Mikey in London.....

We had 24 hours in London only, where the lovely Mikey let us stay in his Wilsden Green abode. Plenty of time to see all the sites including the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, London Museum, The British Museum...oh and the tube...why does it alway have to break down, ew its so hot and stuffy! London is a great place to visit but it baffles me why so many Aussies are excited about living there???

Thanks Mikey...enjoy your 10 days of peace in the shoebox...S & M

The Tatra Mountains

The Tatras are a mountain range in Slovakia which are divided into the High and Low Tatras for obvious reasons. We spent a few days in the Low Tatras "Nizke Tatry" to start with however it rained most of the time so we didnt get to see much. We went and saw the Bystrianska Caves which were amazing, much better than Jenolan but I cant tell you much about them as the tour was in Slovak.
Most of the time was spent in the High Tatras "Vysoke Tatry" which are just amazing. In 2004 however, a storm where winds were 200 km/hr went through and blew over a large portion of the pine trees so the lower parts of the mountain now look like a tree graveyard...but obviously it doesnt stop the endless stream of tourists hiking in summer, even on the highest peaks with really difficult tracks there were still people around. There are loads of high mountain lakes "pleso" which are so pretty..I cant wait to go back again!

Lower Tatras:High Tatras:

Bratislava...the land of bridges

Bratislava has an old bridge "stary most", a new bridge "novy most", and a really new bridge that looks like a small harbour bridge...it was really confusing!
We stayed in a great little hotel right next to the castle "hrad" (see look I know some Slovak now!) which has a fantastic view over the town. There was a great thunder storm one night in the distance luckily, where Marty managed to get a great photo from our room.
The old town is really pretty but unfortunately some smart investors have turned it into an expensive swish restaurant area over the last two years where there are hoards of British blokes out for a pissy weekend. What they dont realise it that one or two streets further on the food is literally ten times cheaper and much better, but they all get trapped in the touristy area...oh well we win out again!

We left our car parked outside the hotel, which is apparently a 'really safe area' however some lovely person or people decided to steal our hub caps...god knows for what reason other than it was the newest model of the car. We were pleased to find out when we eventually returned the car that they were only worth $50 in total.

Next up Cesky Krumlov....

So from Prague we picked up the little red "Skoda" car, the pride and joy of the Czech Republic however I think its a hunk of rubbish equivalent to a lawn-mower on wheels..anyhow, it was a car. We headed a 100 k's south of Prague to a medieval town called Cesky Krumlov for a few days...absolutely fantastic place we had so much fun there, I would highly recommend it to anyone. The town was built in the curve of a river that comes all the way from Prague...we went about 30 k's upstream one day and lazily floated on a canoe all the way back to town through all sorts of villages. There are many locks in the river which we had lots of fun sliding down and somehow managed not to capsize!
Well I thought Prague food and drink was cheap but this is just amazing..we had the bestest meals ever and struggled to spend $20 between us including drinks...wow

Now the holiday begins...first stop Praha

I hadnt been to Prague before as I was too cheap previously to pay for a visa...but now that they are a civilised country and accept that Aussies are harmless no worries!
My first view of Prague was through a plastic Czech beer cup and sausage...na zdravie! It was ridiculously cheap something like 2 dollars in total!
My next view of Prague was in an outragous crowd of tourists milling around the old town...grrr I really do hate being in such touristy places. Owing to Marty speaking Slovak which is essentially the same as Czech (say like an Aussie and a NZer talking) we managed to stay out of the touristy areas and find some real Czech culture, ah much better :)

Guernsey Wedding

The main event for this holiday finally arrived...Jo and Gareths Wedding in Guernsey!
It was held at Saumarez Manor (where we also happened to be staying)...apart from the creepy woman looking after the accommodation and the ghost tour they made us go on it was a pretty nice place to stay...it was definitely a good place to have a wedding!
The fact that the weather was shocking on the wedding day didnt trouble anyone we all had lots of fun and Jo and Gareth were so happy. As per usual the girls spent all day getting ready and the boys slept in and threw on their suits just in time. There we lots of Aussie friends and fam there to wish them well. The reception was a blast.
Yay for Mr and Mrs Chandler

2 weeks in Bordeaux 'working'

OK the adventures started with Bordeaux again for two weeks of hard work, ie. eating and drinking french delicacies, well we did actually get alot of work done but cant have all work and no play! It was very exciting having Marty along finally, instead of him sitting at home getting sms's from me saying how much fun it is..yay! However I must say its a bit rude of him to get better results than me at work, thats just not fair :)

Pretty good this time to is that the fam came along for a visit, and liked it so much they stayed an extra few days...now they understand why I want to go work there. Mum was very happy when I took her to my favourite duck restaurant (duck being her top menu pick), where they serve nothing but duck dishes most of which you cant tell are actually duck. Dad was very pleased with the French beer and Matt was very relieved to have some normal people to talk to ie. not mum and dad.