Winter Road Trip

Our Christmas road trip has begun. So far we have visited Berlin, Prague and Vienna, and stopped at some cute wee villages along the way. With the rental car we only have one speeding ticket, one incidence of driving on the wrong side of the road, and one ticket for not purchasing a road toll in Austria! A good start to driving in Europe I'd say. We have mastered the art of packing the boot, it's much like a jig saw puzzle, making sure we put the bags in in the right order.

Currently it is Christmas in NZ and through Skype I was able to watch Mum open her present from me, seems totally bizarre almost like I was there.
In Berlin we did a city walking tour which ended at an awesome pub where you pour your own beers and you pay by the ml. From our table we had a computer where we could order food, and then at the end our bill still had a service charge! Cheeky considering I poured my own beers and ordered my food without a waitress.
In Prague we went to visit the Castle, which is the biggest tourist attraction. After walking up the hill to the Castle we discovered it was closed due to an ex-president dying and lying in state at the castle. For some reason we got up the next morning, hiked up the hill, and yip you guessed it, same result!
We are now in Vienna for Christmas with Naths brother and his wife's family. It is so nice to see our 20 month old niece, last time we saw her she was 6 months old, she is a little sceptical of us, but to avoid going to bed tonight jumped up on the couch for us to read her a book, only problem was the book was in German, so we made up a story to go with the pictures.
Frohe Weihnachten, Merry Christmas!

Sporting Events

We have been to two massive sporting events recently.  #1 ATP Tour tennis finals to watch Djokovic play Ferrer at the O2 arena. #2 Chelsea play Valencia in the last game of pool play in the Champions League.  Chelsea had to win to make it through to the knock out round.  I love all the opportunities to watch big matches in London.  Unfortunately they come at a cost, but are usually worth it.  I really want to get to Wimbledon this coming Summer and of course there are also the Olympics to look forward to.  We have tickets for the Women's Football gold medal match and Mens Beach Volley quarterfinals.
This is our last weekend in London before embarking on our Christmas road trip.  We are planing on visiting Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park and I still need to buy some winter woolies to help keep me warm in the Northern Hemisphere winter.

Florence

Well after a cancelled flight, a 3hr delayed flight due to Italian workers air strikes, no train service from Pisa to Florence due to a strike, I somehow managed to arrive in Florence.  Work sent me on professional development training so it was pretty full on from day 1 - 3.  As they all say, I was too busy working to see much of the city, and it was true.  Our course started at 8:30am and finished at 4:30.  I have learnt loads and have a better understanding of the curriculum we are trying to teach here.

In the evenings my colleague and I would head into town to spend an hour looking in shops before they closed at 6!  Everything closed up early as it is 'low season'.  We didn't get to see Michelangelo's David, nor the Duomo Cathedral.  I did manage to buy some leather goods - gloves lined with cashmere to keep my fingers warm in winter, and a new handbag that I really "needed". 
Florence is such a romantic city. We wandered little narrow streets that would open up onto a big piazza with restaurants around the outside and a fountain in the middle.  Many couples were eating outside, despite the cold, snuggled up to each other which added to the air of romance.  The homemade ravioli and steaming hot pizza that I had for dinner were amazing.  The prices were very reasonable too, not that it mattered much as school was paying.  Florence is definately a city I will come back and visit, and I'll bring Nathan along too.  It is a shame I was stuck in a classroom and couldn't be out and about doing my tourist thing.
Less than a month til our epic Christmas road trip where I will be definitely be able to explore new cities.  We are covering 5 countries in 16 days so there will be lots to see!  Until then I have reports to write, how fun.

Blackheath Fireworks and Amy leaving :(

On Saturday Amy had a farewell to London with a few drinks at the pub followed by a fireworks display at Blackheath.  Only a quiet 100,000 at the fireworks!!  The pub where we met was located under the railway arches of Waterloo train station - very cool - and had murals on the ceilings to commemerate the Battle of Waterloo.  Very British.
After the fireworks bonanza we walked through Greenwich where we came across a relatively empty pub.  Turns out it is a student pub with really cheap drinks - £11 for a round hell yeah.
We are meeting up with Amy one last time for dinner on Wednesday night before she heads back to NZ to set up a love nest with Brad.  I will miss Amy loads.  We had an all inclusive girly trip to Spain, an ANZAC trip to Gallipoli, loads of Friday night dinner and drinks when Nath and I lived in West London, and she convinced me to buy my coffee machine  What a good influence Amy is!. 

In amongst the crowd!

Spain - Lloret de Mar, Barcelona and Tossa de Mar

Ola,
My mid term break has been and gone and Im back at work feeling like I just didn't have a week off in Spain! 
Before we departed we lost a 'man' to an ear infection so that just left Amanda, Vic and myself to battle the Brits abroad.  The trip started with the an early Ryan air flight out of Stanstead - how else would a cheap holiday start, its the only way.  We arrived at our resort, which I would call a hotel with a pool, in time to sample the free cocktails and hit the restaurant for lunch.  The food was very ave - french fries were served at breakfast, lunch and dinner so this gives you some idea as to how classy the 'resort' was.  Not to mention the plastic cups our drinks were served in, and this now gives you the full picture of our holiday experience.

Vic and Amanda enjoying the cocktail of the day!

We had two days where we took day trips to explore Barcelona.  It was nice to get away from the tacky Englified tourist town of Lloret de Mar where we were staying.  Barcelona had some crazy looking architecture from Antoine Gaurdi and a lovely built up water front area.

On another day we took a quick bus trip to Tossa de Mar where we wandered quaint little cobble stoned streets and found restaurants tucked into the hill side.  Tossa was less touristy and more Spanish than English.  The weather started pissing down towards the end of the day so we headed back to our resort for cocktails and french fries.

With no plan of attack for our last day we bit the bullet and explored Lloret de Mar.  We managed to find an awesome Dutch restaurant and another place selling cheap gellato.
All in all we got what we paid for with this trip.  £258 - all inclusive food and drinks, flights, transfers and 4 nights accommodation.  It was a shame the weather wasn't a little hotter as we didn't get to relax by the pool or swim in the sea which was my main plan for the holiday.
Next trip is to Florence for 4 days with a work conference.

Adios amigos.   

Spurs vs Rubin Kazan

Nath, Bozzie and I experienced our 1st live premiere team in action.  Our local North |London team, Tottenham Hotspurs, were playing a Russian team in the Europa League.  I was hooked by the realatively cheap price of the tickets - not realising that due to being in the early stages of the tournament Spurs were resting lots of top players, and the stadium was only half full so I didn't get the atmosphere I was expecting either.  Prior to the match students at school were doing some role play scenarios in case I was approached by locals after the game.  You see Tottenham is where the London Riots kicked off, the birthplace of anarchy, so I wasn't sure what to expect from the crowds, but in the end I didn't need to reenact the role plays .  

Oktoberfest - Munich

Wow what a majorly wicked weekend.  It started with me getting Friday off work for a University re-union.  Technically this is not a lie because I was going to be drinking beer with a lot of people from Otago Uni days. 
One thing I learnt over the weekend is that a university education doesn't necessarily teach you how to behave in some social situations.  Waking up on Saturday morning we soon discovered 3 people had had a beer spew from too much indulgence on Friday.  The 1st person to chuck didn't even make it in to the confines of the camp ground - spewed on themselves and the drive way.  The 2nd person to chuck didn't even make it out of their tent!! Perhaps the least classy of the lot as they then used their other halves t-shirt to mop up some of the mess.  The 3rd person to chuck spent the night on their hands and knees poking their head out of the tent to blow chunks around their tent - in a way marking out their territory.  So all-in-all a good start to Oktoberfest.

Due to some pretty hefty hangovers on Saturday we opted for the free tour of Dachau Concentration Camp and then lunch at a Beer Monastery.  As I was hungover and already feeling miserable I didn't feel too sad to be at Dachau. It was pretty horrific to think what went on there and going through the gas chamber and crematorium gave me an eerie feeling.  To cheer us up we were taken to a Monestary that brew their own beer and is situated on top of a hill in a beautiful country setting.  The only food on the menu was pig - pork knuckle, pork roast, and pork belly.  Served with potato salad or sauerkraut, it was magic for the hangover.  We lay in a grassy meadow soaking up the sun til it was time to head back to camp.  However, on the way we decided to head back to the beer fest and check out all the fun fair rides (but avoid the beer halls).  It looked pretty wicked all lit up at night.

On Sunday we had enough time at beer fest for Nath to drink 4 steins and get drunk before our flight back to London.  When we arrived at Stanstead we faced the biggest queue I have ever seen to get through passport control, needless to say it was a very late night and a struggle to stay awake at work on Monday. 

View from the ferris wheel of the beer tents and crowds of people

Talks are already underway for next years festival.  I will have to come up with a new reason for a day off work and I think we will upgrade accommodation from camping to something with some sound proof walls.  I felt like I was back at Uni when I could hear people vomitting and making groaning noises all night long!

Egypt

I think I have been avoiding writing this blog as I know its going to be a long one!  We arrived in Cairo at 5am and after some difficulty getting cash out of an ATM we manged to purchase our tourists visas and enter the country.  We were looking forward to getting out of the hot stuffy airport and in to the cool air of the city.  Little did we know it was already 30 degrees at 5am!!  So no refreshing breeze to cool us down.  Luckily we were able to check into our hotel at this early hour and crank up the air conditioning and have a sleep.  Later that day we met out tour group, which was just us and a brother & sister travelling together from Columbia, and had dinner in the hotel restuarant from where we could look out and see the Pyramids in the distance.  Our first full day in Cairo and we were off to see the Pyramids.  They were amazing.  So big.  Each individual stone that was used to build the pyramid is much bigger than I had imagined.  What was really cool is we were able to climb up onto the Great Pyramid.  The Pyramids are the oldest of the seven wonders of the ancient world being built in 2560BC! Much older than any ruins in Europe. Of all the Pyramids I liked Saqqara, the step Pyramid, as it is the 1st Pyramid ever built and has its own unique shape.  While we were visiting this Pyramid I took a photo of a camel by the pyramid and then the owner took his opportunity to pick me up and put me on his camal and lead me around, then of course asked for money. 

That night we had a truly Eyptian experience in store - a 13hr night train from Cairo to Aswan.  As luck would have it it was the end of Ramadan  so the trains were packed with city workers travelling home to their families.  The best was yet to come when the air con conked out and we were left to travel 3 hours in an oven.
Upon arrival in Aswan, with little sleep, we checked onto our cruise and our home for the next 3 nights.  Then we went off to explore Aswan Dam and the first of many, many temples Philae.  This was my favourite temple as we got to take a boat ride to reach it.  The temple has been moved as its original site had been flooded for half a century and UNSCO stepped in to save it.

The next morning we were up and gone by 3:30am for the three hour drive to Abu Simbil temple in army convoy.  The temples were carved out of the mountainside in 13th century BC.  However, in 1968 the temple was relocated to avoid being submerged by the formation of Lake Nasser (which is a reservoir for Aswan Dam).  This temple is one of Egypts top attractions.  It is literally in the middle of the desert so there is no escaping the sun and even though it was 8am it was baking hot. 

We had a couple of hours to look around before being driven back to Aswan and the cruise boat that was getting ready to sail up the Nile.  It was lovely when the boat started sailing as it created a breeze which made it ideal for sunbathing and just chilling out as we were tired from our early morning trip. 
We docked at Edfu and spent the night not going anywhere.  In the morning we took a horse and carriage to visit Edfu temple before boarding the boat and sailing to Luxor.  We were sunbathing by 9:27am and had our 1st beer before lunch time.  Great way to spend the day.

Again we were up early this time at 4:15am as we were taking a hot airballoon over the Valley of the Kings.  We got an aerial view of Al-Deir Al-Bahari temple and saw lots of sugar cane and date trees. 

From there we went to check out the temple then the Valley of the Kings.  The Valley of the Kings houses 63 tombs and chambers and was the principle burial place of major royal figures of the new Egyptian Kingdom.  Unfortunately we were not able to take photographs of the tombs.  Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered here and its entire contents are now displayed in the Cairo Museum.  After this visit we checked into our hotel in Luxor which had a swimming pool so the rest of the day was spent lounging in and by the pool.  That evening we went to an Irish pub where we caught up with other tour groups that we had met on the cruise.
Our last temple visit was the biggest - we saved the biggest til last.  Karnak temple was huge.  It was started by Ramses II.  Again we went back to the hotel and relaxed by the pool until it was time to board the night train back to Cairo.  Randomly the air conditioning wasn't working again so I am sceptical if it ever works at all.

Upon arrival in Cairo we visited the Egyptian Museum and saw Tutankhamuns burial mask.  Our last visit was to a Mosque where I had to pay to wear a Klu Klux Clan type robe to cover myself up. 
Overall, Egypt was amazing.  We have never been in such intense heat before and it made exploring really difficult.  We returned home with many souvenirs and even had a trip to Ikea today to buy a bookshelf to put them on.

Luxor temple

Our next trip is to Munich for Oktoberfest, we bought some traditional costumes and there is a group of 12 of us going.  It's going to be great.