Phi Phi Island

“Do you like Thai?”
“Yeah I like Tie, do you like Shirt?” (Homer)
I’m in our last hotel room, near Phuket airport. Tomorrow night we sleep in the plane on the way home. Today was the 5/11/10, we arrived in San Francisco on 5/5/10. We did it. 6 whole months. I probably marvel at that a little too much, but I really cannot believe we did it.
Thailand was not on our original list of places we were going to. This time last year we were sitting in STA travel finally getting around to buying our tickets and travel insurance from Kristy who was explaining that we should keep our time in the USA and Canada at less than 20% of our total trip (to save heaps of money for our insurance). I’d planned for around 38 days in the USA/Canada, which at that time was over 20% of our trip. Kristy was trying to get our time in North America down by a week when I said. ‘We should cut like 2 days off and then add two weeks at the end of the honeymoon and we can go to Thailand or somewhere cheap... it’ll kind of cancel out right?’
Kristy laughed and looked at Ri.
Ri did the *what she said* gesture.
Kristy asked if I always got my way and other general statements of disbelief/ praise for Ri’s awesomeness.
So that is how we ended up in Thailand! And I’ve loved it! The week with Mum was great, although she is a morning person and I am a night owl, we like to do the same sort of things, just at different times of day. So I think that drove her a little bananas. She did a lot of shopping for her three children (me, my brother and her favourite child, her son-in-law). Mum and Ri get along great, they both enjoy the sport of paying me out (also enjoyed by my dad and brother). With Mum we went on an elephant ride (oh the guilt! I just wanted to set them free!!) then to Phuket zoo (more animal related guilt, although I did get to pat a tiger which was AMAZING). Mum took us to Fanta Sea (I’d recommend it, but I do love a Vegas style show). I dragged Mum to get a fish foot spa, which is where you stick your feet into a fish tank while cleaner fish get all the dead skin off. If you close your eyes and relax it kind of feels like bubbles. And your feet feel so smooth afterwards!
Mum made her way to Bangkok, when we made our way to Phi Phi Island. It rained for the first two days! I was getting worried that I wouldn’t get to go home with sun burns! Luckily we had three days of sun, so we snorkelled, fed monkeys on Monkey beach and snorkelled some more. Turns out I cannot sink. We were snorkelling in 6m deep waters and Ri was showing off down with the fish while I was trying to sink myself.
On our last night on Phi Phi Ri organised a private dinner on the beach with a massive bunch of white roses. As a surprise! Since our honeymoon had to end, I’m glad it ended like this in Thailand!

One last blog to come!

Ri says Tori also got her hair styled by a monkey that was soooo high fashion

Mum!

Mum has met us in Thailand! For a week of shopping and tiger patting.

Reports from home: Bay-Bay (our rat) has cancer (according to his vet), mum took him to the vet. It sounds like she's put a lot of effort into looking after him, I think she secretly loves him as much as we do.

Today we went shopping in Phuket. Mum's picked up haggling really quickly.

Have you heard of colour coded shopping bags? That are suppose to let other vendours now how much of a push over you are?

Apparently red-pink means you are easy and black means that you are a good haggler. The first bag we got was red, the second was black!
So I think there may be something to the theory.

It's so hot here! Ri is complaining about the heat. I spent the last month complaining about the cold, so I guess it's his turn. It's so different to Europe here!

Here is one last Euro-photo: Henri at the Louvre.

Photos From Paris

At the Moulin Rouge.

Walking around Paris when we got back from Disneyland.

The Art at Versailles

Inside Versailles. My favourite room!

So I've finally put up some photos to go with the last few blogs.

We are currently in Phuket after 4 flights in 2 days (exhausting!)

I'll put up a bigger blog a bit later! I'm pretty excited about tomorrow... someone special is meeting us in Thailand!

Penultimate night in Europe

It feels like we are going home. Our flight to Singapore is tomorrow, then we're spending two weeks in Thailand and THEN home.
Rar! I still cannot seem to upload photos onto blogger! Will have to try again in Singapore.
Singapore! Wow we are leaving Europe! We've spent 90 days in Europe and 45 days in the UK. I'm pretty proud of that effort!
Hopefully we will be able to leave tomorrow! With all the strikes going on in France (the only way its impacted us so far is that we spent an hour at a train station only to have our train cancelled, so we had to get a Taxi to a different station, on our way to Versailles, haven't seen any riots or fires or upside-down cars).
In the last blog I said we were going to Moulin Rouge that night and we did. I had no idea what to expect. It turned out to be a pretty entertaining (if not a bit corny) show. Some of it was really funny. The only thing that sucked was that we couldn't buy drinks. So if you want drinks you have to pay an extra 20 euro when you buy your ticket, even if you only want a coke. And the ticket is called show plus 1/2 bottle of Champagne and since 08 I haven't been able to drink Champagne/white wine with any level of pleasure. (Post exam celebrations).
Yesterday or the day after Moulin Rouge we took the train back to Versailles. We accidently went on a Monday in July (resulting in an excellent day spent in the gardens) so we had to go back to see the Palace, and it was soooo worth it. Absolutely brilliant. At the moment they are showing the art of the Japanese modern artist Takashi Mukakami, who does statues based on Manga or Japanese cute. I loved it. Some people didn't. I guess when you go to Versailles you may not be expecting to see a six foot ball of teeth and eyes, it could be distressing. I found it a pleasant surprise. CUTE. Plus there was the whole Palace thing too.
Today we went to Disneyland.
I love Disney.
I was so excited to be going to my second Disneyland for the year and my third with Ri.
We're both big kids when it comes to Disney.
I am so tired! I usually blog at midnight so please excuse typos or fragmented thought processes! If I didn't type it straight in like this I would never post!
I logged into the internet because Ri was worried that someone (anyone) may be worried with the images of France on TV and us being in Paris. Logged on. Nope. It probably hasn't even made the news back home.
Next time from Asia....

Paris in Autumn

Probably should have titled the blog Paris in Fall. Oh well I've always loved the word Autumn.

As you may already know, Ri and I spent an unimpressed 4 days in Paris in July. We didn't have a bad time, but we didn't have a great time either. I think these are the reasons we didn't enjoy it the first time around. Firstly the hotel and it's location sucked. Secondly there were so many people (tourist, so there were more gypsies trying to sell stuff to tourists). Lastly it was our first non-English speaking location.
It's a completely different place this time around! It's cold (so cold) but we are having a great time. Our hotel is within walking distance of the Louvre - and it's such a pretty walk with the big trees losing their leaves. The place feels less crowded. And if you can get by in Napoli you can get by anywhere!
We arrived in Paris yesterday, in the early afternoon. And I'm almost sorry to report nothing went wrong with the plane/bags/taxis/hotel. We had a nap and then braved the streets to find somewhere to eat. We are in a nice neighbourhood with alot of Japanese restaurants. We ended up in the oldest Sushi place in the street (10 whole years) and it was actually really good. After dinner we walked to the Eiffel tower and took some photos of it at night.
We were so convinced that today was Wednesday! Turns out it is Tuesday, which foiled our plans to visit the Louvre today. Instead we consulted the ever reliable Lonely Planet and found somewhere to have a nice lunch - a Japanese noodle place (Completely different to Sushi!) We spent an extremely stressed 5 minutes with the all-in-French menu, trying to figure out what may be vegetarian and deciding the Porc=Pork. The waitress could only laugh at our faces as they flooded with relief when it turned out she not only spoke English but used to live in Sydney.
After lunch (it was really yummy) we went to Musee d'Orsay. And the best thing happened!
After an hour or so of rating how dotty a painting was I recognised someone. Now I've been seeing my friends all over the place, but it never actually ends up being them... but this time it was! Dr and Mrs Doyle were at the Musee d'Orsay too! (Friend of mine from the Biom part of my undergrad degree). Turns out they've been in all the same places (Rome, Praha, Wien, Munchen). I was completely thrilled to see someone from Brisbane!
After the gallery we hit the shops to find some shoes for Ri to wear tonight at the Moulin Rouge! He ended up finding a 'they'll do' pair of black shoes and an awesomely fashionable pair of grandpa pants that are so Ri.
Blogger is not letting me upload photos again!

Welshie does Barcelona

Henri caught my cold so he needed some time in bed with a nice warm cup of tea or two... to fill in the role of posing plush Welshie (from Wales) volunteered to join us on our two day tour of Barcelona.

Fighting the End Of Honeymoon Blues

When we got back from Japan (after only 10 days overseas!) I was cranky and restless and just-wanted-to-go-back-travelling-NOW for weeks.

I can only imagine that it'll be that much worse after 6 months and two days. So I'm trying to have a 'plan' in place. Things do help with adjusting to returning home. Seeing as I don't really know what I'll be doing with myself (not long term anyway).
So we have the following (short term):

Mac spending spree
Christmas! (This is why there is a photo of a puppy.. uh hum Ri)
Planning a trip to see my family in Melbourne!

Seeing all my beautiful friends who I've missed so much!

Getting to see our wedding photos (on a bigger screen) and putting together our album.

And seeing my baby Brother!

http://mybestthingtoday.com/ I'm loving this site!

We still have 3 weeks to go! So I best get some sleep and make the most of it!

=)

my lil drinker

Henri at Oktoberfest and at the Guinness Storehouse. We are obviously not big drinkers! These are really the only times we've had a drink.

Location: Barcelona

Henri loved Portugal.

Sunny Portugal. Us at the castle.

Ri reading his mini languages book at the castle.

Me, while we were out buying the last of our Portuguese souvenirs and finding somewhere to have dinner.

We made it to Barcelona. I had a feeling DEEP in my bones that something was going to happen today. Everything was too organised. Everything had gone way too smoothly! We had our great two days in Portugal and packed the night before our flight, woke up and were early for our taxi, made it to the plane with no dramas (stopping at Harrods for a cup of tea at the airport).

So when Ri handed over the address of our hotel to the Taxi driver and the drivers reply was 'that is in a different city,' I was not the least bit surprised. Or even stressed. I just laughed and strongly suggested we get to the CBD, have lunch and then find the internet. While Ri stressed. I think the Taxi drivers plan was to drive us up to every hotel in the city until we found one with a room, a kind but very expensive offer. So Ri pretended to have found a room at the first hotel and after pausing to make sure the coast was clear, we made our way to the first place that sold Paella. Then to an internet cafe, where I had some green tea and read Novembers UK Cosmo (that I picked up in Ireland) while Ri found us this hotel, which is, you know, in the right location to start with.

Ri says: ok i stuffed up again but at least it wasn't as bad as the whole coventry fiasco. The place I did book was in barcelona just in an outer suburb that appears to be in no way connected to any tourist attraction...... i am never using europe-citys again. Oh well only one more thing to book :(

Peri Peri

My mother has diagnosed our rat (Baylee) with Cancer. A couple of phone calls ago our Japanese fighting fish (Kyzer) was ‘not looking so good.’ I’m beginning to think I left my poor boys in the wrong hands. Ky is over 2 years old so it is to be expected that he may ‘not be looking so good.’ But my wee Bay-Bay is barely 18 months old, I gave strict instructions for Bay-Bay to be taken to the vet (the one where he has a file, he got the sniffles before we left and needed antibiotics from a tiny syringe for a couple of weeks). I hope they are both there when we get home... mother dearest.

We have just spent three nights in Portugal. On arriving in Portugal we had another one of those moments when we’ve realised that neither of us really wanted to come to Portugal, neither of us had a clue about what we were doing to do with our time in Lisbon. So Ri pulled out the trusty lonely planet and found a castle, a museum, a gallery and a couple of recommended restaurants. We ended up eating a Nood (an Asian fusion restaurant) twice because they made the YUMMIEST vegetarian ramen noodles. We had a brilliant time in Lisbon! The castle was interesting and fun to walk around and the museum was a bit different. The most surprising bit for me was the modern art gallery, after the Guggenheim in NYC I thought that I hated modern art galleries. Turns out I only like the good modern art galleries with well thought out/ clever themes and pieces of art! Which were both lacking at the Guggenheim. Who knew that modern art wasn’t just for toss pots? I’d say it surprised us both.

On the most part the people here in Portugal have been really lovely to us, the old ladies seem to yell at us a bit, but from what we can tell they seem to be yelling advice at us, so even they appear to mean well. Taxi drivers here is Lisbon have been awesome. We took a taxi home from the museum and it looked like the driver was doing the dance we knew so well from Italy (where the metre runs while he locates the hotel in a map after trying the gps and a couple of other methods that fail) but after the dance the Portuguese taxi driver reset the metre telling us that he’s never charge us for that sort of thing immediately ranking him as *hero* in Ri’s books.

We can’t seem to be able to remember any Portuguese, we have tried to memorise thank you so many times but it just will NOT stick. It doesn’t help that there is a male and a female thank you. Sorry Portugal.

Our last day in Dublin was a good one! We went to the Guinness Storehouse at St James’s gate Brewery, and it was a surprisingly good day out. I don’t like beer very much, but Guinness is alright. We learned all about how you make beer, then went to the (free) tasting room, then learnt about how to cooper a barrel, then learnt how to pour (free) Guinness (while Ri was pouring his the guy who had provided the instructions on how to pour a Guinness pointed to Ri and said “that is how you’ll see the professionals doing it up stairs”.... argh he just has to do everything right doesn’t he!), then we looked at some ads for Guinness, then went up for a free Guinness at the Gravity bars with a view of Dublin.



We only have one week left in Europe before we are off to Thailand. I have love, love, loved every minute of this leg of our journey. I don’t think I would change a thing.

kiss me! i'm irish...

the steps ri kisses the blarney stone

me feeling a little concussed

henri fell when he went in for a kiss of the stone...

We went to Blarney today. I climbed the impossible stairs to end up with an Irish man head butting my head into the Blarney stone. So while Ri is now sitting next to me being extremely eloquent in all his speech, I just have a bump on my head. Ri says the Irish man told me of his plan with my head and the stone (I couldn't extend my neck to kiss the stone) but I didn't hear the plan so I have a photo of me looking very surprized for having my head bumped into a rock.

One more day in Ireland before our flight to Portugal!

Venice

I’ve just had a quick look at my past 3 or 4 blogs and it looks like the only thing that I’ve blogged about since Venice is the fact that I am cold. Which is a shame because even though its been really cold we have had a great time in the past two weeks or so, so lets back track to Venice and I’ll try to tell a story from each place we’ve been since.
As we were in Venice on our honeymoon we couldn’t leave without going on a gondola ride. We opted for the long gondola ride (60 minutes) from a gondola near our hotel away from the all the tourists. Our gondola driver was reasonably young (in his twenties) and told us that he was the latest in a 500 year family business... From this point onwards we assumed that at least 67.9% of what he told us was made up on the spot. We affectionately nicknamed him Bender as he reminded us of the lovable robot from Futurama, spontaneously bursting into half a chorus of an obscure song, as if he was trying to avoid having to pay royalties (e.g., Relax, yeah baby uh huh uh huh), truth be told he probably just didn’t know any songs in full. We unknowingly timed it at the top of the tide which resulted in Ri having to run to the front of the gondola every time we came to a bridge to prevent us from hitting it, we have a photo which shows that didn’t always work (mustn’t of had enough gelato at that stage). He took us through the quite backwaters of Venice which was wonderful, past the Casanovas, Marco polo’s, Mozart’s and Johnny Depps house (who, according to Bender, goes through a couple of ‘grams’ a night... sniff sniff). At the end of it he set up shots of Ri driving the gondola and all in all we had an entertaining and romantic ride.

Henri Loved Praha!

Ri thinks that is called Henry's tower.

We have taken Henri everywhere with us on our trip, but as I look back on our photos of him I'm finding that the locations we photograph him in are sometimes hard to identify! And we usually don't take a photo of him in front of the obvious stuff. That photo above is one of two places in Prague. We didn't get one of him and the castle or on the bridge or with the clock. I'll have to count how many Henri shots we have! Must be hundreds.

The Luck of the Irish

Photo: Freezing in Prague.

I have a cold. It's only a 48 hour thing (I hope), with a shnuffly nose, sore throat and a sometimes absent voice. Ri is fine. Happily reading Lonely Planets 'Europe on a shoe-string' while I suffer in silence. **SOB**.
So Prague was our Eastern European Representative and we loved it. We mostly walked around the beautiful city in the cold. We even managed to stay out til dark, Prague is so amazing at night! I'm trying to upload some photos right now but am not having much luck with the internet.
I really enjoyed the 5 hour train trip from Vienna to Prague, we had a little cabin of six seats to ourselves. I hadn't been so keen on the French or Italian trains. Ahhhhh there is a frustrated tale of trying to catch an Italian train. But then there is a frustrated tale to do with trying to use any type of Italian transport.
Ri has decided to state that he strongly dislikes all European Taxi Drivers (excluding UK and Southern Irish Taxi Drivers - I think he really likes them).
I don't entirely blame them for continuously ripping us off. If I were a European I'd be jealous of Australians too. That's probably just the cold weather making me cranky at Europe.
It was so cold in Prague! I don't think I've been so cold with so many clothes on!
OK my brain is a bit fuzzy tonight! I might head to bed and complete my post on Prague tomorrow! I even picked a blurry photo of Prague!

Time, she flies

October!! No! No! No! No! NO!

It's our last full month of travel - then we have one teensy week in November and then home.

Do you like my dress from Munchen? I wore it to one of the beer halls! The waitress seemed to approve. Now I only need to find an excuse to wear it at home. I could learn to bake and it can be my baking dress!

Please don't look at my hair! I REALLY need to dye it again but I haven't found the time, so I invested in a hat from Pimkie.

Let's see.... today we walked around Vienna! And my feet feel like blocks of ice! You can tell when I'm cold in a location because I don't take half as many photos (keeping hands warm in coat) and I'm never in the few photos that have been taken (camera ends up someone in my coat).

The food in Vienna has been great. Tonight we went to this really good Japanese place. We had lunch at this nice little vegetarian place. I think we're both trying to get rid of our Gelati bellies! Japanese and vegetarian is good for you, right?

We went to an art gallery, 1) to get out of the cold and 2) because I got sick of Ri's tendency to just walk around a city - which is fine in the warm weather! but when I'm cold I like a destination!

So we saw a Picasso exhibit because Ri has said before that he never liked Picasso's work and I think I read somewhere that as his wife it is my job to make him do stuff that he doesn't like.

Except he liked it. Even said it was 'entertaining.'

Best go to bed. We're catching a train to Prague tomorrow!

Austria

There is free wi-fi at Macca's!
We try not to have McDonalds but on nights like tonight when we drive into a new city at about 8pm without a map its nice to have somewhere with free internet and disgusting but familiar food.
So we've made it back to Austria, although we haven't actually spent any quality time in Austria as yet, we've just passed through on our way from Italy to Germany or Liechtenstein to Germany.
I can't believe our time in Germany is up! I love zee Germans! With their nice cars and sensible behaviour.
Ri pointed out to me that they never walk when the dont walk sign is red. And he loves that about the Germans. I do too.
Munchen was a really nice city. We did a little drive around this morning before having lunch in the city and its so green and pretty! Ri had us staying on a street with Casinos and sex shops (I fear the accomodation will only get worse as we near the end of the trip - kidding honey you're doing a great job) near the CBD, where it isn't so green.
After lunch we sent ANOTHER box of bits and pieces to mum. With all the Italian souvenirs in it - there was NO way I was trusting the Italian post office, I was very particular about sending it from Germany. Reliable German post!
At about three pm we left Munchen and drove to Vienna. I really love our road trip days! I enjoy being stuck in the car with Ri. You know, as long as he doesn't talk too much. Or ask me where Vienna is.
I've done a little bit of 'reading' on this trip (I say 'reading' because of my choice in books). I just finished the shopoholic series, which makes you feel really smart as I can read all 400 pages in about a day, but then you pick up a real book and realise that you can't actually read any faster.
So tomorrow Vienna. The next day we get the train to Prague. Next week we're off to Ireland.
I cannot believe that it is October tomorrow!!
Had to happen I guess!
Ok so Ri is doing a little shuffle on his side of the booth which suggests that its time to find the hotel!

Oktoberfest

If i had one wish today it would have been for Ri to stop comparing Oktoberfest to the EKKA. It's embarrassing, plus there were some Australians around and one may have understood what he was referring to.

It's the 200th Oktoberfest this year! There is a real party atmosphere with rides and beer. Plus nearly everyone is dress up. And there is beer.

It's realy such a shame that neither Ri nor myself really like beer. Ri has still given a few litres of beer a good crack. The problem is that he can't drink quickly enough to feel drunk. He just skips straight to feeling ill.

He couldn't even get half way through my mother '79 Oktoberfest attempt.

I didn't even try. I'm a good girl.

More about Germany tomorrow!

I brokes Skypeses..... furious

Mum, Dad, Addie... the microphone on the laptop stopped working!! So I can't get Skype to work!

(photo is of Mykonos cat)

Ri : Yeah despite my best efforts I cant get the speakers or headphones to work so Might be a while before our next call everyone so if not before will talk to you in just over a month.

Location - Munchen

Two days ago, in Venice, the weather was fine. I was wearing a dress and eating gelati. Yesterday, in Venice it got Cold. Now in Munchen it's SO COLD. (The photos are of Venice.) So now Europe has gotten cold on us and we probably wont be warm until Thailand in late October.

I really just started this blog to upload a couple of photos and complain about the weather. What a terrible blogger I am!

Ciao Bella

Ri does not trust Italians at all. And I very much doubt that I’ll ever get Ri to return to Naples. As we were driving away from Naples on our way to Florence he commented that ‘it is no wonder the mafia have such a reputation! I mean to be considered a crook in Italy...’
We have not really had the internet since Rome. We’ve popped into a couple of internet cafes to book very-last-minute accommodation and to have a brief skim on facebook – I’m desperately trying to not get left behind in gossip! (turns out my cousin has just gotten engaged! and Ri's cousin is currently having her second baby!)

But I have not had time to really sit down and do up a blog. It’s just so busy. Italy I mean. I don’t think I could do much longer than two weeks in a row in Italy.
We spent three nights in Naples. Ri seemed mildly irritated the whole time. In the funny little way he shows annoyance. In a weird switching of roles as I'm the easily annoyed one. But I didn't mind Naples. The food was pretty good and thats why I went to Naples. Pizza! We went to a Pizzeria that only serve two kinds of Pizza (with cheese and without) and that was pretty good.

I wouldn't recommend getting a taxi in Naples. We had our first really prolonged and frustrating taxi experience in Naples. We had decided to hire a car and drive to Pompei and the Amalfi Coast. So we ordered a Taxi to pick us up from our hotel to take us to the car rental place. We hop into the Taxi all bright eyed and hand over the address which was in Italian. The taxi driver did the usual song and dance performed by all our past Italian taxi drivers (Oh! Where is that!!? Let me call a friend and let the meter run for a minute or two while I make sure where it is!!! Oh that place!! Yes!! I was there this morning!!). But with this driver the dance went on for 10 euros (and about 30 minutes) before he made it two street from our hotel to drop us off at the wrong location. In the end we had him drop us at the airport. After we got our car Ri drove us straight to the address we gave the Taxi driver without a map just to show me that even a bloody foreigner could do it. Ri does not trust Italian Taxi drivers. "No No Ban-dee-doe" "Si! Si! Ban-dee-doe!!"

We ended up having a brilliant day at Pompei followed by dinner at sunset on the waters of the Amalfi coast.

From Naples we drove to Bologna having dinner in Florence on the way. We arrived in Florence just as the sun was setting, and I think if you are only going to stop at a place for a couple of hours then sunset is the time to do it!

From Bologna we drove to Venice and spent 3 days walking around the canals, eating gelati and shopping! It is just so different from anywhere else! I loved it.

Now we are in Munchen! I think it's beer O'Clock.

84 Flavours

Ok sis here is our list, how did we do?

Melon, creama, mint, bounty, coconut, lemon, mixed berry, chocolate, peach, ace (carrot, lemon and orange), kinder surprise, coffee, pistachio, banana, cherry, kiwi, green apple, chocolate chip, tiramisu, cinnamon, liquorice, pimpelmo rosa, mango, limoncello, walnut, zibbona, nutella, blueberry yoghurt, choc-hazelnut, blood orange, papaya, milk, meringue, profiterole, hazelnut, Viagra (this tasted like butter icing), vanilla with hazelnuts, baba, cassata siciliana, caramel (with nuts and caramel sauce), watermelon, grape, mars, cuore nero, fig, yoghurt (plain), novita, crème caramel, rum and raisin, Veronese chocolate (had chunks of ferrero-rocher), choc-mint, passionfruit, chestnut, almond biscuit, raisin, vanilla with chocolate biscuit (pan stele), rum and chocolate, toffee (mou), choc-orange, mandarin, biscuit and cream, pineapple, yoghurt with Christmas pudding swirls, raspberry, pear, extra dark chocolate, apricot, magnum gold (white chocolate and vanilla), magnum (boysenberry swirl with white chocolate chucks), white chocolate, gusto del messe (egg nog), kitkat, lion (chocolate bar), mint and milk, nougat, vanilla, strawberry, blueberry, dolce latte (crunchy caramel and coffee), blue lagoon, mochachino, caramel, kinder chocolate bar, and lime.

there was a little bit of overlap due to the language barrier, and as we left we got a scoop of our favourite 2 each. So our pants are TIGHT but it was fun!

Greek Island (Ri's Views)

Mykonos
The ever elusive Ri here again. We are on the boat on our way to Santorini having just left Mykonos.
Mykonos has been amazing, we stayed at one of the more secluded beaches and I splurged a little for Tory’s B-Day. Our Hotel was on a hilltop overlooking a little bay full of crazy blue water which the Suite that they upgraded us to had unobstructed views and even a little balcony area with sun bed and arm chair which we put to good use. As it was a long way from everywhere (except the beach we decided to get a car for a couple of days and explore the island. So we picked up our little red beast who we named Sparta!!! (the tourist shops love 300) and headed out to explore Mykonos. We explored the tiny little white streets of the main town, had and awesome Fruit Juice / Salad at a place near little Venice (thanks Super Celebrant) and had lunch at a place where our feet were splashed by the beautiful water. In summary Awesome.



We appear to have timed our trip perfectly as everywhere is open but no one is here.
So for Tory’s Birthday I had the day all planned out, and then only managed to execute half of it because it is the greek islands and too easy to just get into relax mode. We started the day with breakfast in bed and then headed to the beach for a nice long swim. I can’t get over how clear and blue the water is. We just floated there for a couple of hours and let the fish just swim right up to us....until one got a bit cocky and decided to nibble V then we made sure they kept their distance. So after a swim and a sunbake (Mediterranean sun, got to love it) we headed off to find a little restaurant on the other side of the island that had no electricity and cooked everything on a wood fire. The food was good but when you order calamari expect a whole squid. The tentacles were fine but the fins at the top where a little to much for me. After that we went and picked up the cake I had organised and went back to the hotel to enjoy it.



I think that so far the greek island are one of our favour places. It is so different to anywhere else we have been and in the words of Tory how she imagined a holiday should be. Wed have had a Great time would easily spend another month here. But its not over yet we cant wait to see santorini which we have been told will blow our minds.

Santorini

...........And it did. We tried to get a couple of sneak peeks as we came into the harbour but as we were stuck in the middle of the fairy all we could see was the bottom of the cliffs. We emerged from the fairy and wow Santorini is a spectacular place with its sheer cliffs and magnificent harbour / creator filled with brilliant blue water. We hadn’t organised a hotel ahead of time as we had been told it was pretty easy to just get one from the harbour and it was although I wasn’t very good at haggaling as the first place that offered me a room sounded like and ok rate and looked pretty good. It was a little it out of the main town but was nice enough and run by two nice old greek men. Not wanting to go out we got some takeaway which turned out to be the best falafel Tory has ever had.

The next day we had some breakfast, played with the resident cat (Smelly) and went and hired a Quad Bike (ie Spike). It was only 50cc so it had a bit of trouble getting up some of the hills with the two of us but was heaps of fun and I think is definitely the best way to see the Island. Tory even did a couple of donuts in a parking lot. With Spike we trekked from one end of the island to the other soaking in the amazing cliff top views. We had lunch at the Harbour on the north island and watched the schools of fish devour the bread not consumed but the costumers. We again got a precarious seat right on the waters edge where if you dropped a knife you would have to go diving for it. We were tempted to take a Donkey ride up the hundreds of steps to the town but he looked a little temperamental so we hoped back on spike and hooned off to the other end of the island. The beaches aren’t as nice as Mykonos but the views are incredible.




After a quick rest and another world class falafel we headed back to Ia to see the sunset. Like everything else at Santorini it was spectacular we watched the sun go down over the water and then raced back along the cliff tops to see the harbour bathed in twilight. All in all Santorini and the greek islands are one off if not the most beautiful and fun places that we have been. We were envious of the people getting off the fairy as there holidays on santorini were just beginning and ours were ending. We are once again on the fairy back to Mykonos from which we head to Rome. I am looking forward to Italy but it has a lot of work to do if it wants to impress us as much as Greece has.

Cheers
Ri

Roma

Oh I feel so fat today. We had tried 29 gelati flavours in 3.5 days. These include Kiwi, Green Apple, Licorice, Choc-Chip and one that tasted like Sambuca. It was basically all we ate yesterday and I swear I had a sugar headache. Ri is sure that we will run out of flavours before we reach 100.

Today we went to Vatican City and spent the day in the museum followed by a quick trip to St Peters. Ri is starting to decide how he would like to decorate our future-house. Turns out our library (I love that our house seems to need a library) will need a massive map or globe - but an old map from like 400 years ago 'before Australia existed.' His words and don't worry I told him off for being Euro-centric.

One more day of Rome before we head down to Naples.