Thailand...Phuket were out of here!

Well it is the final saga, its almost all over, but before we head back to the island we decided to take a short stop in Thailand. Phuket. Were we met up with Liz! very very exciting to see her, expecially for Kristie and Of course me too. Shes a top Gal.

Well there is not much to report from thialand, just a lot of laying by the pool at our resort (shown below) and shopping. Lots of shopping, we hit the markets hard, they sell real gucci amd dior......well at least thats what they told me. But it was all cheap cheap...they gave me good bargains and special one time deals becuase i was there friend, though i dont think i was as special as they made me out to be.


We hardly ventured out of our resort, the furthest we went was to ride elephants! thats right, those huge grey things, yep we rode them, ours was named Nata and was 45 and had to use the toliet a lot and block traffic, we also got to go and see monkeys and ride a water buffalo and pat bubby Elephants. (Ps in the photo below there is only two elephants in the photo, the one in the blue is actually Kristie)

(our romantic dinner)

Feeding the elephant

Well Kristie is yelling at me for not finishing this blog, but dont fear i will be rid of her soon,

but we shall see you all soon, thank you very much for reading our blog and we hope you enjoyed it.

over and out for the last time

Kristie and Alistair

Love Lots

Thank You

Dubai

Dubai, 

Well what an amazing place. So much to say in this blog, but i think ill let the pictures do the talking.

So for the first 3 nights we stayed with Katya (aj's cousin) and her lovely husband Khaled. We had an amazing 3 nights with them, on the first day we were there we went to a dinner party with a few of there friends Gennie and Richard. There apartment is on the Palm island.. this is what the island looks like from birds eye..

The food was amazing, considering we had been deprived of a decent meal in Europe, the BBQ 

steak, fish and prawns were luxury. 

That night we continued on to Raffles hotel, which was in a glass pyramid, and the bar, which was Buddha Asia theme was at the top. Just on the down low, Al and I were underage, its 21 over here, so it was pretty cool to feel rebellious again. After having some champagne, some Roberto cavalli vodka, and a dance  we head to the midnight snack were the locals go. 

The following day we went to Emirates mall for a brief look at the snowsports centre, which ill get to in a minute. Everything in Dubai is so luxurious, valet parking everywhere, we really need to import this custom. Also everyone is really happy to serve you and does it with a smile, I'm talking petrol assistant, waiters, valet assistant, everyone.. Aussies in the service industries need to take a leaf out of there book! yes sir!!! 

That afternoon we went to the china mart, you see Dubai is like a giant theme park, its broken up into different "cities" so for example there is 'media city' which is where CNN and all other broadcasters are stationed.. anyway were went to the china area, which has a gigantic mall called dragon mart (and yes its shaped like one to boot) we spent the afternoon shopping for a new bathroom for Katya and Khaleds new house, which was actually really fun to be involved in. We enjoyed the bartering... and this mall sells everything!!! Anyway 5 hours later we emerge with a new bathroom. That night we get traditional Arabic takeout... hummus, vine leafs etc.. so good. 

The next day was a definite highlight we returned to Emirates mall and went snowboarding.. its fantastic, ill let the photos explain, but just remember this was inside a mall..

After this we shopped and shopped and shopped!!! 

The following day we headed to the pool and relaxed. That night we headed to the Madinat which is boutique hotel.. its beautiful the rooms are in little villas, surrounded by little canals, which Arabic boats float on. it reminded me on an Aladdin, Arabian nights type thing you'd see at Disney land. Here we met up with Alistair's uncle Alex, who lives couple of hours south of Dubai, in Al Ain, and that is were we are currently. 

So Al AIN, this place is still a major city, how ever its far more conservative and the westerners are few and far between.. where in Dubai there everywhere....!!!! Alex is a vet for the Sheikh's (the president figure) camels at the Scientific Centre for Racing Camels, which is a very serious business over here, some of the racing camels are worth up to 5million.. so Alex's job also involves planting camel embryos into camels to produce lots more babies during breeding time. That's the la mans terms for us no vet folk out there.. 

On our first day here, we got to experience first hand what Alex does. First we went to the centre and watched some camel ultra sounds to see if there good for breeding, again for us non-vet readers, this involves a rather large and very long glove... ill let your imaginations figure out the rest lets just say..oh that would hurt. 

In the middle of the day we drove across the border into Oman (yet another country to our list). First we went to a souk (market) full of Aladdin tea pots,  frankincense and mirth etc, really cool experience, we also ventured into an old fort. 

We then went into the middle of nowhere to a waddie, which is like an oasis, water cove thing. unbelievable.. its literally in the middle of no where. Ill let the pictures do the talking, but the little grotto is full of little caves and no one was there, the water was very clear and really warm. 

This is where we parked the car.. i told u in was in the middle of nowhere. 

So beautiful. and very bazaar.

When we returned back to U.A.E  we went on a house call to the cousin of the Sheikh. his camels had some broken legs and we needed to see if they were still good for breeding (i think) again in the middle of no where. They gave us traditional Arabic coffee, and some great date and honey cake. We also so a new born baby camel only 3 hours old. 

That night we went to a little Lebanese restaurant in town called the golden sheep. 

Today is also my dad's 50th everyone!! Happy Birthday dad. love you! 

So onto today, we traveled in Abu Dhabi and went to the Emirates Palace hotel which is another 7 star hotel here, and they dont take there ratings lightly, gold everywhere... and i mean everywhere... we specifically went there however, to experience what i think sums up the U.A.E, a cappuccino with REAL GOLD shavings on top... yes thats right... 24 carat...rich much???

With our tongues glittering like gold and our lips shimmering, we head to Eid's (a friend of Alex) camel racing farm... so beautiful, as the sun was setting over the camels we sat drinking Arabic coffee while listening to the prayer call. 

So we still have two more days here and we fly out on Friday night to Phuket. 

may update the last two Dubai days before we fly out. Hope everyone is well. 

one week and were home... 

thanks again to Katya and Khaled and also Uncle Alex its been an amazing experience. 

xoxox

Kristie n Al 

These are A few Of My Favorite Things..

Ok first off, i would like to say sorry for out last blog, it was an outraged burst that was stupid, i was suffering from a bout of scurvy and was not myself, and jessie is the best blogger in the world, she is in a league of her own, and i once again apologize for the demanding nature of our last blog, feel free to comment as little and as much as you like, if some want to comment twice it is more than welcome.

So from Kuromlov We rented a car (Pictured Below) and drove to Salzburg


Or was That A dream?

Ok well i think was actually happened from cesky krumlov is, we took a private shuttle to Salzburg, though kristie got somewhat worried because the van came to pick us up, it was been driven by two big big Czech men who looked like they had lived in the forest their whole life. So we both were a bit apprehensive, but we believed that more people would join us on the trip, but it turned up that it was just Kris and i and the two recently escaped jail inmates. Long story short, we wound through many back roads in a deep forest and fear was in kristies eyes the whole way, three hours later the hills were alive and the big guys dropped us off unscathed at Salzburg.

We met up in salzburg with two girls we had previously friended in Prague, so that was nice. Salzburg is very small town, framed by a castle sitting up on a hill overlooking the town, the town itself is very cute, with lots of cafes and shops to mingle around, and these are only a few of my favorite things.

So obviously when in Salzburg you must hop on the magical bus ride that is the 'Sound of Music tour'

Our Friends Veronica and Lauren Joined us. Luckly our hostel showed the movie every day at 10am, so we all woke up and watched the 3 hour long musical enchantment then immediatly afterwards hopped on the Bus.


Being the youngest by about 40 years was a good start to the tour, our guide was a commedian only to himself accourding to the under 60 crowd on the bus ( us four ). The tour brought us to several locations in the movie, and was more of a tour of the surrounding area then the movie. But nonetheless it was a good was to spend the day.
Singing tunes and eating strudle. But it had to end eventually and after seven whole hours of the sound of music the Von traps and i started our big journey over the Alps.

We came at the perfect time to slazburg becuase it is mid autum here and all the trees are a stunning color which made for some beautiful walks (which i did while kris was shopping).

From their we said goodbye, farwelll, auf widersehen goodnight.

were meant to head to Switzerland but we did not realise that train tickets into an around the country were outlandish prices, so we did a 180 and decided to go back to Germany and Go toi Munich. Best Choice we ever made.

So Munich...

We Checked into our hostel, as we do. Whilst using the internet later we run into two of our good buddies from the Croatia Tour (Nadine and Emma), They were staying the sames nights we were and doing the same things, so it was great to have familiar faces around.
One night we all headed out to a Bavarian Beer hall, it was huge and packed to the brim with people and beer wenches. The meal we had was by far the best i have had on this trip, price and taste wise. Kris had the bratwurst special, a bit dissapointing but still an oustanding meal. Now onto the big stuff. My Meal, i think i will let the picture do the talking.


(Best meal ever, and how could it not be with the name XXL Bavarian beer hall dinner, containing pork knuckle, roast pork, roast duck, chicken, sausages and a potato dumpling and the best gravy know to man, accompanied by a stein.)

The Next day we went to the castle that Walt Disney moulded the Disney Castle on.
We have been to a lot of castles on this trip, but they were usually more of a fortress than anything else. But this was different this was a Fairytale castle, it was spectacular, pearched high up on a mountainwith the alps in the background. (we took a horse and carriage down the mountian)

We were in a fairlytale the whole day, later that night we said goodbye to our friends. Early the next morning started our journey to Baden Baden in the black forest. Only took us 4 trains and a bus to get their, but thats for the next blog.

Goodbye, Fairwell, auf widersehen Goodnight.

over and out

Love al and kris

....

Since no one cares... you shall not get another exciting blog on Slazburg untill someone gives a dam and comments...

on a happier note... love to you all

and to our serial blog commenter, Kent, good on you boy, we love you the most!!!!

over n out (maybe for the last time, if u dont get ur act together)
x

Czech it Out...

Prague...



well, we have made our way up the continent to good ol' Prague... somehow with out our Lonely Planet... i know shock!!!
well Prague is amazing, very beautiful almost like a postcard, and it did live up to my dads high
praises.
(view of Charles Bridge)

we spent 3 nights here in our 6 bed dorm, which we found to be quiet sociable. our hostel also had a kitchen, which was a real blessing as i cooked a mean pesto pasta, with tons of veggies, as we have been so deprived. (as you can see in our pictures... were huge!!!)
anyway vanity aside, we met some great people at the hostel whom we will be catchin up with in Salzberg... our next chapter. as well as this, we met some Americans, a mother and son, whilst in a game of trivial pursuit, shocked us by not knowing the colours of the Canadian flag.... I KNOW!!!! unbelievable!!! shock aside, Prague was a magnificent city just to roam, have hot chocolates with rum.. yummy.

(old town square)

We also went and visited a medieval torture museum, due to my dad's recommendation,
it was very gruesome!!

torture museum

(lets just say i got sick of him!!!)

(Prague at night)

(old town square, before Al's brutal end!!)

(up at Prague Castle)

(Atomic Clock - in Old Town Square)











Cesky Krumlov


Wow!!! what an amazing and breathtaking place... this is also in the Czech Republic, about 3 hours south of Prague, we are stopping here for two nights. It is a very small version of Prague, in which we profer due to it quieter picturesque quality. there is not much to be said here, just look at the pictures and you'll understand. its an absolute fairytale, very walt disney!!!
(the whole town)
(Aj just off the bus)

(this is the castle tower, behind me...the castle)

(we had lunch just to the right on the bank.)

(castle gardens)

Our accomadation here is amazing... for the same price we get a dorm, usually. we get a private room, with bathroom and kitchentte... as well as a fireplace... it called the "budda suite" very cool!!
(fire place to the left. and our couch)

OK so thats the Czech Republic,

next step is back to Austria, for the 4th time, to Salzberg, the home of The Sound of Music!!! bring it on!!

also on a small note, we leave Europe for Dubai, in 12 sleeps... ahhh

Love Kris n Aj

Croatia Sailing

Well well.....Leaving From Vienna at 6pm we head to Zagreb, Croatia....So after a 5 hour bus ride we arrive close to midnight.....lucky enough our tram to our hostel stops running at midnight....so hear we are, waiting for tram number 5 heading to obstershajsh or something....12.59pm comes around and trams 4,9,8,7,3 have gone by, not to mention trams 8,7 came by twice....gah...so finally at 5 past twelve a tram comes around...not knowing if it is the right tram we hop on, and try to communicate with a fellow passenger. Who tells us in a matter of different words that we are going the in wrong direction....though as convincing as he was in telling us were stupid i decided to double check with the driver. Yes, in fact we are genius and are on the right tram. After a matter of dark alleys we reach our hostel at 1am, the office is closed, in short after a number of hard knocks on the door a guy comes out (who we later got told was blind out of his mind) leads us into our room, sleep takes over. That is until 4.5hours later when we have to wake up and catch another bus down to the seaside city of Split where we are due to embark on our 7 day Sailing cruise.

Split - Was nothing that i expected, after driving through alien landscape, you arrive at this port town with a huge white tiled boulevard on the water full with nice restaurants, it was like a mini french riviera. We Spent one night in a little hostel which was lovely, they brought us coffee and cake when we arrived! what more could you want.

The Boat...- Well it was fit for all 23 of the passengers, it had plentiful deck space and sufficient bar, kris and i went for the cheap option and chose a below deck cabin, our room mate though was very noisy in the mornings, considering our room mate was the engine. Not only that but we had the Croatian crew yelling 'CHICO!' and smashing pots and pans around (well thats what it sounded like anyway) every morning trying to get ye old engine up and puffing. But on the upside we got high of the fumes and our room was bigger than the ones above deck.

Day 1 -Full of surprises which i will not mention, but i think jessi will know what im talking about. lame. anyway we headed off to the island of Hvar and gopt to know our fellow boat people? folk? one of which we found out lives down the road from me and is kristies friends best friend.
Hvar is the rich island, it is where all the huge yachts come and chillax and sleep ontop of a pile of cash ect. The small town is beautiful and the water is crystal clear, the clearest i have ever seen. A brilliant island to start the tour, the night consisted of three pubs.

Day 2 - Mlijet - An island that is a national park, which has two beautiful clear lakes, one of which has a monastery located on a small island in the middle. The photos of Kristie and bridie in the canoe is on one of the lakes. That night we had a BBQ on the boat of traditional croation meats.

Day 3 - Dubrovnik - Beautiful as expected, a unique town unlike any other i have seen, one again crystal clear waters. 3Lt Cocktails....and i guess thats it.
Day 4-5-6 - Koctula - Mararska - Omis - Sorry to cut these places short just im runnign out of breath...all in all the islands were amazing, high cliffs borederd the ocean edge and wonderful water and bars packed thje small cobblestone streets.
Day 7-8 We arrived Back in Split where we said goodbye to our new good good friends, but then the worst possble thing happened! we Lost our lonley Plant book! so pretty much now we are wandering around without a clue, our bible, our baby, our holy grail is lost forever.

Some how we made it on a 12 hour bus to Vienna (hell on earth) then on another bus to Prague where we are situatued now.

Sorry for such bad writing and most of it will not make sense i know.

Sorry about the pictures to this computer wont let us move them... so its a bit messy.

Also since the Aussie Dollar is at an all time low in 5 years...i am accepting donations to the 'Alistair hating the euro foundation'....

over and out
miss you all
Maybe some more than others
joking
not
love kristie and alistair

(Aj in chilling in Split)

our Amazing boat, this is litarally what we did all day.. sunbaked

split again, coffee with the boat gang

The Girls - Bridie, Andrea and me!!!


Aj and I at a lovely seaside bar- i went a bit nuts on the straws



Split again





This is Aj and I in Dubrovnick

Mljet



the three above photos are of the national park in Mljet,
absolutely stunning park. Bridz and me on a canoe which we struggled with



Dubrovnick

Henry, Bridie and Aj "keeping it loose"


this is the view of the city walls in Dubrovnik








this was a really cool cocktail bar we all went to which was on top of a castle/fort type thing... and because of the ladder getting up there, the cocktails had to be pulled up by pullies...

this was yet another beautiful island, with a amazingly clear pebble beach


each day we had the opportunity to jump off the boat into the amazing croatian sees


this was a cocktail bar which sold massive cocktails


as you can see

more boat pics...



yes he is jumping from the top of the boat, was not to keen to watch that.







one night, while docked in an old pirate town, we had a pirate themed pary.. lots of fun..

aj and our new friends went up to a big fort, while i lazily sat in the sun on the boat


the pebble beach

these photos above are of split agian



Aj and his pirate friends (will, henry and sam)




lots love kris n aj

Greece....

Greece...

So from Barcelona, Spain. A flight leaves at 11pm headed for Athens, Greece and aboard it are kristie and i.....previously to departure we had been stuck in the barcelona airport...in terminal C...other wise know as ' in the middle of Butt Face nowhere'...about a 15 min walk from the main terminal...Anyway we had a whole 5 hours to kill in 'terminal c'..you could imagine the joy!..then our flight took off..ahhh relief right? i dont think so, kris and i endured a two and a half hour flight of pure A grade turbulence..on our no name airline which to be frank, smelt like fish.

so we get off from 'turblance airways' - 2.25am - Athens airport....metro to our hostel does not start running till 6am....well well another few hours to kill in the airport..kris and i played cards, slept next to a homeless person then at 5 am decided to go to Mac Donalds for the remainder of our time...we had a joyous breakfast...so did the lady next to us...she had a big mac biggi meal with about 5 cigarettes...mmmmm..the traditional greek breakfast (becuase in greece you can smoke anywhere you like...disgusting).

(4am athens airport)

after some trouble actually figuring out the greek rail sytem, we arrived at our 1 star hostel.... only to find we couldn' check into 12pm.. so we drop of our bags and went right into athens for some sight seeing... now im going to put this a nicely as possible for any greeks out there who r reading this.. athens is a bit behind its fellow europian capitals, with its constent stench, and dirty streets, similar to what u would find in india...(trust me i no)

so we found out that the only thing , and i mean ONLY thing to do in athens was to go see the Acropolis, which literally means a high city. For purposes of defense, it is the ancent city in which the parthanon stands, and although it is 'tourist' city, it is definatly spectacular and big!!!

that evening we checked into our shoebox of a room and headed out for dinner with a girl we met on contiki and her bro and friend Nat..who we will be doing the greek islands with.

so the next day in athens we hung out with them and visited some markets, before catching a ferry to mykonos (6am ferry might i add) - our first stop on the greek islands. while on the ferry we got some great news that a turkish ferry - similar to the one we were on sank...!!! comforting!

ok now on to more positive stuff... the greek islands...!!!!

Mykonos....otherwise know for its homosexuality...so we both fitted in just fine....Expecialy Al

we hopped off the boat to be flooded by people hawking accomodation...we found a nice aussi guy and got accommodation for 10 euros...the place we stayed was beautfiul...small rooms...but beuatiful sandy beachs and lagoon like swimming area full with sea life and naked old men and women....yep! if you cant beat them join them...so we did...?...nt...

The main town ´was built to confuse pirates and boy did it confuse us a number of times...though it did not matter beacuse the whole town was stunning...cute small streets lined with white buildings either side and framed with blue windows, not to mention (for kristies sake) that there was an abundance of gorgeous shops. So no need to say that we had a fantastic two nights there.

(Mykonos)

(Pool at Mykonos)

(Party?)

(the girls and their erotic\amazing strawberry and nutella crepe)

(Ps we were meant to go to ios, but that fell through due to ferries).

(santorinis beach)

Santorini - the famous sunset island, here we also got lucky and stayed at perissa beach, its beach fornt is lined with heaps of funky bars and restraunts...and because we were there just out of peak season everything was half price or more...so cocktails for 3euro...enough said...kris, i and our friends from contiki spent most of our time on the beach. When we wernt we were either on a quad or a scooter flying around the island seeing the sights, and ultimatly going around the the best spot to see the sunset, might i add we had the best dinner at a cliff side tabled that overlooked the sunset...yep yep. on a bad note it acutally rained whilst we were there! what! i know! the locals said it was the first rain all year, and it rained heavy for about 5 hours, and when it was at its heaviest i was driving a qaud with kristie on the back, exposed to natures elements. none the less the photos can show you how wet i got. by the by did i meantion the beachs are black? they actually also have a red beach.

(santorinis buildings and the hansom couple and some old chicky in the back taking a photo, in turn ruining ours)

(Cocktails baby!)

(How wet my front half got on the quad)

(the beautiful where we had dinner overlooking the sunset)

(santorini sunset, it lives up to its name)

(our sexy Scooters!)

(Lunch overlooking red beach)

Which Brings me to the last 24 hours.....in short...a nine hour ferry from santorini to athens (which had no organiation..i had to flight old grandmas to get mx bags in a amd dash to get off the boat where it was a fight club), a night in athens (at this funky hotel, see picture), bed time 1.30am...woke up at 6.30...caught a bus the the airport...two hours at the air port...1.45min flight to Rome....Two hours in rome....1.30min flight to Veinna...Train from veinna airport to our hostel...arrival time 7pm.....though it was a fun day, exhastion took over and we laughed about everything till we could not contain ourselves.

(Singing 'happy birthday Mr. President' whilst on the ferry) )

(on the tarmac at rome, suffering from overtierdnessnessness, symptoms include delusion, nausea, frustration, un controlled laughter)

(our phycadelic hotel, and yes i am fat)

So here we are in vienna, which so far looks amazing, we are staying in a uni residence which is good enough, though it is about 17C here, which is cold for us. Another thing, tonight there is a madonna concert on here and tomorrow is coldplay, so kris and i are going to try and get tickets to that.

(tying to work out the menu in vienna, which was a confusing shape and in german)

Today in Vienna - All i can say is that Austria has got things right, everything about this place fits in, there up to date with everything, things run like clockwork and everyone is really friendly. Vienna is full of parks, historical buildings, trams and clean streets.

Tomorrow to Zagreb, Croatia

(ps for a few more photos, (if you need it?) are on Kristies FaceBook)

over and out

Love Kris and Al

Miss You all