March

Just a quick post to wish Fiona and Matt all the best for Saturday - I'll catch you guys late April.
Dave is currently in Australia (I'm allowed to say that now) to attend the nuptials. I am enjoying the peace!! Ha ha.
We have had a good Easter weekend in Cardiff, Wales, and have also been to Dublin, Ireland, since the last post, will update you all on those trips shortly.
Hope all is well down under.

February

How is everybody? Sorry we haven't posted in a while. Since the last post, Dave and I have both managed to pick up work. I am temping and getting lots of work, the job I'm at currently is ongoing for a couple of months and is really close to home at Euston. Although it is a bit of a shock to the system being stuck in an office again after so long off! Dave is doing more interesting work, pulling beers behind a bar just up the road, with the prospect of other work in the pipeline. So London is treating us well. And of course we both turned another year older this week too, and to celebrate we treated ourselves to a weekend in Winchester, Hampshire, about 2 hours by coach out of London. We stayed Saturday night in a nice B&B, and spent the weekend exploring the town: Winchester Cathedral, Jane Austen's house, the city museum, and the Great Hall (which featured a 700 year old replica of King Arthur's Round Table). We stopped for tea and scones at a little cafe and a fish and chip dinner at the pub. Below are some photos from the weekend.
We have also gone to see Jimeoin when he was doing a show in the West End and done some more sightseeing around London, but it's mainly just working at the moment and saving up for more trips, the next of which will be Dublin with Jarratt and Bec for St Patrick's Day.
Love to all at home.

Winchester Cathedral

The River Itchen

The town fron St Gile's lookout

At Jane Austen's house

King Arthur's Round Table

I Still Call Australia Home!!

Hey people!
We are having an awesome time here in London, although we are still to find jobs which is providing the only downer on our spirits. The weather is even treating us well - we are seeing sunshine which neither of us expected in the middle of a London winter. Home life is going great - we just need to get jobs and we will be sweet.
So it was Australia Day on Saturday and we had a fantastic day. It started at the local Walkabout at midday, where the beer flowed and the free hats were a bonus! We then moved on to Imbibe Bar and the No Sleeves party, and spent the rest of the night singing and dancing to some classic Aussie music (including emotional renditions of Walzing Matilda, True Blue and I Still Call Australia Home.) Below are some happy snaps.
Hope everyone had a great day too. We are looking forward to our next trip, which will be Winchester in Hampshire the weekend before our birthdays. Will keep you posted!

Living In England

Hi Everyone,
Apologies that it has been so long since our last post. We had a nice time in Latvia and a great New Years in Helsinki. Snow proved to be scarce, even though it was bitterly cold most of the time. We managed to get tickets to see an ice hockey match in Helsinki, which was good. We are now back in London and settling in fast to the very nice place we are living in. We have both got the ball rolling in terms of job hunting - keep your fingers crossed for us! We are going to Ireland for St Patricks Day in March and Gallipoli for Anzac Day, and are planning to take a trip in Feb for our birthdays (have yet to decide where - it's a hard life!!) Hope everyone is doing well, best wishes for 08.

Tasty Bear meat from Finland

Sunset in Helsinki

NYE

Icehockey in Finland

Snow in Latvia

Merry Christmas!!

Happy Xmas to all from Tallinn, Estonia. After a happy reunion with Jarratt and Bec (ha ha), we have spent a relaxing few days exploring Tallinn, including a very fun afternoon spent ice skating on the outdoor ice rink (well three of us skated - Blue was our photographer). No stacks to report - we are very proud of ourselves!! We are staying in a great place here - a really big apartment right in the Old Town. The only thing we are bummed out about is the lack of snow. It is not even too cold - about 4-5 degrees, warmer here than Germany even. We are all hoping for snow tomorrow (Xmas Day) - not looking too good at the moment. Tomorrow we are booked in for xmas lunch at a nice restaurant near where we are staying, and Boxing Day we are on a bus to Riga in Latvia. A very Merry Christmas to everyone at home - we miss you all but are having a blast.
Love to all.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Tallinn

Us in Tallinn

Ice skating

Saving the Best Till Last

Well, we are at the end of a 5 night stay in Berlin, and also at the end of the Eurail leg of our trip (no more trains!) We arrived here via Hamberg, which was OK but which neither of us was too enthused by. Lucky we were only there 2 nights.
Here in Berlin we are staying in a fantastic (and cheap) place - a self serviced apartment in a hostel run by a very friendly and laid back Kiwi! If anyone goes to Berlin we can highly recommend this place. Our first day we took a long walk around the city - if anyone knows Berlin we are staying up past Alexanderplatz and we walked down past it and down Unter den Linden to the Brandenberg Gate - about an hour and a half. Our second day was nice and sunny and we went out to the Berlin Zoo, which was great - by far the best zoo we´ve ever been to (not that we´ve been to that many.) It has heaps of animals - elephants, giraffes, kangaroos, a panda, seals, reindeer, wolves, monkeys and of course Knut (if you don´t know who Knut is look it up.) He´s a year old now and a lot bigger, but still very cute.
The rest of the time has been taking up with sightseeing - there is just so much to do and see in Berlin - it is a fantastic city. Apart from the Brandenberg Gate, we have seen Checkpoint Charlie and the adjoining museum, the Reichstag, Potsdamer Platz, the book burning memorial and the Wall Victims Memorial, and there have also been numerous Christmas markets to investigate! The average temperature has been zero degrees - so cold.
Tomorrow we fly to Estonia where our twosome becomes a foursome. To everyone who has requested photos, they will go up on the blog early January when we return to our new home!

Livin´ It Up In Köln

Since the last post we have spent 2 pleasant days in Frankfurt Am Main. Frankfurt has two sides to it - the city side with skyscrapers and crazy motorists and the older town side. We spent our time mainly just exploring: walking by the river, tasting Frankfurt´s drink of choice, apple wine, in the taverns, and of course visiting the ever present Christmas markets!
We are now in Cologne, which is proving to be a very cool place - there are little cafes and cute pubs everywhere. Our hostel gets top marks for location, being right around the corner from a pub and pretty much on the banks of the Rhine. We arrived yesterday morning and booked ourselves on a Christmas-themed cruise on the Rhine. We managed to nab a window table, and were served beer and Black Forest cake while enjoying cruising Germany´s famous river. Some good photos were taken, as the skies were clear.
This morning we visited Cologne´s famous cathedral (the largest in Germany.) It is so huge, and really amazing inside, with lots of colourful stained glass windows. This afternoon we will visit the Christmas markets and then check out some pubs, as it was raining overnight and is sprinkling on and off today. Tomorrow we are going to visit the Chocolate Museum, and cross the bridge to explore the other side of the river.
Not too much longer until we get to Berlin, which we are very much looking forward to.
Hope all is well back in Aussie!