Things I Am Loving:
* Being on holidays in the first place.
* Annual Leave Loading. God bless the public service!
* Finally being in Europe. It's been a while in the planning.
* Starting to plan the next trip...
* Striking a happy Helen/Mike balance of planning, decision-making and going with the flow.
* European pillows. The big, fat square variety.
* Continental breakfasts. So civilised!
* Finding Lush shops all over the world. Being able to find them just using smell.
* Using Lush bath bombs all over the world.
* Everyone else speaking English - makes life SO much easier.
* Under-estimating the exchange rate in my favour, and having more spending money left than I thought.
* The prospect of going Birkenstock shopping in Frankfurt.
* Being able to say basic things in other languages - danke schoen!
* Looking forward to becoming one of those annoying people who have been in a city/country for 6 hours and tell lots of "Oh, when I was in [city/country], I [insert annoying travel anecdote here]" stories.
* Getting a new Mozart Loves Prague t-shirt to replace the one bought for me about 14 years ago, which has served me well but is now dying.
* Being in a place where it is normal to have a physical history more than 200 years old.
* Being in a place that, despite it's long history, is still very geographically young. The rocks are all still pointy, they haven't been around for very long!
* A fabulous, easy-to-understand public transport network.
* The option, albeit never taken, of using a mini-bar. I'm tempted to get a little fridge to have in my bedroom or under my desk at work, I love them so much.
* Drinking Belgian Beer in Belgium.
* Taking Belgian Beer from Belgium back home. Drinking Belgian Beer from Belgium at home.
* Too many other small things to count...
Things I Am NOT Loving:
* Getting motion sick on the plane and up-chucking steadily for 23 hours.
* The prospect of getting motion sick on the plane going home; upchucking for another 23 hours.
* The prospect of upchucking for 23 hours while traveling alone and my honey is still in London.
* European pillows that are neither big nor fat but are instead stupid and flat.
* SFH weather, sweating like a pig in 95% humidity for days on end.
* Not being on holidays any more; going back to a normal working life. Aaahhh!
* Being VERY sniffly while on holidays. Having a travel partner who is also very sniffly, which makes him snore like a combine harvester.
* Constantly having to buy tissues, water and hypo food.
* Constantly having to do blood tests. My fingers are starting to spontaneously bleed.
* Shared bathrooms. Don't do it - just don't.
* FRICKIN' EUROPEAN CHAIN-SMOKERS!
* Frickin' stupid and out-dated European smoking regulations. Do the words Lung and Cancer have no meaning for these people?
* Not having the free use of a washing machine. Paying hotel rates to have someone else wash my smalls. Paying hotel rates for someone else, having washed my smalls, to then put a g-string on a clothes hanger. Paying for this privilege.
* Lots of other small, annoying things that in no way come close to out-balancing the good stuff.
Lots of love, H
Monday, 30 June 2008
Wien
Greetings all,
I'm feeling pretty smug - it's the End of Financial Year in Oz, and I'm on holidays! Nyer nyer!
Vienna Day #1 cont.
After faithfully blogging and sending messages home, we went to one of the Wien institutions, the American Cocktail Bar. Why the "American"? Who knows. This little bar has just turned 80 years old, and the cocktail list was very impressive. [I kept up with my keep-sake tradition, collecting cocktail menus... Everyone needs a hobby, right? To be fair, though, I did make sure that the menu I procured was pretty ratty and likely to be replaced pretty soon anyway. Promise.] We met some VERY lovely local lads who gave us lots of local hints for places to see & go. It turns out that the German & Austrian nations are not the best of friends - kinda like the Aussie-Kiwi relationship - so everyone here is rooting for Spain in the Cup final.
After a few drinks, we wandered about some more and found a cute little pub bistro for dinner. No dark beer on tap, which was a slight bummer. Since we're in the Schnitzel capital of the world (I LOVE that it's always spelled correctly here!) we had to have the cliche-ed Wiener Schnitzel for dinner, and I have to be honest here - it was pretty disappointing. NOTHING like the wonderful fare at Una's! Hopefully we'll get the chance to try again while we're here. After dinner we staggered back to the pension and continued the nightly game of "Sleep is Optional". I suspect the SFH (Stinking, Frickin' Hot) weather is still to blame.
Vienna Day #2
I'm loving this city. We spent Sunday wandering the streets and saw some amazing stuff...
We started out by walking up towards the palace & grounds to see the sights plus the Euro Cup Fan Zone. We walked past the Jewish Monument, a memorial for those lost in the Holocaust. The powerful images it represents were only slightly diminished by the wafting aroma resulting from all of the horse-drawn cart tours passing by. The smell of horse plus the standard SFH weather makes it pretty easy to locate the tour path!
We also managed to find an English-only cinema, thanks to our cocktail-loving locals. It was showing the new Roger Donaldson flick, The Bank Job, which seemed a good, air-conditioned alternative to the SFH weather!
The Fan Zone was pretty-much a yawn affair - merchandise, sponsor stands and a big mo-fo screen with a count-down to kick-off. We did a quick lap and continued on to the Museum Quarter, home of the National Library (by crikey, in an impressive building! Beats the hell out of leaky Ultimo for a library space!), the royal palaces & collections, plus the usual assortment of souvenirs, etc.
We then jumped on the metro to the Summer Palace, but we both quickly realised that this involved a lot more walking about in the sun and SFH humidity - no thanks. We headed back to the pension for a nap. After a few hours, we spent some time looking through all our maps, tour booklets & travel books to try and organise the rest of our visit time.
We walked back into the centre of town, looking for a nice place to Eat, Drink, and get football Merry, and struck gold almost immediately. A great little Indian place advertised itself as a Cocktail Bar & Restaurant, which to me indicated that they had their priorities in order! We found some seats outside in the crowd facing one of the mega-screens showing the game coverage and settled back.
2 hours, 4 cocktails and a butter chicken later (plus a partridge in a pear tree!), the score was 1-0 in favour of Spain. Again, most of the Austrians in the crowd were barracking for Spain, so just-about everybody was pretty darn happy with the result. We followed the crown into St Stephen's Square, mingled a bit with the party and headed back to bed.
Vienna Day #4
If I wanted 95% humidity, I would have stayed in Sydney...
After playing another night of Toss & Turn Olympics (no, not the fun kind!) we were both awake, showered, dressed and breakfast-ed by 8.30am which has been unheard-of so far in this trip. We headed back on the U-Bahn to the Summer Palace, and this time actually walked around having a look. The cool change finally came through (FINALLY!) and the rain was really welcome. The tour arrangement of the private rooms at the palace was pretty efficient, and we were herded through with about a gazillion other tourists.
Seeing this place, it is now pretty obvious to me why there are revolutions. Looking at the way the royal people lived over several generations, you start to dislike the smug bastards. Do they REALLY need gold gilting on every single wall? Surely the money they spent on the freakin' silver carriages COULD have been put to better use?! Plus, all of the in-breeding, political marriages and conniving could have been effort best put towards something a little more productive than more generations of in-breeders.
Regardless, it was a truly beautiful building. We headed into the (uber extravagant) gardens to the sound of a brass band. Once we arrived at the concert stage, we saw that the performers were from the NSW Fire Brigade Band and Marching Squad. We traveled half the way around the frickin' world to hear a band from home... (Helen rolls eyes in disgust). Mind you, they were pretty entertaining. The marching girls were a little scary, though.
Lots of attention was paid to two pretty different women - Empress Sisi and Princess Maria Louise. Separated by a few hundred years, they had some pretty different stories told about them. For example, I learned that Maria Loise inherited from her father, and managed to keep an empire together despite all sorts of maneuvering. She and hubby were apparently very much in love, and much credit is given to a piece of paper found in her bible after her death, counting the years, weeks, days & hours of their marriage. The fact that they had 18 children is probably a contributing factor to the theory of a happy marriage. (It's probably easier to have a big family when you have a palace full of servants to help take care of them!) Queenie is also praised for her prudent politicking when choosing spouses for her children to advance Austria's alliances in Europe - her daughter Marie Antoinette married well (I swear, they think this was a good, motherly marriage for her to make!) and the fact that poor Marie was auctioned off at the age of 14 to a dude who ended up loosing her a head just means that she didn't pay enough attention to the lessons her mother taught her! (These Austrians are crazy.)
This contrasted by the example of Sisi, a frivolous girl who married into the royals at the age of 16. She was, by all accounts, a flighty & vain lass, who wouldn't pay attention to her wise and instructive mother-in-law, but instead became obsessed with maintaining her slender figure and flitting about Europe. (The fact that she was ignored by her workaholic and cradle-snatching husband, had few friends, had 8 kids so probably had to work damn hard to retain her pre-baby body, and wasn't even ALLOWED to have a say in raising her own children, are facts conveniently ignored.) when she did rebel, and refused to send kiddie no. 8 back to Austria for her MIL to take of the poor lad's education, they practically sent the army after her.
We did a quick lap of the formal gardens, saw the big mo-fo of a fountain, and grabbed a quick lunch. We then headed to the art nouveau metro station, M got some pictures while I got a coffee.
Back into the city, we stopped in at the Royal Crypt in a church just off the central mall. Despite all of my bolshie raving about the palace, the crypt was very moving. The crypt goes back to the early 1600s, and the obvious attention and love with which the memorials have been made and laid here is amazing. The saddest part were some of the graves for the little guys, plus the memorial for Franz Ferdinand and wife Sophie of WWI misfortune. Sophie was not a popular choice as royal wife, so when they married FF was forced to sign a document acknowledging the fact that Sophie would not be buried in the royal crypt. Good on him, he added that he wouldn't go there if she couldn't, and arranged a joint burial site for them in one of his country estates - on yer, Franz! Such a shame they ended up needing it so soon...
Afternoon tea was a Viennese coffee plus sacher torte - when in Vienna, do as the Viennese do! Mike is currently doing a walking tour showing the sights from the movie The Third Man. We're meeting up at the local brew house for dinner & beverages soon.
I'm feeling pretty smug - it's the End of Financial Year in Oz, and I'm on holidays! Nyer nyer!
Vienna Day #1 cont.
After faithfully blogging and sending messages home, we went to one of the Wien institutions, the American Cocktail Bar. Why the "American"? Who knows. This little bar has just turned 80 years old, and the cocktail list was very impressive. [I kept up with my keep-sake tradition, collecting cocktail menus... Everyone needs a hobby, right? To be fair, though, I did make sure that the menu I procured was pretty ratty and likely to be replaced pretty soon anyway. Promise.] We met some VERY lovely local lads who gave us lots of local hints for places to see & go. It turns out that the German & Austrian nations are not the best of friends - kinda like the Aussie-Kiwi relationship - so everyone here is rooting for Spain in the Cup final.
After a few drinks, we wandered about some more and found a cute little pub bistro for dinner. No dark beer on tap, which was a slight bummer. Since we're in the Schnitzel capital of the world (I LOVE that it's always spelled correctly here!) we had to have the cliche-ed Wiener Schnitzel for dinner, and I have to be honest here - it was pretty disappointing. NOTHING like the wonderful fare at Una's! Hopefully we'll get the chance to try again while we're here. After dinner we staggered back to the pension and continued the nightly game of "Sleep is Optional". I suspect the SFH (Stinking, Frickin' Hot) weather is still to blame.
Vienna Day #2
I'm loving this city. We spent Sunday wandering the streets and saw some amazing stuff...
We started out by walking up towards the palace & grounds to see the sights plus the Euro Cup Fan Zone. We walked past the Jewish Monument, a memorial for those lost in the Holocaust. The powerful images it represents were only slightly diminished by the wafting aroma resulting from all of the horse-drawn cart tours passing by. The smell of horse plus the standard SFH weather makes it pretty easy to locate the tour path!
We also managed to find an English-only cinema, thanks to our cocktail-loving locals. It was showing the new Roger Donaldson flick, The Bank Job, which seemed a good, air-conditioned alternative to the SFH weather!
The Fan Zone was pretty-much a yawn affair - merchandise, sponsor stands and a big mo-fo screen with a count-down to kick-off. We did a quick lap and continued on to the Museum Quarter, home of the National Library (by crikey, in an impressive building! Beats the hell out of leaky Ultimo for a library space!), the royal palaces & collections, plus the usual assortment of souvenirs, etc.
We then jumped on the metro to the Summer Palace, but we both quickly realised that this involved a lot more walking about in the sun and SFH humidity - no thanks. We headed back to the pension for a nap. After a few hours, we spent some time looking through all our maps, tour booklets & travel books to try and organise the rest of our visit time.
We walked back into the centre of town, looking for a nice place to Eat, Drink, and get football Merry, and struck gold almost immediately. A great little Indian place advertised itself as a Cocktail Bar & Restaurant, which to me indicated that they had their priorities in order! We found some seats outside in the crowd facing one of the mega-screens showing the game coverage and settled back.
2 hours, 4 cocktails and a butter chicken later (plus a partridge in a pear tree!), the score was 1-0 in favour of Spain. Again, most of the Austrians in the crowd were barracking for Spain, so just-about everybody was pretty darn happy with the result. We followed the crown into St Stephen's Square, mingled a bit with the party and headed back to bed.
Vienna Day #4
If I wanted 95% humidity, I would have stayed in Sydney...
After playing another night of Toss & Turn Olympics (no, not the fun kind!) we were both awake, showered, dressed and breakfast-ed by 8.30am which has been unheard-of so far in this trip. We headed back on the U-Bahn to the Summer Palace, and this time actually walked around having a look. The cool change finally came through (FINALLY!) and the rain was really welcome. The tour arrangement of the private rooms at the palace was pretty efficient, and we were herded through with about a gazillion other tourists.
Seeing this place, it is now pretty obvious to me why there are revolutions. Looking at the way the royal people lived over several generations, you start to dislike the smug bastards. Do they REALLY need gold gilting on every single wall? Surely the money they spent on the freakin' silver carriages COULD have been put to better use?! Plus, all of the in-breeding, political marriages and conniving could have been effort best put towards something a little more productive than more generations of in-breeders.
Regardless, it was a truly beautiful building. We headed into the (uber extravagant) gardens to the sound of a brass band. Once we arrived at the concert stage, we saw that the performers were from the NSW Fire Brigade Band and Marching Squad. We traveled half the way around the frickin' world to hear a band from home... (Helen rolls eyes in disgust). Mind you, they were pretty entertaining. The marching girls were a little scary, though.
Lots of attention was paid to two pretty different women - Empress Sisi and Princess Maria Louise. Separated by a few hundred years, they had some pretty different stories told about them. For example, I learned that Maria Loise inherited from her father, and managed to keep an empire together despite all sorts of maneuvering. She and hubby were apparently very much in love, and much credit is given to a piece of paper found in her bible after her death, counting the years, weeks, days & hours of their marriage. The fact that they had 18 children is probably a contributing factor to the theory of a happy marriage. (It's probably easier to have a big family when you have a palace full of servants to help take care of them!) Queenie is also praised for her prudent politicking when choosing spouses for her children to advance Austria's alliances in Europe - her daughter Marie Antoinette married well (I swear, they think this was a good, motherly marriage for her to make!) and the fact that poor Marie was auctioned off at the age of 14 to a dude who ended up loosing her a head just means that she didn't pay enough attention to the lessons her mother taught her! (These Austrians are crazy.)
This contrasted by the example of Sisi, a frivolous girl who married into the royals at the age of 16. She was, by all accounts, a flighty & vain lass, who wouldn't pay attention to her wise and instructive mother-in-law, but instead became obsessed with maintaining her slender figure and flitting about Europe. (The fact that she was ignored by her workaholic and cradle-snatching husband, had few friends, had 8 kids so probably had to work damn hard to retain her pre-baby body, and wasn't even ALLOWED to have a say in raising her own children, are facts conveniently ignored.) when she did rebel, and refused to send kiddie no. 8 back to Austria for her MIL to take of the poor lad's education, they practically sent the army after her.
We did a quick lap of the formal gardens, saw the big mo-fo of a fountain, and grabbed a quick lunch. We then headed to the art nouveau metro station, M got some pictures while I got a coffee.
Back into the city, we stopped in at the Royal Crypt in a church just off the central mall. Despite all of my bolshie raving about the palace, the crypt was very moving. The crypt goes back to the early 1600s, and the obvious attention and love with which the memorials have been made and laid here is amazing. The saddest part were some of the graves for the little guys, plus the memorial for Franz Ferdinand and wife Sophie of WWI misfortune. Sophie was not a popular choice as royal wife, so when they married FF was forced to sign a document acknowledging the fact that Sophie would not be buried in the royal crypt. Good on him, he added that he wouldn't go there if she couldn't, and arranged a joint burial site for them in one of his country estates - on yer, Franz! Such a shame they ended up needing it so soon...
Afternoon tea was a Viennese coffee plus sacher torte - when in Vienna, do as the Viennese do! Mike is currently doing a walking tour showing the sights from the movie The Third Man. We're meeting up at the local brew house for dinner & beverages soon.
Saturday, 28 June 2008
Euro Cup Fever
Greetings all,
It's been a few days of jam-packed excitement, so here we go...
Prague day #3 was spent on a trip to St Nicholas church - wonderfully old and extravagant, then on to the Jewish Quarter for a more intensive look-see. Mike went on a tour of the old synagogues, and I went back to one of the garnet jewellry shops for a closer look.
As I was leaving the jewellry shop was when someone tried to pick-pocket stuff from my bag! I was about to cross the road when I heard one of the zippers on my bag moving, turned around and some %$@$ing chick was trying to rip me off. The outer zipper on the bag had been opened [thankfully, there wasn't anything in there apart from some free tourist maps, haha sucked in!] and she was trying to give me a little-miss-innocent face. Yeah, right. She even tried to sign-language to me that her jacket [oh-so casually held over her arm on the warmest day in 2008 - was I born yesterday?] had brushed up against my bag. As if! I was pretty shocked - you are told that this sort of thing happens but I had thought I was being careful so it wouldn't happen to me! So I chased after her for a few metres, yelling and waving my arms around - it was probably pretty funny for someone watching. I holed up in a cafe for Mike to finish his tour, and we did some more wandering. After dinner we went to the Absinthe Bar and Mike enjoyed some of the fine local product.
Now, when I'm walking around, I've started doing a kind-of swishing from side to side, trying to put any would-be thieves off. Bastards.
We really enjoyed our last day in Prague - wandering around some more in the old city, and I went on a solo expedition to try and find some baby sling fabric at local prices, for the special sling-wearers in my life. Unfortunately, the local prices included the 19% VAT, so it wasn't really worth it. [I may need to do a co-op shop when I get home.] I was pretty proud of myself for NOT getting lost and not getting robbed again. I made it back to the hotel, just in time to check [haha] out and jump on a metro train to the station [accompanied by The Ace of Spades - sometimes my i-pod has a delicious sense of timing. Like when I'm walking to work and it starts playing Queen's I've Got To Break Free] We jumped on an inter-city service to Brno, got a taxi to the airport and met up with Craig & Eva and their bus-load of wedding guests. It took about an hour to reach Lednice where we checked [haha again] into the hotel.
The only down-side to leaving Prague was that Mike now had my serious head cold - poor baby!
C & E had arranged a lovely dinner in an old wine cellar, and they kept the local wine flowing! We met some of their friends and had a really great night.
Wedding Day.
In keeping with the holiday theme of "Sleep, Nah, Who Needs It?" and with poor Mike feeling unwell, we didn't get too much rest. I'm pretty sure the wine from the night before had nothing to do with this! Mike and I wandered into Lednice in the morning and managed to find the only pharmacist in town - and god bless him, he could speak English. We loaded up on cold & flu products, did a quick stop at the local supermarket, and went back to the hotel. I managed to have a nap, and Mike had some quiet time with his book.
Then it was wedding time! We dolled up in our finery - Mike looked VERY spunky - and went to meet everyone downstairs. After wating for the thunder storm to pass, we all walked up the hill and across the road to the Lednice Chateau, an old house/castle/gorgeous old buidling & gardens. We had to wait a bit for the bride, and she arrived in a horse-drawn cart looking so happy and gorgeous I got a little teary.
The service was kinda funny - the local priest was trying to conduct the service in two langagues and bless him, he did a pretty good job. The poor man seemed embarassed about his english - but it was WAY better than my Czech! The sun came out and my heels kept slipping into the grass. Eventually I just dug them into the turf and then couldn't keep my balance! I ended up hobbling over to the path way and stood [well, more shifted-around-in-the-one-spot for a while] in the shade.
After the service I hobbled back down the hill to the hotel for the reception. I'd been warned by one of my buddies that heels and cobble-stones do not mix - she was right. I went up the elevator for a quick shoe change and, back downstairs, enjoyed heartily the champagne & finger food that was on offer until the happy coupld finished their photos, etc.
I have to say - I LOVE finger food! Even more than real food! There's just something about people offering you food from a platter, and balancing the glass of wine with the napkin, that really strikes a chord with me. There was lots of happy conversations, bubbly wine, yummy food, more wine, laughter, wine... A fab time.
When Eva & Craig arrived back, there was the ritual humiliation of Catching the Bouquet. I normally don't DO this sort of thing, but this time I thought, What the hell?, and wouldn't you know it... I caught it! Mike went a VERY interesting colour, and much joking followed.
Dinner was great, as was the beverage accompaniment. We shared a table with Patrick & Ann who we had met the night before, as well as John & Pauline, all from London. The speeches were funny, and we were completely full by the time we left.
For the first time in ages, and probably thanks to the copious amount of wine and ex-Soviet flu tablets, we had a really good night of sleep!
Day... Whatever We're Up To
Today we got up fairly early, packed up our stuff and left Lednice. Craig & Eva saw us off [they are SO in love it's really cute!], we caught a tiny-and-shaky train to Breclav and then on to Vienna. We DID have some Austrian police storm the train at the border - probably looking for football holigans - but it was pretty clear training to Vienna. We found a post office, sent our wedding clothes home, jumped on the metro, settled into our pension, and now we're out and about checking out Vienna [less funny when you;re not in Czech].
The Euro Cup final is being held here tomorrow, and the whole city is buzzing. There are about 15 gazillion people in supporters' gear wandering about, all of the bars are jam-packed with people singing rousing songs [mostly in German - maybe the Spaniards are arriving tomorrow], lots of police. Everyone seems so happy and excited, it's a good time to be here.
We have a half-plan of finding one of the Fan Zones tomorrow to watch the game, but only time will tell if this works out...
Lots of love to all, we miss you!
H
It's been a few days of jam-packed excitement, so here we go...
Prague day #3 was spent on a trip to St Nicholas church - wonderfully old and extravagant, then on to the Jewish Quarter for a more intensive look-see. Mike went on a tour of the old synagogues, and I went back to one of the garnet jewellry shops for a closer look.
As I was leaving the jewellry shop was when someone tried to pick-pocket stuff from my bag! I was about to cross the road when I heard one of the zippers on my bag moving, turned around and some %$@$ing chick was trying to rip me off. The outer zipper on the bag had been opened [thankfully, there wasn't anything in there apart from some free tourist maps, haha sucked in!] and she was trying to give me a little-miss-innocent face. Yeah, right. She even tried to sign-language to me that her jacket [oh-so casually held over her arm on the warmest day in 2008 - was I born yesterday?] had brushed up against my bag. As if! I was pretty shocked - you are told that this sort of thing happens but I had thought I was being careful so it wouldn't happen to me! So I chased after her for a few metres, yelling and waving my arms around - it was probably pretty funny for someone watching. I holed up in a cafe for Mike to finish his tour, and we did some more wandering. After dinner we went to the Absinthe Bar and Mike enjoyed some of the fine local product.
Now, when I'm walking around, I've started doing a kind-of swishing from side to side, trying to put any would-be thieves off. Bastards.
We really enjoyed our last day in Prague - wandering around some more in the old city, and I went on a solo expedition to try and find some baby sling fabric at local prices, for the special sling-wearers in my life. Unfortunately, the local prices included the 19% VAT, so it wasn't really worth it. [I may need to do a co-op shop when I get home.] I was pretty proud of myself for NOT getting lost and not getting robbed again. I made it back to the hotel, just in time to check [haha] out and jump on a metro train to the station [accompanied by The Ace of Spades - sometimes my i-pod has a delicious sense of timing. Like when I'm walking to work and it starts playing Queen's I've Got To Break Free] We jumped on an inter-city service to Brno, got a taxi to the airport and met up with Craig & Eva and their bus-load of wedding guests. It took about an hour to reach Lednice where we checked [haha again] into the hotel.
The only down-side to leaving Prague was that Mike now had my serious head cold - poor baby!
C & E had arranged a lovely dinner in an old wine cellar, and they kept the local wine flowing! We met some of their friends and had a really great night.
Wedding Day.
In keeping with the holiday theme of "Sleep, Nah, Who Needs It?" and with poor Mike feeling unwell, we didn't get too much rest. I'm pretty sure the wine from the night before had nothing to do with this! Mike and I wandered into Lednice in the morning and managed to find the only pharmacist in town - and god bless him, he could speak English. We loaded up on cold & flu products, did a quick stop at the local supermarket, and went back to the hotel. I managed to have a nap, and Mike had some quiet time with his book.
Then it was wedding time! We dolled up in our finery - Mike looked VERY spunky - and went to meet everyone downstairs. After wating for the thunder storm to pass, we all walked up the hill and across the road to the Lednice Chateau, an old house/castle/gorgeous old buidling & gardens. We had to wait a bit for the bride, and she arrived in a horse-drawn cart looking so happy and gorgeous I got a little teary.
The service was kinda funny - the local priest was trying to conduct the service in two langagues and bless him, he did a pretty good job. The poor man seemed embarassed about his english - but it was WAY better than my Czech! The sun came out and my heels kept slipping into the grass. Eventually I just dug them into the turf and then couldn't keep my balance! I ended up hobbling over to the path way and stood [well, more shifted-around-in-the-one-spot for a while] in the shade.
After the service I hobbled back down the hill to the hotel for the reception. I'd been warned by one of my buddies that heels and cobble-stones do not mix - she was right. I went up the elevator for a quick shoe change and, back downstairs, enjoyed heartily the champagne & finger food that was on offer until the happy coupld finished their photos, etc.
I have to say - I LOVE finger food! Even more than real food! There's just something about people offering you food from a platter, and balancing the glass of wine with the napkin, that really strikes a chord with me. There was lots of happy conversations, bubbly wine, yummy food, more wine, laughter, wine... A fab time.
When Eva & Craig arrived back, there was the ritual humiliation of Catching the Bouquet. I normally don't DO this sort of thing, but this time I thought, What the hell?, and wouldn't you know it... I caught it! Mike went a VERY interesting colour, and much joking followed.
Dinner was great, as was the beverage accompaniment. We shared a table with Patrick & Ann who we had met the night before, as well as John & Pauline, all from London. The speeches were funny, and we were completely full by the time we left.
For the first time in ages, and probably thanks to the copious amount of wine and ex-Soviet flu tablets, we had a really good night of sleep!
Day... Whatever We're Up To
Today we got up fairly early, packed up our stuff and left Lednice. Craig & Eva saw us off [they are SO in love it's really cute!], we caught a tiny-and-shaky train to Breclav and then on to Vienna. We DID have some Austrian police storm the train at the border - probably looking for football holigans - but it was pretty clear training to Vienna. We found a post office, sent our wedding clothes home, jumped on the metro, settled into our pension, and now we're out and about checking out Vienna [less funny when you;re not in Czech].
The Euro Cup final is being held here tomorrow, and the whole city is buzzing. There are about 15 gazillion people in supporters' gear wandering about, all of the bars are jam-packed with people singing rousing songs [mostly in German - maybe the Spaniards are arriving tomorrow], lots of police. Everyone seems so happy and excited, it's a good time to be here.
We have a half-plan of finding one of the Fan Zones tomorrow to watch the game, but only time will tell if this works out...
Lots of love to all, we miss you!
H
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
Day 11
Hi all, we're still in Prague, and it is truly a beautiful city. Again, we didn't get much sleep last night, so the morning started at a leisurely pace again. A quick breakfast in the hotel, then a trip to Marks & Spencers and Tesco for a few basics. [I didn't get it a Tesco's, okay?!]
We started a walking tour from the top of Wenceslas Square, hearing more about the history of Prague and the Czeck Republic. Lots of interesting facts, like... the area known as New Town (as compared to Old Town) was actually founded in the 14th Century? Jeez, these Czechs have a well-developed sense of irony. Also, in honour of her upcoming visit, we learned that the name Condeleeza translates to two Czeck words meaning "to lick" and an area of the female body. Many here consider this to be very apt, as they protest the proposed opening of a US military base here.
We've been wandering about in the Old Town centre (actually VERY old, from the 9th century) and the Jewish Quarter, home of the old jewish ghetto, 7 synagogues and a 12-deep cemetary. We'll probably spend more time there tomorrow.
The plan for tonight is to wander about the centre of town some more, grab some dinner and head to the Absinth Palace. Blue flames all around tonight.
We started a walking tour from the top of Wenceslas Square, hearing more about the history of Prague and the Czeck Republic. Lots of interesting facts, like... the area known as New Town (as compared to Old Town) was actually founded in the 14th Century? Jeez, these Czechs have a well-developed sense of irony. Also, in honour of her upcoming visit, we learned that the name Condeleeza translates to two Czeck words meaning "to lick" and an area of the female body. Many here consider this to be very apt, as they protest the proposed opening of a US military base here.
We've been wandering about in the Old Town centre (actually VERY old, from the 9th century) and the Jewish Quarter, home of the old jewish ghetto, 7 synagogues and a 12-deep cemetary. We'll probably spend more time there tomorrow.
The plan for tonight is to wander about the centre of town some more, grab some dinner and head to the Absinth Palace. Blue flames all around tonight.
Monday, 23 June 2008
Prague the Brave
Day 10
(I know this may be a little disjointed - sorry! If I wait until I've caught up, you'll never hear from me!)
Today was our first full day in Prague. M hadn't had a great night's sleep, so we took it easy this morning and make a slow start. We enjoyed our hotel breakfast and got going.
It took a little while to find an open ticket window - we wanted to get the 3-day-All-In-One metro travel ticket, so it took a little wandering about. Finally found one, and the odd little sales guy had some basic English which made life so much easier. We caught the tram up the hill to the Prague Castle (and surrounds), grabbed the audio tour thingies (after being stuck in a queue behind U.S. pensioners - what IS it with these people? How can they be so deliberately dumb?) and set off.
The Cathedral was AMAZING. I'm not normally a church kind of person - too many lost hours in school - but this place was astounding. Lots of little chapels off the main church dedicated to "one of the most important saints in Czech history" - all of them - and the most eye-popping tomb of the lot was only about 4 tonnes of silver. Crikey.
Interesting Lesson From History - Don't Be An Over-Interfering Mother-In-Law.
Queen Ludmilla was married to the first Catholic king of the Czech empire, and took her own conversion pretty seriously. When hubby died, she kept pretty active in state politics & religion, and took over the education and religious instruction of her young grandson Wenceslas (who whould later be remembered by having his own Christmas carol and be killed by his brother - you win some, you lose some.) This didn't sit too weel with her young pagan daughter-in-law, the new Queen. After a few years of the Dowager Lumdilla throwing her weight around, Queenie was so pissed off that she send assassins to get rid of Ludmilla. She was choked with her own rosary beads! The lesson in this is - sometimes, it's important to know when to stop. I hope this story warms the heart of all daughters-in-law who have ever had to grit their teeth and smile. (Mind you, I've never had to do that myself, having been blessed with a lovely MIL - Hi Joy!)
The Castle grounds are massive, and include the Cathedral, Presidential Palace, other random palaces for nobility, and few towers & ramparts, a quirky little place called Golden Lane [full of tourist shops] and a cross-bow gallery. M was the most accomplished person to take on the cross-bow challenge, just as one would expect from such a spunky lad.
The funniest part was the Hats Through History display, showing various military millenry throughout Europe and time - kinda funny.
Duinner was at a cute little bistro full of locals, the only bummer being the lack of smoke-free dining spaces. Again, chain-smoking locals making their presence felt.
Sweet dreams, all!
(I know this may be a little disjointed - sorry! If I wait until I've caught up, you'll never hear from me!)
Today was our first full day in Prague. M hadn't had a great night's sleep, so we took it easy this morning and make a slow start. We enjoyed our hotel breakfast and got going.
It took a little while to find an open ticket window - we wanted to get the 3-day-All-In-One metro travel ticket, so it took a little wandering about. Finally found one, and the odd little sales guy had some basic English which made life so much easier. We caught the tram up the hill to the Prague Castle (and surrounds), grabbed the audio tour thingies (after being stuck in a queue behind U.S. pensioners - what IS it with these people? How can they be so deliberately dumb?) and set off.
The Cathedral was AMAZING. I'm not normally a church kind of person - too many lost hours in school - but this place was astounding. Lots of little chapels off the main church dedicated to "one of the most important saints in Czech history" - all of them - and the most eye-popping tomb of the lot was only about 4 tonnes of silver. Crikey.
Interesting Lesson From History - Don't Be An Over-Interfering Mother-In-Law.
Queen Ludmilla was married to the first Catholic king of the Czech empire, and took her own conversion pretty seriously. When hubby died, she kept pretty active in state politics & religion, and took over the education and religious instruction of her young grandson Wenceslas (who whould later be remembered by having his own Christmas carol and be killed by his brother - you win some, you lose some.) This didn't sit too weel with her young pagan daughter-in-law, the new Queen. After a few years of the Dowager Lumdilla throwing her weight around, Queenie was so pissed off that she send assassins to get rid of Ludmilla. She was choked with her own rosary beads! The lesson in this is - sometimes, it's important to know when to stop. I hope this story warms the heart of all daughters-in-law who have ever had to grit their teeth and smile. (Mind you, I've never had to do that myself, having been blessed with a lovely MIL - Hi Joy!)
The Castle grounds are massive, and include the Cathedral, Presidential Palace, other random palaces for nobility, and few towers & ramparts, a quirky little place called Golden Lane [full of tourist shops] and a cross-bow gallery. M was the most accomplished person to take on the cross-bow challenge, just as one would expect from such a spunky lad.
The funniest part was the Hats Through History display, showing various military millenry throughout Europe and time - kinda funny.
Duinner was at a cute little bistro full of locals, the only bummer being the lack of smoke-free dining spaces. Again, chain-smoking locals making their presence felt.
Sweet dreams, all!
Retro Post
Hi guys,
It's been far too long - my apologies! This will be the retro post, containing all the time-up-until now...
Day 1 - Fri 13th-Sat 14th
We FINALLY left Sydney on Friday night, after spending too many hours in the Qantas lounge. The food was great (a little too good - see later) but things did start to wane after 4 hours.
As for the flight, all I can say is - SEVEN SICK BAGS. I was so ill, the Qantas staff ended up asking me if I wanted to sleep in the staff area. I would sleep for a while, wake up, puke for a bit, cry, then fall asleep again. Not much fun. Things were better for a while after we landed in Bangkok, until we had to walk past the smokers' lounge (aka Cancer Club) then the horrible pattern recommenced.
The less said about this time in my life, the better. We finally landed in London (puke bag number 8 as we taxied to the terminal - even the guy travelling with a wife in a wheelchair and four kids was giving me sympathy looks), took forever to clear customs and were met by Grant. This wonderful man drove us all the way to his house and left me alone so I could get some sleep. I was feeling pretty seedy, so I just said a brief hello to Cath and fell asleep.
After a few hours, we ate a wonderful lunch (have I mentioned that Grant & Cath are fabulous hosts?), then Mike and I went for a wander. We got a lift to the local station and caught the train to London central. Lots of Mike making little happy noises. We stopped in the Covent Garden area, did a quick lap of the London Transport Museum, saw a nude bike ride (more riders but less colour than the Sydney version we've been involved with), wandered around and went to a local Lush shop - the first time the smell has ever been too strong for a die-hard ike me. Then we met G&C in Chiswick, near where Mike used to live. Lovely pub dinner, home again home again, jiggety jig.
In this time, more blood tests performed than in the whole rest of my life, or so it felt! Fell into a blissful sleep with a snnffle and start of a cold...
Day 2
London tourist day. We made an early start - both still jet-lagged! - and went in search of an English breakfast. No luck here (everyone else had the sense to sleep in!), but we did find a place that promised "Antipodean coffee". Tasted pretty good, too! We made it to Buck Palace and saw the Changing of the Guard - a bunch of dudes march in, yell at another buncgh of dudes already there for a bit, then the old dudes march out. Very Pomp & Circumstance, but pretty cool. From there, we wandered through St James's Park to Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and Downing Street. There was a Normandy Landing memorial parade happening, so the streets were pretty full of veterans and security guards. Stupid George stupid W stpid was due in town, so most of the areas close to No 10 were locked down.
We saw the Horse Guards on duty - the horses were huge, but very tolerant of the hordes of tourists! Then we hopped on a red double-deckered bus tour and saw some of the sights. As with most old cities (I'm guessing!), there are HEAPS of stories to be told about this part of the world.
We stopped off at the Tower of London after crossing Tower Bridge. Fromt he outside, it looks like a pile of rocks on a hill - whoop de doop. But I was amazed when we went inside and saw all the amazing stuff that is actually there! We were shown around by an actual Beefeater (and yes, Goodies fans, they do eat beef). We checked out the crown jewels and I personally want to put any of the Cullinar diamonds on my Christmas wish list.
Back on the bus, we hopped off near Cleopatra's Needle, the oldest monument in London. It's only been in England for the last few hundred years, but it's about a gazillion years old. We walked across Jubilee Bridge and jumped on the London Eye - a whopping great big Ferris Wheel that takes about 20 minutes to do one full revolution. The view was, as you would expect, pretty amazing. Seeing the sun set over the houses of arliament was also pretty cool.
We then hot-footed it back to Covent Garden and met up with Mike's mates. Craig and Eva were there, and it was grat to finally meet them. They'de had their civil wedding ceremony the day before, so they were still all a-glow and giving each other goofy grins. Also making an appearance were Peter and Mark, some of Mike's London mates.
Mark gave us a lift back to Hanwell, with his GPS giving us an interesting tour of the back streets of west London - perhaps it was dizzy? Another night of being sound asleep...
It's been far too long - my apologies! This will be the retro post, containing all the time-up-until now...
Day 1 - Fri 13th-Sat 14th
We FINALLY left Sydney on Friday night, after spending too many hours in the Qantas lounge. The food was great (a little too good - see later) but things did start to wane after 4 hours.
As for the flight, all I can say is - SEVEN SICK BAGS. I was so ill, the Qantas staff ended up asking me if I wanted to sleep in the staff area. I would sleep for a while, wake up, puke for a bit, cry, then fall asleep again. Not much fun. Things were better for a while after we landed in Bangkok, until we had to walk past the smokers' lounge (aka Cancer Club) then the horrible pattern recommenced.
The less said about this time in my life, the better. We finally landed in London (puke bag number 8 as we taxied to the terminal - even the guy travelling with a wife in a wheelchair and four kids was giving me sympathy looks), took forever to clear customs and were met by Grant. This wonderful man drove us all the way to his house and left me alone so I could get some sleep. I was feeling pretty seedy, so I just said a brief hello to Cath and fell asleep.
After a few hours, we ate a wonderful lunch (have I mentioned that Grant & Cath are fabulous hosts?), then Mike and I went for a wander. We got a lift to the local station and caught the train to London central. Lots of Mike making little happy noises. We stopped in the Covent Garden area, did a quick lap of the London Transport Museum, saw a nude bike ride (more riders but less colour than the Sydney version we've been involved with), wandered around and went to a local Lush shop - the first time the smell has ever been too strong for a die-hard ike me. Then we met G&C in Chiswick, near where Mike used to live. Lovely pub dinner, home again home again, jiggety jig.
In this time, more blood tests performed than in the whole rest of my life, or so it felt! Fell into a blissful sleep with a snnffle and start of a cold...
Day 2
London tourist day. We made an early start - both still jet-lagged! - and went in search of an English breakfast. No luck here (everyone else had the sense to sleep in!), but we did find a place that promised "Antipodean coffee". Tasted pretty good, too! We made it to Buck Palace and saw the Changing of the Guard - a bunch of dudes march in, yell at another buncgh of dudes already there for a bit, then the old dudes march out. Very Pomp & Circumstance, but pretty cool. From there, we wandered through St James's Park to Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and Downing Street. There was a Normandy Landing memorial parade happening, so the streets were pretty full of veterans and security guards. Stupid George stupid W stpid was due in town, so most of the areas close to No 10 were locked down.
We saw the Horse Guards on duty - the horses were huge, but very tolerant of the hordes of tourists! Then we hopped on a red double-deckered bus tour and saw some of the sights. As with most old cities (I'm guessing!), there are HEAPS of stories to be told about this part of the world.
We stopped off at the Tower of London after crossing Tower Bridge. Fromt he outside, it looks like a pile of rocks on a hill - whoop de doop. But I was amazed when we went inside and saw all the amazing stuff that is actually there! We were shown around by an actual Beefeater (and yes, Goodies fans, they do eat beef). We checked out the crown jewels and I personally want to put any of the Cullinar diamonds on my Christmas wish list.
Back on the bus, we hopped off near Cleopatra's Needle, the oldest monument in London. It's only been in England for the last few hundred years, but it's about a gazillion years old. We walked across Jubilee Bridge and jumped on the London Eye - a whopping great big Ferris Wheel that takes about 20 minutes to do one full revolution. The view was, as you would expect, pretty amazing. Seeing the sun set over the houses of arliament was also pretty cool.
We then hot-footed it back to Covent Garden and met up with Mike's mates. Craig and Eva were there, and it was grat to finally meet them. They'de had their civil wedding ceremony the day before, so they were still all a-glow and giving each other goofy grins. Also making an appearance were Peter and Mark, some of Mike's London mates.
Mark gave us a lift back to Hanwell, with his GPS giving us an interesting tour of the back streets of west London - perhaps it was dizzy? Another night of being sound asleep...
Friday, 13 June 2008
Still Here...
Yes it's true, we're still here!! By now we should have been sitting in the Qantas lounge enjoying a quiet ale and a snack before boarding. But they had other ideas!!!
It all started this morning when Helen received a call from the airline saying that our flight had been delayed by three and a half hours! (They couldn't tell us why either?) So now it's just a case of waiting for the cab to arrive at the later time of 1600 for a 2030 flight.
What I want to know is - what would happen when we rock up to the Check in Desk at Sydney Airport and say "since you've made us wait, how about an upgrade?" You all realise that this means less time at the other end for sightseeing, I have a list a mile long of places to visit, eg Paddington, Marylebone, Euston, St Pancras, Kings Cross etc also Helen wants to go shopping at Lush in Covent Garden so I guess that means I'll just have to amuse myself at the London Transport Museum...
M
It all started this morning when Helen received a call from the airline saying that our flight had been delayed by three and a half hours! (They couldn't tell us why either?) So now it's just a case of waiting for the cab to arrive at the later time of 1600 for a 2030 flight.
What I want to know is - what would happen when we rock up to the Check in Desk at Sydney Airport and say "since you've made us wait, how about an upgrade?" You all realise that this means less time at the other end for sightseeing, I have a list a mile long of places to visit, eg Paddington, Marylebone, Euston, St Pancras, Kings Cross etc also Helen wants to go shopping at Lush in Covent Garden so I guess that means I'll just have to amuse myself at the London Transport Museum...
M
Thursday, 12 June 2008
Leaving, On A Jet Plane
Hello all, I've been off work this week, and I could really get used to this life! Waking up without the alarm, wandering around the house in my jammies, ding house work because I feel like it, not because I have to... ah, the freedom! Plus the knowledge that I'm not only being paid to enjoy this luxury, but I'M GETTING PAID EXTRA TO STAY AT HOME!! Heavens bless the public service, is all I can say! Leave loading is truly a gift from the goddesses.
We're received a number of questions from family, friends & loved ones about our travel plans - here are some of the answers:
Q: What time are you flying out?
A: Our flight leaves at 1700, Friday, (Sydney time). We'll be enjoying the wonderful Qantas club before our flight.
Q: How are you getting to the airport?
A: Taxi. When two people are travelling, it's actually cheaper than going by rail. Plus, they pick you up at your door!
Q: How long is your flight?
A: 23 hours flying time, but only 14 hours in clock time. We arrive at about 7am Saturday, London time.
Q: Are you excited? You must be excited!
A: Yes, we are. Heck, Yes!
Q: Has Mike already been to all the places you're visiting?
A: Yes, except for Heidelberg. It's good, though, that the two places we're staying for the longest, Prague and Vienna, he hasn't spent much time in.
Q: What the heck is a Belgian Dip? Is your dad really from Bruge?
A: These are references to one of my all-time favourite movies series, the Austin Powers films. In one scene, Dr Evil is having a frothy milk drink and gets froth all over his nose. He calls this a Belgian Dip. In another scene, he offers Mini Me some belgian chocolates, saying, "They're from Bruge - that's where daddy [himself] is from". Yes, it's a little weird to be making such a specific reference, but dammit, it's my blog!
Q: Why Belgium?
A: We're big fans of Belgian beer & chocolate. I'm really hoping to be able to find a drink of one of my favourite cherry beers, the Boon Kriek - it's like drinking liquid silk. You say Why, I say Why Not?
Q: How can we contact you while you're away?
A: Although we will have our phones with us, that you can just dial the regular number to be connected, the international roaming rates are REALLY expensive. Email is best. SMS if you need to.
Q: Do you have a letter from you doctor to be able to travel with your insulin? Are you taking spares?
A: Yes and Yes. We have our travelling-with-a-diabetic routine down pat by now, so it's all sorted. I even got this cute little sharps container to take travelling - it snips the needle part off the syringe so you only have a tiny amount of contaminated waste - fabulous! It looks like a little hole-punch, and it should be really easy to carry.
Lots still to do before departure tomorrow! We're compiling all of the copies-of-everything sheets for people to hold for us and to take as backup... more complicated than you may think.
One more sleep to go...
We're received a number of questions from family, friends & loved ones about our travel plans - here are some of the answers:
Q: What time are you flying out?
A: Our flight leaves at 1700, Friday, (Sydney time). We'll be enjoying the wonderful Qantas club before our flight.
Q: How are you getting to the airport?
A: Taxi. When two people are travelling, it's actually cheaper than going by rail. Plus, they pick you up at your door!
Q: How long is your flight?
A: 23 hours flying time, but only 14 hours in clock time. We arrive at about 7am Saturday, London time.
Q: Are you excited? You must be excited!
A: Yes, we are. Heck, Yes!
Q: Has Mike already been to all the places you're visiting?
A: Yes, except for Heidelberg. It's good, though, that the two places we're staying for the longest, Prague and Vienna, he hasn't spent much time in.
Q: What the heck is a Belgian Dip? Is your dad really from Bruge?
A: These are references to one of my all-time favourite movies series, the Austin Powers films. In one scene, Dr Evil is having a frothy milk drink and gets froth all over his nose. He calls this a Belgian Dip. In another scene, he offers Mini Me some belgian chocolates, saying, "They're from Bruge - that's where daddy [himself] is from". Yes, it's a little weird to be making such a specific reference, but dammit, it's my blog!
Q: Why Belgium?
A: We're big fans of Belgian beer & chocolate. I'm really hoping to be able to find a drink of one of my favourite cherry beers, the Boon Kriek - it's like drinking liquid silk. You say Why, I say Why Not?
Q: How can we contact you while you're away?
A: Although we will have our phones with us, that you can just dial the regular number to be connected, the international roaming rates are REALLY expensive. Email is best. SMS if you need to.
Q: Do you have a letter from you doctor to be able to travel with your insulin? Are you taking spares?
A: Yes and Yes. We have our travelling-with-a-diabetic routine down pat by now, so it's all sorted. I even got this cute little sharps container to take travelling - it snips the needle part off the syringe so you only have a tiny amount of contaminated waste - fabulous! It looks like a little hole-punch, and it should be really easy to carry.
Lots still to do before departure tomorrow! We're compiling all of the copies-of-everything sheets for people to hold for us and to take as backup... more complicated than you may think.
One more sleep to go...
Thursday, 5 June 2008
Hi ho, off to Prague we go
Greetings gentle reader, and welcome back to the Helen & Mike travel extravaganza. We're off on another whirlwind trip, and it's going to be so much fun I can hardly say.
The basic itinerary is:
Sydney
London
York
Brussels
Kirchlengern (near Hannover)
Prague
Lednice (In the south of the Czech Republic, site of the wedding that is the point of this trip!)
Vienna
Heidelberg
Frankfurt
London
Back home to Sydney for Helen - Mike is staying in London for a few extra days with another side trip to York.
Whooee!
We will of course be making extensive use of the European public transport network. The type that runs on rails, that is. Mike is super-experienced at this sort of thing, so he's been in charge of booking transport. I have a thing for looking at hotels online, so I've been the Accommodation Girl Friday.
Trip highlights/aims include:
* Qantas club. The best part is when they come around and bring you drinks.
* Visiting Lush shops in London. Everyone needs a hobby, okay?!?
* Visiting a curry house in Brick Lane. It gives H&M something to talk about over their frequent curry dinners at home.
* Visiting the Mallard steam Locomotive. It's like cat nip for train geeks.
* Seeing Grant & Cath again, hopefully hanging with them a bit in London.
* Drinking LOTS of beer in Belgium.
* Eating LOTS of chocolate in Belgium.
* Looking at LOTS of lace in Belgium, possibly collecting pictures/books for Helen's mum.
* Visiting Bruge, saying "That's where daddy's from" at least fifteen times (Austin Powers reference) and having a Belgian Dip - dunking my nose in a big frothy white hot chocolate. Photos to follow, I promise.
* Visiting Claudia, Christophe and kids, finally getting to meet them in person.
* Learning how to pronounce "Kirchlengern" properly, learning if there should be an umlaut in there somewhere.
* Birkenstock shopping. I am SO loving the exchange rate at the moment.
* Staying on Wenceslas Square in Prague, exploring the Old Town.
* Sling shopping in Prague - it's sale time, didn't you know?
* Visiting castles - Really looking forward to this part, maybe it's the result of all those fairy tales as a child, where the fair maiden is rescued by the handsome prince. Maybe it will have dungeons! And a tower! And a dragon! And a moat! Cool!
* Meeting Craig and Eva, hopefully before we front up at their wedding. It's only been the once that I've had to the "Hi, I'm Helen, nice to meet you, have a nice wedding, better go since the bride's just arrived" conversation, but I suppose that worked out okay.
* Eating LOTS of yummy tortes in Vienna.
* Eating LOTS of yummy schnitzel in Vienna.
* Wandering around LOTS in Vienna.
* Going to somewhere as unexpected as Heidelberg and just checking it out.
* Coming home, chilling out, then getting my ass to the gym to work off the beer, chocolates, wedding cake, tortes & schnitzel. Trying to achieve this BEFORE I have to see my dietician again, mostly to avoid that disappointed look you get when people really WISH they could tell you off, but know it's pretty pointless.
Post-trip aims include:
* Becoming an aunty for the fourth time, organising a baby shower for my sister before said niece/nephew arrives. She hasn't had one before (a baby shower, that is), so this seems like as good a time as any.
* Getting a damn clothes dryer. A girl's got to have goals, hasn't she?
Anyway, that's the plan. I still have to survive one more day at work - roster day, so I'll probably be running around like a mad woman and end up looking like I've stuck my finger in a power socket, my hair standing out from my head in every which direction. Then it's a long weekend here in Oz (hooray! DVD fest!) and I get a whole week to relax, intend to do housework but probably won't actually do it until the last minute (as Shakespeare said, Know Thyself), pack my bag, unpack my bag because I need the stuff I've packed, re-pack my bag, wait for pay day, go and buy more stuff to take, try to stuff all things into my bag, have to re-pack and take half the stuff out... This could go on for quite some time... Catch up with friends before we go, etc. etc.
More to follow, and I hope we all enjoy the trip!
H&M
The basic itinerary is:
Sydney
London
York
Brussels
Kirchlengern (near Hannover)
Prague
Lednice (In the south of the Czech Republic, site of the wedding that is the point of this trip!)
Vienna
Heidelberg
Frankfurt
London
Back home to Sydney for Helen - Mike is staying in London for a few extra days with another side trip to York.
Whooee!
We will of course be making extensive use of the European public transport network. The type that runs on rails, that is. Mike is super-experienced at this sort of thing, so he's been in charge of booking transport. I have a thing for looking at hotels online, so I've been the Accommodation Girl Friday.
Trip highlights/aims include:
* Qantas club. The best part is when they come around and bring you drinks.
* Visiting Lush shops in London. Everyone needs a hobby, okay?!?
* Visiting a curry house in Brick Lane. It gives H&M something to talk about over their frequent curry dinners at home.
* Visiting the Mallard steam Locomotive. It's like cat nip for train geeks.
* Seeing Grant & Cath again, hopefully hanging with them a bit in London.
* Drinking LOTS of beer in Belgium.
* Eating LOTS of chocolate in Belgium.
* Looking at LOTS of lace in Belgium, possibly collecting pictures/books for Helen's mum.
* Visiting Bruge, saying "That's where daddy's from" at least fifteen times (Austin Powers reference) and having a Belgian Dip - dunking my nose in a big frothy white hot chocolate. Photos to follow, I promise.
* Visiting Claudia, Christophe and kids, finally getting to meet them in person.
* Learning how to pronounce "Kirchlengern" properly, learning if there should be an umlaut in there somewhere.
* Birkenstock shopping. I am SO loving the exchange rate at the moment.
* Staying on Wenceslas Square in Prague, exploring the Old Town.
* Sling shopping in Prague - it's sale time, didn't you know?
* Visiting castles - Really looking forward to this part, maybe it's the result of all those fairy tales as a child, where the fair maiden is rescued by the handsome prince. Maybe it will have dungeons! And a tower! And a dragon! And a moat! Cool!
* Meeting Craig and Eva, hopefully before we front up at their wedding. It's only been the once that I've had to the "Hi, I'm Helen, nice to meet you, have a nice wedding, better go since the bride's just arrived" conversation, but I suppose that worked out okay.
* Eating LOTS of yummy tortes in Vienna.
* Eating LOTS of yummy schnitzel in Vienna.
* Wandering around LOTS in Vienna.
* Going to somewhere as unexpected as Heidelberg and just checking it out.
* Coming home, chilling out, then getting my ass to the gym to work off the beer, chocolates, wedding cake, tortes & schnitzel. Trying to achieve this BEFORE I have to see my dietician again, mostly to avoid that disappointed look you get when people really WISH they could tell you off, but know it's pretty pointless.
Post-trip aims include:
* Becoming an aunty for the fourth time, organising a baby shower for my sister before said niece/nephew arrives. She hasn't had one before (a baby shower, that is), so this seems like as good a time as any.
* Getting a damn clothes dryer. A girl's got to have goals, hasn't she?
Anyway, that's the plan. I still have to survive one more day at work - roster day, so I'll probably be running around like a mad woman and end up looking like I've stuck my finger in a power socket, my hair standing out from my head in every which direction. Then it's a long weekend here in Oz (hooray! DVD fest!) and I get a whole week to relax, intend to do housework but probably won't actually do it until the last minute (as Shakespeare said, Know Thyself), pack my bag, unpack my bag because I need the stuff I've packed, re-pack my bag, wait for pay day, go and buy more stuff to take, try to stuff all things into my bag, have to re-pack and take half the stuff out... This could go on for quite some time... Catch up with friends before we go, etc. etc.
More to follow, and I hope we all enjoy the trip!
H&M
Wednesday, 7 November 2007
Week of Kiwi
Hello all.
It's been a bit of a shock coming back to work - my desk has been tidied up! Aargh! Now I can't find anything, and I'm pretty sure that Big Boss is expecting it to stay neat, dammit.
This week has been jam-packed with kiwi-ana, which is especially funny when you consider that we've just returned from New Zealand.
Sat 3rd Nov - Hangi dinner at Lorna's. This is the bistro at our local pub, and Lorna is the lovely kiwi lass who organises a hangi every couple of months.
A hangi (pronounced HUNG-ee) is a special type of kiwi barbeque that you get from digging a pit in the ground, starting a wood-burning fire, throw in some rocks and get them pretty hot, then add your wrapped food to the rocks, cover in earth and leave to cook for a few hours. You end up with a smoky-type of flavour that is pretty unique. Lorna's hangis are made in a specially designed BBQ thingie that is pretty good.
Mon 5th Nov - Crowded House. Even though I still think of them as a Melbourne band, kiwis claim this group as their own. The concert was awesome, as was the dinner with friends beforehand.
Tues 6th Nov - Naked Samoans. These dudes are responsible for Bro'Town, one of our fave animations. Their show was pretty funny (I got most of the jokes), and now I understand why the cartoon is so wordy - they really talk like that.
Wed 7th Nov - Not sure yet, but we'll probably end up watching DVDs of Outrageous Fortune tonight, full of dodgy minor-criminals from Auckland.
It's been a bit of a shock coming back to work - my desk has been tidied up! Aargh! Now I can't find anything, and I'm pretty sure that Big Boss is expecting it to stay neat, dammit.
This week has been jam-packed with kiwi-ana, which is especially funny when you consider that we've just returned from New Zealand.
Sat 3rd Nov - Hangi dinner at Lorna's. This is the bistro at our local pub, and Lorna is the lovely kiwi lass who organises a hangi every couple of months.
A hangi (pronounced HUNG-ee) is a special type of kiwi barbeque that you get from digging a pit in the ground, starting a wood-burning fire, throw in some rocks and get them pretty hot, then add your wrapped food to the rocks, cover in earth and leave to cook for a few hours. You end up with a smoky-type of flavour that is pretty unique. Lorna's hangis are made in a specially designed BBQ thingie that is pretty good.
Mon 5th Nov - Crowded House. Even though I still think of them as a Melbourne band, kiwis claim this group as their own. The concert was awesome, as was the dinner with friends beforehand.
Tues 6th Nov - Naked Samoans. These dudes are responsible for Bro'Town, one of our fave animations. Their show was pretty funny (I got most of the jokes), and now I understand why the cartoon is so wordy - they really talk like that.
Wed 7th Nov - Not sure yet, but we'll probably end up watching DVDs of Outrageous Fortune tonight, full of dodgy minor-criminals from Auckland.
Wednesday, 31 October 2007
Holiday Part 7
Alas yes, the holiday is now over and we're returned to the bosum of our home again.
Day 14:
Travelling day. We checked out from Franz Josef and jumped in the car. First north to Greymouth, then east to Christchurch.
It was a really long day, full of shady hills, picturesque hills, Japanese tourists and slow-moving vehicles in front of us! Highlights include:
* A very drunk whitebait fisherman in a meal-break pub, who kept trying to convince Mike that he should propose to me while trying to feel up my leg. Gross.
* LOTS of single lane bridges. Enough said.
* Shantytown near Greymouth. My lord, it was so... dodgy. Obviously a lot of effort has gone in by a lot of passionate people but crikey, it was pretty lame. M had fun looking at their steam engines, though.
* Stopping for lunch in Greymouth and finding everything shut.
* Trying to go on a Monteith's tour in Greymouth and finding it shut.
* Lots of insane speeding drivers making dangerous passes over Arthur's Pass. Mental, the lot of them.
We finally arrived at the Speight's Alehouse in Christchurch [see listings for Day 1], checked in and had a great dinner in the restaurant. Mike went on a walk around town while I crashed.
Day 15:
Lots to do. Step 1: Go to knitting shop (finally!). Only a few purchases, I promise! Step 2: Visit post office, post home assorted stuff that wouldn't fit in luggage, mostly gifts. Step 3: Find and visit Mike's friend Maria. It was really nice to meet another of M's friends from London while they reminisced and caught up. Step 4: Try to find kniotting shop #2, a bit difficult when it's closed down and is no longer there. Bummer. Step 5: No time to visit the Antarctic Centre, so return the car to the hire place, get a lift to the airport and settle in to Qantas Club - I love that place! So civilised! We also scored some sweet duty free including DVDs, music etc. We got Q Club uber treatement, got to board with the business-types as well as having our luggage pop out first at the other end - sweet!
The flight back to Sydney was fine - the diabetic meal was actually edible and we were a respectable distance from the movie screen, so there was no nostril close-ups this time. After landing, Sydney was so HOT! We made it into a cab and home, sweet home, to find my sister and our wonderful friends had left us stocked up.
You'd think all of this deserved a rest, but instead we went out to Coogee to see more of Mike's old London friends. After a few hours and a few drinks, we crashed back at home and slept. Ah, sleep!
So, that's the trip! I'm still on leave from work until next week (I need to recover, plus lots of knitting to do) so my plan is to take it VERY easy.
Cheers, H & M
Day 14:
Travelling day. We checked out from Franz Josef and jumped in the car. First north to Greymouth, then east to Christchurch.
It was a really long day, full of shady hills, picturesque hills, Japanese tourists and slow-moving vehicles in front of us! Highlights include:
* A very drunk whitebait fisherman in a meal-break pub, who kept trying to convince Mike that he should propose to me while trying to feel up my leg. Gross.
* LOTS of single lane bridges. Enough said.
* Shantytown near Greymouth. My lord, it was so... dodgy. Obviously a lot of effort has gone in by a lot of passionate people but crikey, it was pretty lame. M had fun looking at their steam engines, though.
* Stopping for lunch in Greymouth and finding everything shut.
* Trying to go on a Monteith's tour in Greymouth and finding it shut.
* Lots of insane speeding drivers making dangerous passes over Arthur's Pass. Mental, the lot of them.
We finally arrived at the Speight's Alehouse in Christchurch [see listings for Day 1], checked in and had a great dinner in the restaurant. Mike went on a walk around town while I crashed.
Day 15:
Lots to do. Step 1: Go to knitting shop (finally!). Only a few purchases, I promise! Step 2: Visit post office, post home assorted stuff that wouldn't fit in luggage, mostly gifts. Step 3: Find and visit Mike's friend Maria. It was really nice to meet another of M's friends from London while they reminisced and caught up. Step 4: Try to find kniotting shop #2, a bit difficult when it's closed down and is no longer there. Bummer. Step 5: No time to visit the Antarctic Centre, so return the car to the hire place, get a lift to the airport and settle in to Qantas Club - I love that place! So civilised! We also scored some sweet duty free including DVDs, music etc. We got Q Club uber treatement, got to board with the business-types as well as having our luggage pop out first at the other end - sweet!
The flight back to Sydney was fine - the diabetic meal was actually edible and we were a respectable distance from the movie screen, so there was no nostril close-ups this time. After landing, Sydney was so HOT! We made it into a cab and home, sweet home, to find my sister and our wonderful friends had left us stocked up.
You'd think all of this deserved a rest, but instead we went out to Coogee to see more of Mike's old London friends. After a few hours and a few drinks, we crashed back at home and slept. Ah, sleep!
So, that's the trip! I'm still on leave from work until next week (I need to recover, plus lots of knitting to do) so my plan is to take it VERY easy.
Cheers, H & M
Saturday, 27 October 2007
Holiday Part 6
Hello all,
Lots to tell, but first I need to start out by saying a few things:
1. "Himself"'s real name is Michael. I was going for the internet anonymity pseudonym, but since this blog is called Helen and Mike, it was pointed out to me that this was a little pointless. My name is Helen, by the way.
2. Blog authorship. This a collaborative effort from both Helen (me) and Mike. You don't see it, but there is lots of "honey, what was that place we went to the other day"-ing going on, so it counts as a group project.
Day 11 cont.:
Dinner out in QTN was lovely, we ended up at a self-brewing pub and ate so much we both felt pleasantly sated. Dessert was at Patagonia Chocolate on the wharf, and even though the sundaes took forever to arrive, my my but they were worth it!
Day 12:
We finished up our stay in Queenstown by going to a fab Lonely-Planet recommended cafe for breakfast. Their pancakes were divine. Then up the hill to the bungy site.
Mike was SO brave and by far the spunkiest dude jumping. Thanks to those who have asked, and no, his eyeballs did not fall out, they're fine.
We had watched a few jumpers, then Mike went out onto the bridge to wait. Expect to see the photos. The dudes assured us that no-one had died that day, so we seemed pretty safe. Mike was strapped in, lined up, and I ran for the photo viewing stand. He just stood on the edge, waved and whoosh! over he went. Arms and head went in the waters, then he was springing up and down a few times. I was REALLY impressed, it looked so cool.
After that adrenaline rush, we drove to the west coast of South Island and on to glacier country. We're staying at a nice place in Franz Josef, the larger of the glacier towns (Fox is the other). We checked in, settled in and had dinner. Yum.
Day 13:
Glacier adventure day! M got up REALLY early [those of you who know me will know that I'm REALLY not a morning person. Sleep is one of my favourite things to do, and I love to sleep in. A lot. One of the many reasons that I love that M has been getting out of bed and making me cups of tea each morning!] and went to the booking office to get in first. He planned the whole day of adventures, and it's been a hoot.
We hopped on a helicopter which travelled to Fox Glacier, Mount Cook and Franz Josef Glacier. The weather on Mt Cook wasn't great, so we weren't sure if we would be able to see it, but fortunately our pilot was very cool and the clouds cleared enough for us to have a decent look. It was REALLY beautiful - white mountains everywhere, a crystal-clear blue sky, still air, all you could hope for. Our helicopter landed on Franz Josef glacier, and I GOT TO SEE SNOW!!! It was crunchy! Amazing! I've never seen snow up close before, and seeing and touching it on the top of about 6km of compacted glacial ice was stunning.
Back to the motel for an early lunch, then we joined a walking tour of FJ glacier. We were kitted up with boots, crampons, parkas etc and bussed out to the glacier National Park. It's a declared World Heritage area, so we had to be really careful not to leave anything behind.
We walked through the river valley to the glacier face. It was amazing - lots of rocks that get pushed along by the tonnes of ice, then this massive wall of ice. It was surprisingly grotty - lots of grit gets picked up too.
Treking up the glacier face was amazing. The defined path is very dynamic and changes almost daily, so the highlight was probably squishing along the bottom of a crevasse - the ice was almost glowing, it was such a stunning blue. Out tour dude was pretty cool, and the only bummer was Helen having some blood sugar issues on the way back to the bus, but fortunately Mike came to the rescue with the emergency bottle of Mellow Yellow (it's having a retro revival here - tastes bloody awful if one happens to be hypoing).
Tomorrow, we're travelling back to Christchurch via Greymouth.
Sweet dreams.
Lots to tell, but first I need to start out by saying a few things:
1. "Himself"'s real name is Michael. I was going for the internet anonymity pseudonym, but since this blog is called Helen and Mike, it was pointed out to me that this was a little pointless. My name is Helen, by the way.
2. Blog authorship. This a collaborative effort from both Helen (me) and Mike. You don't see it, but there is lots of "honey, what was that place we went to the other day"-ing going on, so it counts as a group project.
Day 11 cont.:
Dinner out in QTN was lovely, we ended up at a self-brewing pub and ate so much we both felt pleasantly sated. Dessert was at Patagonia Chocolate on the wharf, and even though the sundaes took forever to arrive, my my but they were worth it!
Day 12:
We finished up our stay in Queenstown by going to a fab Lonely-Planet recommended cafe for breakfast. Their pancakes were divine. Then up the hill to the bungy site.
Mike was SO brave and by far the spunkiest dude jumping. Thanks to those who have asked, and no, his eyeballs did not fall out, they're fine.
We had watched a few jumpers, then Mike went out onto the bridge to wait. Expect to see the photos. The dudes assured us that no-one had died that day, so we seemed pretty safe. Mike was strapped in, lined up, and I ran for the photo viewing stand. He just stood on the edge, waved and whoosh! over he went. Arms and head went in the waters, then he was springing up and down a few times. I was REALLY impressed, it looked so cool.
After that adrenaline rush, we drove to the west coast of South Island and on to glacier country. We're staying at a nice place in Franz Josef, the larger of the glacier towns (Fox is the other). We checked in, settled in and had dinner. Yum.
Day 13:
Glacier adventure day! M got up REALLY early [those of you who know me will know that I'm REALLY not a morning person. Sleep is one of my favourite things to do, and I love to sleep in. A lot. One of the many reasons that I love that M has been getting out of bed and making me cups of tea each morning!] and went to the booking office to get in first. He planned the whole day of adventures, and it's been a hoot.
We hopped on a helicopter which travelled to Fox Glacier, Mount Cook and Franz Josef Glacier. The weather on Mt Cook wasn't great, so we weren't sure if we would be able to see it, but fortunately our pilot was very cool and the clouds cleared enough for us to have a decent look. It was REALLY beautiful - white mountains everywhere, a crystal-clear blue sky, still air, all you could hope for. Our helicopter landed on Franz Josef glacier, and I GOT TO SEE SNOW!!! It was crunchy! Amazing! I've never seen snow up close before, and seeing and touching it on the top of about 6km of compacted glacial ice was stunning.
Back to the motel for an early lunch, then we joined a walking tour of FJ glacier. We were kitted up with boots, crampons, parkas etc and bussed out to the glacier National Park. It's a declared World Heritage area, so we had to be really careful not to leave anything behind.
We walked through the river valley to the glacier face. It was amazing - lots of rocks that get pushed along by the tonnes of ice, then this massive wall of ice. It was surprisingly grotty - lots of grit gets picked up too.
Treking up the glacier face was amazing. The defined path is very dynamic and changes almost daily, so the highlight was probably squishing along the bottom of a crevasse - the ice was almost glowing, it was such a stunning blue. Out tour dude was pretty cool, and the only bummer was Helen having some blood sugar issues on the way back to the bus, but fortunately Mike came to the rescue with the emergency bottle of Mellow Yellow (it's having a retro revival here - tastes bloody awful if one happens to be hypoing).
Tomorrow, we're travelling back to Christchurch via Greymouth.
Sweet dreams.
Thursday, 25 October 2007
Holiday Part 5
Greetings and Salutations to all
We're in the final stretch of our trip - bummer - and I'm starting to feel a little nostalgic. Here's the latest action:
Day 10 cont.
No parking fine! Hooray! It was (yea verily) raining pretty hard in Queenstown, but we made it back to the motel in one rather soggy piece.
We spent some time enjoying the fresh fudge we'd purchased from the "Traditional" Sweet shop in QTN - it's really easy to go totally silly in these places. The Sucrose-Free fudge was okay, the Manuka Honey fudge was pretty yummy but the winner was the Kiwifruit (and passionfruit) variety - extra insulin was required. We dried out and dolled up for dinner.
We'd booked into a Dinner Cruise on the TSS Earnslaw, a coal-powered steam ship that lives on the Wakatipu Lake in QTN. It's about a gazillion years old, made for this lake, etc etc etc. After being dropped off by the taxi - neither of us wanted to be the nominated driver - we first made a quick stop to one of the multitude of cheap-crap-tourist-souvenir-crap shops and found a very cool Rugby Girl shirt for me. [Expect to see it a lot.] They threw in a free All Blacks poster too. Amazing how all of the AB merchandise seems to be massively reduced at the moment!?!
We had to hang around for the Easrnslaw to arrive, the previous group to disembark, and then pile onboard. It was REALLY cold standing on the docks, but the wind settled down eventually as we climbed on, surrounded by the usual group of U.S. pensioners speaking loudly.
On board, Himself grabbed some drinks while I exercised my charm to get us some seats. I had to death-stare a Japanese family to keep them away. Their poor 8-year-old daughter looked a little intimidated, as did wizened old nanna. We made friends with a couple from Brisbane, Paul and Katherine, who as well as being from the same generation as us were also amused by the whole tourist experience. P & K sat with us, while the now-looking-a-little-freaked-out Japanese family took their table.
The trip over to Walter's Peak farmstead was lovely. The water was smooth, and Himself and Paul did the guy thing, checking out the engine room, boilers, dudes shovelling coal, wheelhouse, etc. [Look out for the cute photo of Himself wearing the captain's hat!] It turns out the captain was originally from Leichhardt, and attended Ultimo TAFE. Small world.
We arrived at the farmstead and piled off the steamer for dinner. Looking back over the water, you could see the lights of QTN, the boat on the water, the crystal-blue skies and the nearly snow-peaked mountains. Postcard beautiful! We managed to talk our way into a table for 4 for our group and we enjoyed the food, wine, company and atmosphere for a while.
[Insert sniggering here] Entertainment was provided by the in-house pianist. Memories of my mother's old Richard Clayderman tapes started to flood back, and I was REALLY glad that I spent 4 years studying music. Showtunes, Andrew Lloyd-Weber and Hits of the 60s all made an appearance. He'd very generously provided sample CDs and tapes on our tables, so we could consider buying the dulcet tones. Yeah, right.
After dinner, we were offered the chance to watch a Real Sheep Shearing Experience!!! [Again, snigger at will] Lots of pensioners taking video footage of a sheep being shorn was pretty amusing. It made me think, though - when tourists come to my country, so they mock the whole Tourist Experience the was I was? I really hope so.
The gift shop was doing a roaring trade in packets of the little clip-on sheep.
When the steamer arrived, we piled back on for the return journey. Himself took me to have a look at the boiler room and the ship's own onboard museum. I was actually pretty interested.
I sent my sister a message saying hi, letting her know what we were up to, and saying we were on a steam ship. Here is her SMS reply:
"Don't talk to me about that fecking steam ship... C still goes on about it 9 years on..."
[C is her husband, they came to NZ on their honeymoon 9 years ago. C is an engineer. Himself had been taking lots of photos of the engine room thinking C would be interested...]
Back in QTN, we stopped in at a few of the bars in the dock area. In the first, the music was so loud our teeth were rattling, but the staff made up for this by giving us drinks at their happy-hour prices, bless them. More menus to add to the illicit cocktail card collection. [Some people collect spoons, I collect cocktail menus, okay? Everyone needs a hobby.] At bar #2, the snippy bar chicky will hopefully have to explain to her boss why one of her menus is missing. The gas fire was really warm, though! We wandered around to a final venue, a pizza restaurant / wanna-be nightclub and had a final stop surrounded by lots of very young-looking backpackers. I felt old! Then up to the taxi stand and Home James with a lovely young Irish chappie driver.
Day 11:
Jet Boating! It was so cool! We had so much fun! Everyone should do it!
We slept in (okay, it was just me,), so we had to do the harry to the Jet Boating site in Shotover Canyon. I was worrying a bit, but saw the Jet Boating bus in my rear-view mirror, so figured we were okay.
Arriving at the canyon, we were geared up with parker jackets and life vests. We were again among our own kind (i.e. people younger that 60 without American accents) in the waiting line when one of the staff asked us to switch queues. Tragedy! Stuck in a line of ancient-but-loud tour groupies!
Fortunately, it meant that none of them wanted to sit in the front seat - so we got the full treatment. Our adventure-lovin' driver gave us a fabulous experience, whizzing around the canyon, splashing water all over the place, making us think we were about to hit the rocks at every turn and generally scaring the bejesus out of us. Himself had his fun-loving grin all over his face and really enjoyed himself, as did I. We took away the obligatory photos of us looking appropriately freaked out and headed to the QTN gondolas.
As with the other gondolas in NZ, we had to run the gauntlet of Japanese tour bus groups and the climbing-onboard-take-your-photo girls. Although my life as a restaurant photographer was quite short (2 weekends filling in for my sister), I generally feel quite sorry for these compulsory-photo people, but we managed to convince this one that we REALLY weren't going to buy it. And ignored her reply of "but it's my job!". Too bad, honey.
Up at the top we had a fab view of the whole QTN area. The usual beautiful scenery, contrasts and serenity with photos. Himself had also signed up for the luge rides, so he went to continue the day's adrenaline theme while I grabbed a coffee. I managed to grab a few shots of Himself on the ride and he seemed to be having a fab time.
We headed back to our motel to arrange for cleaning & washing and chill out for an hour. Then we took a drive out to Arrowtown, which is basically an upper-class version of the rest of QTN - every second shop contained souvenirs and wool clothes.
We're back in QTN CBD at the moment, ready to eat.
A Few Random Thoughts:
* In my rain jacket, the only difference between me and Kenny from South Park is that my jacket is blue instead of orange. All you can see are my eyes.
* A crossword book is a valuable thing to take travelling, as is a good pen.
* Next time, I need to bring more cleanser.
* I love my new boots. Once broken in, they are so comfy. Expect to see them more.
Lots of love to all!
We're in the final stretch of our trip - bummer - and I'm starting to feel a little nostalgic. Here's the latest action:
Day 10 cont.
No parking fine! Hooray! It was (yea verily) raining pretty hard in Queenstown, but we made it back to the motel in one rather soggy piece.
We spent some time enjoying the fresh fudge we'd purchased from the "Traditional" Sweet shop in QTN - it's really easy to go totally silly in these places. The Sucrose-Free fudge was okay, the Manuka Honey fudge was pretty yummy but the winner was the Kiwifruit (and passionfruit) variety - extra insulin was required. We dried out and dolled up for dinner.
We'd booked into a Dinner Cruise on the TSS Earnslaw, a coal-powered steam ship that lives on the Wakatipu Lake in QTN. It's about a gazillion years old, made for this lake, etc etc etc. After being dropped off by the taxi - neither of us wanted to be the nominated driver - we first made a quick stop to one of the multitude of cheap-crap-tourist-souvenir-crap shops and found a very cool Rugby Girl shirt for me. [Expect to see it a lot.] They threw in a free All Blacks poster too. Amazing how all of the AB merchandise seems to be massively reduced at the moment!?!
We had to hang around for the Easrnslaw to arrive, the previous group to disembark, and then pile onboard. It was REALLY cold standing on the docks, but the wind settled down eventually as we climbed on, surrounded by the usual group of U.S. pensioners speaking loudly.
On board, Himself grabbed some drinks while I exercised my charm to get us some seats. I had to death-stare a Japanese family to keep them away. Their poor 8-year-old daughter looked a little intimidated, as did wizened old nanna. We made friends with a couple from Brisbane, Paul and Katherine, who as well as being from the same generation as us were also amused by the whole tourist experience. P & K sat with us, while the now-looking-a-little-freaked-out Japanese family took their table.
The trip over to Walter's Peak farmstead was lovely. The water was smooth, and Himself and Paul did the guy thing, checking out the engine room, boilers, dudes shovelling coal, wheelhouse, etc. [Look out for the cute photo of Himself wearing the captain's hat!] It turns out the captain was originally from Leichhardt, and attended Ultimo TAFE. Small world.
We arrived at the farmstead and piled off the steamer for dinner. Looking back over the water, you could see the lights of QTN, the boat on the water, the crystal-blue skies and the nearly snow-peaked mountains. Postcard beautiful! We managed to talk our way into a table for 4 for our group and we enjoyed the food, wine, company and atmosphere for a while.
[Insert sniggering here] Entertainment was provided by the in-house pianist. Memories of my mother's old Richard Clayderman tapes started to flood back, and I was REALLY glad that I spent 4 years studying music. Showtunes, Andrew Lloyd-Weber and Hits of the 60s all made an appearance. He'd very generously provided sample CDs and tapes on our tables, so we could consider buying the dulcet tones. Yeah, right.
After dinner, we were offered the chance to watch a Real Sheep Shearing Experience!!! [Again, snigger at will] Lots of pensioners taking video footage of a sheep being shorn was pretty amusing. It made me think, though - when tourists come to my country, so they mock the whole Tourist Experience the was I was? I really hope so.
The gift shop was doing a roaring trade in packets of the little clip-on sheep.
When the steamer arrived, we piled back on for the return journey. Himself took me to have a look at the boiler room and the ship's own onboard museum. I was actually pretty interested.
I sent my sister a message saying hi, letting her know what we were up to, and saying we were on a steam ship. Here is her SMS reply:
"Don't talk to me about that fecking steam ship... C still goes on about it 9 years on..."
[C is her husband, they came to NZ on their honeymoon 9 years ago. C is an engineer. Himself had been taking lots of photos of the engine room thinking C would be interested...]
Back in QTN, we stopped in at a few of the bars in the dock area. In the first, the music was so loud our teeth were rattling, but the staff made up for this by giving us drinks at their happy-hour prices, bless them. More menus to add to the illicit cocktail card collection. [Some people collect spoons, I collect cocktail menus, okay? Everyone needs a hobby.] At bar #2, the snippy bar chicky will hopefully have to explain to her boss why one of her menus is missing. The gas fire was really warm, though! We wandered around to a final venue, a pizza restaurant / wanna-be nightclub and had a final stop surrounded by lots of very young-looking backpackers. I felt old! Then up to the taxi stand and Home James with a lovely young Irish chappie driver.
Day 11:
Jet Boating! It was so cool! We had so much fun! Everyone should do it!
We slept in (okay, it was just me,), so we had to do the harry to the Jet Boating site in Shotover Canyon. I was worrying a bit, but saw the Jet Boating bus in my rear-view mirror, so figured we were okay.
Arriving at the canyon, we were geared up with parker jackets and life vests. We were again among our own kind (i.e. people younger that 60 without American accents) in the waiting line when one of the staff asked us to switch queues. Tragedy! Stuck in a line of ancient-but-loud tour groupies!
Fortunately, it meant that none of them wanted to sit in the front seat - so we got the full treatment. Our adventure-lovin' driver gave us a fabulous experience, whizzing around the canyon, splashing water all over the place, making us think we were about to hit the rocks at every turn and generally scaring the bejesus out of us. Himself had his fun-loving grin all over his face and really enjoyed himself, as did I. We took away the obligatory photos of us looking appropriately freaked out and headed to the QTN gondolas.
As with the other gondolas in NZ, we had to run the gauntlet of Japanese tour bus groups and the climbing-onboard-take-your-photo girls. Although my life as a restaurant photographer was quite short (2 weekends filling in for my sister), I generally feel quite sorry for these compulsory-photo people, but we managed to convince this one that we REALLY weren't going to buy it. And ignored her reply of "but it's my job!". Too bad, honey.
Up at the top we had a fab view of the whole QTN area. The usual beautiful scenery, contrasts and serenity with photos. Himself had also signed up for the luge rides, so he went to continue the day's adrenaline theme while I grabbed a coffee. I managed to grab a few shots of Himself on the ride and he seemed to be having a fab time.
We headed back to our motel to arrange for cleaning & washing and chill out for an hour. Then we took a drive out to Arrowtown, which is basically an upper-class version of the rest of QTN - every second shop contained souvenirs and wool clothes.
We're back in QTN CBD at the moment, ready to eat.
A Few Random Thoughts:
* In my rain jacket, the only difference between me and Kenny from South Park is that my jacket is blue instead of orange. All you can see are my eyes.
* A crossword book is a valuable thing to take travelling, as is a good pen.
* Next time, I need to bring more cleanser.
* I love my new boots. Once broken in, they are so comfy. Expect to see them more.
Lots of love to all!
Wednesday, 24 October 2007
Holiday Part 4
Greetings gentle readers,
Himself and I are in beautiful Queenstown, and my my, isn't it a tourist town! Lots to tell you about...
Day 9 cont.
We drove from Te Anau to Manapuri and caught another cruise ferry to the Manapuri underground power station. The cruise was very beautiful (as was the whole fjordland region. And the whole South Island, so far!) across Lake Manapuri. It was really breezy, so we stayed inside all the way over without any nasty (pukey) side-effects.
Life on the "other" side of the lake was pretty amazing. There is one road (only) going from Lake Manapuri, into the power station, and linking up with Doubtful Sound (another ex-glacier. Much like an ex-parrot, it's still pining for the fjord!). There are no other roads. The one road does not link up to any other road. No roads. (Seeing the pattern?) The only way to get to this part of the world is by boat/ship/water vessel.
We took the tour bus into the power station. It's apparently pretty unique, because instead of damming rivers to make a hydro-electric power station, instead they've diverted water from the lake (heaps above sea-level, can't remember the exact amount), drilled massive holes so it can "drop" and use it to turn turbines, power generators, etc, at almost-sea level. The water all ends up in Doubtful Sound as it would have anyway and runs out to the sea.
The bus goes into a big tube and spirals down for about 2km to where the power-crating bits are kept. We got to see the last of the 7 generators being re-built - kind-of like rebuilding a car engine, but costing about $9 million. It was kinda cool to see the old and new turbines - these things take some punnishment!
Back to Manapuri town, and we turned up the funky tunes to drive to Queenstown. It got progressively colder and more snowy as we drove north-ish. We saw where the Kingston Flyer train started and ended and travelled around the lake to Queenstown. A few "Honey, please drive with BOTH hands on the wheel" queasy moments, but only due to the massive amounts of rain and fog. We arrived at our motel, settled in, and drove into the main town area for dinner. No-one working in any of the restaurants was an actual kiwi - lots of English, Scottish and Irish accents!
Arriving back at the motel, we found a few interesting things that needed a call to the night receptionist, being:
* The toilet would not flush (v. bad)
* The coat hooks fell off the wall when I tried to hang my coat (bad)
* The kitchen cupboard handle fell off when I opened the cupboard (bad)
* The bathroom door handle was broken (continuing to be bad - pretty annoyed by this point!)
* No reception number provided with the phone (smoke coming out of ears...)
We finally managed to contact a night receptionist (someone working at a totally different place, just taking messages! Grr!) and they sent the on-call dude around to check it out. He tried to tell us that we'd done something to the loo (turning purple and resisting the urge to go totally mental) and that no, he couldn't possibly arrange another room becuase there were nonr available in the same price range that we'd paid for. (So give us an upgrade, dick head!) We'd just have to contact Reception in the morning.
We managed to get my blood pressure back to normal and sleep the sleep of the currently-innocent-but-will-be-guilty-of-something-soon-if-that-dude-comes-back.
Day 10:
We started out early to Kingston to cath the aptry-names Kingston Flyer steam train. The rain & fog were pretty bad, as was the driving of the campervan in front of us, so the trip out of town took almost 45 mins. We arrived with about 10 minutes to spare, which really cut into the planned Geek Photo time.
The trip was quite pleasant - 30 minutes to ... the other end of the line, check out the gift shop, then 30 minutes back to Kingston. Himself talked his way into the engone for the ride back, lots of TG fun.
We came back to the motel and reamed out the reception chicky, who gave us an upgraded room. (Poor girl. She didn't have much choice).
At the moment, we're wandering around the main Queenstown mall, checking stuff out and generally having fun. Tonights is posh dinner on the Earnslaw Steam Boat, and we've booked Jet Boating for tomorrow.
Got to go, I hope we haven't received a parking fine...
Himself and I are in beautiful Queenstown, and my my, isn't it a tourist town! Lots to tell you about...
Day 9 cont.
We drove from Te Anau to Manapuri and caught another cruise ferry to the Manapuri underground power station. The cruise was very beautiful (as was the whole fjordland region. And the whole South Island, so far!) across Lake Manapuri. It was really breezy, so we stayed inside all the way over without any nasty (pukey) side-effects.
Life on the "other" side of the lake was pretty amazing. There is one road (only) going from Lake Manapuri, into the power station, and linking up with Doubtful Sound (another ex-glacier. Much like an ex-parrot, it's still pining for the fjord!). There are no other roads. The one road does not link up to any other road. No roads. (Seeing the pattern?) The only way to get to this part of the world is by boat/ship/water vessel.
We took the tour bus into the power station. It's apparently pretty unique, because instead of damming rivers to make a hydro-electric power station, instead they've diverted water from the lake (heaps above sea-level, can't remember the exact amount), drilled massive holes so it can "drop" and use it to turn turbines, power generators, etc, at almost-sea level. The water all ends up in Doubtful Sound as it would have anyway and runs out to the sea.
The bus goes into a big tube and spirals down for about 2km to where the power-crating bits are kept. We got to see the last of the 7 generators being re-built - kind-of like rebuilding a car engine, but costing about $9 million. It was kinda cool to see the old and new turbines - these things take some punnishment!
Back to Manapuri town, and we turned up the funky tunes to drive to Queenstown. It got progressively colder and more snowy as we drove north-ish. We saw where the Kingston Flyer train started and ended and travelled around the lake to Queenstown. A few "Honey, please drive with BOTH hands on the wheel" queasy moments, but only due to the massive amounts of rain and fog. We arrived at our motel, settled in, and drove into the main town area for dinner. No-one working in any of the restaurants was an actual kiwi - lots of English, Scottish and Irish accents!
Arriving back at the motel, we found a few interesting things that needed a call to the night receptionist, being:
* The toilet would not flush (v. bad)
* The coat hooks fell off the wall when I tried to hang my coat (bad)
* The kitchen cupboard handle fell off when I opened the cupboard (bad)
* The bathroom door handle was broken (continuing to be bad - pretty annoyed by this point!)
* No reception number provided with the phone (smoke coming out of ears...)
We finally managed to contact a night receptionist (someone working at a totally different place, just taking messages! Grr!) and they sent the on-call dude around to check it out. He tried to tell us that we'd done something to the loo (turning purple and resisting the urge to go totally mental) and that no, he couldn't possibly arrange another room becuase there were nonr available in the same price range that we'd paid for. (So give us an upgrade, dick head!) We'd just have to contact Reception in the morning.
We managed to get my blood pressure back to normal and sleep the sleep of the currently-innocent-but-will-be-guilty-of-something-soon-if-that-dude-comes-back.
Day 10:
We started out early to Kingston to cath the aptry-names Kingston Flyer steam train. The rain & fog were pretty bad, as was the driving of the campervan in front of us, so the trip out of town took almost 45 mins. We arrived with about 10 minutes to spare, which really cut into the planned Geek Photo time.
The trip was quite pleasant - 30 minutes to ... the other end of the line, check out the gift shop, then 30 minutes back to Kingston. Himself talked his way into the engone for the ride back, lots of TG fun.
We came back to the motel and reamed out the reception chicky, who gave us an upgraded room. (Poor girl. She didn't have much choice).
At the moment, we're wandering around the main Queenstown mall, checking stuff out and generally having fun. Tonights is posh dinner on the Earnslaw Steam Boat, and we've booked Jet Boating for tomorrow.
Got to go, I hope we haven't received a parking fine...
Monday, 22 October 2007
Holiday Part 3
Greetings all,
Things continue to be lots of fun here in NZ - last night saw some serious storms in this part of the world, so it's perfect hot chocolate weather.
Day 7:
When we'd plotted out our trip, we'd originally planned to go from Dunedin to Queenstown, then to Te Anau and Milford sound. Our B&B dude suggested that instead of this, we go straight to Te Anau which was pretty good advice, so here we are. After a few last minute stops in Dunedin, the trip to Te Anau near the west coast was stunningly beautiful. We got here with heaps of time to spare, so booked into a motel and had a wander. It's a tourist town, no doubt about it. We had to hire some snow chains for the Milford Road, and we were a bit worried there would still be avalanches as a result of the earthquakes and snow melt, but the latest road reports were clear.
Dinner was at the local pub, Sunday lamb roast (yummy).
Day 8:
We set out VERY early to Milford Sound. The Lonely Planet had suggested an early start to avoid the tour buses, which turned out to be really good advice. It was the first not-raining not-foggy day in a month! The road was really beautiful, and we didn't have to stop and put the snow chains on or stop for any avalanches, thank goodness.
Milford is so beautiful, I don't really know how to describe it. You'll all just have to come here one day. We hopped on a tour of the sound (which is really a fjord. Good thing - I was pining for a good fjord!) which was really, REALLY cool. It took about 3 hours, but it seemed to go by in about 10 minutes. The mountains rise up straight out of the sea, and you can watch the waterfalls coming down next to the boat and trace them all the way back up to the snow-tipped caps.
The only time I spent away from the top deck of the boat was when we had to do a U-turn in the Tasman sea - up until that point the gentle boat rocking had been quite soothing. 5 minutes and a cup of tea later and I was yet again front-and-centre watching the action. I DID miss the bottle-nosed dolphin that was tracking the boat/ship/vessel, bummer. However, we saw more of the fur seals in the sound, as well as some Fiordland Crested Penguins - so cute!
We drove more slowly back into town, stopping (it seemed like) every 30 metres to take more photos. (Slide night date to be advised!) Then followed a quiet evening!
Day 9:
Today we're heading to a cruise to the Manapuri underground power station, and then on to Queenstown.
Things I Haven't Talked About Yet:
* Ottago Settlers Museum in Dunedin is really cool, free to enter, and quite impressive for a regional museum. Gives a great history of the area without being too boring, annoying, patronising. Lots of old cars on display, as well as the first Dunedin steam train Josephine (Himself was in geek heaven).
* Every single petrol station we've been to in New Zealand has had driveway service. I love it! They come out, fill your car, wash the windscreen, check the oil & water, it's great! Bring it back in Oz, I say.
* I haven't been to any wool shops yet, but we've done heaps of train things. This balance is soon to shift, I assure you.
* My darling sister, you REALLY NEED TO CALL MY HOUSE-SITTER. Honest.
I haven't heard anything about my interview yet, so fingers crossed...
She Says.
Things continue to be lots of fun here in NZ - last night saw some serious storms in this part of the world, so it's perfect hot chocolate weather.
Day 7:
When we'd plotted out our trip, we'd originally planned to go from Dunedin to Queenstown, then to Te Anau and Milford sound. Our B&B dude suggested that instead of this, we go straight to Te Anau which was pretty good advice, so here we are. After a few last minute stops in Dunedin, the trip to Te Anau near the west coast was stunningly beautiful. We got here with heaps of time to spare, so booked into a motel and had a wander. It's a tourist town, no doubt about it. We had to hire some snow chains for the Milford Road, and we were a bit worried there would still be avalanches as a result of the earthquakes and snow melt, but the latest road reports were clear.
Dinner was at the local pub, Sunday lamb roast (yummy).
Day 8:
We set out VERY early to Milford Sound. The Lonely Planet had suggested an early start to avoid the tour buses, which turned out to be really good advice. It was the first not-raining not-foggy day in a month! The road was really beautiful, and we didn't have to stop and put the snow chains on or stop for any avalanches, thank goodness.
Milford is so beautiful, I don't really know how to describe it. You'll all just have to come here one day. We hopped on a tour of the sound (which is really a fjord. Good thing - I was pining for a good fjord!) which was really, REALLY cool. It took about 3 hours, but it seemed to go by in about 10 minutes. The mountains rise up straight out of the sea, and you can watch the waterfalls coming down next to the boat and trace them all the way back up to the snow-tipped caps.
The only time I spent away from the top deck of the boat was when we had to do a U-turn in the Tasman sea - up until that point the gentle boat rocking had been quite soothing. 5 minutes and a cup of tea later and I was yet again front-and-centre watching the action. I DID miss the bottle-nosed dolphin that was tracking the boat/ship/vessel, bummer. However, we saw more of the fur seals in the sound, as well as some Fiordland Crested Penguins - so cute!
We drove more slowly back into town, stopping (it seemed like) every 30 metres to take more photos. (Slide night date to be advised!) Then followed a quiet evening!
Day 9:
Today we're heading to a cruise to the Manapuri underground power station, and then on to Queenstown.
Things I Haven't Talked About Yet:
* Ottago Settlers Museum in Dunedin is really cool, free to enter, and quite impressive for a regional museum. Gives a great history of the area without being too boring, annoying, patronising. Lots of old cars on display, as well as the first Dunedin steam train Josephine (Himself was in geek heaven).
* Every single petrol station we've been to in New Zealand has had driveway service. I love it! They come out, fill your car, wash the windscreen, check the oil & water, it's great! Bring it back in Oz, I say.
* I haven't been to any wool shops yet, but we've done heaps of train things. This balance is soon to shift, I assure you.
* My darling sister, you REALLY NEED TO CALL MY HOUSE-SITTER. Honest.
I haven't heard anything about my interview yet, so fingers crossed...
She Says.
Saturday, 20 October 2007
Holiday Part 2
Hi guys!
Hope you're all doing well. We're still having a fab time, and we don't miss you at all. Well, very much, anyway.
Here's the goss so far:
Day 5:
Taieri Gorge day. We left the B&B VERY early in the morning to arrive at the (gorgeous) Dunedin train station. Very early. Himself did his train-geek thing, taking photos etc. before we hopped on board the train to Middlemarch. Apparently the line we were on used to be in commercial use, but got closed when a rather large damn flooded it out.
It was actually quite a pleasant trip - there was lots of standing-outside-on-in-the-fresh-air-watching-the-world-go-whizzing-by. Some of the areas we travelled through were incredibly beautiful. We also got to walk over one of the (many) viaducts - for train geeks this is almost a religious experience. Himself got into trouble for taking lots of geek photos and none of the gorgeous-girlfriend variety. Grr.
Lunch was supposed to be at Middlemarch, but due to the pub bistro being useless it ended up up being eaten back on the train. I did receive a lovely message from my lovely boss (who is probably reading this message - big S, I luv ya work!) saying that after doing my job for the past 2.5 years, I've finally been transferred back into it. Hurrah! For me, this means that I don't ever have to go back and work for the evil skank who makes every one's lives miserable. Karma WILL be a bitch!
The trip back into Dunedin was nice, and I got chatting to some oyster farmers from the Bay of Islands and learned more about oyster spawning than I ever would have thought possible. I'll never look at a Kilpatrick the same way again.
Speights Tour.
After returning to Dunedin, we went to the Jerusalem of the South, the Speights Beer Brewery. People here take their Speights VERY seriously. The tour guide was a big booming man (who spoke in the previously-mentioned tour operator sing-song, but VERY loudly) who seems to love his work. The tour was okay by She Says standards - lots of enthusiasm, very little actual content.
We went to the Brewhouse next door for dinner, and frankly, it was really disappointing. The food was great, but it's difficult to enjoy a meal when the cutlery is grotty and the dumb blond waitress is, well, a dumb blond. Besides, we were both so full of beer that we couldn't eat much anyway.
It did make me think - I REALLY have missed my calling as a food critic. If only so I can leave little business cards in restaurants saying "You've been visited by [insert cool food critic name here]" to freak them out. Now that I'm a total blog addict, maybe I should start a food blog...
After dinner we wandered around a bit, and found a little cafe on the Dunedin Octagon. Hot chocolate, gas heaters, loud students and a shared couple crossword were the order of business, and then we went to see Perfect Creature, a new vampire-esque film shot in Dunedin. Three stars from She Says.
Day 6:
We started out today with a tour at Cadbury World. Fun and chocolate-y though it was, I would really recommend that next time we go, we try to do the full factory-is-operating version, and preferably NOT on the same day as a huge cruise ship comes to town. Following american pensioners up and down sets of stairs was slightly less than ideal. We made it out of the gift shop only $10 worse off.
Then followed a drive around the Dunedin area - first to Lanarch Castle. It's such a funny place - the buildings and grounds are really beautiful, the commentary bordering on lascivious, and then you realise that the whole ting was build on borrowed money that was never repaid by the dodgy bastard who was on a total ego trip in building it in the first place. The infighting between he and his children and his three wives is pretty amusing. [Especially when you find out that the eldest son and wife #3 were suspected of being... shall we say, close?]
We kept driving out to the coast, and went on a really cool wildlife tour. On old army land, the wildlife world place is a self-imposed protected area. Apparently (and I haven't checked) it's the western-most spot of the southern island, one of only 8 breeding grounds of the highly-endangered yellow-eyed penguin, and one of the few protected seal colonies for NZ fur seals.
We got to stand about 1 metre away from fur seal pups that are only about 10 months old, and they are so beautiful. They lie back and look at you the same was a cat would, throwing their necks back as if to say "worship me". The urge to try and scratch their tummies is really strong. We saw a blue penguin nesting on its eggs, and saw (and smelled) a dominant male fur seal from about 1.5 metres away. They are really amazing animals, I'm still in awe.
We drove all of the way around to the other side of Dunedin Harbour and saw the visiting cruise ship and the docks. Very beautiful.
Dinner tonight is in some sort of converted tram...
Hope you're all doing well. We're still having a fab time, and we don't miss you at all. Well, very much, anyway.
Here's the goss so far:
Day 5:
Taieri Gorge day. We left the B&B VERY early in the morning to arrive at the (gorgeous) Dunedin train station. Very early. Himself did his train-geek thing, taking photos etc. before we hopped on board the train to Middlemarch. Apparently the line we were on used to be in commercial use, but got closed when a rather large damn flooded it out.
It was actually quite a pleasant trip - there was lots of standing-outside-on-in-the-fresh-air-watching-the-world-go-whizzing-by. Some of the areas we travelled through were incredibly beautiful. We also got to walk over one of the (many) viaducts - for train geeks this is almost a religious experience. Himself got into trouble for taking lots of geek photos and none of the gorgeous-girlfriend variety. Grr.
Lunch was supposed to be at Middlemarch, but due to the pub bistro being useless it ended up up being eaten back on the train. I did receive a lovely message from my lovely boss (who is probably reading this message - big S, I luv ya work!) saying that after doing my job for the past 2.5 years, I've finally been transferred back into it. Hurrah! For me, this means that I don't ever have to go back and work for the evil skank who makes every one's lives miserable. Karma WILL be a bitch!
The trip back into Dunedin was nice, and I got chatting to some oyster farmers from the Bay of Islands and learned more about oyster spawning than I ever would have thought possible. I'll never look at a Kilpatrick the same way again.
Speights Tour.
After returning to Dunedin, we went to the Jerusalem of the South, the Speights Beer Brewery. People here take their Speights VERY seriously. The tour guide was a big booming man (who spoke in the previously-mentioned tour operator sing-song, but VERY loudly) who seems to love his work. The tour was okay by She Says standards - lots of enthusiasm, very little actual content.
We went to the Brewhouse next door for dinner, and frankly, it was really disappointing. The food was great, but it's difficult to enjoy a meal when the cutlery is grotty and the dumb blond waitress is, well, a dumb blond. Besides, we were both so full of beer that we couldn't eat much anyway.
It did make me think - I REALLY have missed my calling as a food critic. If only so I can leave little business cards in restaurants saying "You've been visited by [insert cool food critic name here]" to freak them out. Now that I'm a total blog addict, maybe I should start a food blog...
After dinner we wandered around a bit, and found a little cafe on the Dunedin Octagon. Hot chocolate, gas heaters, loud students and a shared couple crossword were the order of business, and then we went to see Perfect Creature, a new vampire-esque film shot in Dunedin. Three stars from She Says.
Day 6:
We started out today with a tour at Cadbury World. Fun and chocolate-y though it was, I would really recommend that next time we go, we try to do the full factory-is-operating version, and preferably NOT on the same day as a huge cruise ship comes to town. Following american pensioners up and down sets of stairs was slightly less than ideal. We made it out of the gift shop only $10 worse off.
Then followed a drive around the Dunedin area - first to Lanarch Castle. It's such a funny place - the buildings and grounds are really beautiful, the commentary bordering on lascivious, and then you realise that the whole ting was build on borrowed money that was never repaid by the dodgy bastard who was on a total ego trip in building it in the first place. The infighting between he and his children and his three wives is pretty amusing. [Especially when you find out that the eldest son and wife #3 were suspected of being... shall we say, close?]
We kept driving out to the coast, and went on a really cool wildlife tour. On old army land, the wildlife world place is a self-imposed protected area. Apparently (and I haven't checked) it's the western-most spot of the southern island, one of only 8 breeding grounds of the highly-endangered yellow-eyed penguin, and one of the few protected seal colonies for NZ fur seals.
We got to stand about 1 metre away from fur seal pups that are only about 10 months old, and they are so beautiful. They lie back and look at you the same was a cat would, throwing their necks back as if to say "worship me". The urge to try and scratch their tummies is really strong. We saw a blue penguin nesting on its eggs, and saw (and smelled) a dominant male fur seal from about 1.5 metres away. They are really amazing animals, I'm still in awe.
We drove all of the way around to the other side of Dunedin Harbour and saw the visiting cruise ship and the docks. Very beautiful.
Dinner tonight is in some sort of converted tram...
Thursday, 18 October 2007
Day 4 cont.
Hi all,
We've arrived in Dunedin, had a very pleasant trip. The highlight was stopping to look at some round rocks.
No sign of earthquake damages yet.
We've arrived in Dunedin, had a very pleasant trip. The highlight was stopping to look at some round rocks.
No sign of earthquake damages yet.
Wednesday, 17 October 2007
Holiday Part 1
Hello all,
I'm writing to you from Day 4 of Helen and Mike's Magical Mystery Tour through the South Island of New Zealand.
Day 1:
We left home horribly early on Monday, arrived at Sydney airport, did the usual Duty-Free shopping (We're running out of space for our alcohol collection at home - help!) and had breakfast at the Qantas club - highly recommended! Mike narrowly avoided being fisted by a lovely man in Customs, but got away with just taking off his shoes instead.
The diabetic meal on board was it's usual bland blechy baby food, and we were squished into the centre aisle just in front of the projector screen. Helen got neck strain and an icky headache from watch the close-ups of Catherine Zeta-Jones' nostrils.
Arrival in Christchurch was fine, we picked up our car and drove to our Christchurch accommodation, a cute little motel on the edge of the city. We went for a wander through the city, found a sports bar in an old movie theatre, went on the tram around the city, and general had some fun. We found a Speight's Ale House (VERY similar to James Squire locations in Sydney) about 2 blocks away from our motel, so we were forced to sample their wares and stayed for dinner too.
Day 2:
Went to explore Christchurch. We went on a punt through the city with a charming English lad doing the punting. The ducklings were VERY cute! Then to Viaduct for morning tea, and frove out to the gondolas - a sky ride to the top of one of the port hills. An easy ride going up and everything was very beautiful. The Time Travel ride was a complete joke - glad I didn't spent anything on it! Riding down the gondolas was interesting - the wind picked up and it was pretty gusty.
We drove on to Lyttleton, where Chirstchurch's main commercial port is located. It's a cute little village and very worth a wander. The Pilgrim's Rock was funny - a rock with the 1850s equivalent of "We Woz 'Ere" carved into it.
Then bck to the city. We stopped at the train station - firstly to check times for the next day's trip, but also becuase I had a job interview via phone from Australia, so I needed somewhere quiet. The interview went well (I think. I hope), then back to the motel to chill out.
Dinner was at Spagellini's (sic), a fab gourmet pizza place in Victoria Street. The chicken & cranberry pizza was great, as were the cocktails. Another cocktail menu to add to our collection!
Day 3: [Warning - contains Helen being ill]
TranzAlpine Day! We'd already checked our times, so we were out the door and at the train station early. It wasn't until the train was running, however, that were told that the storms the night before had washed out part of the track, and that the trip from Arthur's Pass to Greymouth would be by bus.
All of you who know me weel would be aware of my splatter-spread childhood of motion sickness, and my splattered-history of bus travel. However, the only other choice was to sit in Arthur's Pass for 4 hours...
The bus to Greymouth started okay. 2 hours later, however, and I was NOT feeling well. We made it to Greymouth - just, and the cool air really helped. A quick visit to the chemist for motion-sickness tablets, then lunch at a great little place called the Smelter Cafe - appreantly the owner/manager/assistant cook is a nutritionalist, and the food was great. Briefly, anyway...
Back on the bus, and I tried to have a nap. Mike struck up conversations with both the train manager and one of the drivers. I managed to sleep until the actual trip through the new road on Arthur's Pass. The most steep and winding part of the road trip.
Back at the train station, and it was time for Helen to do the psychadelic yawn in the only place there was moving air - the garden next to the train station. Also next to the train carriage we were then to travel on. I got some odd looks.
I managed to sleep most of the way back on the train, and kept it together back to Christchurch. Mike had to drive back to the motel where we chilled out a bit.
Dinner was at the Belgian Beer Cafe in Christchurch city, the drinks list included one of my all-time favourite beers, the Boon lambic range. Reminder to self - track down someone in Australia who can import this stuff, it's great! Their Belgian Beer cocktail list will make a nice addition to the collection.
Day 4:
Today we're still in Christchurch, and will be travelling to Dunedin after we do some shopping. Silly me, I didn't think I'd need thermals at this time of year. Fortunately there's a Kathmandu factory shop nearby. We're detouring via Ashcurton for some train-lovin' fun, and staying at a B&B in High Street in Dunedin.
Helen's Thought On Travelling:
1. Always have motion sick tablets on hand. You WILL need them.
2. Always take warmer clothes than you think you will require. You WILL need them.
3. Take a good book (reading or crossword) for those train-geek photo stops. You WILL need it.
4. Use a healthy amount of scepticism when listening to tour operators. The sing-song voice they all seem to use means that they could (and do) say anything and make it sound credible.
More as it is available!
She Says.
I'm writing to you from Day 4 of Helen and Mike's Magical Mystery Tour through the South Island of New Zealand.
Day 1:
We left home horribly early on Monday, arrived at Sydney airport, did the usual Duty-Free shopping (We're running out of space for our alcohol collection at home - help!) and had breakfast at the Qantas club - highly recommended! Mike narrowly avoided being fisted by a lovely man in Customs, but got away with just taking off his shoes instead.
The diabetic meal on board was it's usual bland blechy baby food, and we were squished into the centre aisle just in front of the projector screen. Helen got neck strain and an icky headache from watch the close-ups of Catherine Zeta-Jones' nostrils.
Arrival in Christchurch was fine, we picked up our car and drove to our Christchurch accommodation, a cute little motel on the edge of the city. We went for a wander through the city, found a sports bar in an old movie theatre, went on the tram around the city, and general had some fun. We found a Speight's Ale House (VERY similar to James Squire locations in Sydney) about 2 blocks away from our motel, so we were forced to sample their wares and stayed for dinner too.
Day 2:
Went to explore Christchurch. We went on a punt through the city with a charming English lad doing the punting. The ducklings were VERY cute! Then to Viaduct for morning tea, and frove out to the gondolas - a sky ride to the top of one of the port hills. An easy ride going up and everything was very beautiful. The Time Travel ride was a complete joke - glad I didn't spent anything on it! Riding down the gondolas was interesting - the wind picked up and it was pretty gusty.
We drove on to Lyttleton, where Chirstchurch's main commercial port is located. It's a cute little village and very worth a wander. The Pilgrim's Rock was funny - a rock with the 1850s equivalent of "We Woz 'Ere" carved into it.
Then bck to the city. We stopped at the train station - firstly to check times for the next day's trip, but also becuase I had a job interview via phone from Australia, so I needed somewhere quiet. The interview went well (I think. I hope), then back to the motel to chill out.
Dinner was at Spagellini's (sic), a fab gourmet pizza place in Victoria Street. The chicken & cranberry pizza was great, as were the cocktails. Another cocktail menu to add to our collection!
Day 3: [Warning - contains Helen being ill]
TranzAlpine Day! We'd already checked our times, so we were out the door and at the train station early. It wasn't until the train was running, however, that were told that the storms the night before had washed out part of the track, and that the trip from Arthur's Pass to Greymouth would be by bus.
All of you who know me weel would be aware of my splatter-spread childhood of motion sickness, and my splattered-history of bus travel. However, the only other choice was to sit in Arthur's Pass for 4 hours...
The bus to Greymouth started okay. 2 hours later, however, and I was NOT feeling well. We made it to Greymouth - just, and the cool air really helped. A quick visit to the chemist for motion-sickness tablets, then lunch at a great little place called the Smelter Cafe - appreantly the owner/manager/assistant cook is a nutritionalist, and the food was great. Briefly, anyway...
Back on the bus, and I tried to have a nap. Mike struck up conversations with both the train manager and one of the drivers. I managed to sleep until the actual trip through the new road on Arthur's Pass. The most steep and winding part of the road trip.
Back at the train station, and it was time for Helen to do the psychadelic yawn in the only place there was moving air - the garden next to the train station. Also next to the train carriage we were then to travel on. I got some odd looks.
I managed to sleep most of the way back on the train, and kept it together back to Christchurch. Mike had to drive back to the motel where we chilled out a bit.
Dinner was at the Belgian Beer Cafe in Christchurch city, the drinks list included one of my all-time favourite beers, the Boon lambic range. Reminder to self - track down someone in Australia who can import this stuff, it's great! Their Belgian Beer cocktail list will make a nice addition to the collection.
Day 4:
Today we're still in Christchurch, and will be travelling to Dunedin after we do some shopping. Silly me, I didn't think I'd need thermals at this time of year. Fortunately there's a Kathmandu factory shop nearby. We're detouring via Ashcurton for some train-lovin' fun, and staying at a B&B in High Street in Dunedin.
Helen's Thought On Travelling:
1. Always have motion sick tablets on hand. You WILL need them.
2. Always take warmer clothes than you think you will require. You WILL need them.
3. Take a good book (reading or crossword) for those train-geek photo stops. You WILL need it.
4. Use a healthy amount of scepticism when listening to tour operators. The sing-song voice they all seem to use means that they could (and do) say anything and make it sound credible.
More as it is available!
She Says.
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