Virtual Postcards 

Here follows a blow by blow account of our globe-trotting adventures in Europe as they unfolded ...
 

Dear everyone,

We made it to the Queen's country!!!  ... and we've finally found one of
these Internet cafe things.

Well ... this is day 4 and things have been pretty interesting so far.
We managed to find the cheapest possible accommodation in London ...
camping in TENT CITY for £6 per night.  It is pretty dodgey and just
slightly scarey ... but it will do.  Our Contiki tour starts tomorrow
and is (hopefully) going to be luxury in comparison.

We have fit lots of sight-seeing in, including ...
Tower of London (fascinating!)
Tower Bridge
Trafalgar Square
Leicester Square
British Musuem
Lord's Cricket Ground
Harrod's
Westminster Abbey & Cathedral
St Paul's (where Charles & Di tied the knot)
Parliament House and Big Ben
.. a London pub, called "The Rat and Parrot" (where we sampled geniune
London beer & bangers and mash)
and we've seen
  lots and lots of those red, double-decker buses and red telephone
booths and quaint black taxis.

Overall, we're really enjoying it ... the weather has been brilliant,
surprisingly - all sunshiney days - not a drop of rain!

Anyway, better sign off for now ...
keep tuned for our next installment.

Cheers,
Susanna & Craig.

PS Evelyn says hi.

Hello there! ... or should I say goo moron, because, yes we're now in
Sweden!!  Stockholm to be precise!

And I am struggling with this computer keyboard ... the symbol keys are
in different places and the shift key is tiny .. so excuse any typos.

We started the Contiki tour about 5 days ago and it has been great so
far .. we left from London, got a on ferry (more like a cruiser) and
travelled to Hamburg, Germany and then bussed it and one more ferry to
Copenhagen, Denmark, where we stayed 2 nights.  Loved the city ... lots
of castles and little green rooves (tarnished copper).  The
accommodation was very hoogley, as they say (small and cosy), little
cabins.  We had a BBQ the first night at the camp site and a group of
holidaying garbologists happened to be there!  One of them was very
friendly and attempted to teach us Danish.

Well, this is our second day in Stockholm and the city (in my opinion)
is even more beautiful than Copenhagen.  It is situated on 14 islands
connected by bridges.  We are still having perfect weather!  We visited
the Vasa Museum yesterday, which contains a ship lifted from the waters
in 1961, over 333 years after it sunk.

Thanks for the hellos from those of you who have written and we are
working on the postcards ... we forgot to bring our address book, so if
you don't get a postcard, don't be too offended.  :)

The other people on the Contiki tour are very nice ... it is quite a
mature group compared to your stereotypical Contiki crowd - higher
average age - we are amongst the youngest - we even have a couple of
married couples!

Anyway, gotta go and do some more Stockholm sightseeing.

Cheers,
Suz & Craig

Hello all,

"Virtual postcard number 3!!"

Yes, we are breathing a little easier now that we are out of what used
to be the iron curtain!  We left Poland yesterday and are now back to
the civilised world ... Germany .... we are in Berlin right now, after a
fascinating walking tour through the city.

Anyway ... about Russia - where can we start - what a totally amazing
experience.  It's not everyday that you get to see Bill Clinton in the
Kremlin, Lenin in his tomb and sip vodka in the shadow of St Basil's
Cathedral in Red Square.  But please .. no one mention meat and potatoes
again (we have had every possible combination).  And showering in smelly
rusty water is a little challenge.

Our first major stop in Russia was St Petersburg - 3 days.  What a city
of contrasts...  the extravagance of the czars palaces of days gone by
and the ghettos of dilapidated apartment buildings not far away.  Once
you see firsthand the ostentatiousness of the past royals, you can sort
of understand why the people revolted ... rooms with 24 kg of gold on
the walls, exquisitely detailed mosaics and an entire building of
priceless artworks from around the world.  These beautiful old palaces
have been restored and maintained since the revolution as museums for
the people.

Moscow was a very different city again ... more modern, less palaces,
and here we learnt more about the post-revolution history.  We had a
brilliant guide, Galina, who was very honest about her personal
experiences of Communism - some of the stories made you want to cry.

We were happy to leave Russia before things really got unsettled.
During our stay the exchange rate went from 7.8 roubles to the US dollar
to 19 roubles!!  And is now on 25.  People are stocking up on food.

Since Russia, we have passed through Minsk in Belorussia, Warsaw and
Krakow in Poland to Berlin now.  We managed to visit Auschwitz, which
was very disturbing - makes you think for days.

We are leaving for Amsterdam tomorrow, but not before a beer hall
experience tonight!  We are looking forward to the steins of beer.

We leave the tour in 2 days and then we are all on our own (our merry
party of 4) - yay!

OK, must sign off - time's running out!

Hugs and kisses,

Suz & Craig

xox

PS Evelyn says hello!!

Bon jour!!

We are sitting in a little smoky internet bar in Tours - a quaint town
in the French countryside .... smack bang in the Loire Valley.  Yes,
that's right - wine country!!  Also, this place is full of chateaux.

We have been using our few days here to recover from the hectic pace of
the Contiki tour and our whirlwind tour of Paris.  We spent yesterday
inside a lovely 13th century castle, soaking up the sunshine and
employing our artistic talents - sketching our surroundings.  Today we
have sampled some of the local "vin" - not bad.

We loved Paris, even though the French laughed at our attempts to speak
their language!  The first day we rushed around to 5 museums, with our
one day museum pass, including - The Louvre, L'orangerie, D'orsay, Rodin
and the tiny museum in the Arc De Triomphe.  The view from the Arc was
great and the antics of the traffic below quite amusing - absolute
chaos, as 12 avenues converge there and there are no lane markings on
the Arc roundabout, which has 6 lanes, sometimes 12 - no wonder
insurance companies do not include this bit of road.

Our second day in gay Paris, we visited Notre Dame, the Catacombs and
Eiffel Tower.  The Catacombs were quite eery ... millions of bones and
skulls neatly stacked in tunnels below the ground - there were even
patterns in them.

Anyway, must say au revoir now!

Susanna & Craig

PS Eve says hi again!!!!

Hello all,
 

Message number 6???

Checking in from Prague (or Praha as they call it here) and have just
finished reading through all your emails - great to hear from you, but
no more stories about Esso please.

OK, so what's happened since the last exciting episode?

Well, going right back - after our wine guzzling in the Loire Valley, we
spent some time tasting very fine chocolate and beer in Belgium and
battling with the language differences - half of them speak Dutch and
the other French!  Then it was a second look at Amsterdam, before
spending the weekend with my Dutch penfriend (Myra) and her fiancee
(Erik).   (Hello and thanks to Myra and Erik!)  It was wonderful to
experience a bit of homelife again and they spoilt us rotten.  We spent
the Saturday looking at the Delta Project - the special storm surge gate
on the North Sea and Sunday riding around the countryside, along dykes
(about 25 kms).

Since then we have a wonderful taste of Deutschland.  Took a ferry up
the Rhine River (lined with quaint castles, patchwork vineyards and
villages) and spent the night in a 13th century castle in the old
knights' chambers.  Then it was off to Baden-Baden to experience the hot
mineral spas.  We took the swimsuit option, rather than the nude-y one
though!  Then it was off to Frieburg to experience the beautiful Black
Forest ... went hiking and of course, indulged in some Black Forest
cake.

Bamberg, reputedly Germany's most beautiful city beckoned next and we
spent a couple of days there, just wandering around taking in the
ambience.  The beer is wonderful.  We tried a smoked variety, which
tasted exactly like bacon!  A kind local befriended us and took us to
the pubs the locals frequent (rather than the touristy ones).

And now we are soaking up the Czech Republic - it is just beautiful and
inexpensive (Craig bought half-litre bottles of beer at the supermarket
for 30 cents).  Finding accommodation was easy - we were approached at
the train station and our landlord even drove us to the apartment to
have a look.  We have a two bedroom place with a bathroom and kitchen
and it's close to the centre of town.  The restaurants are good value
too - beers there are about a dollar - even cheaper than soft drink!  We
are planning on spending a whole week here, before heading back to
Germany to catch the tale end of Octoberfest.

Anyway, off to explore some more ...

Hope everything is going well for you (despite the gas restrictions for
the Victorians).
Keep the letters coming.

Love,

Susanna & Craig

Hello all,

Well you're all in luck ... we are internetting again, so you get to
hear more of our exciting saga!!

We are in Munich (or Munchen) as they call it here ... just arrived this
morning on an overnight train from Prague.  Just in time for the last
day of Octoberfest.  We could tell that is drinkfest time here in this
city as soon as we walked into the train station ... sleeping bodies all
over the place, rubbish everywhere and floor covered in sticky
substances.  Mmmm!  But don`t worry, we can´t misbehave much, because we
have a curfew tonight ... 1am as set by our youth hostel!

Well, about our remaining time in Prague ... not much happened really -
we took it very easy, actually doing lots of reading, sketching and
writing.  It was great to have a break!  The most exciting event was
when Craig had a TV camera stuck in his face and was asked about his
opinions on music .."Can you imagine a world without music?" ... to
which Craig profoundly replied .. "No, it´s hard!" The TV crew gave up
on him after this.  Oh, I forgot the other thrill of the week was
getting fined on the metro system.  We weren´t trying to dodge the
system, we just couldn´t understand!  But the ticket inspector was
uncompromising ... and hit us with a hefty 200 kroner fine.  It´s OK -
an equiv. of only 10 Aussie dollars.

OK, OK the touristy stuff we saw included ...
* a church full of bone art, including a chandelier made using every
bone of the human body (creepy really!) - this was in Kutna Hora.
* yet another castle ... Karlstejn Castle - very impressive from the
outside.
* fortress inside Prague

Oh and by the way, Craig finished off his 25 cent beers - he insists
they taste all right.  Suz disagrees!

Anyway, off to Octoberfest celebrations now (inc. carnival rides, food
and did we mention BEER)

Cheers,

Suz and Craig

Hello all,
This is going to be very quick ... about to be kicked off ..

We are in Switzerland at the moment .... and it is amazing - probably
the most enjoyable place so far.

We have experienced the breathtaking alps - absolutely beautiful

heading off to Greece tomorrow - traversing Italy and catching the
ferry.

Nice to hear from those of you who dropped a line.

Catch you ..

Love,

the intrepid travellers ..

Hello all,

well, we're back after a long absence from the email world ... it's been
too expensive or way too slow (though what do you expect on an island?)

so what's been happening??

since Switzerland ... we have been luxuriating in the Mediterranean!
OK, but first of all ... ruins galore in Athens.  Loved the Acropolis
and the Parthenon and were very impressed by the skilled architecture of
the 7th Century BC .. so many features of the columns designed to
counteract ugly optical illusions!!

We marvelled at the fact that we stood and walked the path that Apostle
Paul walked in 49AD (stood where he spoke on Mars Hill, right next to
the Acropolis).

Our first Greek island was a volcano ... Santorini, reputed to be the
lost city of Atlantis .. pretty cool!  We soaked up sunshine on the
black sand beaches and watched the sun set over the traditional
whitewashed houses.

Second island was Paros ... renowned for its stretches of golden sand
beaches ... the water was a perfect crystal clear blue and we swam with
the fish.

Then it was off to Samos for a few hours, enroute to Turkey  - this
island was different from the first two because it actually had grass
and trees - the others were like planets - stark and barren.

We are now in Turkey and are loving it.  We spent the first two nights
in Selcuk, which is right near the ancient city of Ephesus.  We were so
impressed by the Ephesus ruins - have a good idea what life was like
back then - very enjoyable ... theatres, library, baths, gymnasiums.
The hostel we stayed at is called Jimmy's Place ... and they are very
kind .. drive you around for free - sort of.  Jimmy also owns a carpet
shop and you can guess the rest!!! We have bought ourselves a lovely
carpet and it's now in the process of being shipped to Aus for our new
home.

Currently, we are in Eceabat which is only 7 kilometres away from
Gallipoli.  We have just returned from a day long tour of the battle
fields, cemetries and memorials.  Last night in preparation we watched
the movie Gallipoli and an old 4 corners documentary about it.  It has
been a very moving experience and we feel more connected with our
Australian roots ... actually, pretty drained at the moment.

Well, we now have Instanbal to look forward to - we are catching a
midnight bus tonight - arrive in the city of mystery at 6 in the
morning.

>From there, we fly (hopefully) to Barcelona, whizz through the south of
France then spend 9 days in Italy before flying out of Rome.  Trip's
nearly at an end. :(

Well, better sign off.

Cheers,
Suz and Craig

PS Apologies for any junk mail you may have received from a Mr Peter
Stone.  This should not happen in the future (thanks Stoney!!!!!)

PPS Stu, the dinner suit is either in Mum's cupboard (Gosford) or in the
garage in a stripey bag (good luck)

Hello all,

Well, looks like this adventure story is fast coming to a close ... only
3 days until we jet out of Leonardo da Vinci airport, bound for a 3 day
Hong Kong stopover, then home, sweet, home.

If you haven't already guessed from the subject, we are currently in
Rome ... arrived this morning.  So where have our wanders taken us since
good old Gallipoli?

Constantinople or Istanbul as it is known these days ...
We saw the spectacular Blue Mosque - so called because of its lovely
blue interior of blue tiles and arabesque stencilling and stainglass
windows; walked through the Sultan's Palace, full of priceless jewels
(including an 86 carat diamond!!!) and a few bits and pieces of Mohammed
the Prophet (his hair, his footprints, his tooth, his sword ... well,
you get the picture) ;and experienced the wonderful Covered Bazaar,
where we were harrassed to buy endlessly ... "how can I help you spend
your money?" .. but we resisted this time!

We flew out of Istanbul to Barcelona - olympic city!!  Loved it!! The
people are amazingly vibrant ... they dance everywhere - we caught them
dancing in front of the city cathedral (patriotically doing the national
dance), in the Catalunya Square and even inside the train station.  You
can't but love them.  We also experienced some of the weirdo Gaudi
architecture.  Came to the conclusion that this guy is definitely
strange ... he doesn't believe in straight lines!  Colourful, bumpy
buildings!  We discovered the best value meal in the city ... $7.50 for
a 4 course dinner, including soup, paella, fish and dessert - not bad,
hey - especially when you throw in a litre of wine for $3.

On our way to Italy, we stopped in Nice (very nice ... excuse the poor
humour) and Monaco (wow ... the money in this weeny country!!).  We
added our excess francs to the coffers of the Monte Carlo casino - a
princely 1 franc (equiv. $0.30 AUD).  Extravagance plus - in this
establishment.

And now, Italia ... what a place!

First it was the city of canals - Venice.  We rode up and down them on
the public gondalas, went out to the famous Venetian glass island,
Murrano, where we watched glass-blowing (what skill!) and were attacked
relentlessly by pigeons in St Mark's Square.

Then, Florence ...
a beautiful city and home of the Uffizi Gallery.  We were amazed to
behold with our very own eyes such works as Botticelli's "Birth of
Venus" and "Allegory of Spring" and Michaelangelo's "The Holy Family".
>From here, we also visited the very scenic town of San Gimignano, with
its 14 towers and a very medieval feel.

Since then, we whipped down to Naples ..
and wandered through the ruins of Pompei.  Quite intact and it gave a
great impression of Roman life back then.  Then it was time to feast our
eyes on the spectacular scenery of the Amalfi Coast (those of you that
have seen the movie "Only You" will know what we're talking about).  We
caught buses along the windy coastal road - entrusted our lives to bus
drivers, who had their hands constantly on the horn - the roads really
only accommodate one direction of traffic at a time.

And now, we are in Rome ... had our first day here today.  So far, we
have seen the Colosseum, St Peter's Basilica (wow ... what a grand
scale!), Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.  Looking forward to the
Vatican Museums and the famous Sistine Chapel (with Michelangelo's
"Creation") tomorrow.

Well, hope everything is going well for you all.

Signing off ...
Arrivederci ..
Suz & Craig

Hi all,

Well, yes ... we are back on Aussie soil now and gradually becoming
re-accustomed to Ocka ways.  Was a bit of a shock to the system to be
surrounded by Aussie twangs when we arrived in Sydney ... you become
acutely conscious of the accent, but over a week later the awareness is
wearing off.

But anyway, let's get this Europe (plus more) adventure story finished.
Where were we again?  Mmmm ... Rome and Vatican City.  Well the Vatican
Museums, especially the Sistine Chapel were even more impressive than we
imagined.  Couldn't believe the sheer volume of artwork!  It was more
extravagant than most of the palaces we had visited.  Paintings - rich
man's wallpaper!!  We spent quite a long time craning our necks back
just staring at the Creation frescos (including those famous touching
fingers).

On our last sight-seeing day in Roma, we visited the Roman Forum and
Palatino ... strolled through the ruins, where work is ongoing.  Saw
where the Romans of long ago had their political discussions.

The next day it was good bye to Europe (not for long, we hope) - we
departed on a Cathay Pacific flight.  We were pretty excited to have
personal TV screens and entertained ourselves with our choice of movies,
TV shows and games.

Then it was a taste of something a little different, when we stopped
over where "East meets West" for 3 days.  By this stage we must confess
we were a little tired of sight-seeing.  We kept this to a minimum (the
Peak and a temple) and spent most of our time relaxing by shopping.  Our
hotel in Hong Kong was a bit of luxury.  We were embarrassed on the
first day to walk into the lovely foyer in our grotty clothes with
backpacks, but we soon hid them away in our comfortable room (paradise
relative to our European hostel accommodation) and freshened up to hit
the shopping streets.

It was on our last day in Hong Kong that we had our sole holiday
incident.  We checked our luggage into the hotel luggage room.  Five
minutes later, we remembered we had left the camera in a backpack, went
back to get it and found everything in the pack, including the camera
swimming in brown sticky Tia Maria.  Seems the hotel staff had been a
little rough with our baggage!  Happily, most things were rescueable
(the camera was in a waterproof [Tia Maria proof too] case).

We arrived in Sydney on Nov 26, about 7 in the morning.  Very exhausted
too!  Couldn't waste time sleeping when there were movies to watch!  It
has taken about a week to recover from jet lag, but we are OK now.

We have 15 of our 24 rolls of film developed so far and it has been
great to reflect on the trip and the enormous ground we have covered.
What a whirl!  It has whetted our appetites for more.  We realise how
much more there is to see and experience and learn.  I guess this is
only the beginning of a lifelong addiction!

We hope you have enjoyed travelling around the world with us!

Signing off ...
Susanna & Craig