A & K's Trip

Thailand...Phuket were out of here!

2008-11-07T20:01:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-28T11:04:00.003-07:00

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..

2008-10-19T03:50:00.000-07:00

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

....

2008-10-16T23:51:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-10-11T04:44:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-05T05:44:00.000-07:00

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....

2008-09-22T03:42:00.000-07:00

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

From Riches to Rags...(Barcelona,Spain)

2008-09-08T09:39:00.000-07:00

First of all, Thank you Stephen Coade for putting us up in the AB SKIPPER for two nights, it was absolutly amazing, such a delight. But now i write to you from Saint Jordi..A youth hostel...here are some comparisons of the two.

(Meal near the AB Skipper)

(Meals at the Hostel)

(our old living space)

(Our new living space)

(Our bathroom at the AB skipper, we have no photo of the other one saldy, but think of a cardboard box, then stamp on it, thats where we shower now)

(ahh the beach, nice fresh air)

(ahh a giant laundry shoot nest to our kitchen)

(roof top pool at the skipper)

(the view from our room, and the second pool at ground level)

(our current view)

Well....enough said?

over and out

Ps its not that bad

So on a different note, i have not talked about barcelona, first of all it is pretty dam big, it has seven beachs, all of which are fake, the sand was brought in from egypt, for the olympics all those years ago. So the sand is very dust but all in all they are beautiful beachs. small point - it has a starbucks on every corner, which i was not expecting. It is pretty bad for pit pockets ect...for instace the first thing kris and i saw was a girl getting her bagged snatched..(but fear not..her boyfriend ran after the guy and got it, what a dreamboat)...then i told kris i would do that for her if it happened and she just said....´thats sweet...but you cant run or defend yourself´....hmmm...another thing i forgot to mention about san sebastion...it is the home of tapas, which they call pinxos, so there were tapas bars everywhere...actually too many, you could never find a actual restaurant..it seems all the spanish do is eat tiny portions, party, siesta, eat pinoxs, siesta.

Ps - there is another blog below which you may not have read yet

over and under then out

When In Rome.....and a lot of other places

2008-09-04T13:02:00.000-07:00

Ok...So where have we been? What have we been doing? i know the suspense has been killing anyone who has been following our blog (thats if anyone actually cares about what were doing). Well Last time we left you we had just been to Pisa on Contiki, So i shall re-cap on what happened from then till now!. Well we went to Florence (Florenzo) for two nights, Florence is a very beautiful city, though there seemed to be boundless amounts of graffiti on most of the buildings which took away from its beauty. Space Disco was a club we went to one night, pretty cool place, for instance the bar was a giant fish tank, enough said.

(Us before Space)

When in Rome, Thats right we then hit Roma! Besides the fact the second night we were their i had a serious ear infection and balled like a little baby everything was sweet apples. It was abotu 28 in Rome, Kris and i had a brilliant day exploring the city and seeing the major sites we went to Vatican City, Trevi Fountain and the spanish steps just to name a few. On the other hand John and i had an adventure trying to get out of the colosseum (that thing only has one exit and is very hard to find) so indo endo we ended up late for our bus and running around and out of the colosseum with many bystanders looking puzzled and somewhat scared at us. (might i add this is not the first time john and have been late for bus and had to run out of a major attraction, we also ran out of the monte carlo casino).

Contiki then took us to the watery streets of Venice, that campsite we stayed at was very cool and had 6 other contiki groups staying their so it was pretty much party central, the first night we were there was actually Kristie and I´s Two Year anniversary!!! John made a speech at dinner infront of everyone, thanks buddy. ah ha. Veince was a very odd city when you walked around, it was stunning but very different to anything i have seen before. A Gondola ride was in order and was lovely, we ate chips and drank wine whilst crusing the streets? Cannals?. Though i am pretty sure our driver was abusing us and contiki in italian for the entine 60minutes.

Then We headed to Australia, no no Austria, sorry. Contiki owned a nice big house in Austria in a tiny towned called Hofgarten, not much to report besides both going white water rafting, mountain biking, paragliding (yes paragliding), White and bright party (where Steve won a pole dancing competition), a crazy local pub and trout fishing. OK so i lied there actually was loads to report, but words can not describe the fun we had, austria is amazing and paragliding through the austrian alps is something that nothing on this trip will be able to top.

Munich = Beerhall =Yodeling = Beer = Yum For AL = Lame for kristie

Not much to be said about Munich besides the fact it kind of felt like home, had a very Melbounre Vibe to it.

Switzerland - Contiki Once again has a villiage in a stunning location. 11,000ft up from us in the Swiss Alps was Jungfraujoch mountain, it is a 2 hour train ride up (which i had to do four times due to my own stupidity, though thats another story for when im less embarassed about it) Views Views Views is all i can say, all were spectacular, ill let the photos do the talking.

Ok so back to germany to the Rhine Valley, stayed at grandma´s house, Learned all about Riesling and beer steins, though it was only a small stop over.

Holland - Amsterdam - This was are last stop on Contiki so it was a bit emotional for all. Though for Kris and i we were happy becuase it was the only hotel we got to stay in on contiki, so when we found our suite un cleaned and trashed we were a bit sad, but when made it worse was they stuck us in another room (which was an old office converted into a room) about a 10min walk from all of our group, then the hotel staff and i got into a bit of a scruff and such, grumpy.

Well as for the rest of Amsterdam you know what they say What happens in Amsterdam stays in Amsterdam (except for these few photos)

(our sexy faces)

Long blog eh?. Anyway. On the way back to london from holland, we got stuck in a Major traffic jam, like major major, there were no cars on the other side of the highway and we got told it would be abotu 5 hours before we could move, so we did the only reasonable thing, we cracked out some champange and played frisbee on the opposite side of the road. We made it home eventually after our bus then hit a taxi and we were forced to catch a taxi to the hotel, only to find that when we hopped in our taxi the bus pulled in behind us. GAH: LAME. One long day, not to mention we had to leave at 5am in the morning to catch a flight to Biaritz in fracne to then catch two trains and a bus to get to San Sebastion, Spain.

So now were In spain, away from Contiki, and my boys. San Sebastion was great, we stayed in a tiny hostel which was a house that had been converted, very fun and friendly, the downside was i think it was built in the middle ages becuase there were a butt load of stairs to climb to get to it. Anyway Im off for now.

Over and out

Miss you All.

Love Al and Kris

5.55am

2008-08-31T21:55:00.000-07:00

So here i am, i have just been to 5 countires in 24 hours and i am now in San Sebastion, Spain. After the rush rush (which was amazing) of contiki i really just wanted to get more than 3 hours sleep and in a real bed not a bus. So here we are in this tiny home which has been converted into a Hostel, very homely and i can not wait to sleep for a good solid session. SO why am i up at 5am? becuase we are rooming with three other french guys; one of them who snors so so bad i had to think twince whether Spain had a fualt line running through it.

So now i will sign off, but i will write aonther blog soon letting you know how the rest of contiki went.

over and out

gahh

Contiki...

2008-08-17T06:14:00.000-07:00

Well sorry folks for keepign you out of the loop for so long...but a lot has happened and we have been having so much fun that we have not had the time to go on the internet, so sorry for having fun, geez!.

Where to begin...Bonjour! first day of contiki we headed off to france, leaving from the cliffs of dover we headed to Paris! Though kris and i have both been before we are a lot older now to really appreciate the splendor of the city. It is an amzaing place, every head turnt here is something of historical and monumental significance. We kicked off our first night of Contiki by Going to a Caberet Show...oh did i mention i got dragged up on stage? becuase i did, i have a juggling duo put a hat, sunglasses and a cigarette and knock them off my face with bolwing pins, i became quite the star. It was an amazing night one i will remember forever, even with the champange i had.

The next day we just walked Paris, explored the back alleys and had a nap next to the Louvre and The seine. The next day went inside and ran into our dear friend Mona.

From Paris we Headed out to the Boujalous (think thats how you spell it) wine region, where we stayed in Contikis chateau, which was absoloutly amazing, was a stunning place, with terrific veiws, we got to relax and have a picnic with cheese, bagguette and wine. They also had an old cellar down stairs which was converted into a club, called 'the cave'. We had a theme that night 'revenge of the nerds' so hence i just dressed up as i was.

We then made our journey down to the south of france, to the country of Monacco, where we spent an amazing night at the Monte Carlo Casino,with guys were throwing down 10,000 euro at a time, Babes and Fast Cars i felt like James Bond, only better looking. None the less i came out even at the end of the night.

So now we are frolicking around in Florence, we had to make a stop on the way at Pisa, we were called upon to help push up some buliding. Weird i know.

Anyway from here to Rome, so over and out for now and i hope this quick blog was sufficient.

Love and miss You all!!

Over and Out

After a week with COWES one needs a relaxing BATH

2008-08-07T14:03:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody!!
Kris here again... so we pick up were we left off...
Aj and i left Cowes for beautiful Bath for 3 days.

After plowing through thousands of Cowes yachts on our ferry and then catching an 100 dollar train we arrived in little old Bath. and that it was, a very quaint, very old town.
There is nothing modern about this place , which only enhances its charm. The little winding cobblestone streets are lined with beautiful antique stores (in which i found my dream closet -Jessi u wld adore it, i got the website- unfortunately i left empty handed, which was pure will power) and occasionally the odd chain store.
Our hostel was pleasant, the YMCA, which was very clean and as opposed to the London hostel it was sufficiently quiet and peaceful. During the next three days me and Al explored the small town, we got lost in bath, went shopping and ate.
The last day we went and saw "the dark knight" in the Bath cinema, very good movie. And at twilight we went to the roman baths, they are over two thousand years old, and because of the time and day, we pretty much had the place to ourselves, which was lovely. The main swimming pool is the one pictured, it is beautiful, the roof is open and the sky, although overcast and slightly dark, let off a very mystical feeling. they have torches lighten all around it and the water is a teal colour, this along with the history makes it really beautiful.

After such wonderful days in bath we hopped upon another train to long Eaton, this is where Al's mate John has been living for the past 6 months on an exchange... and to my great delight it is the crime capital of England. I sleep really well at night as you can imagine.
any way the next blog i imagine will be from aj about his three days (we currently having)with John and Steve... lord help me!!!
anyway missing everyone, please leave comments and tell me how u all are.
Kris xoxox

Kristie and aj at the roman baths

For dinner one night, we went all out and had a oven roasted chicken with lemon and thyme....on a chip. and a lovely digestic cookie for desert. YUM!!!

The bath abby...very pretty

Aj in a telephone box

Bath was beautiful

xoxox

Sailing...

2008-08-02T14:10:00.000-07:00

Well yesterday John, Steve and I woke up to a 30knot pus wind and looked at each other wondering if they would still want 3 inexperienced crew members onboard the vessle that day. Sure enough the skipper welcomed us onboard with a sly 'its going to be fun today', and indeed it was. In our brightly different coloured suits we looked like the power rangers gang. Sailing with these men was blast, tacking and gybing combined with big waves was a blast, a memory that will stay with me forever.

After that event we got taken on a tour of Osborne House, where Queen Victoria spent most of her time after Prince Albert died. Though with my sea legs on the whole thing seemed to be a giant moving ship, but nonetheless it was a moving and very interesting estate.

Enough for now, i do not know when i wll be able to put more pictures on due to the fact from here we head to bath.

I would Like to thank Chris and Caroline dearly for Housing us for these six nights, we have had a blast, thank you soo much.

Over and out

Walking the Plank..

2008-07-31T14:44:00.000-07:00

Well is the eve before us young lads hop aboard the 'ephesian', the very same fine vessle that is going to take the 'road kill valley yacht club' to there first victory.

But in the lead up to this grand day we have many ups and many downs, actually no downs at all, just all ups.

Firstly on the 30th our dear Friend Steve came all the way from china in dashing style to suprise all of us, out of the blue on the dock john and myself saw a tall boy, and dear me it was steve, the joy was endless that day, and so was the beer.

After this event, we had our jumper presentations, our fine captain Dingo Bloody Fedora (Dr Andy) delivered many inspirational words and we were all knighted as a crew member of the EPHESIAN.

It was a grand night indeed that lead to a late night Kabab meal.

I bid thy farwell and wish thy luck for tomorrows evdevor.

Over and Out

London and Cowes

2008-07-29T04:16:00.000-07:00

hey everybody,

so amidst Alistair's crazy stories, London has been incredible. i really liked it there, which surprised me. so to pick up where AL left off, we have the first annual sailing meeting of the road kill valley yacht club, were we met up with dad and Andi an all the other crew members for a very special dinner, after a lot of wine and very yummy food i somehow became the president of this yacht club, the night was ridiculously fun with lots of silliness from all ages. the next day the boys and i went to spitafeilds market, which is a fashion market. however it was so hot (28) that e bailed out and went and met up with dad instead. john, AL, dad and myself then made our way over to Westminster, and big Ben, on the very efficient tube station which i have grown to enjoy. big Ben - which is actually called the Westminster clock tower - a common misconception, was breathtaking, a lot bigger than i wld have imagined. and Westminster, although i was closed(being a Sunday) was also so old and historical. dad, aj and myself went on the London eye. although it was huge, and a fantastic view, i would bother again. its not that exciting. the next day dad and i did a double decker bus tour around the sites. it was great to see the landscape of London and really get my bearings a bit. it is a spectacular city, the history is great and u can really picture the times of the great plague and fire. we had lunch in Carnaby street, if u don't no this street, it was very big in the 'Twiggy' era and was known for its outrageous fashion, it is also where Ben Sherman began. that afternoon john al and myself found our way down to East Cowes, which is in the 'isle of whit'. we caught a ferry across the isle which was cool to see the water and all the boats. Cowes itself is adorable, although i haven't explored it yet, on a first impression is very 'English seaside' quaint and cute. anyway the week ahead should be good, a week of sailing, pub and exploring the countryside.

happy birthday mum and jessi
xooxox
Photos, also include, madame trussurds

Nik and Waxy's Little sister

2008-07-26T09:10:00.000-07:00

Well last night we had our first London night life experience, thought in the lead up to it we met with JOHNNY BOY!! and saw the queens homestead and hyde park. Then we met up with Johns mate Fraser and his mate and hit 4 pubs, over here they just drink at one pub (out on the street) then continue on to another until you cant walk. though we headed home early and got some much needed rest. Today on the other hand we woke up early saw the London bridge, met u with Dr.Andy aka Captain Dingo Bloody Fedora, i gained the nick name bermuta GH, had chinese, went into a cigar shop, ended up at the pub on the street eating crackers and cheese with a guy named nik(who had more money than to know what to do with) and his wife rosmary (who had just come shopping from Dior and Gucci), anyway it was a fun day on the town with andy and clieve. out to dinner tonight, dressing up in a suit and tie, should be a good adventure if it was anything like today.
Over and out

London Baby!!...

2008-07-24T11:24:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody, well we are in London town, the flight over was ok, besides the fact i had a nice French boy sit next to me, who i soon found out did not have it all quite together up in his head, with the constant twitching going on next to me along with the poking at me trying to show me the funny bits in HIS movie, sleeping was a mere issue. Although i must say his obsession with chewing gum then making a ball out of the chewed pieces ( all twenty of them ), was the pinnacle of the flight. London however, on a first impression is very London... what u would expect, cute, quaint and busy. our hostel is cool. and comfitable. our cell (i mean room) is sufficient! meeting up with John tomz, yay!!!
anyway got to go internet time running out.
love to u all
xox
over and out (aj)

2008-07-22T10:01:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody,

hope everyone is doing well. Kristie here this time!!

Ok so after edmonton we cam back to lloydminster, which is where we have been for the past week or so, however it has been jammed packed full of exciting adventures, most of which will make the Barnes family jealous (ha ha mick).
so to begin our week Uncle Doug took us up on his plane- not to sure what type of plane but i do no it was a P28 180

we we got a birds-eye view of the surrounding area. man this place has a lot of oil, extreme!!! so from the air you could see the prairies, all the canola fields, native and religious colonies, very cool. however on the way back from our tour we were all extremely quiet due to a little air sickness. i sat up front and got to enjoy the fantastic view when landing....holy!

here is one of the thousands of canola Fields

We then headed up to Little Fishing lake. this is where Uncle Doug and Auntie deb have their cabin. so this next couple of days involved a few sports that lets just say we are not insured to do - technically!!!! luckily no one got hurt, however i have a tiny cut above my left eye. if i weren't wearing sunglasses - who knows.. ha ha!!

so a bit of boating was on the agenda and we both took our turns at wake boarding, and its not that different from snow boarding, except when u fall.

Al's turn first

i however was a little more apprehensive in my attempt
although i did get there.

we also went tubing - we actually popped the tube!!!

but all in all we had a fantastic time on the lake

.

from one extreme sport to another, we hit the muddy trails for a "three hour tour" on the 4-wheelers.

now this was insanely fun, lets just say we are lucky we had a winch. the mud and puddles were so fun, we all we covered in it.

aj claims he saw a bear, and we did see the bears prints. and we saw a beaver dam. but it was just so much fun,

here are some of the adventures of quading:

it was a ridiculously fun time.

so that's been us over the last couple of days, we leave for London tomorrow which is exciting. we will keep u updated

aj will be doing a food segment, later this evening. on Canadian food!

xoxox lots love

Lake Louise.Banff..Calgary.Edmonton..Lloydminster

2008-07-10T09:11:00.000-07:00

Well Aj here...We have not been gone that long but gosh does it feel like forever, well the gripping adventure continues, from whistler we headed back through downtown Vancouver (due to the fact i forgot my jacket at our last hotel...hmmm..oops) with my jacket safely recovered we started our eight hour drive down to Oosoyos. (which is a town which is in the middle of a series of lakes, the US border is just a short boat trip away)

This is where My uncle and auntie were staying, Oosoyos is the hottest place in Canada apparently, i say apparently because we were welcomed there with 2 hours of rain, hail, lighting and thunder. This Rain unfortunately continued on in our drive through the Rocky Mountains, what is suppose the be the most beautiful scenery in Canada. Which was a bit of a downer, though it seemed fate was on our side and as we were coming to lake Louise the weather cleared up, words or pictures can not describe how beautiful lake Louise was, it looks exactly like all the post cards, absolutely stunning.

The Hotel On lake Louise (the Fairmont) is huge, also very expensive, Kris seemed some what disappointed when i would not book a room for the night.

From there we headed to Banff, a lovely quaint mountain town. We went up another Gondola Ride (though this time it did not stop halfway up the mountain for 15 minutes). Kris and i also had a drink at the bar and met some lovely bar men who were very interested in jager bombs.

Calgary - We stayed four nights with more of my relatives, nothing too terribly exciting to report besides shopping sprees and going up the calgary tower, though i did find out that Kristie is addicted to Guitar hero.

We finally arrived in Lloydminster, my family's home town. It is a fairly small town, but a great example of a Canadian town, every car is a TRUCK and driven by a muscle headed, tattoo covered Cowboy(though this is a slight over exaggeration, there are some normal/ordinary people living in the town/city). We Got lucky, because the county fair was in town, YEEE HAAA!, this meant more cowboys and farm animals (not talking about Kristie). We went on some rides, Kristie screamed her head off and cried on each one, it was the funniest thing i have ever seen, i cried of laughter, here is a photo which i think captures the moment nicely.

But to calm her down i had to do the right thing and win her a toy, Although the first thing i won was a fuzzy foot on a stick.......Kris said i could keep it....But i later sweet talked a carnie and traded it in for a elephant.

After the hype of the Fair, we ventured to Edmonton for the weekend. There we stayed with my cousins and went to the biggest mall in the world..here are some of the sites to see in West Edmonton Mall.

(water park)

(Pirate Ship + Submarine rides + seals shows)

(Amusement park + Roller coaster)

(Ice Skating)

Until next time..Over and out

Alistair

PS: i added some Photos to the other Blogs

Canada...day 1 2 3

2008-07-02T21:44:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody,
Kris and Aj here! we are at the moment in Whistler, it is the most breathtaking, amazing place. its summer here, and obviously whistler in known for its winter but it is still breathtaking, snow is still on the very very top.

we went on a gondola today which went to the very top of the mountain 7,500 feet!!! we touched Canadian snow. the hotel we are staying at its also pretty special, this is defiantly a place to re-visit. Dad - you would love this place so much, it has a Yosemite feel, but better!!! we went a beautiful walk today through these big pine trees, it smelt like Christmas!!! and there was a icy blue stream, i half expected a bear to show up, unfortunately the bear clearly had prior arrangements than to entertain/eat two tourist like ourselves. we have already stopped at Vancouver which was lovely, a big beach!! its been super hot here 36 degrees- ish.
tomorrow we head down to a big lake to hit the water sports!
hope everyone is very well, and cold in little old Melbourne!

miss u already
love kristie and Aj xoxoxo
(stay tuned for the next blog to be more humorous/lame, as it aj's turn next)

D-Day Approaches

2008-06-24T21:23:00.000-07:00

Hmmm...well here i am at work, telemarketing as it was, taking a break to breif the team on what stage we are up to. Well 4 days until departure, enough said? NO, now kris and i are panicking on what we have to buy (flyspray, sunscreen, detergent, clothes line, medications, photocopy passports, get adaptors, bandaids, money changed over, i still need some good shoes! GAHHH) and then there is the tiny issue that we dont have enough money to get to where we want to and that i will have to sell my body in thialand, minor detail according to some, so flight status you asked? well From Melbourne to Auckland, Auckland to Vancouver, (3 nights there, mother and sis of mine are coming over the day after we arrive), Vancouver (driving) to whistler, then down to Osoyoos, Banff, Calgary, Edmonton, Lloydminster! the town of The candy man otherwise know as my grandpa, Glenn, Folks from there we head to Europe, Then a quick week stop over in the Middle east, swing by Thailand on the way home and we are back downunder, with no money, no job, no friends.
over and out for now
Al