Team W

DW - So our first week of holidays has come to an end, and we're now really starting to feel like it is a holiday, knowing that instead of going to work on Monday, we're going to Egypt!
After a 10 hour train trip through Poland, Czech Republic (I assume), and Germany, from Krakow, we arrived on Wednesday in Berlin, a place we'd heard nothing but great things about. Similar to most places we've been, expectations were high (especially mine), and we leave not disappointed in any way.
We stayed in the East of the city, in a trendy part of a trendy town, think Camden (or Newtown) on steroids. Clearly the odd ones out without excessive piercings, tats, or pink hair, we arrived a little nervous at our hostel, but were quickly put at ease when we were given our keys... Although when we opened the door there was stuff all over the room, someone else's shit. We returned the keys without helping ourselves to souvenirs (although I could do with a new pair of leopard skin knickers) and swapped them for an empty room, good news.
It was getting fairly late in the day so we didn't wander far for some grub, Mexican, and hit the hay, both still fairly crook with the flu.

Still not knowing what to do in Berlin (I knew a little of its history and that's it), the next morning we opted for the free walking tour after several recommendations. It was a cracking day (26'C and sunny) so we walked from our hostel, deciding to stick to the water so we couldn't get too lost. We first came across (by complete accident) the East Side Gallery which is one (1) of three (3) remaining parts of the Berlin Wall, and it's certainly the coolest and most in-tact part of the wall. For as far as you can see, alongside the water, the wall is covered with street art (the good kind, not characatures of hugpensis), each segment unique and from a different street artist. It soon became obvious that this was the culture of Berlin, a very liberal and progressive place where nothing is weird, just unique. At first we thought it might've been just the area we were staying, but it encompasses the entire city, giving it a really 'cool' (I feel so old saying that) feel, different from any place we've ever been.
Anyway, a little way along Loz's thong (that's a flip-flop for you Poms and Seppos) blew-out, and with footpaths covered in broken glass, we were f#%ked! With no other option, I piggy-backed Lozza until we found a shopping centre where we found a pair to her liking (and our travellers budget). For the purpose of this story, I'm going to say the shopping centre was 25kms from where the thong blew-out, so some would say I'm a true hero, a modern day Simpson, piggy-backing a soldier in need for such a distance. Loz's account may be substantially different from mine, but I have publishing control on the blog so her story will never be told!

After a couple of hours we arrived at Museum Island, an island of museums (a tough one to get your head around, I know) with a big f-off church fronting a beautiful green park covered in lazing bodies. The church was thoroughly impressive, I'd say the most impressive building I've ever seen in my life, and the weather was smoking so we sat and chilled out for a while, until we continued towards Brandenburg Gate where the tour was starting. Luckily we had enough time for some cheap quality German sausage, Loz on the Bratwurst and me on the Currywurst. Let me say, the Germans know how to make a good sausage, I want it every day, in and around my mouth!

The tour started and our guide, a Pom, Leo, knew his stuff and was really engaging. The tour lasted over three (3) hours covering another part of the wall, Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag (from a distance), the Holocaust Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie (meh), the top of Hitler's Bunker (now a carpark), Old SS HQ, the French Square, Museum Island, and much much more. Loz was really impressed as this was her first walking tour (only my second), and despite the horrendous chafe I encountered, it was a great educational, interesting, and thoroughly enjoyable way to spend an afternoon.
Still feeling quite ill, we trained it back the hostel shortly after and stayed in for the night. We tried to book the Reichstag (the Reichstag is Parliament House with a huge clear dome over the top where you can get views of the city, and watch parliament in action from above, live) for either Friday or Saturday, but sadly it was all booked out, and these days you can't just rock up on the day. A little sad we missed out, but I guess that's the price you pay for being a shit traveller; if we'd known anything about Berlin before we arrived we would've booked ahead...
That night we had a big thunderstorm which we found far more exciting than we should've, but it was the first storm we've been in for well over a year (the Poms just don't have storms), and the next morning I slept past 6am for the first time since starting holidays a week prior, hooray.

Another smoking hot day, even warmer than the day prior, we set off on the train to the west side (represent) to a forest area called Grunewald, mcmassive. We'd read about this huge parklands area as a great escape from the city, although it was really only a stone's throw away. It was pretty, but certainly not what we expected... A few kms in we finally came across some water, a lake just to the right of the path, a beautiful setting... except... It was a nude colony, full of old seedy men presenting all their glory for the world to see, I think I just vomited in my mouth a little even writing that! It was proper disgusting and not at all what we expected! We were here for beautiful scenery, lakes, trees, sun; not hairy old-man balls! This quickly turned our mood and we decided rather than going in too deep (so to speak) we'd backtrack, and get the hell out of there!

Back out of the nude zone, we hopped back on the train and took some deep breaths whilst trying our best to forget what we'd just seen. Off the train at Tiergarten, we strolled for a while through this non-nude park until we found a nice sunny spot to lay our heads for a read/nap, a great hour or so. As we continued through what I've decided as my favourite park in the world (it's truly amazing, beautiful and green, move over Hyde Park), we passed a few minor nude colonies (what the hell is this?!) until we reached the Topography of Terror, an outdoor (free) museum presenting a history of the Nazis. Loz, with her long attention span, exhausted from all the sun and nudeness plonked a seat and read while I wandered through the exhibition. Such a fascinating story, the Nazi one, one (1) I'm keen to learn so much more about. I'm two (2) pages into a 1,000 page book on The Holocaust so hopefully that's a good starting point (although I finished a book on Auschwitz this week which was brilliant).

Ready for a beer, we shot up to the north of the city in search for Pratergarten which had been recommended online as a great outdoor bar. We found the street easily enough and entered the foyer of what we thought was the bar. It was dark, there was classical horror music playing, and people were lining up to pay an entrance fee. On a screen well above eyesight there was some freaky cartoon footage looping, more random that the lottery. Needless to say, I absolutely loved the look and feel of the place, something weird and different, just up my alley... But when we got to the ticket booth, just to check, we asked if this was Pratagarten... "No, this is Prater, a theatre show, Pratergarten is next door", oh dear.
So back out the big black doors and through the gate to Pratergarden we spent a great few hours trying all sorts of delicious local beers, sitting outside in the heat amongst scores of people. I reckon at capacity (likely a weekend sunny arvo) it'd hold >1,000 bods, and the atmosphere would be almost Oktoberfest-like.
As we left hours later, the rain started to fall and we headed for home to find another recommended bar just behind our hostel, can't think of the name. It was pissing down and we were proper soaked, sprinting the streets, not knowing exactly what we were looking for. After a few blocks we gave up on it and settled for the first bar we passed.

After checking out of the hostel and locking our bag at the train station this morning, we made our way to the Reichstag (at least if we couldn't go in, we were going to see it up close from the outside). We got distracted a few times along the way by various markets, it's Saturday so every Tom, Dick, and Harry were out and about (what do you think the German equivalent of Tom, Dick and Harry are? Wolfgang, Wolfgang and Wolfgang?). On top of that, it appeared that a Berlin team were playing Bayern Munich in the German League final today, so there was a sea of yellow and black, lots of chanting, and a general heightened atmosphere throughout the city, brilliant.

Slowly back to our favourite spot, Museum Island, we laid our heads for a rest until the time came to head to the airport. The airport is homeless central, I'm not kidding when I say that every five (5) minutes there was someone checking through the bins beside where we were sitting. Pretty gross, but I guess people throw away a lot of stuff at the airport (stuff they can't take through security) so I reckon these homeless' were actually quite smart.

I really really loved Berlin's hip and trendiness, very different from anywhere else in the world we've ever been. Most definitely a place I could live in, but perhaps a little 'alternate' for my Lozenge.

DW - It's 9am on Wednesday, and most people are starting work for the day. We're instead, spending the whole working day (and some) on a train from Krakow to Berlin, everyone's favourite European city. But more on that later... 

After spending our last week in London (officially... We are returning for parts between now and October, but let's run with it for the purpose of this story) partying and saying goodbye to friends we've come so close to, we set out early on Sunday morning to Krakow, Poland. A place we knew very little about but had heard nothing but great things from everyone who's been, expectations were high, without knowing exactly what to expect (reading that back, pretty sure it makes no sense at all, but this is my blog, I can do whatever I want).
When we first arrived at the airport and jumped on a bus, we were surprised to see a place, green as envy, that reminded us of Vanuatu, WTF? It seemed tropical, second-world, and quite under-developed, and we liked it! After checking into our motel (£20 a night for a massive room, although it was out in the sticks a bit) we headed into the city where we were reminded that we were in Europe: buildings older than family trees, and a huge square (piazza) bang in the middle full of cafes, pubs, and a great general atmosphere. But something was remarkably different from what we'd experienced before; this was Eastern Europe, and things are farking cheap!!!
We pulled into a random local pub for lunch and sat outside as the weather was bloody terrific (about 23'C and sunny) and ordered as best we could without knowing a single word of Polish. I remember the barman asking me several times if we wanted bread and potato. I refused until the fourth time when I folded and said yes; we never saw potatoes, so I can only assume the rough stale-like bread we had was made from potatoes. Anyway, a meal each and two (2) pints of local lager set us back 60 Zlotas, which equates to just £12 ($18AUD), we could get used to this.

We wandered around for the afternoon in the centre of town, trying to get our bearings, and settled for some cheap cocktails in the guts of the town square, then shared a delicious pork snitzel (love East Europe for their snitzel and potato diet) before heading home via the ice-cream shop ($0.50 for a massive one to share!!). I don't recall us having too many dramas with the public transport at this stage (with the exception of when  first tried to find out motel and walked kilometers in the wrong direction before giving up and hailing a cab), but from then on, it became a nightmare and ongoing joke for the both of us. Both of us are directionally challenged and if you stick a map in front of us with not a word of English on it, and we don't learn the name of our closest stop, it's a fair chance we're going to get lost, which we did, several times.

The appeal for the motel we chose was a combination of price and ratings. It had been rated pretty well online and the price was too good to overlook. But if we were to go back to Krakow, we'd definitely stay closer to town. The tram system is really really confusing, and buses don't run after 11pm, but I'll get to another story on that shortly.
The motel is also right next to a main road and at night it seems every truck in Europe passes, sounding like it's going to crash through your window, even though you're on the fifth floor. It was quite warm at night and there was no A/C or fan, so opening the windows was a must, despite the chaos outside. I sound like I'm whinging now so I'll stop; it was a nice place, but given our chance again, we'd go closer to town.

The next morning, the flu had hit Loz hard and she decided to rest while I managed my way into town for a free walking tour. Many people have recommended the free walking tours throughout all major European cities, something we hadn't ignored, but chosen not to do until now. It was run by all Polish people and they knew their shit. There would've been about 25 people on the tour I reckon and I was engaged the whole time, very very interesting, especially as Poland has so much history. It's a country that's ceased to exist on several occasions throughout time, yet still manages to keep a strong heritage, language, and sense of pride. 72 years ago they were under German rule; shortly after under Soviet Communism, until only 21 years ago. Bloody interesting place, and the walking tour went for over three (3) hours.
Another key thing I learnt from the walking tour is that I'd struggle to travel on my own, it just wouldn't suit me. Loz and I have spoken of this numerous times and I've always thought (although I love traveling with Loz more than anything) I could probably travel on my own if we'd never met. But I quickly learnt that I just don't have what it takes to travel solo... I kept to myself for the tour, and despite there being several singles on the trip, I just don't have that sense of confidence to hold conversations with strangers for long enough (unless I'm drunk). So I'm bloody glad I have Loz as my travel buddy, her dancing in random spots keeps me entertained for days on end!

Later that afternoon, Loz feeling refreshed, we hit a bar recommended by my tour guide. We entered, walked down a few sets of stairs (now we were underground) and ordered a 3.3L tube of beer for about £8, oh yeah! We thought about the 5L but figured it might be a stretch between two (2) of us, especially as we hadn't really eaten anything that day. So time went by and cheery, we set off for snitzel and potato for dinner, even cheaper and more delicious than the previous night (it cost us less than £4). Just up the road, we hit a piano bar that was all but empty, a bit early, so we returned to the original bar for another 3.3L beer tube, love this place. Now, quite pissy, time had passed and we returned to the piano bar for some jazz, although didn't stay long as the homing beakers came on. We jumped on the first tram we could find and then things went downhill...
The tram did take us where we wanted, but our connecting bus had run its last course for the day and we were now stranded, at the end of the tram line, with no f#%king idea what to do! We headed for the street and tried to hail any cab that came nearby, but no one stopped, why? One car with a light atop did slow for us, but as it neared we realised it was a police car, and waved it along, damn it. This happened again about 10 minutes later and we were stuck for ideas, feeling quite anxious in the middle of nowhere.
We eventually rang the motel and they (after numerous phone calls) arranged for a cab to come and pick us up, which it did eventually, phew. As we stepped into the cab, relieved that we were now not stuck in no man's land, Loz prodded me to ask the cabbie how much the fare for going to cost, as though we had another option! I couldn't bloody believe it; this cab was our savior, a modern-day Jesus if you will, and Loz had the guts to want to know how much it was going to cost! If it cost us £200 it still wouldn't have mattered, as there was no option, donuts, nothing! Anyway, being a good husband I asked and the bill came to a measly £4, yep just four (4) quid, the best and cheapest taxi fare of all time I say!

Krakow is full of old ladies. It's one (1) of the first things we noticed about the place, so many old ducks, several carrying bunches of flowers... We speculated a little; were they WWII survivors? I started to think about what these women's lives had been like, the amount of change they've experienced in this beautiful place... Many of them would've seen the country change hands several times, lost their loved ones in the war, the Holocaust; we are so lucky with the secluded lives we live in Oz.

The following morning, not so fresh, we had a reasonably early start and were picked up by a lovely lady who took us to Auschwitz, the world's most notorious concentration/death camp from WWII. She dropped us with our tour guide for the day who was a lovely fella that was the dopple-ganger of Shae (Michael Connolly) from college, brilliant! He was immensely knowledgable and his English was admirable. In the past year, since visiting Gallipoli I've developed a real interest in modern history, particularly WWII. So, knowing that we were to be visiting Auschwitz whilst in Krakow, I bought a book on Amazon a couple of weeks ago (Amazon is a revelation, seriously the best company. Second hand books for just the cost of postage, gotta love that) explaining the history of the camp with real-life experiences throughout. It's so difficult to fathom just how a place like this existed in history, a place of such brutality and mass-genocide. Over 1.1 million people (some estimates are up to 4million) were exterminated in this camp, in the space of just six (6) years. What makes it worse is that the SS (Nazis) forced Jews themselves (working as slaves) to conduct the killings and run the camp pretty well as self-sufficient, without the SS having to lift a finger. The Holocaust is a low, but fascinating point in modern history, and our visit to Auschwitz was moving and a real eye-opener for us. You certainly wouldn't call it an entertaining place to visit, but a necessary trip to see the world that Jews, the disabled, gays, POW, and anyone else who didn't fit the 'perfect German' criteria, lived in.

Auschwitz took the most part of the day, and both of us feeling quite I'll with the flu, we sat in the main town square (back in Krakow) for a coffee for a while in the late afternoon, grabbed some insanely good kebabs for dinner, and headed home for an early night (via getting on the wrong tram, getting to the end of the line, and having to go back again, adding about an hour to our trip). We had a dip in the nice indoor pool at the motel and a sauna, then hit the hay for an interesting night ahead...

Around midnight, I awoke to some horrible music blaring from the room next door. You could hear a bunch of guys, clearly pissed off their tree, singing along with some of the most horrid and out-of-tune keyboard music. I beared with it for a while and as soon as Loz awoke I called reception to see what they could do. Now wide awake, I strolled down to reception whilst they told them to shut up, and called dad for his 60th birthday. Hope you had a ripper daddo.
Minutes later, a gypsie passed from the lift through the front door, holding nothing but a keyboard, what?! I asked the reception guys, "was that guy holding a keyboard?" and they just laughed, perhaps he's a regular visitor who murders music for late-night returners to motels, in return for a free room? Anyway, with him now safely out of the building, we returned to  deep slumber until our 5:15am alarm; time to go to Berlin!

DW - 30/04... As I ride the train to Theale for my final week of work for 2012, I am walking on air, this can't be real! How has this past year in London gone so fast? They say life goes faster every year and to this day I'd back that, but the past twelve (12) months has been insane, another level of speed!
Although immensely excited for the coming eight (8) months of travel, there's a certain level of anxiety, but also a (quite large) level of sadness in my mind, and I know Loz feels the same. Sad, empty, cold to leave this amazing city of London. How do you say goodbye to the best year of your life? The city that has given you so much and not taken anything from you (maybe a few quid here and there)? And the people... This week we'll be saying farewell to so many amazing people we've met, some for the last time; people we'll never cross paths with again in our lives. Loz and her workmates have already made a rule that they're not allowed to call her farewell party on Friday night a 'farewell'; it's just a party... If they call it a farewell they end up in tears. And the people I've grown so close to at work; Tim, Christian, big Al, Rich, Phil... Who's going to drag them to the pub every second day now? And in London; Peejay, Mitch, Soph; I feel Teddy's will run out of business once we leave.
So many questions, not one (1) of which I can answer... London, we're going to miss you like you don't understand. But maybe it's not goodbye forever, maybe it's just, see you in a while, who knows?

Enough sulking though, I'm going to smash through all the notes I've been taking over the past months, and recap, just one (1) more time, on some of the things we've been doing...

Food: unmistakably one (1) of the gluttony capitals of the world, London has so so much to offer on the food front. And we've given it a fair crack too as far as variety, seldom finding a bad feed.
I'll start with our most memorable meal and most likely the best and most enjoyable meal we'll experience in our lives; The Ledbury. Run by a Novacastrian (yep, a guy from home who used to work at Scratchley's) and opened less than ten (10) years ago, The Ledbury has managed to recruit not one (1), but two (2) Michelin Stars in that short time, leaving it amongst some of the absolute top restaurants in the world. Mitch had raved about it time after time as his favourite place to eat, and eventually convinced us (to be honest our arms didn't need much twisting) to make the eight (8) minute walk down the road to its' front door (after booking 6 weeks earlier mind you)! We started about 7:15pm and ended up leaving the restaurant at 1:30am, yep, that's over six (6) hours of eating and drinking. Mitch, who knows the chef, emailed him that day and told him we'd be coming. Much to our surprise, he then created a menu especially for us, consisting of twelve (12) courses, that wasn't a typo, it really was twelve (12)! And of course, with each serving we had to take a matching wine... We all agreed (Loz, Mitch, Soph, Christian and I) that it was a truly unique and amazing experience, one (1) we'll certainly never forget. And although it cost us an arm and a leg (and possibly a few other body parts), we'll look back on it as some of the best food, wine, and company of all time; truly bloody outstanding.
Only ten (10) days earlier than The Ledbury, we visited Dans le Noir (in the black), a restaurant where you eat in complete darkness, served by blind people. I've already written a full post on this experience, but again, one (1) to remember, and certainly somewhere we'd recommend when in London.
Apart from these two (2) really unique experiences, there's really nothing we haven't eaten in the past couple of months... Thai, American (Foxtrot Oscar, one of Gordon Ramsey's restaurants in Chelsea, very nice), Chinese (several trips to Chinatown), Sunday Roasts, Indian (Brick Lane curries coming out the wazoo), Mexican, Japanese, Moroccan, Argentinian, and countless others, too many to list!

Catch-ups: so many visits to so many pubs, and an amazing amount of catching up with new and old friends!

In late January we scoffed some delicious Chinatown Chinese (funny that) with James Abbott, who was visiting from Canada. The Peking Duck was second only to actual Peking Duck, and we managed a few beers at a random Covent Garden pub shortly after. Really great to see James again, who we hadn't seen for many years.

A couple of weeks ago I got an out-of-the-blue message from Joel Pedlow, one (1) of my best mates from Primary School, saying he was going to be in London and wanted to catch up. It's funny, that we've touched base with so many people since being in London, it really makes us feel like we're in the centre of the world. So we had a few beers at the Prince Albert in Notting Hill, far too many actually, but it was really great seeing him (I hadn't seen him for 9 years) and talking tales for several hours. He'd just spent five (5) months in India and has given us a real taste for it, hopefully 2013... We managed to again catch up last weekend and he stayed with us for a night which was brilliant. We spent the day out and about in the sun, watching the London Marathon amongst the thousands of people out and about.

On a Sunday in March, Loz and I travelled up to Camden for the day to check out the markets, canals, pubs, and possibly a roast. Lobba had been recommending The Proud (a bar inside old stables) for several months so I was keen to see what all the fuss was about. We sat outside in the sun for the afternoon and drank several beers, a really good setting with lots of people. Shortly after we met up with Robin and Dianna for an afternoon roast and more beer. Again, fantastic to catch up with old mates, Robin whom we hadn't seen since he left Oz in 2004.
A couple of weeks ago we got a message from Robin saying that Pete Davis (American mate from college) was in town and keen to reminisce. Our fondest memory of Pete was his witty dry humour, whereas his of mine was vomitting in the cellar at college after a bottle of Bundy (you win some, you lose some). We hit Brick Lane and spent about three (3) hours just eating, drinking and chatting, also with Robin and Dianna.

After first catching up just before Christmas, and meaning to again ever since, Thomo (Ben Thomas from school) and I again cheersed last week, this time at the Prince Albert in Notting Hill (last time was in Shepherds Bush). He and his girlfriend are also parting ways with London this week, and travelling for some time before returning to Oz. He's been away from home for about 30 months, mostly living in Canada, but also travelling through South America, and Europe. Travel just seems to bring people together, and because you have so much in common, there's just so much to talk about. It's great hearing stories of experiences in certain countries/cities, as at the end of the day, it really gives you a more personal perspective than any travel book could. Turns out, we were both reading the same book as well, Shantaram, about an Aussie who escaped jail and moved to India. The funny thing is it was recommended to me by Joel whom I'd only seen days before. Not really that funny I guess, one (1) of those moments when you kind of outward sniff as a bit of a courtesy laugh. But anyway, I'm looking forward to getting my teeth into the book. Mitch and Jeeva joined us after a couple of beers and the night got out of control pretty quickly. Mitch and I ended the schoolnight at 2:30, polishing off a bottle of wine in our apartment, ouch.

Loz has made some amazing friends at work in the past year, some she will really miss. I've met them all and they're lovely people, and they just lap Loz up big time (who wouldn't?!). We finally caught up with her mate Liz and her boyfriend Mark, last week in Chinatown. Again the duck was out of this world and I lost my shit (can't get enough of the stuff, thank god for the Chinese I reckon). We had a top night, finished by watching Chelsea knock Barcelona out of the Champion's League with only ten (10) men on the field. Watching a London team win in a London pub is pretty special, they go mad like you'd never believe for soccer over here; it's like rugby league supporters on steroids.

For my birthday at the end of February, Loz, the amazing human she is, invited all our London friends over for a surprise Mexican gathering at home. Nachos, Burritos, Tacos, Coronas, Mohitos, she had it all worked out and I had a great night with Loz, Mitch, Peejay, Jono, Tom, Chelcie and Dani. Needless to say work was a struggle the next day.

That next day, after much encouragement and nothing but positive anecdotes from the Hammersmith crew, we bought tickets to Rebel Underground Bingo which was in March. Now this is a tough one (1) to explain as it sounds quite lame really... When we bought the tickets we weren't told where the location of the bingo was going to be (deliberately, to keep it 'underground'). It wasn't until the week of the event that we were informed that it was in Shoreditch, in a warehouse, that got us pretty pumped. So we hit Brick Lane for a record time curry with Peejay and James, then legged it to Shoreditch for one (1) of the nights of our lives. Again,so difficult to explain, but it is actually bingo, but more a smut version... The 'bingoisms' (e.g. 88 two fat footballers) were proper filthy, words and phrases together that should never be said or repeated, but amazingly funny and relevant at the time of the event. This really set the tone, accompanied by pumping old-school tunes (The Next Episode by Dr Dre, remember that?) and drinks flowing. Everyone draws on each other, some in bingo pens, others in permanent ink, and it' just a bloody terrific night! Again, a great chance to see the Hammersmith crew again and share some Jaeger (I can never spell that word).

The next day we headed south to Peejay's house for a fry-up brekkie, delicious. We had a great day just hanging out, mostly in Battersea Park, before heading up to Camden for Luke's farewell to Chester. Although we didn't stay all that long, it was another cool bar inside the Stables, and it was Cuban themed. Amazing cocktails and a good vibe, lots of Caribbean music and heaps of people dancing (not me though).

Vin Diesel, that guy is a legend! Not the real VD, but Andrew Vincent... When he was visiting in 2011, he discovered that Mitch Fowler lived a mere 300m from our front door, and we share Teddy's as our local pub, halfway between our places. We've since caught up with Mitch countless times and he's become one of our best mates. To his absolute credit, he's made it his personal mission to make our time in London unforgettable, win.

Events: Only recently we got to meet Soph, Mitch's amazing girlfriend, and have since had some incredible times. Our fondest memory (aside from The Ledbury of course) was just last weekend, when we attended the Sunday Times Vintage Festival. Mitch and I, hungover as f#%k from our previous night's antics with Thomo, powered through. I got to the event quite early (it's a wine festival run by my work, bringing 5,000 people to the event over a weekend to try up to 262 different wines) and attended the business partner function. About nine (9) delicious champagnes later, Loz arrived and I finally got to introduce her to some of my workmates. Needless to say they loved her, as she did them. Mitch and Soph soon arrived and we went upstairs to the main event to get our drink on. We lost count pretty quickly, I think it was even before we started on the reds... So a few hours of wine and we were pretty flogged; we wandered up the road to the closest pub for another bottle, the place full of Laithwaites staff. Once the bottle was gone we hit up West End but were rejected from a couple of Mitch's favourite bars, Sketch and Aqua (despite Mitch's more than generous attempted bribes), so continued to Kensington where we were let into a cool piano bar. Amazing night finishing with brutal cocktails and singing Queen songs at the top of our lungs, ahh the memories. We're really going to miss hanging out with Mitch and Soph, they're so much fun.

Sometime in February (everything's starting to blend together now) we went and saw Gotye at Wilton's Music Hall, the world's oldest music hall. His single 'Somebody That I Used To Know' had just reached number one (1) on the UK charts so there was a lot of hype about him kicking around. We were incredibly lucky to see him in this intimate venue with just 300 other people, one (1) of the best concerts I've been to, he was about 5 metres from us, amazing.

I can't remember exactly when it was, but sometime in the past few months we went to the Royal Albert Hall to see Cirque de Soley (is that how you spell it?), which was our first experience at the Cirque. The show was called Totem and it was friggin' insane. There were so many different acts, all as outstanding as the other. It was kind of like the Chinese circus we attended in Beijing, but bigger and more professional. A great show at an amazing venue.

Many months ago, Loz (again, that woman is bloody amazing, still not sure how I got her) bought us tickets to The Emirates to see Arsenal v. Newcastle. The time finally came around in March, and after spending five (5) hours that work day scouring London for the tickets, Loz finally picked them up, and we were on our way.
The atmosphere was nothing short of electric, and a massive stadium. We sat in the second row amongst Arsenal supporters, just next to the Newcastle supporters (who are mad, by the way) and witnessed yet another hotly contested game. In the past year I've now managed to see Manchester United, Manchester City (twice), Chelsea, Arsenal, and Newcastle, all top teams. So it was another very close game and Arsenal won in the dying moments, going totally mental as they do.

In between all this, we've manged to visit Dublin, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Iceland, Austria, Prague, Cheddar, and the Cotswalds. Not such a shabby few months I reckon...

London, you are amazing and won't ever be forgotten. It's not your Big Ben, Eye, or Tate Modern that make you special; it's your constant ability to amaze and entertain. Never close a pub, never move to Queensland, and most of all, never forget us, because we won't ever forget you.

DW - Iceland is the most diverse and naturally beautiful place we've ever been, and likely we ever will see. Words cannot describe how amazing this place is, but I'm gonna give it a crack anyway...

We booked our flights many months ago, as I was especially keen to visit one (1) of the most isolated countries in the world. We didn't know much about Iceland, but thought it sounded cool, so that was enough for us. Since our flights were booked, here's a couple of things we'd been told by people who'd been before:
1. It's like visiting the moon
2. The whole island smells of egg, a smell you can't get used to
3. Iceland is super expensive
The only other things we knew about it were:
1. Björk is from Iceland
2. It made worldwide headlines a couple of years ago when the ash from an erupting volcano brought London airports to a grinding halt for weeks

So anyway, here's how our Easter long-weekend in Iceland went...

Day 1: Steamers & The Golden Circle -
Iceland's most famous driving route, we thought it best to get it done early in the trip, especially as it was Good Friday and there wasn't much cracking in Reykjavic (the capital city, where we were staying. Actually, on that, Loz did an outstanding job finding our accommodation... It cost us just €90 for 4 nights, amazing price given that Iceland was meant to be exxy. That's the cheapest accommodation we've ever had, and it was great, despite egg water, but more on that later. Essentially we were staying in the back room of someone's house, kind of like a B&B without the breakfast, more of a B I guess.). So we set out on the Golden Circle in our little shitbox (not impressed with the hire-car this time round, a Hyundai I20 or I30: rubbish on fuel, and no guts).
Being the most famous route of Iceland we didn't really know what to expect, maybe overrated? I have to say that it did not disappoint in any way, and when you're shit travelers like us (and don't do any research on where you're going before you go), most surprises are good surprises because you have no high expectations to be crushed!
As soon as we were out of Reykjavik the fog disappeared and we were on a long stretch of road surrounded by lava fields. Now, I'll explain now that there are no current erupting volcanoes in Iceland so 'lava fields' isn't what you might expect... The lava fields are kilometers of black rock with this freaky spongey green moss over the top, very very cool and soft. In the distance you can see ice-capped mountains, very very scenic. We kept passing these random patches of white, and started to speculate what they might be as we couldn't put our finger on it... I thought (and secretly hoped) it might be froth from a volcano, and Loz eventually correctly identified it as snow/ice. I know the country is called Iceland, but it's not covered in ice (I think that might be Greenland), although there is a lot of snow around, given we're coming into Summer.
Anyway, on our way to Geysir we came to the top of a hill overlooking a small town with random holes throughout, with steam coming out into the air (they're technically called 'hot springs' but we've termed them 'steamers' as it sounds way cooler), wow! We stopped, took some snaps then hopped back in the car and approached the steamer village to get a closer look. At the bottom we found a pretty lake which we followed upstream until we came face to face with a steamer (steamer, there I said it again). The smell of egg at this stage became very strong, and I started to dry-heave, I can see why someone told me this place smelt of egg, this was pungent, worse than our first shower in Mexico!

Back in the car we continued on the Golden Circle until we reached Geysir, the most famous Iceland steamer, known to 'erupt' every 8-12 minutes. It exploded when we first arrived, up to 50-odd metres into the air, freaking amazing! Up for a closer look, faces covered for the egg smell, we passed several mini-steamers with bubbling water and mud, impressive. Once right beside Geysir it erupted again, then again immediately, oh yeah, bring on the doble! I raced up the hill through the stickiest of mud to get a high-shot whilst Loz, now a Geysir expert, watched several new tourists scared out of their wits when it exploded. What a great start to the day, what else could it bring?

Next stop was Gulfoss, Iceland's most famous waterfall, not far up the road from Geysir. From the road you can see a slight splash back in the distance, and it doesn't look all that impressive, what's the fuss all about, this can't be that good as there's no mountains for a waterfall here...?
Once you approach the actual falls it becomes obvious what all the fuss is about, as you hear and feel the roar of this monster! As it comes into view, your jaw drops a little, even more-so the closer you get, as you realise just how big, powerful, and enormous this beast is. Having seen very little waterfalls in our time (I think the biggest I've seen is Dangar or Wollomombi Falls near Armidale, and that one on the way to Coffs, in the mountains), we were suitably blown away by Gulfoss. What amazed me more than anything was how close we were able to get to the falls; you could all but reach out and touch it, only to be taken by the force, never to be seen again. A small ankle-high rope, all between you and your demise, impressive stuff for a sad case like myself, easily pleased really.

On a high, we continued on the circle until we followed some tour buses down to a lake, seems we were in some sort of National Park. This was the place of the world's first parliament, established sometime between 1-1,000AD (quite the historian I know). Behind where the parliament once stood was another impressive (although now that we'd seen the big mumma it seemed like a baby) waterfall, and another just down the road. We spent quite a bit of time wandering around between the falls, a great way to spend the afternoon.

Back in Reykjavik we hit a nice little part of town and found an Icelandic bar. Side note, is it Icelandic, Icelic, Ice, or something else? That's one (1) thing we never worked out, hmmmm. So, we cheersed (it's a word, whatever) some delicious local lager and recapped on the amazing day we'd had. Iceland was quickly one (1) of our favourite destinations and we'd been here less than 24 hours. Just up the road we had a lovely dinner(I was hoping to try whale but didn't see it on the menu) and started to get a feel for the prices here. Now obviously the Aussie Dollar is still very strong against most currencies, but we were pleasantly surprised by the prices across most things in Iceland. Most things were similarly priced to home, some more, some less. Overall we reckon it was cheaper than Copenhagen and maybe slightly more than Oz, but not by much on the current exchange.
After dinner were hit an ice-creamery across the road where we shared a traditional Icelandic dessert of local soft-serve ice-cream with three (3) mixers (not dissimilar to Cold Rock but with soft-serve), delicious and a lovely man who served us too, the people in general were lovely for our entire stay.

One (1) thing I've forgotten to mention is the Icelandic horses. I'd call them a mix between Shetland Ponies, and Clydesdales, weird but beautiful. Loz fell in love with them straight away, immediately naming one (1) who posed for photos 'beautiful'. The horses seemed to be everywhere throughout the island, often farmed and used for horse riding tours, and I think they may eat them too, although we didn't get the chance to taste any.

Back in our room we did some research on the Northern Lights, hoping that we might be able to see them dance while we were here. Iceland is one (1) of the limited places in the world where you can see the Aurora in action, but the weather must be clear, which it wasn't that night, it was cloudy. Oh well, we thought, maybe tomorrow...

Day 2: The Volcanic Drive & Glacier Hike -
The night before we booked a glacier hike on Mÿrdalsjökull, Iceland's second biggest glacier, situated on the South coast. We'd picked up a plethora of brochures from the Tourist Information and found that there was some nice driving near the coastline on the way down to Mÿrdalsjökull, so we went for it.
Back through our first-found steamer-town we located a bakery with the most amazing food for breakfast, the softest of soft donuts, like you wouldn't believe. Driving is the only way to see Iceland I'd say; there are numerous tours available out of Reykjavik but doing it on your own time is well worth it (and a hell of a lot cheaper than tours). The 'highways', I'd say are a loose term, as they're just 2-way roads, and they're amazingly picturesque. On this particular drive we passed through lava fields with mountain-high volcanoes on our left, and black (ash) beaches to our right, very moon-like we thought...
In the distance I spotted what looked like a waterfall in the clouds, shooting off a mountain (as they tend to do). When we got closer we realised that it was just that, and was bloody gigantic, Seljalandsfoss. We pulled in and walked all the way to the bottom of it, you could literally walk right under it if you wanted to be squashed by a waterfall. We quickly became soaked from the splash back, oh well. Already soaked, I followed a path which took me right behind the fall; you were able to walk right around behind it, with it falling over in front of you. I became brave and got as close as I could, until I was getting splash back so hard it was beginning to hurt my face! Another impressive waterfall, and so different to the ones we'd seen the day prior.

Continuing on the volcanic path, we reached Skógafoss, another powerful waterfall, this one wide and high, 50+ metres to be almost exact. We walked all the way to the top and also got some great 'jumping' snaps at the bottom on the black sands.

With time moving along we continued until our turnoff for the glacier walk. Unfortunately we had to sit for about 1.5 hours as the before tour was running late, but eventually we got given our hiking books, crampons (those spikey things you attach to your shoes to give you grip on the ice) and were on our way to the glacier. Along the way, the guide ran through a checklist for everyone: Crampons, check; hiking poles/axes, check; gloves, shit. We're such shit travelers! We powered on, gloveless, wearing not much but jeans (Loz was in trackies) whilst those around us were geared up to the wazoo with big weatherproof jackets, gloves, beanies, the works, wow we are shit!
Anyway, the glacier hike was really good, something I'd certainly recommend doing whilst in Iceland. Glaciers are essentially mountains made completely from ice, and last for hundreds, thousands of years. The glaciers in Iceland are a little unique in that they're not the crystal white you might expect a glacier to look like. Instead, they're a mix of black and white; the white is snow and ice, and the black is ash from a nearby volcano that erupted in 1918, nearly 100 years ago, wow! Bloody amazing how this whole country is basically just one (1) giant volcano, covered in ash, ready to explode imminently. We hiked for about 1.5 hours, seeing some beautiful water streams and a magnificent lake in the middle of the glacier. We were on the beginner tour so didn't do any climbing (like on Ciffhanger etc) or tunneling, but it was a bloody good experience, and one truly unique to Iceland.

On the way home we tried traditional Icelandic hotdogs (mystery meat with dried onions, fresh onions, and sauce), fanbloodytastic. Again it was cloudy so unfortunately no Northern Lights; what is cool is that the days are really long towards summer though, sun up at 6:30am and down at 9:30pm, brilliant. In the middle of summer you can even go midnight skiing in parts as the sun's still up, cool I know.

Day 3: The Saga Circle & Wangfest 2012 -
Having covered East and South-East of Reykjavik, on Sunday we headed North-East on what is known as The Saga Circle (I've no idea why it's called that). Another beautiful egg-shower and we were on our way in the little shitbox, with a couple of Tourist-Info recommended spots in mind.
Just North of Reykjavic we came across a large inlet of water from the ocean (Hvalfjörõur), with the option of taking the tunnel underneath to the other side (ala Sydney Harbour Tunnel) or the traditional 'old-school' way around; naturally we went for the latter. It was a beautiful drive between snow-capped ash mountains and a seemingly untouched body of water. There was next to no traffic, about 20 minutes between cars I reckon, beautiful, just how we like it. Once we reached the throat of the inlet (the start of it is called the 'mouth' so why can't we call the end bit the 'throat'? Maybe we should call it the 'arse' instead), we went slightly off-track in search of Iceland's highest waterfall... We weren't sure if that meant its' highest altitude waterfall, or biggest drop; either way we were interested. The road had turned to gravel and our little car with tires no thicker than a layer of burnt skin (more on that later) was only half as nervous as I was; I really hate changing flat tyres, it's a really shit job. Anyway, to the car's credit the tyres made it through, and we reached the end of the road, no driving any further, the rest must be hiked, damn it! Admittedly we did know there would be a hike involved to get to the waterfall, but it was only 3'C outside, with a bitter icy-wind, and it was now raining, thick, heavy rain. Here we were, shit travellers, in the same gear we'd worn glacier hiking less than 24 hours prior, clearly not prepared for such a hike (it was only 5.5kms round-trip but it was cold and miserable). So we opted away from the hike and backtracked to the throat of the inlet. We've since looked at photos of the falls we missed on Google and we hold no regrets in the decision we made.

Fully around the inlet and back on random dirt roads, feeling slightly lost, we eventually found our way to what we'd been looking forward to most on our NE adventure; Hraunfossar & Barnafoss. These are two (2) waterfalls no more than 200m apart, both amazing in their own way. Hraunfossar was completely random with water just appearing and falling from rocks on the side of the below river, not falling as you'd expect a textbook waterfall to go. Barnafoss proper impressed me; it was absolutely ferocious and bitter at the world! So much water, powerfully and angrily dropping down a series of smallish rocks, forming huge white-filled 'spas' at any chance. We managed to get right up and personal with it, and could've almost touched if had we pushed the boundaries, but it was too angry this fall, not worth the risk we thought. Between the two (2) falls was a crossing bridge where Loz, in the distance gave me a good few minutes of dancing with no music, I'll work on the video and get it published sometime soon, well worth a look!

Next stop was Borgarnes, a smallish town on the edge of the water, barely connected to the South. We sat on a cliff-edge (in the car) and ate our lunch, a nice setting for delicious sangas. At this point we tossed up between continuing North for another two (2) or so hours (leaving us 4 hours from Reykjavik) and going back to Reykjavik for a swim as the Icelandic people do in their geothermal pools (pools heated by the steamers); hmmmm not really a decision...
So we turned around and found the locals' faourite pool on top of a hill in Reykjavik; it cost bugger-all to get in, we were excited! Once we bought our tickets we were separated into men's and women's changerooms which were life-changing experiences. Being a traditional Icelandic pool, everyone in the changerooms was starkers, something we're clearly not used to. It was mandatory to shower before entering the pools and privacy just isn't a consideration for the people here. Here I am, in a communal shower, surrounded by wang, not feeling comfortable in any way. Loz's experience was much the same, she was almost in shock when I met with her in the pool! The pools themselves were tremendous; the coolest was about 30'C (we think) and hottest was 43'C (that's farking hot!). We, like school-children, changed pools about every 5-10 minutes, whilst the locals stood their ground for what appeared to be hours. It was pretty chockas, but apparently visiting these pool is Icelandic peoples' favourite past-time. A great afternoon, despite the wang-fest before and after the swim!

Day 4: Burnt Feet & The Blue Lagoon
My key learning from Iceland, other than the fact that it's an amazing place, is don't step in lava... It tends to be incredibly hot and it will burn the shiser out of your feet!
Our last day, leaving day , but with so much still to look forward to we weren't sad in any way. We packed our bags, checked ourselves out of the person's house we were staying (didn't see a single person while we were staying there, weird) and drove South towards the Reykjanes Peninsula for our final circular drive of the trip. The GPS seemed to take us off-track which turned out for the best (we think) as we drove through the most vast and beautiful landscape, over and around volcanoes (obviously not active), and beside craters full of crystal blue water, this is Iceland. Unfortunately our camera had lost battery about two (2) days prior so our photos taken on our shitty iPhones and video camera do no justice at all.
We eventually came to a steamer area, the eggiest of all steamers! There was so much steam everywhere, and bubbling water and mud all around, very cool. We wandered through, shirts covering our mouths to prevent us from vomiting from the smell (so so bad, and so difficult to explain) and went in search of the 'grand' steamer atop a hill nearby. It was a steep walk up what was basically just ash, and quite impressive at the top, so much steam coming out of this sucker, the grand pubar. Me being me, I stepped up for a closer look, trying to get a good possy for a great photo of me and sir steamer... Unfortunately I took one (1) step too far, in boiling hot mud (basically lava) and my leg started to sink, oh my god! Thankfully my instinct made me turn around and head back to where I'd come from (not further into the mud), but in the process my second leg started to sink into the lava, ouch. I made it out (obviously) and started hopping around like a fool, clearly in shock. Loz was scared and thankfully made me take my shoes and socks off straight away to let my burning feet cool down. I started to see the skin on my feet peeling and thought to myself, 'this can't be good, this can't be good at all'.

After minutes of worrying and just trying to let my feet chill, I threw my grotty socks back on inside-out and my now grey (previously white) coloured shoes. We scurried to the bottom of the hill to assess the damage. By this time huge blisters had formed on the tops of both feet and things weren't looking great, I was a little worried inside but tried to stay calm as Loz can tend to panic if things go pear-shaped. Although worried I knew I'd be okay, and we continued (bare-foot) towards the Blue Lagoon; not going to let a little burn ruin my Iceland experience.

It's such a shame our camera was out of battery for the Blue Lagoon because the photos we have just don't capture the colour of the water properly; they almost make it look dirty. It is truly one (1) of the greatest places on earth, an absolute must-do in Iceland! It's a huge natural pool (essentially it's a crater), heated by steamers (about 37'C I think), and the water is the palest of blues you'll ever see. It's milky and not transparent in any way but it feels like it's doing wonders to your skin. Every second person is walking around with their face covered in this white sludge stuff (no idea what it is, but it's meant to be good for your skin), which we also got on-board with. There's a pool bar (yep), where we sank some Viking Lager (delicious), and we stayed in the water for hours, my feet stinging, but I felt it was doing them good. The Icelandic people believe that the Blue Lagoon has special healing powers, so I thought it might be good for my newfound burn injuries.

Now fully relaxed and not at all ready to leave, we were back in the car and on our way to the airport for a leisurely check-in. Loz, the darling and caring wife she is grabbed some makeshift curing supplies at the first open supermarket we could find (it was Easter Monday so bugger-all places were open); a pair of grandpa slippers (I was still barefoot at this stage and my grey-clad shoes were my only pair), some lubricating cream, and paper-towel (makeshift bandage). Whilst she was getting the supplies I checked our calendar to find that I'd got the time wrong on our flight, we were due on the plane in about half-an-hour, and we still weren't at the airport, shite!
Cruising at record pace, we raced to the airport, and ran in to check-in, still barefoot! We managed to make check-in, then returned the hire-car, and sped back to the terminal to scoot through security, immigration, and board the plane with no time to spare. At least we spent as much time in Iceland as we could!

Although we never did get to see the Northern Lights (it was cloudy every night we were there), Iceland has to be one (1) of the greatest holidays we've ever had. There is certainly no place we've been that is anything like it, and yes, it is like visiting the moon! I would love to go back and spend a fortnight, driving around the whole island, and we'd highly recommend anyone in the US or UK/Europe add it to their agenda, you'll never forget it. And if you feel you'd like to take a part of Iceland back home with you, just step in some lava, that stuff will stick with you for a while; I think I'm gonna go to the doctor now

DW - a few weeks ago we were talking about some of the things that are unique to London, stuff you couldn't find anywhere else in the world.
Depressed clowns circling a pub, an underground bingo party, a bar where drinks are only served in paint-tins... And a place where you sit and eat in complete darkness, served by blind people; cue Dans le Noir.
Although not exclusively in London, it's a concept restaurant in a few European cities that we've since found out.

So off we went, joined by Peejay, Mitch, and Sohphie, to our first blind date in Farringdon...
We arrived into a front bar, well lit, with a bunch of lockers to the left. Welcomed by a fully-sighted staff-member, we were instructed to remove all phones etc into a locker. We then made our orders for the night; Option 1: Mystery Blue Dish (vegetarian) Option 2: Mystery Red Dish (meat) Option 3: Mystery White Dish (anything goes) We each picked, Mitch and Sophie brave in going for the White, the rest of us opting for the rangadangdang (red), Loz lied and told them she was allergic to mushrooms, frowned upon. We also ordered the mystery bottle of red wine, and Peejay braved a mystery cocktail.

Happy, excited, nervous, we were then led into semi-darkness where we were introduced to our blind waiter for the night, Gahel, the legend.
He then made us grab the person in fronts' shoulder and led us into complete darkness...

Personally I've only been in complete darkness once before in my life, somewhere in a cave in central New South Wales. It's a strange and foreign concept, one you don't often think about. We've all faced darkness before, but complete black is something different altogether, quite nerving to begin with!

Gahel, seeming to know exactly where he was going, weaved our conga line between a number of noises and voices, and seated us in what we later found out to be the corner of the room (we found out by reaching and touching). All of us were feeling quite strange at this stage; it was exciting, but very nerve-racking at the same time, only what I can imagine it feels like to go on a blind date...

Entrees were served in no time at all for Mitch and I (the girls opted out of entrees). Seizing the opportunity of no one seeing me, I dug straight in with my hands, leaving my cutlery clean for the remainder of the night. Next to me, Loz advised that she had been pulling faces at everyone since we arrived, dag. My plate was filled with what felt like uncooked beef (or slightly sizzled) with a pile of rocket or cres (that green stuff's all the same to me), and the meat was delicious!
Mitch described his dish as possible oysters or muscles, in some sort of cheese sauce. We joked that it was sheep testes, maybe we weren't far from the truth...

Our mystery bottle of wine was given to me and I scrambled for my glass, finding the simplest of tasks now incredibly difficult. I managed my glass, capped the lid of the bottle, stuck two (2) fingers in my glass, and poured until the middle of my fingers were wet, done.
Each table-member repeated except Peejay who, with a taste for cocktails, picked her mystery as a Piña Colada off the bat, clever girl (or booze hound?).

Plates emptied, Gahel was back and asking us questions about how we were going etc. A running joke throughout the night was that he would just appear out of nowhere... One (1) minute you'd be having a conversation, and he'd jump in and say something, where the hell did you come from?! The next minute, you'd ask him a question, and no response, he'd bailed! The man of mystery!

The room was relatively empty when we had arrived (obviously we couldn't see, but we could hear maybe 2 or 3 other tables). By the end of our meal, we started to get a feel for how small the room was.
Noise levels were really high, we almost had to yell at each other to hear what we we were saying.

Mains: on the red plate we thought we had it all worked out:
Pork - there was definitely some sort of delicious pork cut Beef - similar to my entree, we were sure of beef strips, also very nice Unknown - some sort of weird texture stuff that we had no idea what it was, pretty nice though Cabbage - a big pile of it with some sort of sauce on it Pudding - we tossed around the idea of black or white pudding, leaning towards white, but then changed our mind and picked it as chicken stuffing Liver or Kidney - little soft bits of 'meat' kind of spread across the plate On the white plates, I can't remember exactly what Mitch and Soph thought they had, but again we joked that it was just testes from other farm animals.

All quite full and satisfied, we were quite impressed with the nice food we'd been served. My cutlery was still clean, my fingers gross!
Time for pudding/dessert...
We all had the same, chocolate mousse (easy to pick) with some sort of berry compote, with what I thought were orange flavored hard things in between.
Gahel disappeared for what seemed like forever as the room filled with noise and we were joined by another group at the end of our table, all quite nervous, amateurs haha.

After 90 minutes in complete darkness (Loz, a slight exception as Gahel led her to the toilet halfway through) we were ready to see the light again, comfortable though we were. Gahel told us to stand, grab a shoulder and he led us back into the light, relief! Time to find out what the hell we had just eaten...

On the red menu:
Entree - venison, not beef
Main - pork (whoop), beef (whoop), duck (that was the one we couldn't work out), black pudding (kind of got it right), and mushrooms (arhhhhh mushrooms, not happy Jan)! I'm happy as I really enjoyed the food (even the mushrooms were okay), and ate stuff I wouldn't have eaten if I was ordering (or in the light).

On the white menu:
Entree - scallops, not oysters or sheep testes Main - shark steak, pork (I think), ostrich (wow), and I can't remember the rest but no testes

Pudding/Dessert was pretty well as we thought, although the hard bits were actually white chocolate, not orange.

We capped the night off with a few delicious cocktails down the road at an American Diner, and reflected on the truly unique dinner we'd just experienced. Dans le Noir? is a place I'd recommend anyone to do at least once in their life if you have the chance.

DW - A few weeks ago we finally got around to buying our home/transport for the next leg of the Wombat Tour; a 1992 Talbot Express, ugly as hell but bound to get the job done. Pretty sure the guy we bought it from was a coke–addict, but he was a mechanic, and after looking at several vans (all of which were pretty much the same), this was our best bet, a good deal that will get us from A to B, and keep us out of trouble.
Eager to test its' potential, we decided on a weekend away to some parts of England we've talked about visiting, but hadn't yet gotten around to. Our initial plan was to hit Cheddar, the home of Cheddar Cheese (oh yeah, it's a place); and Bath, a place we'd heard lots about as being pretty nice.

So I headed to Woodley early on Friday morning to pick up <unnamed> from Christian's house; I must add that he is a trooper for minding it for us while it severely depreciates the value of not only his house, but I think the whole town of Woodley. A bit of choke to get things going, and I was on the road to show off our new wheels to everyone at work. In the previous 24 hours, there had been talk of a petrol supply strike in the coming week; the British Government responded by telling everyone to get to the bowser and fill up everything, stupid move! Suddenly everyone was panic-buying, filling everything they could with petrol (it was like people were preparing for a Depression or war-attack), creating a national shortage, are you serious?! In the back of my mind I was hoping we'd manage to get to our destination, far from work, and run out of petrol, not being able to fill up; pipe dream...
Anyway, I managed to quite easily snag some fuel just off the M4 Motorway on the way to work. The van stuck out like a sore thumb in the Laithwaites carpark, and looked absolutely ridiculous, but I couldn't help but feel proud, happily pointing it out to everyone I spoke to. I even offered to drive to the pub at lunchtime, taking four (4) passengers on the ride of a lifetime, including a lap of Theale's Golden Mile (the High Street) and a 3-point-turn at one (1) of the two (2) roundabouts in town, fun times.

After work, keen as mustard, I picked up Loz from Reading Station and we were road-trippin'... First stop was Stonehenge, just over an hour Westish of Reading. Undoubtably one (1) of Britain's most famous landmarks, we were keen to see the iconic rocks, but I have to say I was pretty unimpressed. They were about half the size I pictured them to be, and they really don't look all that special. Yes it's impressive how they were piled etc several years ago with the lack of technology, but seriously, I reckon it needs to come off the list of 100 things to do/see (you know that list that's been lapping Facebook for the past months). Possibly part of the reason we weren't all that impressed was because it was getting quite dark and we maybe didn't get the best possible view. But even still, I have no passion to go back there during the day, but we've ticked the box all the same, meh.

Continuing, the van was going incredibly well. I was keeping a close eye on fuel consumption and was suitably impressed that it was charging on how I had hoped it would (nothing like a nasty surprise of double the fuel consumption you expected). We arrived in Cheddar just before 10pm, driving through some pretty scary (only because it was dark) gorge roads. We checked into a little caravan park and settled for one (1) of the coldest nights of our lives. We'd last week bought a tent to accompany us on our Europe road-trip, which came with two (2) free sleeping bags. These are the bags we took with us and they were totally useless, probably colder than a sheet! We were so cold, so so cold!

Nice warm showers in the morn and we hit the streets of Cheddar in pursuit of some delicious cheese. A nice little town, old, quaint, and very quiet in the early morning. The town is literally in the middle of two (2) peaks, forming it as a gorge village, very pretty. We found a cheese factory and learnt how Cheddar Cheese is made, pretty well it's just aged milk, yummy! Next door, we tried and bought some traditional Somerset Scrumpy (strong cider unique to the area) and Loz read a book in the van while I climbed Cheddar Gorge. On top of the gorge were a family of mountain goats, the young ones not long out of the womb. They were really cute, especially on the edge of a cliff with beautiful scenery behind them. Their mum ditched them not long after I arrived so the young ones became scared of me and started with the most horrific baaing, time to move on.
With Scrumpy and cheese in hand, we left Cheddar happy campers.

Next stop was Bath... It was amazingly busy in town and we'd plugged the traditional Roman Baths (Bath's biggest draw-card) into the GPS. What we didn't realise was that the baths were in the middle of town, and on a Saturday lunchtime, it's the last place you want to be driving <unnamed>! The streets were packed and here we were, pushing people out of the way in the most ridiculous looking vehicle prior to the Smart Car. Time to scram the hell out of town and find a secluded parking spot.
Once parked, we wandered back into town which was great. Lots of people just wandering the streets, very lively with many street performers etc. we opted against the old Roman Baths, you can't swim in them anyway. We considered hitting the rooftop 'traditional'ish baths but a large queue and high cost turned us off, plus we're in Iceland next weekend so will hit the Blue Lagoon instead.

We decided Bath wasn't going to be home for the night so continued North to see what all the fuss of 'The Cotswolds' was about. Again, we'd heard lots of nice things about it... Mitch recommended a random place called Bourton-on-the-water (I'm serious, that's its' actual name)' where we found a campsite for the night, more like the back of someone's farm. We purchased a fan heater along the way which proved invaluable. Tapas style dinner in the 'lounge-room' of the van with a bottle of Rioja, we could get used to this (oh wait, that's exactly what we'll be doing in about 7 weeks).
Once Loz realised her window was open (early hours of the morn), we slept a hell of a lot better than the previous night, the heater worth every pent.

Ready for a Sunday morning coffee we hit the centre of town (Bourton-on-the-water), and agreed it was the most beautiful place in England we'd seen, bar none. Absolutely gorgeous little town, well played Mitch! Beautiful old buildings surrounded by green lawn, and the cutest stream of water running through the centre, filled with ducks; classic old brick bridges the only way across the water. Truly amazing little place, especially under the beautiful sun that was shining (the weather in the past fortnight has been nothing short of amazing, hottest March on record apparently).

Fully relaxed, it was such a great day for driving through the English countryside. It's such a green country, and with all the old stone walls etc, the English know how to do countryside, well played I reckon.
Having heard great things abut Windsor, we decided that as our next stop for lunch. Even more impressive than we'd expected, Windsor Castle really is something else. I've written about the ABC (another bloody castle/church) concept on here before, but this was by no means an ABC. By far the biggest castle we've ever seen, imposing on top of a hill, not dissimilar to Edinburgh. The most impressive thing about it is that it just keeps going; not only is it tall and proud, but it is so bloody long/extended! Not a bad place for an old couple such as Lizzie and Phil!

Such a great weekend, it sounds like we were on the move all the time, but it really was relaxing. <unnamed> behaved like a Trojan, very happy with our purchase. Now we're even more hungry for the road-trip leg of the Wombat Tour, bring it on.

1. Your 'garden' consists of one (1) indoor plant
2. There's a Ferrari parked across the street, and the 'worst' car in your block is an Audi A6

3. Anywhere out of Zone 1 (on the Tube) is 'the burbs'
4. There's a pub on every corner

5. A pint of anything costs more than £3.50
6. You see a guy in a bar wearing a v-neck where the 'v' goes all the way to his belly button
7. Oxford Street is considered East London
8. Every house is painted white & has a different coloured door

9. You realise that the tv show 'Made in Chelsea' could actually be a reality show
10. You find out that those parks with the private key-only entry are real


11. You get angry when you have to wait more than three (3) minutes for a bus or train
12. You're the odd one (1) out if you're not walking a pram or poodle
13. People go, "oooooooohhhhhhh, that's fancy" when you tell them where you live
14. No one knows what a clothesline looks like
16. Your local supermarket has three (3) isles
17. You know not to ride the Tube on a Saturday, or else be squashed by the Portobello Road crowd


18. The Circle & District (Tube) lines are doing 'planned' maintenance every weekend
19. Once a year, your neighbourhood becomes the second biggest street party in the world, full of wasted Caribbean's

DW - To me, drinking Guinness on St. Paddy's Day in Dublin was just something that had to be done in my life. It ranked very highly as a must-do on my list while we're over here, and this was our only chance. Totally worth it!

We shot out of Gatwick late on Friday night, the second-last flight of the night for a short ride to Dublin. We were staying at the airport, a stone's throw from the terminal, very pleasing with a late-night arrival. Having being to Dublin before, our sole purpose for the visit was St. Paddy's Day, so we figured staying at the airport would be our best bet with a short ride into town on Saturday. Pretty stoked that St Paddy's fell on a Saturday this year of all years, because I've exhausted all my holidays at work. They have a good annual leave policy here, where I was given five (5) weeks holidays from the 1st July, and didn't have to earn them at all. Loz was given six (6) weeks, a bloody joke!

On Saturday morning we jumped on a bus into town, surrounded by a sea of green. We accessorised a little, a little more later on when we got carried away with some green hairspray. We soon found a pub, Murphy's (textbook Irish name), that was buzzing; so we trundled out to the beer garden for a full Irish brekkie (minus the pudding) and the first pint of Guinness, love it. The atmosphere was already amazing and it was still morning, we knew it was a big day ahead...

Outside, the parade started and we tried to snag a last-minute view, to no avail. We waited and waited to be able to see anything decent but we realised that most parades are the same, so figured it our best chance to find a bar in Temple Bar and stay there before the crowds swarmed from the parade. So we wandered down to Temple Bar, eventually finding our way; and went into a bar we recognised (called Temple Bar; i can see the confused faces here... Temple Bar is an area in Dublin with shitloads of bars; and we were at a bar called Temple Bar within the Temple Bar region). A guy of about 138 years old was cranking some traditional banjo Irish tunes out, accompanied by his horrific harsh voice, it was beautiful to listen to really. The bar was quite crowded but we managed to find a small pocket of opportunity outside in the beer-garden, amongst the smokers, it'll do.

We continued on the delicious Irish beverages, Loz on a lager, and me on the Guinness, while the bar quickly filled to well beyond capacity. Loz left to go to the bar at one (1) stage and couldn't break through the crowd to get back to me; and the spot where she was standing had been filled by about five (5) people, thing were getting hectic! When we found each other again, Loz had picked up a friend, her cousin John, brilliant! We waved at a distance across the beer-garden and I eventually managed to plough through the green ocean to say hello. The three (3) of us found a reasonably comfy standing spot just outside one (1) of the toilet doors. I went to get a round of drinks, only to return empty handed minutes later; there was no path to the bar, I had no way of breaking through. Thirsty and determined, Loz used her girl-skills to break through and order some drinks. They continued to let people in the bar and no-one was leaving, this was getting mental! So we decided to leave and try another area...

Outside, things were getting crazy! The green machine was now bouncing up and down on the streets and yelling at something; we're still not sure if they were partying or protesting, it was pretty intense. We managed our way out of Temple Bar and found a bar further down the canal, long and deep; we broke through the bar-crowd to find a table and chairs just available at the very back of the bar. Time to settle-in for a while. Drinks were much easier to come by here and they were slightly cheaper than the nearly 6 Euro pints at Temple Bar. John hit the head for a moment and Loz and I made a new friend who voluntarily joined us, the most wasted Irish girl you'll ever see. About to vomit into an empty pint, Loz helped her on her way towards the front door, it was barely lunch time!

John's mate Manix joined us and we soon scouted for another bar, slightly further from the main area, for a few quieter beers. We nested at a nice little local on a corner for a couple of hours, looking totally out of place as it was full of old Irish dudes partaking in their standard Saturday afternoon beer at the pub. We were covered in green and pretty wasted, but they were friendly enough and we had some yarns (although I couldn't understand a word they were saying, I reckon it's easier to understand French than it is Irish people talking English).

Hours past and darkness fell, some other mates of John's joined us and we headed back into town to find some grub. The streets were still buzzing as much as the day, although everyone was just a hell of a lot more drunk. The families had taken their kids home, the streets were now overrun by Aussies, Seppoes, Kiwis, Poms, and some Irish. Loz and I broke from the pack, grab some grease, then jumped on a bus back to our motel.

Loz did amazingly well the whole day, especially considering she was sick as a dog with the flu, and had a headache bigger than she'd ever experienced before. St. Paddy's Day in Dublin was most certainly memorable, and most definitely a highlight of my year so far. We'd recommend it to anyone; do it, even just once in your life.

DW - Another weekend, another new city and country for us to explore.
Although sadly, our weekend city-breaks slow right down from hereon-in . We have St. Paddy's Day in Dublin in a couple of weeks, and Iceland for Easter, but aside from those, that's it! Mind you, the silver lining is not having to work for another eight (8) months from May!

To be honest, we're really looking forward to a Saturday sleep-in this coming weekend, as it seems most Saturday's of late have started with 3, 4 or 5! Our weekend in Copenhagen was no exception as we ventured to Gatwick Airport in the wee hours.
Landed in Copenhagen by mid-morning, starving, we jumped on a train into town and scoured the city for a second breakfast. More by good luck than management, we hit a cafe offering a buffet brunch for a reasonable Scandinavian price (as a rough guide, we found most things to be 20-30% more expensive than $AUD). Really random meal, our first plates included bacon, eggs, pancakes, chicken nuggets, spicy wings, and curry-puffs, yep, gotta love brunch! Together we smashed about half-a-dozen plates (not literally, we ate a lot of food of a bunch of plates. Probably would've been a better story if we actually smashed the plates. Maybe we should go with that story?) of delicious randoms and our love-affair for food in this part of the world was born. I had read beforehand that the Danish do love their food, but we really hadn't prepared for the food to be this bloody amazing. It's no surprise that the best restaurant in the world (awarded in 2010 and
2011) is here, we couldn't fault anything we ate for the whole weekend.
Out on the streets, we wandered for a little, but again the early morning got the better of us and we opted for an arvo nap (surprise surprise).

Recharged, we again hit the streets to find lots of folk about, wandering, drinking, eating. We walked for what seemed like forever with no real purpose, and really got to see a large part of the city.
There were a few street performers around; one couple of lads playing 'My Heart Will Go On' on piano accordions. I'm not keen on that song to say the least, but it seemed to work quite well on the accordion, reminding me of when we used to visit Nanna and Grandfather at Naroooma (South-Coast Oz) and Grandfather would play all sorts of songs on the accordion, arh good times! A little further up the street we found a violinist and keyboardist playing the same bloody song; why the fascination in this place?!
Legs tired from walking we recharged with some super-exxy beers at a nice little pub on the main walking mall, grabbed some Haagen-Das ice-cream on the way home, and called it a night.

From the word go, we knew there was a something different about this place from all the other cities we've visited recently. It was jam-packed with babies and kids! When we stepped on the plane we noticed an extraordinary amount of children, which continued as a theme throughout the weekend. Not quite sure what the deal is (Government funding, horny buggers, no contraception?) but it's the most family-centric place I think I've been outside Kidzone in Tamworth (is that place still there?)! Whatever the reason, people here are breeders! Not only that, it seems all girls look very similar, all with white-blonde hair! If we had six (6) whippersnappers at our tails, we could've easily been mistaken for locals.

Tivoli, the main attraction (a theme-park type area in the middle of the city) of Copenhagen was unfortunately closed for Winter, why are we such shit travelers?! Anyone who knew what they were doing would probably research things like this before booking, but not us, Team W wouldn't be true to their tradition if they actually planned a trip properly; all part of the fun. Tis a shame though I have to say; Tivoli was the thing I was most looking forward to about Copenhagen.

Scandinavians are bloody legends! They aren't always the friendliest looking people, but my god they are lovely and friendly. We tend to expect everyone in Europe to be like the French; arrogant, rude, and pretending they don't speak English. We've been happily surprised at most places, but the Scandoes (I hope it's not offensive to call them
that) are some of the nicest people in the world. And their English is perfect, better than ours really!

Sunday morning, more delicious food for a hotel buffet breakfast. I again stretched my eating limits and made myself feel sick, totally worth it. We wandered again throughout the city, it was a cracking day with the sun shining beautifully. It was quite cold mind you, there was a chilling slight wind, but pretty nice all the same. We jumped on a canal boat tour which gave some good insight into the military history and workings of the harbour, whilst soaking up the sun over the water.
Back on land in the most popular part of the city (can't remember the name of the canal but it's a strip with lots for colorful buildings, mostly pubs and cafes), churros and ice-cream for lunch, mmmmmm, yummo. The weather had brought every man and his thousand children out (thought I was going to say dog, didn't you?), making it a great buzzing place. More walking and we headed back to the motel for a couple of Carlsberg's and a nap (man we are lazy shit travelers aren't we?!).

Back out at night again, in search for a famous Scando hot-dog. The city was an absolute ghost town on a Winter Sunday night, and hot-dog stands were about as easy to find as a pin in a pile of needles.
Slightly disappointed, Loz knew the only way to cheer me up was an all-you-can-eat meat-house (that girl just gets me!) with the most amazing potatoes we've ever consumed. Not sure what they did with them, but my god they were freaking amaze-balls (see how I'm connecting with the younger crowd there?). The food, oh the food, I want it back, now!

The clock struck Monday (whatever) and we were confident we'd seen as much that Copenhagen could offer in Winter, so we trained it to the airport with the thought of hiring a car and driving to Sweden for the day, before our late-night flight. Car-hire prices were mental at the last minute, and crossing the bridge to Sweden would've cost an extra 600 Kroenas (about $100AUD or £67), Jesus! Now it's a pretty amazing bridge (Google it, the bridge between Denmark and Sweden), one (1) I'd seen before on Megastructures (or one of those shows hosted by one of those TopGear fellas) and we were pretty keen to travel across it. But at those ludacrisly high prices, we went with plan B, to get the train (it goes on the same bridge, just under the road) to Malmø (Sweden) to check it out.

Malmø is a fairly nice place (wouldn't rank it high on places to see), quite Swedish with it's architecture. There were cafes everywhere which suited us to a T. We wandered for a few hours, throughout the city, into a really pretty park where the most part of the lake running through had frozen over. We considered testing how strong the ice was by attempting to walk across it but figured it wasn't worth the risk. Instead we dropped a brick from a bridge onto the ice, and it barely even scarred it, tough and thick ice!

As it started to rain we tailed it back to Malmø Station for some lunch and a few beers. I finally got my Scando hot-dog which didn't disappoint, and Loz demolished (with a little help) a tasty burger. We then hit the sportsbar for several hours as the rain turned to sleet, then to snow outside. Beside us were an older Swedish couple (50-60
years-old) who started chatting to us about anything and everything.
They were lovely people; the lady looked like Olive Oil (Popeye's
missus) and the man was your everyday Silver Fox. We shared stories, beers, and chewing tobacco, until we jumped back on the train, quite pissy, to catch our flight home.

Copenhagen is a great place, although if we were to return, it'd have to be in Summer when there's more people around and more things are open. We would've loved to see more of Sweden but just won't have the time unfortunately.
Although quite an expensive part of the world, it's worth every cent!
The food alone is without question, some of the best in the world, and the people are awesome.

DW - When Loz and I visited London for the first time in 2008, we weren't particularly impressed with the place. It seemed cold, we were jetlagged as buggery, and the tourist attractions (Bin Ben, London Eye, Buckingham Palace etc) were only marginally impressive.
Two (2) years on, and for whatever reason we decided London was where we were going to live... Our first preference was actually New York which we loved so dearly; but getting a job and a Visa in the US is quite the task and you almost need the other one to get the other one (you know what I mean). So London was our pick, despite us not really liking it all that much; oh how things have changed...
Me in London is like a fat kid in a candy store; I simply can't get enough! I sometimes think to myself what it is I love most about this incredible city, so I've put it into a list in no particular order:

1. The Pubs - I said the list was in no particular order but it's no coincidence that this is top of the list. English pubs are my happy place! As much as I love going to the pub in Oz (and everywhere else in the world), the vibe in pubs here is like no other. There's no pokies, no Keno or gambling whatsoever; pubs are small, intimate, and pokey; they're full almost every hour of the day, seven (7) days a week; and everyone is there for the same reason - to drink real ale and talk shit with their friends and family. Pubs are warm and a perfect escape from the cold winter, and you can drink as little or as much as you like and you'll get served till the cows come home (most older pubs will actually ring a cowbell at the end of the night signaling last drinks).
More specifically, in London the pubs are so diverse. You've got your local watering holes on most corners, but hit Covent Garden for bigger atmosphere, Shoreditch for a random night (Mitch tells us of a depressed clown walking circles in one particular bar), Clapham for more liveliness, or Shepherds Bush to see 1,000 Aussies! The list could go on so far... Camden, East London, West End! We haven't yet hit the Ice-Bar in PiccadIlly (bar made completely from ice, even the glasses, where you get a special suit to wear and only get 40mins inside) but it's top of our to-do list. Rooftop bars in summer, sheesh, this list is getting big!
Bars are most definitely the one (1) thing I'll miss most about London, I'm almost teary thinking about it

2. Location - The big draw-card for London for us was certainly it's location, and close proximity to Europe. Having seen very little of Europe in 2008/09 we got but a taste for more, and what better way to see it than a city-break weekend with Paris only two (2) hours away. You could catch the train there for dinner on a Friday night after work! Fly to Dubin in about ten (10) minutes flat and you're suddenly in one (1) of the most beautiful countries in the world. Even as far as Turkey is only 4-5 hours away! We've certainly made the most of London's perfect location, with several weekenders over the past year or so; what's even better is that we'll soon be buying a van that we'll drive to Europe and back in, how good is that?!

3. The Greenness - London is (I've been told) the greenest capital city in the world. For me, it's one (1) of the key things that makes it so beautiful. There are parks never far away, enormous trees overhanging most roads, and despite there not being rubbish bins anywhere (a terrorist prevention measure I assume), it's remarkably clean. Team W's unicorn has to be the private park across the road from our flat (you know the private parks you see on the Notting Hill movie?), the park we're paying £10 a month towards yet still haven't applied for a key! Looks like we'll never see the paradise behind those fences.

4. British Ale - My first 'warm beer' went down like mud-soaked nails, the second and third not much better. But then on the fourth, it just clicked and my love affair had begun! Real ale is deeply embedded into British culture, and they are simply delicious. Full of absolute flavor, and 'live', they don't fill you up like gassy lager, and aren't served as 'warm' as they used to be (I believe they used to be served at room temperature; some places still do, but they still taste just as good). Every pub has a range, a lot of it boutique. I reckon I've tried at least 25 different ales since being here, plenty more to go I say. You simply can't live in London (or Britain for that matter) and not drink real ale, it's simply not on.

5. The Festivals - every weekend there seems to be a festival on somewhere in London. Whether it's the bigger events like the Notting Hill Carnival (the second biggest street festival in the world, behind Rio's Carnivale) or the upcoming Diamond Jubilee celebration; or smaller-scale operations such as the Mayors Parade or Spanish Festival: Guaranteed there's always something going on in this great city. In Summer they have a music festival in Hyde Park, where the biggest bands in the world play, one (1) each night for about a fortnight; last year was bands like Arcade Fire, Black Eyed Peas, Chemical Brothers, but to name a few! The festivals are obviously designed to get people out and about, moving through the city (such a great idea), I can only imagine they're part-funded by the Government/s. I guess the Poms need a reason to go outside because the weather's not as hot as other places such as Oz or Mexico.

6. The Vibe - there's something about big cities that gets me... New York has an incredible vibe, as do places like Paris, Istanbul, Amsterdam, and Beijing; but the vibe in London is second-to-none. No matter where you are, you always feel a certain 'buzz', that something's happening not far from you. Yes most people are rude and would push their grandma out of the way to get on a bus, but maybe that adds to the charm of it all. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I guess all the other 'reasons' why London is so great help lift the 'vibe'. It's like Mabo, you know.

7. The Food - oh the food! Tonight I feel like... Hmmmmm Mexican; okay, lets pop around the corner and get some of the best Mexican in the world, or to Covent Garden where you sit around drinking Coronas in a cool place waiting for some of the best street-food style Mexican on the planet. Tomorrow, we'll pop across to Brick Lane and choose from hundreds of curry-houses; and we'll pick the one (1) that offers us four (4) free drinks, a free entree, and half-price main! Maybe on Saturday we should go Michelin Star (keep in mind that there are zero (0) Michelin Star restaurants in Oz); let me pick from the 49 Michelin restaurants in town, yep 49 (one of which is called Fat Duck, classic). You see where I'm going with this? The food choices are endless! Most pubs also offer fantastic value, perfect to accompany a few cheeky schoolnight beers around the corner with mates. Aside from eating out, I have to make note of the supermarket pre-made sandwiches! Sounds strange but they are freaking amazing! At home, you wouldn't even look twice at a pre-made sandwich (except at the Longyard Golfcourse in Tamworth, always nice between the 9th and 10th holes), but here the food is so fresh (they have the ability to turnover so much of it) that all the sandwiches are bloody delicious, and cheap! You can get a sandwich, a drink and a packet of chips (not 'crisps' as the Poms like to say) for 2.5 quid (about AUD$3.25); you couldn't even make a sandwich for that these days!

8. The Diversity - London would have to be one (1) of the most (if not the most) multicultural cities in the world. It's been a real eye-opener for us rookie Aussies, seeing people from all walks of life and different parts of the world. There seems very little racism and everyone just seems to get along, no matter who they are or where they're from. Again, this makes the city so vast and wonderful because of all the food, shopping, and general riff-raff that comes with multiculturalism. One (1) of my favourite moments in London was when I was on a bus heading down Oxford Street just before Christmas, and a Caribbean Steel-Drum Band were playing Christmas Carols on nothing but drums. Admittedly I'm a sucker for steel-drums, but it really made me realise how cool this place is. Something I'm not likely to see in Tamworth, that's for sure.

9. Public Transport - we all love to whine and moan about the Tube, and how expensive it is. But, compared to most other subway systems we've witnesses, it is up there with the best! Trains run all the bloody time (they stop for a few hours in the wee-hours of the morn) and if you miss one (1), the next one (1) is usually less than three (3) minutes behind. Some Tube lines are quite a long way underground (several storeys) which means they get bloody hot, especially in Summer (Central Line, I'm looking at you), but it's just one (1) of those things I guess, comes with the territory. If the Tube isn't your thing, jump on a big red bus, no dramas. They cover the whole city and are a hell of a lot nicer as you get to see what's going on outside and get your bearings a little. Aside from that, taxis are everywhere, and you can hire a bike for biscuits and ride anywhere you want, flawless!

10. The Weather - hmmmmm, who would've thought the weather could ever be a reason to love London?! The Poms love to whinge about how bloody miserable the weather is over here, and we think they are totally unfounded. Yes, it doesn't get brutally hot like it does in many other parts of the world, but it doesn't get miserably cold like other parts either. Since we've been here, it's barely rained (especially compared to Newcastle at home where it seems to rain every half-hour or so), it really hasn't gone below -5'C, and we reckon it's been quite pleasant really.

So there it is, ten (10) reasons why London is an amazing city to live. It is the best decision we've ever made together and we would recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity. Whatever you do, don't talk about doing it and never do it; you'll regret it for the rest of your life. You very rarely hear of people who come over here and move back unhappy...

DW - Before our weekend in away, when I thought of Amsterdam, two (2) words came to mind:
1. Drugs - a city world-renowned for its tolerance of weed-smoking, where smoking a joint in a coffee-shop is as common as drinking a beer in a pub.
2. Sex - just as famous is Amsterdam's Red-Light District, where prostitutes show their stuff to the world to try and entice passers-by.
Being uninterested in both of the above, we were quite 'iffy' about visiting this infamous city, but my god are we glad we did! Now when I think of Amsterdam, words like 'vibrant', 'beer', and 'friggin cool' come to mind!

Our trip started with another ridiculous-hour wake-up (3:40am to be precise; arh the things you do to save a quid or two), and a sleepy cab ride to Luton Airport; at least this time the cabbie didn't make it his goal to keep us awake with delicious rock music. A short fight (approx 40 minutes) and we trained it into Luid, where our hotel was located. Thankfully there was a room available early so we were able to dump our bags safely in our ultra-modern pad. A difficult one to describe (the photo doesn't do justice but is probably as close to the best description you'll get), but essentially a dark room with a funky blue/black fluro light that kind of lights the room up. The bed and bathroom are sitting on a 'pod' on the edge of the room, really random and 'modern', but cool all the same.

Anyway, we jumped on a tram into the city and grabbed some to-die-for treats (second breakfast) at a random patisserie (similar to the story of my life, I over-consumed on chocolate brownies). Wh first visited the Albert Cuyp Market, Amsterdam's most famous market, where you could buy anything from fresh seafood and cheese (not together, you know what I mean), to clothes, flowers, and any random products you think you want at the time, but then get home and think, seriously, what was I thinking?!
Not far up the road we wandered to and through Vondelpark which wasn't dissimilar (double negative, take that) to most city parks (Hyde Park in London, Central Park in NY), slightly drab during the winter (due to lack of green). One (1) comical point was when we saw ducks and seagulls standing on what were once lakes, now frozen over by the incredibly cold temperatures of late.
We continued to walk and take in the beautiful sights of the city, pleasantly surprised by how scenic, and clean it was. It was now a reasonable hour, so scores of people were out and about, creating the great vibe I mentioned above. As the city became denser, we passed several cafes, shops, street performers etc. We also started to see the Coffee Shops...

It's really quite easy to tell who is in Amsterdam to smoke pot... You'd be walking along, taking in the sights, when from a pokey little ally would come a group of British guys, each looking more suspect than the other, all clearly baked off their brain. Quite funny to watch really, but I have to say that none of the city felt really seedy, the Coffee Shops and culture (and following) that comes with it just seems to blend into the whole feel of the city, seamlessly. As we got closer to the main part of the city, we noticed more and more Coffee Shops, many in clusters (often 2-3 side-by-side). What we also noticed was that near every Coffee Shop, was either a kebab store, or a chip store (more on chip stores later), smart business really; not unlike Steve's Kebabs in Tamworth (is he still there?).

We soon bought a hop-on hop-off boat ticket and thought (given we were only there for just over 24 hours) that would be our best way to digest as much of Amsterdam as we could. Good move, we'd highly recommend it, as the best way to see Amsterdam is by boat and foot, hands down (I'm not suggesting you catch a boat and walk with your hands down on the ground; that would be a rather difficult way to get around, although I haven't tried it to be honest so shouldn't judge). The commentary on the boats was amateur to say the least, but entertaining all the same (we often laughed to ourselves at how shit and useless some of the commentary was; e.g. "On your left are two identical buildings", and that would be it, nothing more. Who really cares anyway? Saying that, there were tokens on every boat that took photos of absolutely everything; it's fair to say they'll never look at them again, and oh the poor friends and family who will be forced to watch hours of this boredom, we feel for those brave people!).
We decided against going into the Anne Frank House as we assumed it would literally be just a house with an attic (or was it a basement? I must read that book), not worth the €8 entry fee. It's not that we're not interested; I understand its place in history, but it doesn't mean I have to go in, does it?
A quick look at the Flower Market and the early morning started to take its toll on us so we whipped home for a catnap before dinner.

Soon back into the city and we sat for a relaxing, yet über-expensive delicious lager near the main piazza of the city. It was really cool just sitting outside (it was pissing down rain but we were undercover) and watching the bustling traffic of people coming and going in all directions. One (1) thing I have to say is that Europeans know how to make beer, and they seem to be able to do it better than anyone in the world! The Dutch, Germans, Czechs, and French must have the best ingredients for lager, I guess that's how they make it better than anyone, without question.

Another thing about Amsterdam that's really worth noting (in all honesty I should've mentioned it earlier, but I couldn't be bothered now so here it is) is the amount of bicycles and cyclists! I read that 50% of Amsterdam's residents ride as their mode of transport, and I wouldn't be surprised if the figure was more! The are bike lanes everywhere and you really need to keep your wits to make sure you're not in someone's way. At all intersections, you have to give way to cars, trams, and especially bikes. I think it's one (1) thing that really adds to the city, and it's great as you don't have to wear a helmet (gotta love Europe and their lack of nanny-stateness). There are piles of bikes all over the city, parked; I've no idea where all the riders are! What's more is that all the bikes look the same, they're all really old-school, like those bikes your parents used to ride and you'd be really embarrassed!

What we also loved about Amsterdam were the people. With the exception of a few angry bike riders (although somewhat justified when people are walking in front of them in a bike lane), the Dutch people were warm, welcoming, spoke fluent English, and best of all were the complete opposite of the French; I think that's why we loved them so much!

Anyway, back to the story... We had some delicious beers then continued to wander throughout the city, towards the infamous Red-Light District to see what all the fuss was about. To be completely honest, we were pretty disappointed with what was there... We obviously weren't there to engage with the windowesses, but we did expect to see hundreds of them, and be yelled at by pimps vying for business! Nothing though...! Most windows were empty or had the curtains closed and we weren't yelled at once, sigh. To be honest, we were more impressed by the Red-Light District in Antwerp (have a read if you have the time) than we were here, as there were a hell of a lot more windowesses about, and something on offer for everyone. Maybe they were all having dinner while we were there... Maybe they start quite late and catch all the Coffee Shoppers on their way home?

Okay, lets talk about chip stores, possibly the greatest invention since the see-through toaster (for years we thought that was Loz's secret idea, until we found it for sale online, damn it. Genius though, hey?!)! Obviously in Amsterdam to capitalize on the stoner market, there are scores of chip stores throughout the city. Yep, chip stores; stores completely focussed on selling hot chips, how good is that?! Some had diversified into selling burgers (more like selling out) but the core of these businesses was chips, simple yet brilliant! They'd have a huge surplus of frozen chips displayed at the back of the shop, and would cook them fresh to order, delicious. I had Chipsy King (again, genius!) for dinner, and again for lunch the next day, bring it on I say!

At the end of the night we bought a train ticket to get home, which turned out to be a schoolboy error. It was only valid on private rail and wouldn't work on trams, buses, or the Metro, damn it! So we had to wait for a private train to leave. We thought it started to take us out of the city and began to panic that it was taking us to Belgium, so jumped off and it took us two (2) more trains to finally get home. It would've been quicker to work and I'm not exaggerating.

On Sunday morning we walked into the city, hoping to find the delicious patisserie (from the day before) along the way. No dice, but we did pass a huge stature of a guy riding a turtle, worth every minute! The city was really quiet on Sunday morning (a common theme throughout the UK and Europe) so we jumped back on a canal boat to see as much as we could.
We paid a visit to the Torture Museum which was pretty cool. I had remembered seeing photos from when our college friend Rohan visited Amsterdam a couple of years ago, and thought it looked interesting, so we gave it a go. It was quite cool, although uncomfortable at times, thinking about some of the varying horrendous methods of torture that were once undertaken.
We hopped back on a boat and ended up at Amsterdam's smallest active brewery, happy days. It wasn't open when we arrived but a small cafe nearby were serving their beers (at a premium) so we sampled some before 3pm (opening time). The brewery was proper impressive; admittedly we didn't get a tour but sat outside drinking 8 and 9% beers, creamy and delicious. Best of all was that they were only €2.40 a pop, astounding prices for such strong alcoholic beers! A couple of strong beers will knock you around and it's fair to say we left the brewery cheerful! Thank god for Chipsy King!
We returned to the Red-Light District to see if it was any better during the day, and it was marginally better. I tend to think that business is slower in Winter, so the windowesses (I don't know what else to call them) either hibernate or head south for warmer waters...

Time had passed ever so quickly and we were sad to leave Amsterdam. Our memory remains as one (1) of our favourite cities to visit in the world (up there with Paris and NY), and we'd highly recommend to anyone!

I miss Chipsy King already.

I have to admit, the title of this post is about as lame as Two & a Half Men (have I mentioned my hatred for that show?), but it was a half-arsed attempt at combining two (2) key themes from our weekend in Prague:
1. It was farking cold (shiver me timbers)!!! I remember looking at the weather forecast on Friday afternoon before leaving the office - I turned white as a ghost and couldn't believe it, let alone having to tell Loz (given how much of a cold frog she is, and how her perfect holiday is lying on a beach in 30'C+ heat)! The forecast showed a top of -9'C and a low of -15'C! Seriously what the hell was this place (obviously Hell would be a lot warmer but then again, so would a cold shower). So we repacked on Friday night, including layer after layer.
2. Snitzel - we've learnt from visiting Germany and Austria that this part of Europe tend to love their snitzel and potato, booya. By the end of our weekend, four (4) of my five (5) last meals were snitzel and mash, what a life!
So there you have it, the lamest blog post title, and a loose explanation behind the (loose) logic.

Dressed in double-skin bottoms, jeans, skin-top, shirt, jumper, ski-jacket, gloves and beanie, we got a taxi at sparrow's fart (4am) to Gatwick on Saturday morning. Our driver immediately recognised us (as we did him) as the lot he took to Stansted in July last year with Loz's parents. Nice fella, bit of a hippie, good for a chat. Mind you, it was farking early and all we wanted to do was catch a brief nap while we could. After a while of chatting he then realised we had common taste in music so he blasted several numbers from Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains the Same; albeit a great live album, but for f#%k's sake mate, it was 4 in the morning!

Once we grounded in Prague we pulled a 2,000 Kroena note out of the cash machine (if you want to feel rich, go to Prague), and bussed it into town to check out some sites.
We were layered up to the wazoo but Loz was still freezing into submission and finding somewhere to sit inside for a coffee was proving surprisingly difficult. There were a number of cafes based in the Old Town square (is there like a piazza somewhere around here where we can just hang out?) but they were all outdoors and not providing comfort from what seemed Arctic temperatures. We grabbed a hot chocolate for the road which started to freeze over whilst drinking it, wow.

Now I may have mentioned just once or twice on this blog that we are shit travellers! We didn't know the first thing about Prague before this trip, we'd just heard it as a nice place to go, good enough for us... When I asked around at work the day before for tips on what to do in Prague, the general response I got was 'drink beer', heaven?! Wanting to do a little more than just drink piss at 9am we went in search for some museums of interest. We are some of the least museumy people around but some are often worth a look, especially in parts of Europe with such interesting history. A couple that took our attention were the Torture Museum, and the Communism Museum, neither of which we could find; I don't know what was wrong with the map we had, but these particular museums were like ghosts, not to be found by us anyway. Next...

After hours of just wandering around and taking in the beautiful city (much to Loz's disgust given how incredibly cold she was) we pulled into a pub just off Prague City Centre on the North side of the river. Loz smashed some Beef Goulash (a traditional Czech dish) with dumplings whilst I consumed snitzel número uno (1), tick. A few delicious Staropramen beers and we were ready for a Nanna-nap, so we wandered to the hotel and checked in for some shut-eye (probably wouldnt have needed a sleep if the hippie cabbie hadn't kept us awake).

Dark and even colder (we didn't think it could get any colder) and we strolled up the road to an original Pilsner Urquell pub for dinner, snitzel number two (2). I remember having a sip of Pilsner Urquell when dad went through a beer tasting phase about ten (10) years ago, and I remember him raving about it as one of his favorites. I don't recall ever trying it since, but it is freaking delicious! Also very very hard to beat at equivalent to about $1.75AUD for half a litre, bingo!!! Between the two (2) of us, a two-course dinner with several beers, wines, and dessert cost about $30AUD, love this place!

There were a few dead giveaways as to just how cold it was in Prague while we were there:
1. Drinks that had been left or spilled on the pavement had frozen. You couldn't walk half a block without seeing a can of coke (or something similar) spilled on the ground, with a frozen puddle escaping the can across the footpath. If you were really poor and in Prague, you could probably get by on licking pavement beverages, maybe it'll become a thing?
2. Chicken.

On Sunday morning we ate in for our included breakfast at the hotel, scoffing copious amounts of food for what was inevitably one (1) of the longest days of our lives. We made a bit of a plan on specific things to see, otherwise we figured we'd end up at the airport hours early drinking more piss and twiddling our thumbs.
So we trained it up to the Jewish Quarter, just above Old Town. We wandered for a while and eventually bit the bullet and got a Jewish Meseum Pass which granted us three (3) wishes, a box of Tim-Tams, and access to five (5) Sinagogues and the Jewish Cemetary, good deal really. Our knowledge of Judaism was (and still is) very limited and neither of us had visited a Sinagogue before. Like most of these sorts of things, once I see these sorts of places, I become so hungry for information; the Jewish history is simply fascinating to me now, look out Wikipedia! We spent half a day wandering through the Sinagogues, each unique and telling a different part of Jewish history. The Jews obviously had a tough run in the Holocaust in this part of the world, so there's just so much stuff to learn and know, super interesting I have to say. The cemetery that sits between three (3) of the Sinagogues houses over 1,200 bodies (I think that's the number), but takes up very little area. Bodies are buried up to 12-deep (again, I think that's the number I read), a tiny 55cms apart (on top of each other). Really fascinating stuff, if you're ever bored, Google Jewish Prague and you're set for a couple of hours I reckon.

Now museumed out, we settled in for some grub, snitzel number three (3), and it started to snow outside, finally! Now there was a decent excuse for it to be cold, the cold is always more bearable when it's snowing.
After a couple of delicious lagers and some horrible mulled wine, we got back on our feet and went to check out Prague Castle on the North side of the river. We winged it quite a bit and followed our nose, which turned out to be a top choice as we wandered through some beautiful back streets, all but empty except a few cops here and there. Prague Castle sits inside what I assume are city walls, with all entrances guarded by still-standing guards with massive guns with swords that'd shred anything in their way on the end. You'd see people getting as close as they felt comfortable with the guards, posing for photos (almost Mr Bean-esk, minus the bravery), as it appears the guards were on instruction not to be distracted from their duty. I think about how boring that job would be, not moving for hours on end; then I think about how restless someone like Loz would be in at environment, she wouldn't last five (5) minutes! So we wandered inside the walls for a while and came to the best view of the city at the top of the hill. Loz worked her camera magic and as day started to lean towards night we strolled back down to the water and settled in for some beers at an Italian restaurant on a boat on the edge of the water, nice.
Once darkness fell, all historic structures (bridges, castles etc) lit up beautifully, this was Prague at its' prettiest; if only we'd known the night before (shit travelers).

Sadly our time started to run short so we bussed it out to the airport for snitzel number four (4), again delicious. The boards were already showing that our flight was delayed (they didn't specify by how much) so we settled into some fairly comfy seats and played the waiting game (everyone's favourite airport game). Word came out from some Poms near us that the plane wasnt planned to leave London until several hours after we were meant to be on it back to London; it started to look like a fairly long night (little did we know).
Bums sore, we cashed in our 'apology' vouchers for copious amounts of chocolate and settled down to rest our head until we heard more... Our plane was originally scheduled to leave at 9:45pm...

I recall getting woken up by an airport employee in a panic at one (1) stage, him thinking we were about to miss our flight to Stansted. If only we were flying to Stansted, their plane left about midnight. Back to sleep, I awoke a couple of hours later to find we'd been called to board, hooray!
We have joked numerous times before going on our weekend city breaks that we'd love for our return fights to be delayed by several days due to snow; our dream had come partially true this time, but not in a good way at all!
Surrounded by whinging Poms we boarded our plane and left Prague at about 2am Monday morning. We landed at 4:30am, jumped on the bus home at 5am, got home at 7am, had a shower and went straight to work... Made it to about midday and called stumps, time for bed!

LW- honestly there are not too many worse ways to wake up than to a blasting alam... Let alone one that is going off at 4am! Our ski long weekend /anniversary weekend had begun!
Ever since our trip in Switzaland Davo and I had been busting for Austria- word on the street was the snow is pretty much as good but a bit more reasonably priced.
Arriving into the airport at Innsbruck we were taken back by it's beauty -by far the most scenic and mountainess (???) place we have flown into. We were surrounded by snow capped mountains as far as the eye could see. A quick trip through customs, collection of the hire car, gps lady plugged in and we set off to find our ski resort which should have been about 2-3 hours away... 4.5 hours later we arrived!

Everyone knows this by now and Davo has mentioned it on multiple occasions but we r the worlds WORST travelers... I failed to mention at the start that we didn't learn 1 word of Austrian - literally it's day 3 as I write this and I still don't even know how to say hello or thank you!!
This made matters difficult when we arrived in the region close to where we were staying - lost - and we had to ask for directions. PAUSE in my story - the most delicious cappicino has arrived in front of me with cream, a little chocolate on the side, sitting in one of the most picturesque places possible at the top of the ski mountain... Ohhh I can get use to this!
Sorry back to the story...
With our language barriers Davo and I deciphered that our lodge was up the mountain about 8kms away...
Up the mountain - lost again - only 3 lodges and none titled the name of ours; Davo went into one to hopefully find someone english speaking who could again point us in the right direction- returning to the car Davo came bearing not only information but the keys to place!!! Turns out calling ur hotel a different name on the outside is the cool thing to do and thus is where we were staying!! Anyway...Happy days - we had found it.
No sauna and hot spa like switzaland but breaky and tea included in bargain price. The views from our room were truly amazing - we were so secluded and the sunset behind the mountains lit the sky with the prettiest pinks, reds and oranges...

Saturday morning arrived and we got up early so we could hit the slopes asap... Some random cereal, cheese/ salami rolls and coffee and we were in our burner again to find some pow pow!!!
Mission accomplished - decked out with boots, boards and two 4-resort 2 day lift passes the fun was ready to begin!
A brilliant morning on the slopes and some delicious lunch at the mountain top restaurant - how can anyone not love the snow!

[

One thing you need to know about my snowboarding is that i increase very quickly in confidence until I reach the point that I think I can join the Australian Olympic team... This confidence makes me show off in font of Davo and go faster and faster.... This confidence builds further and further until .... BANG!! SMASH!!! CRASH!!! I fall bum first onto (the most icyiest) part of the snow... Roll down the hill at tremendous speed whilst in the back ground all I can hear is my loving husband laughing in total hysterics behind me! This is all up until the moment he comes closer and realizes I am a complete Wally and have actually hurt myself.. Yes with a little tear in my eye!
Deary me.... Confidence gone as quickly as it was build... And once it's gone I become the worlds worst snowboarder!!!! True story....
Don't get me wrong Davo definatelty had his fair share of stacks (one recorded on camera)!!! However he is a typical boy who picks himself up and after two seconds he is back to normal.
A few more runs and we called it a day - calling into a big - and I mean massive - pub at the bottom of the gondola. This was an experience in itself and we have both now got a new appreciation for Austrian pop!

A quiet night in with a few cheeky beers, killer sunset, 5 eps of sons of anarchy and we hit the hay!
PAUSE AGAIN... I am hopeless and just lost my phone for the last 1hr while we were having lunch!!! Not the best hour of my life despite the delicious donut pancake desert we were eating....however A lovely American man found it and gave it back to me )))).
Sunday morning - no alarm; woke naturally - LOVE IT!
Heading to a new resort today and we were so glad we did. The snow was brilliant and the weather just cracking!! I lasted until lunch and Davo went exploring by himself to do big boy things, black runs and off piste busines while I enjoyed hot coffee and delicious Austrian beer at The mountain!

After a big day at the slopes in -8• average weather for the day we headed back to the hotel for some chicken legs and cold beers! Being the innovative two that we r we made stubby coolers out of beanies and gloves as we sat on Our balcony watching the sunset. Not a bad way to finish the day.

A lazy start the next day - our two year anniversary!!! I honestly could never find a person that I love being with more than Davo and the last two years have truly been the best of my life!! ...so came the end of our long weekend! A long day at the airport and an even longer bus ride and we were finally home!
A few glasses of our wedding red and pepperoni pizza - what a perfect night!

DW - 18/01... As I struggled through another workday, hungover, I realise it's become quite the occurrence over the past few months. At the risk of scaring parentals about drinking too much I'm starting to wonder whether London is a bad influence? Can't be, we're having way too much fun, way too much fun!

Last night we attended the RadioTimes Covers Party, a party designed to celebrate those celebrities who've braced the cover of the RadioTimes (an iconic TV Guide in the UK) over the past year. Given that RadioTimes are a partner at work I managed to swaggle (is that a word?) a ticket for Loz and I, in the hope of meeting someone famous... Some big names took the cover in 2011; Paul Macartney, Prince Charles, Ricky Gervais - surely no one that important would attend? We played our hopes down very early as I'd been given the heads-up from work that most of the celebrities don't go, bummer.
Anyway, we rocked up at Claridges (ex Michelin Star Gorden Ramsey hotel in Mayfair) and a paparazzi took our photo as we entered, I guess she wasn't sure if we were famous or not; thank god for digital cameras hey, she would've wasted a negative only ten (10) years ago!
Inside, not knowing a sole there, we hit the Champagne Bar and sampled some delicious Laithwaites Champagne and stood awkwardly whilst the room filled with no one we recognised. The aperitifs the waiters brought around were superb, we were so out of our league, two (2) bogans from the outskirts of Newcastle, Australia - how the hell did we end up here? I've had some wonderful work perks since joining in May, including two (2) tickets to the cricket at Lords, but this was properly impressive.
Our champagne consumption was fairly impressive as the waiters made sure to keep our glasses full; every time you'd take a sip your glass was full again with fine champas, happy days.

After an hour or so they started awarding framed covers to the celebrities who were there. We got through about a dozen without recognizing anyone (X-Factor, Britain's Got Talent winners etc) until Warwick Davis was called. Suddenly I was like a small child with candy, so so so excited that he was here! Warwick Davis is a bit of an icon over here and one (1) of the most famous little-people in thr world. Having recently watched his new TV show, Life's Too Short (written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant) and absolutely loving it, I'd been keeping a close eye on Warwick's movements (on Twitter) in the days leading up to the event. My hopes were dropped when I found that he was in the US with Ricky and Stephen only the day before. But... low and behold, there he was, a a few meters from us, life is so so good!
We were also quite excited when we found that Holly Vallance was in the room (she was always my favourite neighbour). Our new mission for the night; meet Warwick and Holly!

Once the awards were complete we followed Warwick at a distance, waiting for our perfect opportunity to pounce (following a little person in a crowd of full-sized people is quite the task at times). An opening and I was there like Yogi Bear (although I had pants on thankfully). We said hello and told him we we huge fans (Loz had never seen the show nor heard of him but she ran with it), and he was lovely, very warm and welcoming. Excitement levels had reached an all-time high, part due to meeting the man I wanted to meet, and part from the copius amounts of champagne we'd already enjoyed.

Our next search was for Holly, our plan of attack to play the 'Aussie' card to ease into conversation. We spotted her, and Loz went in for the hug (love it) and we had a good chat to her, also a lovely person. I know celebrities have to be nice to their fans (ex. Mel Gibson, Kanye West and Nicole Kidman) but its always really refreshing when they are. We were absolutely buzzing, the night had peaked! By the end of the night we were so full of bubbles (I estimate I'd drunk about 2 bottles and Loz about 1) and bedded on an absolute high, watching Life's Too Short.

The past few months have been mental, there's no other way to describe it!

Several visits to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park were some real highlights. Right on Hyde Park Corner, every December, they setup the Winter Wonderland, a magical place filled with bars, rides, food stalls, and an ice-skating rink. It's chockas with people of all ages, most drinking mulled wine (warmed up red wine with a bunch of herbs, quite tasty). We fell in love with the Moose Bar fairly early in the piece and hit it up a few times (a bar with a singing Moose at the entry), but good old Timmy Masters got us onto the Carosel Bar, a bar that constantly spins just like a merry-go-round. Sounds so simple but I cannot think of anywhere else in the world that offers this sort of simple novelty?

Travelling brings people closer together. As silly as that sounds (given that you're so far from everyone), you tend to make more of an effort to catch up with people when you're abroad. Through the wonderful world of Facebook, Ben 'Thommo' Thomas from Farrer discovered that we were both living in London. So we caught up in Shepherds Bush for a few school-night pints, probably the first time we've seen each other since 2003, good times. Turns out he's been living in Canada for a few years and has been to many of the same places as us such as Beijing and Playa del Carmen. Travelling is so farking good!
We've also been catching up regularly with Mitch Fowler, also from Farrer. He lives a couple of hundred meters from us and it seems far too easy to go for a few cheeky beers at the pub between our places, far too often (most nights of which end up drinking double-rums and sometimes port back at our place). Given that he's been here a few years and knows some of the most amazing restaurants and bars, he's made it his mission to show us as many of them as possible before we leave in May.
A couple of weeks ago we caught up wi him and one (1) of is workmates (and some of his friends from school) at a restaurant called MeatLiquor; what could be better than than right? They don't accept bookings and their website is just one (1) page saying that fact, and that you can't cut in line to get into the restaurant. We waited a little while to get in but the burgers were I'd say the best we've had in our lives, even topping Ally's homemade chicken burgers! Mitch's mate was having 'lean' burgers (i.e. just eating the rissoles) and ended up reordering twice, toppling like 5.5 rissoles, so much for 'lean'! That same night we ended up at the most random bar we've seen. Somewhere around Covent Garden (I think) we walked down a set of stairs, underground, to what simply looked like an old lady's living room. There were about five (5) tables with chairs setup, a DJ, and a bar, weird! I was just waiting for an old lady to come out of a hidden door asking us all to keep the racket down! We sat down and ordered some of the strangest drink combinations known to man, all served prohibition style in tea-cups, mugs, or (as Mitch and I had on our first round), those old white camping mugs with a blue rim; they were scratched and authentic just like the ones in every camping kit. Well past midnight and I tried my first ever Gin on the rocks (I don't like Gin but was convinced by Mitch's obvious eagerness), which we named the 'backwards Gin' as it was made (apparently) in the reverse way to standard Gin, hmmmm.

Way back in November we were lucky enough to be in Edinburgh at the same time as my uncle Lowey. We had a great time and planned to meet up later that week in London. One of Kim's (Lowey's partner) friends from Oz, a chef living in London picked the restaurant which was very different to what we'd usually pick. We ate snails, pheasant, and pig-trotters, followed by cheese mixed with some sweet stuff (can't remember what it was exactly), delicious! I wasn't so impressed with the texture of the snails but Loz claimed to enjoy them.

Amongst our trips to Edinburgh, Switzerland, Scotland, and Paris, we've also managed to get to a Premier League soccer match, Chelsea v. Man City at Stamford Bridge. We were deep embedded within the Chelsea supporters and had no choice but to join them (although we actually wanted Man City to win as Chelsea were close to Liverpool at the time), and it was an impressive game. Man City scored early which sent the crowd quiet but a goal to even things up and a Frank Lampard Penalty to seal the deal had everyone in the best mood and going absolutely nuts!

A few weeks back Loz treated me to the ultimate night out, up there with the best nights ever. The night started by trying to get into the Moose Bar in Winter Wonderland, but there were just too many people and we couldn't even get into the wonderland. So we ended up in a bar somewhere in Piccadilly (after seeing santa in handcuffs getting arrested outside) where we enjoyed a few cheeky ones before the most amazing dinner at an Argentinian restaurant (meat meat and more meat), where everything was basically patterned in cow-print. We shared the most tender and flavoursome half-cow with some intensely good Argentinian Malbec. Throughout the night Loz handed me clues of where we were going next; whilst at dinner I got two (2) clues; 1. we had tickets to see 'We Will Rock You' in January, boom! 2. We had tickets to see Arsenal v. Newcastle United at Emirates in March, holy shit yeah!!! How good is my wife, seriously amazing! The third clue set us to the Natural History Museum in Kensington where we ice-skated under the beautiful winter's night. Seriously the most amazing night and I'm incredibly lucky to have taken this amazing woman off the market, I just feel sorry for every other guys in the world.

The odd party here and there, dressed as a Storm Trooper and Vadar in Hammersmith, and a farewell for Bindo in Clapham Junction, this is the most hectic lifestyle and I don't want it to end. Work parties out the wazoo in London and Reading, some seriously late nights!

The night of We Will Rock You started with some of the best food we've eaten (wow, all I've talked about is how much good food and booze we've had) in a flashy restaurant in West-End. The chicken for main was incredible and possibly the best dessert I've ever had was the white-chocolate thingy, mmmm so good! The show itself I'd been looking forward to for some time, it being one (1) of the key things I wanted to do in London since arriving in May. It exceeded even my expectations and was by far and wide the best theatre production we've ever been to, hands down. It was funny, thrilling, engaging, and the music was amazing, it made us remember how many great songs Queen actually had, too many!

In our spare time we're either watching Sons of Anarchy, at the pub, or at the gym. At times I think, why are we leaving this utopia...?

DW - Paris, France; one (1) of the most famous cities in the world for its romance, culture, history to name but a few. This visit came just over three (3) years after our first visit where we spent one (1) of the best and most memorable weeks of our life. Our memories and expectations were high, always a dangerous premise when visiting such a well-known and documented tourist destination. But Paris, we have to applaud you yet again, well done, well done indeed...

Our trip started rather peacefully and stress-free as we took the Eurostar (train that goes under the English Channel, cool hey) out of London St. Pancras rather than flying. Nice and easy when you leave from the centre of town and needn't worry about taxis/transport to the airport. Wanting to start the romance early, I suggested we meet at the St Pancras Meeting Point, one (1) of the 'most romantic places in the world' according to some article I read a little while ago. Us being us, I turned up to find Loz on the level above me shouting to get my attention; we're such romantics ha! Loz checked out the meeting place and said it was nothing special, just like most things you read about (should I be saying that, given that I'm writing this post?).

A couple of hours and we were in the guts of Paris, although tired as buggery. We were chatting about this last night as we've been getting super tired of late; we came to the conclusion that it was our lack of red-meat since we've been in London. It seems we eat a lot of other stuff (chicken, pork, seafood) but nowhere near the amount of red-meat we used to. We used to BBQ at least twice a week but given we don't really have an outdoor area, I don't think the landlord would appreciate an indoor BBQ. What we didn't discuss was the fact that we are pretty well non-stop on the move, be that traveling, sightseeing, partying, or simply having a few cheekys at Teddy's, our local. I'd say you combine the fact of little red meat with lots of stuff and very little sleep, there's why we're tired half the time!
Anyway, back to Paris, we were tired as buggery so hit the sack for a reasonably early night. Our hotel was nice, nothing special, but in an incredible location in the centre of town, only a matter of steps from Jaures Metro Station. We did, however, come to hate the hotel, but more on that later.

Bread, oh my god the bread! Since we visited France in 2008 I've been trying to find the answer to why the bread is so much better in France, than anywhere else in the world. I've even asked a full-blown Frenchman and he claimed not to know; it's either the world's second best kept secret, or even the French don't know! We found a bakery just around the corner for some highly anticipated crossaints for breakfast; as expected they didn't disappoint. I opted for a couple of chocolate ones, so so so so so f#%king good!!! Loz said her el-naturale crossaints were also up to scratch, go France, you win again.

We jumped on the Metro (the underground) with the aim to first revisit where we got engaged (just up from the Eiffel Tower), then hit Versailles on the way back. It was a cracking day and as soon as we got on the Metro we wondered why the hell we'd chosen the underground over buses... The Metro is so scummy and so different from the Tube; there are homeless people everywhere (you couldn't even find a chair to sit as all the homeless were stretched out having a sleep-in), it smells of piss, and you have to watch your step for the odd chunk of shit, yuck! As we entered the gates into the station, a dude n front of us simple walked up and stepped over the gates; clearly this is where the scum of Paris hang-out, time to get above ground!

We reached the Eiffel Tower and wandered around for a while under the amazing sun (it was still freezing cold, but beautiful when the sun was on you), checked out 'our' spot and took in the beauty of Paris.
From there we made the call to not go underground again so began looking for a bus to the Champs Elees Eye (seriously how do you spell that?). We wandered from one (1) end to the Arc du Triumpe and back again, passing all the flash stores, Loz dreaming. The footpaths were so wide and there were thousands of people about, including probably the worst street dancers we've come across to-date.

Lunchtime and one (1) of the main reasons for our return to Paris: Gyros from the Students Quarter! I think we had at least one (1) of these kebab-style delicious things each day when we came last time, and we have the fondest memories of it being some of the best street-food in the world. Again, we were not disappointed second-time-round. So good I went straight back for another. Seriously, chips belong inside kebabs, it's simple science I reckon!

Extremely satisfied, we headed home to ready for the night, Moulin Rouge our focus from hereon-in.
The day before we came to Paris I posted on Facebook for any tips of things to do in Paris as we'd made no special plans. I was overwhelmed with suggestions; Catacombs, the big cemetery, propose! Having known that dad, Kiz and Marcus had all gone to the Moulinn Rouge in their travels, I shot a quick message to Kiz/Marcus to find out whether it was worth the exuberant amounts of money. The reply I got was along the lines of, "an absolute don't-miss"; decision made and tickets booked straight away!
We hit up the Montmartre district for dinner as recommended by Mitch which was the same area as the show, happy days. As you come into the main strip you're surrounded by sex-stores and strip-clubs. It's seedy, but not Kings Cross seedy, more of a classy seedy (if there is such a thing). In the back-streets you can find lots of pubs/restaurants (seriously, France have this thing worked out - pubs, restaurants and cafes often blend into each other so you can have breakfast, coffe, lunch, cocktails,dinner, and a night out all in the same place without having to get up, genius!) which all seem quite cool. We picked one (1) that took our fancy and sat outside in the freezing cold night (did I mention that Loz had a reasonably short dress on). Blankets were kindly on offer so we were confident we wouldn't freeze.
Drink order; for whatever reason I wanted to try something a bit different (when in Rome) so went for a Campari, neat. Quite possibly the worst drink I've had in my life with an aftertaste not dissimilar to Chinotto (pick up a bottle in your local supermarket, you will regret it)!
We slammed a couple of steaks down with some good French wine then headed back to the strip (so to speak) for our 9pm show at the Moulin Rouge, the most famous Burlesque Bar in the world. We had to leave coats, bags, cameras, everything but what seemed our underwear in the cloakroom before being seated in the incredible old theatre room. Over 120 years I believe the show has been going, that's even longer than the Modern Olympics, impressive.

The Moulin Rouge show was absolutely incredible and without doubt worth the arm and leg it cost us! We were seated next to two (2) other Aussies (ha) and enjoyed the show sharing a bottle of delicious Champage between the two (2) of us (not the others, just Team W). It was also up there with the theatre show we saw in Beijing in terms of weirdness! There was stuff-all continuity between acts so you had no idea what was next! One minute we were watching 30+ women dancing topless on stage, followed by a man juggling seven (7) juggling pins... Followed by some extravagant Chinese, Russian and go knows what else themed acts. The weirdest for me had to be the almost naked lady swimming in a pop-up pool, with several sea snakes swimming around her. Not quite sure what the hell was going on but it was weird and really really cool. Such a good show, can't express how impressed we were, would recommend it to anyone visiting Paris.

The next day was fairly uneventful with the exception of Loz blowing her lid at the incdible rude and arrogant receptionist when we checked out. We had claimed that we'd already paid for the accommodation (we thought we had) and fought with the guy who was trying to charge us. He then turned completely sour (or perhaps he just turned French) and put his hands over his ears so not to listen anymore! After much back and forth and us refusing to leave until he accepted that we'd already paid, he walked away into the background, hands on ears, and said he was going to charge the card we had on file anyway. We were ropable and it put us in a pretty poor mood for the rest of the day.

We charged out and tried to fill the hole with some chocolate croissants, much better. Time passed and before we knew it we were back in Pembridge Square preparing for the depressing week of work ahead