormmate (a film director) knew about on our last night. Hit the beer and jaeger again! Saw the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe before we raced to catch train to Prague - full on monument and underground information centre.
So nearly could have missed our train, we literally ran to our hostel to collect our backpacks, ran back to the station, ran to our connecting station, going to the wrong one a couple of times - thank goodness for the kindness of strangers! but we just have this amazing luck for our trip and we made it with a cool three mins to spare!
Prague:
Arrived in Prague bout 9ish, bought dodgy sandwhiches and hit bed. Woke up seriosuly sorry for ourselves despite eating the most amazing breakfast (eggs and bacon!!!!) - too little sleep, too much partying, too much jaeger?? Now i have the beginnings of a cold :( Visited the National musuem - the creepiest, coolest, most massive collection i have ever seen of stuffed animals, fossils, human bones, minerals, precious stones, and human stuff dating back to 100,000,000 BCE!!!
> FYI a lot of the styles of our jewellry hasnt changed that much.
Also hit the Old Town and saw all the amazing architecture.
Went home early, so tired! i've been asleep until just recently, bout 3:30pm - 9ish... tonight's sleep quota interesting!
x
Monday, December 15, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
London, Amsterdam and on to Berlin!
London:
A mad, frenzied weekend in London spent living on the Underground train, sightseeing till nightfall and then heading out to Leicester Sq to dance, dance, dance, with a seriously disgusting bottle of cheap champagne and friendly fellow train riders telling us the night-time hot spots. 1st night in average hostel, 2nd night in the greatest hostel in the very posh South Kensington, right next to Hyde Park.
Some of the tourist stuff we did: went on the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, the 'White House', British Museum, London Bridge, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Bridge, Westminster Abbey and Big Ben!
Amsterdam:
Took us the whole of Monday to arrive in Amsterdam, all the info people in the stations said we couldn't do it, but a serious dose of good luck saw us through! arrived in the centre of Amsterdam around 11:50, found the Flying Pig Downtown hostel, and scrounged a bed for the night (apparently we need to wok on our booking technique...)
Two days three nights very well spent in Amsterdam, saw Anne Frank's House, the Rembrant and Damian Hirst collection at the Rijksmueum, and Van Gogh's masterpieces at the Van Gogh museum. The people at the hostel were such a range, hailing from South America, Germany, USA, UK, and Australia fairly well represented! Everyone out for a good time and we joined in!
Fairly bummed though, as the night we left, the biggest ever party was going down at our hostel as one of the workers was leaving... but Berlin beckoned.
Berlin:
Arrived in Berlin around 9pm, and our hostel around 10pm.
Berlin is wicked fun! Sharing a dorm with 6 other awesome people, again hailing from everywhere - germany, canada, and south america; started of drinking together last night and we all went out to a disco that the two german girls knew of, danced till about 6am, train'd it home = party times!
Pretty much made us feel better about missing the biggest party in Amsterdam last night...
Heading out today to see some attractions with just a couple of hours sleep under our belt! will try to be more frequent in posting, but we're just having too much of a good time!
Love Rachael and Alex
A mad, frenzied weekend in London spent living on the Underground train, sightseeing till nightfall and then heading out to Leicester Sq to dance, dance, dance, with a seriously disgusting bottle of cheap champagne and friendly fellow train riders telling us the night-time hot spots. 1st night in average hostel, 2nd night in the greatest hostel in the very posh South Kensington, right next to Hyde Park.
Some of the tourist stuff we did: went on the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, the 'White House', British Museum, London Bridge, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Bridge, Westminster Abbey and Big Ben!
Amsterdam:
Took us the whole of Monday to arrive in Amsterdam, all the info people in the stations said we couldn't do it, but a serious dose of good luck saw us through! arrived in the centre of Amsterdam around 11:50, found the Flying Pig Downtown hostel, and scrounged a bed for the night (apparently we need to wok on our booking technique...)
Two days three nights very well spent in Amsterdam, saw Anne Frank's House, the Rembrant and Damian Hirst collection at the Rijksmueum, and Van Gogh's masterpieces at the Van Gogh museum. The people at the hostel were such a range, hailing from South America, Germany, USA, UK, and Australia fairly well represented! Everyone out for a good time and we joined in!
Fairly bummed though, as the night we left, the biggest ever party was going down at our hostel as one of the workers was leaving... but Berlin beckoned.
Berlin:
Arrived in Berlin around 9pm, and our hostel around 10pm.
Berlin is wicked fun! Sharing a dorm with 6 other awesome people, again hailing from everywhere - germany, canada, and south america; started of drinking together last night and we all went out to a disco that the two german girls knew of, danced till about 6am, train'd it home = party times!
Pretty much made us feel better about missing the biggest party in Amsterdam last night...
Heading out today to see some attractions with just a couple of hours sleep under our belt! will try to be more frequent in posting, but we're just having too much of a good time!
Love Rachael and Alex
Thursday, December 4, 2008
The English countryside
This week has been so amazing!
but... I have never been colder in my life.
Each day I usually wear: 2 thermal tops, a cashmere jumper i bought over here, leggings, jeans, thick hiking socks, cashmere gloves i also got here, and finally a coat i bought here. And still huddle up to any heating appliance i can find.
We are also falling asleep embarrassingly early, around 9-10pm, waking around 3am and again at bout 6am, so are getting the most out of the day.
It is bizarre here, it gets light around 9amish, and dark at around 2-3pm! Its pitch black by 5pm.
Freezingness aside, we both are having the greatest time!
We have been staying at Carolyn (Alex's friend's) house, which is the massive grand old vicarage in a small village just outside of Oxford.
Everything is so beautiful, the countryside is stunning and the old houses are lovely, some are from Elizabethan times!
So far we have been into Oxford and seen the Colleges and all the sights there; been into Cambridge, where Carolyn's son Miles gave us the grand (very grand!) tour around the colleges. He's currently studying there so could get us into certain places.
We have also seen a classic English pantomine, which we saw with all the school children, and Carolyn and i got heaps into it, shouting out 'she's behind you' and singing with all the kids! A lotta fun! We've also seen this medieval village and had a coffee there at one of the most famous pubs, the Fawkland Arms (too early for a beer!), and seen Blenheim Palace- so impressive. Carolyn and I have also been to this castle where they shot scenes for Shakespeare's In Love.
Tomorrow we hit up Stratford-Upon-Avon, which is the birthplace of Shakespeare and has his wife's house there, etc... and the Globe Theatre.
Unfortunately the main theatres are undergoing renovations, but we are seeing the Shakespeare Theatre Company's production of Romeo and Juliet in the Globe's courtyard theatre tomorrow night!!!
So that's the essentials of the week! its about 7:13pm thurs night now. Basically we are having such a great time, are very happy and enjoying every bit of it! Carolyn and Colin are so great, and without Carolyn we wouldn't have done half of it. We're really really lucky.
Saturday it gets scary and we're unleashed on London, just the two of us!
Should probably be investigating hostels in Soho now...
Anyhoo, dinner beckons!
Love Rachael and Alex x
but... I have never been colder in my life.
Each day I usually wear: 2 thermal tops, a cashmere jumper i bought over here, leggings, jeans, thick hiking socks, cashmere gloves i also got here, and finally a coat i bought here. And still huddle up to any heating appliance i can find.
We are also falling asleep embarrassingly early, around 9-10pm, waking around 3am and again at bout 6am, so are getting the most out of the day.
It is bizarre here, it gets light around 9amish, and dark at around 2-3pm! Its pitch black by 5pm.
Freezingness aside, we both are having the greatest time!
We have been staying at Carolyn (Alex's friend's) house, which is the massive grand old vicarage in a small village just outside of Oxford.
Everything is so beautiful, the countryside is stunning and the old houses are lovely, some are from Elizabethan times!
So far we have been into Oxford and seen the Colleges and all the sights there; been into Cambridge, where Carolyn's son Miles gave us the grand (very grand!) tour around the colleges. He's currently studying there so could get us into certain places.
We have also seen a classic English pantomine, which we saw with all the school children, and Carolyn and i got heaps into it, shouting out 'she's behind you' and singing with all the kids! A lotta fun! We've also seen this medieval village and had a coffee there at one of the most famous pubs, the Fawkland Arms (too early for a beer!), and seen Blenheim Palace- so impressive. Carolyn and I have also been to this castle where they shot scenes for Shakespeare's In Love.
Tomorrow we hit up Stratford-Upon-Avon, which is the birthplace of Shakespeare and has his wife's house there, etc... and the Globe Theatre.
Unfortunately the main theatres are undergoing renovations, but we are seeing the Shakespeare Theatre Company's production of Romeo and Juliet in the Globe's courtyard theatre tomorrow night!!!
So that's the essentials of the week! its about 7:13pm thurs night now. Basically we are having such a great time, are very happy and enjoying every bit of it! Carolyn and Colin are so great, and without Carolyn we wouldn't have done half of it. We're really really lucky.
Saturday it gets scary and we're unleashed on London, just the two of us!
Should probably be investigating hostels in Soho now...
Anyhoo, dinner beckons!
Love Rachael and Alex x
The Joys of Air Travel!
Arrived at airport 2hrs early to clear customs.
Unfortunately, we ended up being stuck in Adel International Terminal for another 6HOURS, as flight was constantly delayed!
On the upside, qantas gave everyone refreshments, so we decided to stock up! Ended up with a small bag full (the bag was initially being used for presents)
Finally boarded aeroplane at 6:30pm. about 7hrs later arrived in singapore, and had to do a mad dash through Changi to catch our flight which was already boarding. To our intense embarrassment, the customs official with much amusement proceeded to take out our many many bottles of complimentary water for the French guys ahead of us to see. She also felt the need to confiscate Alex's mini-bottle of champagne from the qantas flight.
On the flight to paris we were forced to sit waiting in our seats for 2hrs while the cabin went through a variety of checks, incl being sprayed with pesticide!
13 hrs and 1 sleeping pill later (rach) we arrived in lovely paris, where again we had to run for our flight. While queuing and catching our breath we noticed 2 lines and decided to take the amazingly short line of a few people. Being fluent in french, it was quite a while before we realised it was business class only, subtly blurted out 'Oh shit, were in the wrong line' in front of about a line of 70 ppl, and joined the end of the one that snaked around the entire corner.
Again 55 mins delayed in seats
When finally arrived in Heathrow, we were told our luggage was still in Paris. Seriously impressed, with alex also getting conjunctivitis on the flight as well as her cold, we tried to find carolyn, the lovely lady we are staying in oxford currently. This proved somewhat of an issue as neither of us knew what she looked like. We ended up awkwardly asking the first lady we came across if she was carolyn, to our great surprise, we hit the jackpot!
Drove for 2hrs to get to her beautiful home just outside of oxford. Its this amazing old vicarage, and we have our own room and bathroom!
After meeting her really beautiful daughters tanya and zoe and husband colin, alex crashed on the kitchen table, and i was only a couple of hrs behind.
Woke up at the local time midnight, not used to time difference. and
We'll keep you updated!
Lots of love from the girls
Rach and Ally
xoxox
Unfortunately, we ended up being stuck in Adel International Terminal for another 6HOURS, as flight was constantly delayed!
On the upside, qantas gave everyone refreshments, so we decided to stock up! Ended up with a small bag full (the bag was initially being used for presents)
Finally boarded aeroplane at 6:30pm. about 7hrs later arrived in singapore, and had to do a mad dash through Changi to catch our flight which was already boarding. To our intense embarrassment, the customs official with much amusement proceeded to take out our many many bottles of complimentary water for the French guys ahead of us to see. She also felt the need to confiscate Alex's mini-bottle of champagne from the qantas flight.
On the flight to paris we were forced to sit waiting in our seats for 2hrs while the cabin went through a variety of checks, incl being sprayed with pesticide!
13 hrs and 1 sleeping pill later (rach) we arrived in lovely paris, where again we had to run for our flight. While queuing and catching our breath we noticed 2 lines and decided to take the amazingly short line of a few people. Being fluent in french, it was quite a while before we realised it was business class only, subtly blurted out 'Oh shit, were in the wrong line' in front of about a line of 70 ppl, and joined the end of the one that snaked around the entire corner.
Again 55 mins delayed in seats
When finally arrived in Heathrow, we were told our luggage was still in Paris. Seriously impressed, with alex also getting conjunctivitis on the flight as well as her cold, we tried to find carolyn, the lovely lady we are staying in oxford currently. This proved somewhat of an issue as neither of us knew what she looked like. We ended up awkwardly asking the first lady we came across if she was carolyn, to our great surprise, we hit the jackpot!
Drove for 2hrs to get to her beautiful home just outside of oxford. Its this amazing old vicarage, and we have our own room and bathroom!
After meeting her really beautiful daughters tanya and zoe and husband colin, alex crashed on the kitchen table, and i was only a couple of hrs behind.
Woke up at the local time midnight, not used to time difference. and
We'll keep you updated!
Lots of love from the girls
Rach and Ally
xoxox
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