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.

My 26th Birthday

I finally got to be somewhere on my birthday! Mykonos!

For so many years my birthday was an exam date. And it was a lovely day! We went to the beach, a literal 50 second drive down the hill from our resort.

I spent the morning on a sun bed, reading and just doing nothing.

We had dinner at a nice little place on the other side of the island that did not have electricity - so everything is grilled on a wooden fire.

And then Ri surprized me with a strawberry and chocolate birthday cake!

Roman holiday

Ri is suspicious of Italians. He has some serious trust issues after the Taxi driver charged 20 euro more than he should have yesterday. This morning a man called out from his car for directions to the colosseum (even I knew where it was from that location - like one street- it's a little hard to miss) he told Ri that he was a manager from Armani, showed Ri some products and then drove away. Ri was most confused saying "it was like he was going to try to sell me something, but he didn't."

I suggested that he was crazy.

Ri is concerned about Italians.

Today was day two in Rome, we are up to Gelati flavour 12, my favourite flavour so far was 'Ace' which was carrot, lemon and orange. Today we spent the day with our ears to audiotours while walking around the colosseum and Roman forum. I was very glad my brother had lent me Rome (the TV series) late last year, it did for Rome what Tudors did for London. And In Bruges did for Bruges.

At the Colosseum, when Ri was handing back our Audiotour he overheard a Dutch man asking for the audio guide for the Netherlands, the response he got was "we have German or English."

We often marvel at how lucky we are that we speak English. And how Aussies manage to be EVERYWHERE. We can go days without over-hearing an American or Brit, but Aussies are everywhere.

Island Odyssey

The first photo is me on my birthday in Mykonos. The next two photos are of Santorini.

I love the Greek Islands.

It is the perfect place to go and holiday. Not like an interesting but museum-y holiday (like in Berlin) or freeze your butt off in the cold while looking at amazing sites holiday (like in Scotland) (I loved both of these places btw) but a out in the sun holiday HOLIDAY. I'm even sporting a mild tan.

It was the beginning of September when we arrived in Mykonos and we got the feeling that it was the right time to go as the weather was lovely, but there were no crowds. All the resorts were having their end of season parties.

It was my 26th birthday while we were on Mykonos and Ri definately pulled out all the stops for my first birthday as his wife. I know Ri has a blog typed up all about Mykonos and Santorini so I won't go on too much about what we did, as he has been writing the thing for days and I don't want to send him into another re-write. My favourite island was Mykonos, for the beaches and the shopping. But we did have a pretty awesome day on the back of a quad bike on Santorini!

Ri is reading the book that his sister made up for us as a wedding gift. She's set us a challenge to eat as many gelati flavours as we can while we are in Italy, we've been in Rome for half a day and have tried 6 flavours. Hello waist line. Our goal for Italy is to eat heaps of gelati, see lots of art and find me a dress to wear to a wedding that we have been invited to on the 13th of November (less than a week after we get home!) I'm also seriously considering buying a Pope bobble head.

Ri is complaining that there just is not enough time. Me? I'm sad that we are getting closer to the end of the trip - there is still over a month and a half which is the length of a pretty awesome honeymoon in itself!- but I'm happy to be making plans with people back at home!

Acropolis Now

I was a little bit home sick this morning, I think it started a few days ago in France, where Ri got to see his dad and where we had vegemite for breakfast.
Well it's as close as I've ever come to home sickness, I miss my friends and family, I miss being literate, and I missed the sun. From Scotland to France I was cold. If I'm wearing jeans it's miserably cold. I've been singing "I come from a land down under," I think that is when you know you miss home.

Yes my homesickness is gone...

Our day in Athens today has completely refreshed me! It is just so different from what we've seen before! It's got me excited about this leg of our little journey.
We left our hotel room and for the first time in almost 2 months our skin started to go pink in the sun! And it was the type of beautiful sun that you can feel on your skin. It was about 28 degrees today and lovely. I think it played a bit part in curing my home sickness.
That and the Greeks are lovely. I already knew that Greeks are lovely, as one of my oldest friends is Greek, so it shouldn't have been a surprise when everyone here in Athens have been so nice to us.
They are just so excited to talk to you, thrilled by your responses, patient, and they have manners. Quite a contrast from the French.
Kidding...

So to start off my tales from Athens here are some interactions with Greeks:

Our Taxi driver was awesome. He was in his mid fifties, with a round face and angry eyebrows. He spoke next to no English and we spoke no Greek (since then Ri has mastered 'thank you'). He asked us where we were from and was

over the moon

to find out we were Australians. Honestly based on his eager response I'm sure we made his day. He went on to explain that it was 41 degrees the day earlier and that it didn't matter how high the AC was it was still so hot that you were sweating. He did this entirely with gestures.

As we stepped out of the lift this morning on our way out of the hotel we noticed that there was a massive crowd outside walking down the street. We looked to the guy at the desk and he laughed nerviously. He explained that there was a strike today and 'with strikes come demonstrations.... it should be peaceful' *nervous laugh.*
After talking to him for a few minutes, it turns out he laughed at everything that he said. But still.

The guy we bought suncream from went to expo '88 in Brisbane. It was a fantastic story when he told it.

We were so happy about the vast improvement in weather that we had two icecreams each today! Oh what crazy kids we are.

Back in Europe

I swear if Ri says 'what did you say' one more time....

So it's been four months of travel. We are back in France at Ri's dads house for a weekend break from travel. Ri was talking about Thailand like it's this awesome upcoming holiday. "And we will get somewhere by the beach?"

Yes.

"And we will just sit around? Doing nothing?"

Yes.

I think he has forgotten work.

Which means we are doing this right.

Since the last blog we went to the Isle of Skye. I'm afraid all I have for you on that is that it is so amazingly pretty and cold. Ri's Scottish Aunty makes this yummy fudge/toffee thing so Ri's sis set us a challenge of finding something like it in Scotland and we accidently did. At a petrol station leaving the Isle of Skye, I always ask Ri for a gift when he is paying for the fuel and he usually came back with a magazine in Scotland so I could study the life and times of Cheryl Cole and Katie Price. The above photo is Ri eating the fudge.

From Isle of Skye we made our way to Glasgow. Where we had an entirely fancy dinner at T.G.I. Fridays, and I didn't understand the waiter. Like at all. I would laugh along and when he left the table I was like "what did he say?" It was so bad that while we were listening to the radio we accidently switched to a Gaelic station and didn't notice for a few minutes as it made about as much sense as the other channels.

From Glasgow we went back to Edinburgh and from Edinburgh to Geneva, which is where we hired a car to drive to France.

Tomorrow we are heading to Athens!

And I'll have my birthday on one of the Greek Islands.

Happy Fathers Day Dad

Hey Dad.
Hope you had a tip top Fathers dad.
Love always the one who made you a dad.
Your one and only baby girl.
xoxo Tori