Kraków, Polska!

A long weekend to Poland (minus Fletch) for a work/holiday (Ellie) and holiday (guys). Kraków has a very pretty old town centre as the city was saved from bombing during the war. The architecture of some buildings is striking and many original features remain intact. Toured the city one afteroon: the traditional market, market square, cloth hall, up the gothic tower for some great views, Wawel castle and the Jewish quarter. Had traditional Polish food for dinner - dumplings, meat, more meat, lard... all things stodgy; it's a suprise more Poles aren't obese! Stayed at Greg & Tom hostel (highly recommended) and the staff took us on a vodka and beer (pipes) pub crawl one of the nights. Ended up dancing the night away in Frantic. Next morning we were in recovery. In the afternoon I went to the Lazy experimental basin in the countryside (conference field excursion) and dined in Niepolomice Castle which was very grand. Last day we vacated early and joined a coach trip to Auschwitz. As expected, a fairly depressing tour, but very interesting and insightful. You just can't comprehend the scale of these historical events unless you visit the location, and even then it's still beyond your imagine.

Italia!

A great start to the summer of 2007; two weeks in Italy touring from Venice across to Nice (France) via Florence. For anyone that wants to know about it, read on...

Our adventures began in Venice with extremely little knowledge of the Italian language. Managed to get a local bus from where we we staying out-of-town to Pizzale Roma where we boarded a vaporetta for our first ever trip down the Grand Canal. Venice is amazing with its vast network of intricate canals, rios, rio terras etc. (there is a whole hierachy of street classification) providing many opportunites to lose ourselves in the city. Went to see all the typical sights, both day and night time - Piazza San Marco, Basilica di San Marco, Ponte di Rialto... Took in some of Peggy Guggenheim's modern art collection which included works by Dali, Bacon, Picasso, Ernst and Kandinsky. To get a dramatic vista of the city we went to Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore and went up the bell tower of the chiesa (church). Found a recommended pizzeria in Campo Santa Margherita which sold the biggest pizzas we had ever seen for a bargainous €8! Ventured out to the outer islands of Burano (famous for its lace industry and bright-coloured pastel buildings) and Torcella (home to the 7th century Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta). Also visited the Lido, which had the tackiest beach ever! We decided to head back townwards to get some tea and ended up on cocktails - mistake! I ordered a strawberry vodka one, little did I know it was actually going to be half a pint of vodka with some strawberries floating in it - yuk! It required a joint effort to get rid of that one! Dined at Trattoria alla Madonna, which is a marvelous fish restaurant down an alley near the Rialto bridge.

From Venice we hired a Punto, not a Panda like the other 50% of the population, and headed for Florence negotiating the crazy Italian drivers and the just as crazy Italian road system with their no regard for speed limits and a reluctantness of wanting to provide any kind of directional road signs! We stayed on top of the hill near Pizzale Michelangelo, so had a good deal of steps to climb whenever we returned from the city. Went to dine at Trattoria Sostanza, a tiny restaurant down a back street which had been reviewed in the paper -the food was awesome, and everything was very traditional feeling. Fletch had the best steak he's EVER had there. Obviously we had to go see the Duomo, and climbed its hundereds of steps to see the paintings by Girogio Vesari and Frederico Zuccaro close-up. The city panoramas from the top of the duomo were spectacular. Wandered around Firenze's many streets looking at yet more architecturally amazing churches, buildings and statues, and then queued for the Uffezi gallery. Can't really say we were all that impressed - much of the same in every room (religious art depictions) and it got a bit tiresome. However, the shear scale of many of the paintings was pretty impressive, but much like the paintings we had seen in every church we had been in.

Next, cruised around Tuscany in our trusty Fiat. Loads of beautiful Tuscan towns were to be found as well as guidance from our book of lies (the lonely planet - it tends to get things wrong quite a bit of the time). Siena, a Medievel town to the south of Florence was where we witnessed a pigeon death in the Fonte Gaia (Happy fountain) of all places! We thought it was being clever and had actually evolved to swim like a duck, but no it was just trying not to sink, then it drowned itself very quickly when it drifted under a waterjet. Poor thing. On the subject of death, the cathedral in Siena was set to have one of the biggest duomos in Italy until the towns population was severely reduced in numbers by the plague! Ok, next a drive through the endless pretty vineyards and olive groves to San Giminignano, what the Tuscans call "a medieval manhatten" with its 14 (once approx 70) towers where we saw a classic Italian stereotypical image of old men sitting on the side of the street in a row. By this time we needed some dinner so decided to head to Greve in Chianti (one of the best marketed wine regions in the country) via quick stops in Sambuca (novelty factor) and Montefioralle (really pretty village). In Greve, Michel enticed us into his ristorante (Il Cantina) claiming we would not find food anywhere better in town! We ordered the biggest Calzones in the world (maybe) which contained at least a pack of ham each! We did get free aperitifs, cake and liqueurs for some reason (maybe because we went on thurs and they were shut on fridays) - so all in all a bargainous dinner!

From Florence we got stuck in a very slow traffic jam enroute to our lastminute bargain of a villa in Margione (Nr Altopescia). We wanted to go to Pisa first so when we finally got there (again, don't ever expect the leaning tower, one of Italy's top 10 attractions, to be signposted) we ended up parking about 10metres away from it. Sceptical about the lack of parking restriction signs we quickly went to take a photo, get a panini for lunch and headed on to our villa. We soon found we had picked up a super deal - the converted farmhouse villa was lovely, with a nice garden. There was an abnormally high number of electricity pylons in the area - but that didn't bother us, we were more concerned for the dogs next door which started howling in time with the church bells (stupido!).

Based in the villa, we explored Lucca and the Cinque Terre national park where we walked between four villages along the gorgeous coastline. Took a drive along the Serchio river between the Apuane and Garafagnana mountains to Castelnuovo del Garafagnana (not worth a visit - a tiny town with too much traffic) and promptly left to try our luck at a restaurant in Bagni di Lucca which the book of lies said would be closed on a tues peak-season. We chanced our luck at it lying - it wasn't. We had lunch over the road. I think this place is home to the Tuscan mafia - some shadey looking characters lurking around.

After a nice relaxing stay in our villa it was time to head along the coast to San Remo; a long drive through tunnel after tunnel, which reminded me of Rollcage (if only you could drive on the ceiling and freeze-slow the cars infront; would have made the journey immensely interesting). Remo was ok. Had a few hours to look around the town before catching a train to Nice. An evening in France with our French expertise meant a slightly better understanding of what people were saying. Took an evening stroll through the Parc de la Colline du Chateau to get a great view of the city and a quick sit on the plage before happy houring it on cocktails then getting some nice French cuisine.

Ended the trip with Easyjet delaying our flight which they blamed on a 15minute downpour of rain. We got home fine and are now missing the sunshine and warmth of the Med. Until next time...

Stockholm, Sweden

Thought I'd add some more travel adventures that the four of us have undertaken together. Last July we ventured to Stockholm, courtesy of some super cheap Ryan Air flights, to see our friend that we met in the Cook Islands - Kristin aka Tina aka Swedish! Stockholm is an awesome city! It's so pretty with a multitude of things to see and do. Started off by exploring the old island town of Gamla Stan with the slightly wonky brightly coloured buildings. Took a boat tour to cruise under many of the capital's bridges linking the network of islands together. A tad too much Abba music played in the interludes of the tour guide's blurb! The tube is amazing too with a wide range of artwork covering the station walls.

Went to see Kristin's university in order to have a quick compare to Southampton uni - similar I guess, with the exception of a 'party house' on site where they actually hold their campus parties! Ha! Why do we not have such things here?! Headed to the city suburbs for a delicious dinner at Krisitin's parents house and her two sisters. This was the highlight of the trip, it's always the best way to experience other country's cultures by immersing yourself into their way of life. Had a very nice fishy meal - raw herring in a variety of sauces for starters, accompanied by many schnapps (each shot had to have a song sung with it - hilarious! we asked about the translation; they were singing about birds and trees!), followed by a massive salmon for mains! After dinner we headed to the golf course for a traditional Swedish game of Kubb - throwing bits of wood at bits of wood - it's great! Team England even managed to flukily beat team Sweden!

Following day, we took a walk down the posh Standvagen to the museum island. Passed the magnificient Nordiska Museet building and went to Skansen outdoor museum. Many different types of Swedish architecture and traditions through the ages were on display here, along with many animals (reindeer, moose, elk, bears...). In the evening hooked up with a couple of Kristen's friends to sample the bar and club life of Stockholm. The sun started rising again at 2.30am! That was weird!

In need of a relaxing day, we took a boat to Fjaderholmarna Island. Had a good walk around then decided to take a swim in the Baltic sea - I think eveyone thought we were mental! It was indeed FREEZING! Soon got used to it though after the initial heart-stopping shock of jumping in. A fine afternoon in the sunshine with some cloudberry ice-cream to warm us up! Ended our trip the following morning with some shopping -H&M of course! - saw the changing of the guard and sampled some more of the cafe culture.

Off to Italy in a few weeks... will report back with the next dose of the 4fools adventures once returned.

Little Old England

Home sweet home! Back on English soil now. Coming back into the country is very strange, it’s so weird hearing English people everywhere, seeing signs in just English and being able to have normal conversations with people without having to speak slowly or point at things for them to understand!

Had an amazing time in Thailand. Mainly hopping from one island to the next. Started off on the mainland at a beach called Railay which was gorgeous (the best place we visited in Thailand), with such dramatic scenery – rocks jutting up so high out of the palm tree lined sandy beaches. Dave and I tried our hand at horse riding along the beach and through the rubber plantations; our guides were very nice but didn’t understand much English. Went out on the town (well, beach bars) and sampled all the cocktails (2for1) which seemed to all taste like red sweeties or blue sweeties.

From Railay we headed to Ko Lanta for a few nights. Being out of season the entire place was dead! We did some elephant trekking through the jungle and lazed by our swimming pool – managed to get a super deal on accommodation as was so out of season. Found an excellent bar here called Otties which sold the best Masa Man curry ever (southern Thai cuisine), a delicious creamy curry.

Ko Phi Phi was our next island. Devastated by the tsunami at Christmastime, they are still rebuilding a lot of the accommodation. It was so strange to imagine a huge wave coming in across the bay and destroying so much. There was a good atmosphere about the place though despite what has happened to them and the beach was nice. The guys did some more diving at some deep water dive sites – the Hin Daeng and Hin Muang.

Got an extremely rocky boat to Phuket from Phi Phi – had to sit out on deck and slide around on our soaking wet bums as the waves crashed over the sides for 2 hours. Had a day in the sun on Kata beach in Phuket and visited the Green Man pub (and English pub supposedly) which was pretty expensive for Thailand prices! Even participated in the pub quiz, managing to come 7th out of 14 – not bad for us as we didn’t think we’d know any of the answers (we did particularly well on the ‘monster’ round, though foolishly didn’t use our joker card to gain us double points – damn!).

Next came our worst 2 days of travelling in the entire time we’ve been away! Got an overnight bus up to Bangkok and got our bags gone through without us realising – luckily nothing much of value was stolen as we didn’t have anything in our main luggage – just nail clippers, coins we’d collected etc. not a great journey! We went straight through the capital to Ko Chang, an island near the Cambodian border where we chilled out for a few days after our ordeal.

Last stop – Bangkok! A much nicer city than KL and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there even though we seemed to be rushing about all over the place to fit everything in and get it all done in 4 days. Did lots of shopping at the malls, Khoa San road and the Chuckachut weekend market; sight saw Wat Pho the reclining Buddha (huge!) and the royal palace and temple; the guys got suits tailored for them and I got a winter coat done; and of course indulged in our 5* luxury at the Davis hotel where we stayed for a super bargainous price – well recommended if anyone is going to Bangkok. Had a rooftop pool, whirlpool, sauna, Jacuzzi, gym (didn’t use that – we’ve all already lost enough weight!), and our excellent rooms stocked with slippers, bathrobes, mega shower and bath, lots of TV channels etc etc…. Plus we got breakfast included which was the biggest buffet breakfast I’ve ever seen – full on cooked stuff, continental stuff, salads, rices and the like - had to make sure we filled ourselves up everyday! The scrambled eggs and bacon was the best – mmmm, yummy!

So that’s that! 10 months and 25 days later we are finished and our world tour is over. Now, back in reality we have to sort our lives out and decide what we are going to do with ourselves. I think a good dose of Neighbours is in order – see if it’s still behind what we’ve seen in Oz (seen this morning that none of the morning TV programmes have changed – is so bizarre!), a good old raiding of the cupboards for food we’ve missed for the year and of course partying to catch up with all of you and your near year’s worth of news!

Lots of rice and noodles!

Well, our time in asia is going very quickly. we only have 3 measely weeks of travelling left now! everywhere in asia is very different to all the westernised places we've visited - not suprising really. very sick of rice and noodles, but coping with it. here's a rundown of our asian activities so far...

bali - quote from email "went to 3 main towns - kuta, ubud and sanur. all of them had many people on the street hassling us 24/7 - do you want transport? you eat in my restaurant? you want to but this wooden carving? you want massage? etc etc. was very tiresome and we were glad to escape at times.

the main island is entirely geared towards tourism with fake knockoff stalls everywhere as well as markets and local produce. did a tour off quite a few temples, with some of them being very impressive with the rice terraces surrounding them. and also went to a cocoa plantation where we saw the people actually making the coffee/choc etc and we got to sample quite a few of their drinks and fruit they grow.

the guys did a day diving on a ship wreck which they have been raving about - said it was their best dive ever! we went for day to some smaller islands off the SE coast on a very fast boat ' the ocean flyer' razzing it aloong at 30knots we were clinging onto the boat trying not to fly off. a poor little american girl was sceraming and crying all the way there (for 45mins!) but seemed perfectly fine as soon as we got there with no voice lost! did some snorkelling and had a yummy balinese lunch followed by a trip in a glass bottomed boat and banana boating! tried quite a bit of the local food between us at dinnertimes. its strange going out every night for dinner and not having to cook for ourselves!"

singapore - quote from email "the more westernised world of people in suits and masses of shopping malls here in singapore - dont know how they manage to use all the shops and theyre still building more! been on a hippo bus tour of the city - to see the shopping malls lining orchard road, little india, chinatown, sentosa (the party resort island where we saw a pretty cool light and water sidplay last night - still not as good as bellagio though!), and we're off on the night safari at the zoo tonight. off to kuala lumpur tomorrow hopefully, so seen you real soon chris -will come find your hostel. singapore is a very nice city and all very compact so easy to get around."

malysia - such a green country. there are palm tree type things everywhere. arrived into kuala lumpur to the stiffling heat and traffic congestion. didnt really think much of this city - not much to see and rup lost his passport (whoops - all sorted now though!). did go up the patronos towers to take in the view and made it out for my birthday to a couple of irish bars, followed by some malaysian karaoke in a very desserted bar! luckily not many people to embarress ourselves infront of and i think we managed to clear out half the people that were there! oh well, we enjoyed ourselves singing along to the beatles, brittany and atomic kitten!

next up was the cameron highlands - excellent mountain retreat. nice and cool after the city, plus lots of tea! being a former british settlement they seem to have taken some devonshire traditions and serve tea and scones everywhere! yummy! went on a tour of the tea plantations and to the Boh tea factory to see it all being made - mmm smelled like tea! then a bit of jungle trekking with our excellent guide telling us all about the plants and history of the area. also visted the honey farm and strawberry farm for a delicious fresh milkshake. also met my friend chris here (doing medical elective in KL with her friend abbie) and all went for dinner - a traditional steamboat. a pot of soupy stuff and a plate of lots of eggy and crab stick tasting stuff to dunk in and cook - not that great tasting, but a good experience, plus we amused chris and abbie for the evening whilst pulling faces eating it!

from here headed to taman negara national park. got a longboat into to the town, a nice cruise up the river. did the rainforest canopy walk and a big trek around the jungle.

our last place was the perhentian islands. gorgeous islands off the NE coast. stayed on longbeach with beautiful warm waters and white sands. just chilled out for a few days and ate lots in the many restaurants. went on a day snorkelling trip and saw a couple of huge turtles and a shark! now in kota bharu for the night ready to depart early into thailand tomorrow morning!

WA

our trip in oz has come to an end nearly. have had a fun 3 weeks in perth. moved onto our placement with conservation volunteers australia (CVA) 2 weeks ago and moved into the CVA house in fremantle (just south of perth). a nice new house sharing with 10 other people. everyone was really cool and got on well - duncan and sarah (from devon), glesni (welsh-north), victoria (london), richard (welsh-south), nicole and andrea (from hong kong) and us of course!

the work was pretty boring - just planting and weeding but better than we imagined it would be. the team leaders were great and roger took us on an way trip to Capel (south 3 hours) to spend a few days with ann (loves to giggle all the time mid sentence) and dick (born on the isle of wight - oh yeah!) planting trees in the wetland there. roger drove us to the cape to see some tasty beaches, a really nice part of WA, and cooked us some wicked dinners! luckily only got one day of pouring rain - the last day, but got a bbq from the council we were working for, so all good.

have visited rotness island off the coast of perth, where we cycled round for 2 days and saw some quokkas. also did some snokelling in the very cold water! have been to fremantle prison, markets, perth city, kings park and tomorrow we're off to the pinnacles desert for the day before flying out to asia!

The tip of OZ (well, it is for us)!

Well... from Byron Bay we headed to Lennox Heads to have a surfing lesson in the rain - Fletch was the best, being able to stand up lots of times. But the weather was so bad even our instructor left us to it after an hour to battle the crashing waves alone! The rain didnt end here though - went to the Gold Coast to stay with Rup's sis and got stuck in their 1 in 100 years flood (end of the road was under a foot of water so we couldnt get out!). Rup had a memorable bday winning no money at the casino and drinking lots at the surf clubs and then sicking it up - nice! Left him there after that with his sis and we headed on up to Brisbane. An express tour of the city, watched the live 8 concert on the southbank on a big screen and then went to stay with some of dave's 'non-relatives' in caboolture. hit the australia zoo here which was wicked but no steve irwin in sight!

Next stop was Noosa for a walk round the national park then to Fraser Island. A classic adventure on the island in our 4x4 Bandicoot green bus with our tour host 'digeridoo day' or '2 day steve!' who was a funny guy to say the least! He talked non-stop about the island and his favourite saying was '...as we like to say in australia'! he was great though - an excellent tour. people on the bus was really friendly too, although some segregation did go on between the english speaking and the non-english speaking europeans. fraser island is amazing - swam in the lakes, saw whales, a dingo and turtles, did some 'low level flying (as Steve-o liked to call it)' along 75 mile beach and went on a night drive to watch the rugby at the pub, which was an adventure in itself! nearly fell off a metre high sand cliff on 2 occasions, emergency stopping just intime to save us! Steve even managed to drive away with the backdoor staircase of the bus down when we were leaving the pub - so funny!

Up the coast further we stopped at 1770 for a night (a nice but very quiet place, though the hostel was pretty pumping) then rejoined Rup again in Mackay to go to Airlie Beach to depart on our next adventure - sailing around the Whitsundays. A fantastic few days. The first day was sunny, but as we found out freezing on deck as the winds were high. Got to do some great sailing, cruising along with everyone shivering and clinging onto the high side as the yacht tipped up at a very steep angle. Had our skipper Dave, the boat hand Matt (who was a pretty good chef - cooking us up a treat 3 times a day) and the dive instructor Mattie. We all got to do some diving which was excellent. So many fish and we even got to feed them with bread. Saw more whales closer this time.

The second day was overcast and had a few showers. Went for a walk to Whitehaven beach which was gorgeous (one of the nicest places in oz i think) despite the weather. Luckily the last day was glorious sunshine so we got some fab snorkelling done and went for a quick sunbathe on Langford Island before having to motor the boat most of the way home as there was next to no wind. Everyone on the boat (all 15 people) were so nice and we all go on really well. Met everyone for a night out in Airlie when we got back which was fun.

From there we stopped in Townsville and did a jetski tour around magnetic island. A beautiful island and the jetskiing was so much fun. even saw some dolphins and koalas on our walk through the bush. Had a quick stop at Mission Beach and now we're in Port Douglas. Celebrated dave's bday yesterday - a nice meal out followed by a bar crawl. We're up far as we are going in oz now (except maybe to the daintree today). Back down to cairns to try sell the car (looking unlikely as its failed is safety cert!) and then out to western australia.