...a life less ordinary.

so we're headed home in about one month's time now. my partner and i are trying to cross as many things off of our sightseeing and general "wanderlusting" lists as we can before our inevitable flight home. today we attended our second london walking tour; our first walking tour was the amazing "jack the ripper" tour, which left us very impressed with the guide's knowledge of this subject, not to mention the excellent value for money. today was the "beatles magical mystery tour" of london, where we visited such sights as paul mccartney's "mpl" (or "mccartney productions limited) music label office, former headquarters of the zany "apple" building, and of course abbey road. and yes, we did try to re-capture the famous final album cover of said band -- but seriously, abbey road is a busy street!

only a few days ago claire and i were discussing if we could afford to make it back to europe one last time before we begin our journey home. we are spending a week in las vegas and los angeles on our way and want to make sure we have enough cash to enjoy ourselves. eventually we found a deal we couldn't refuse, and are now on our way to bruges in belgium for an overnight getaway.

we travel to bruges from london via the eurostar and stay overnight at a four star hotel about two miles from the city centre from the 5th to the 6th of november -- all this for only about £100 (about $220AUD) each. the biggest advantage of this short break was we didn't have to ask for additional time off from work, plus we figure we'll spend less with only two days there. needless to say we are really looking forward to having some (always) much-needed time away from work, and are really excited about being in europe again.

i'll leave you with a tip for travellers on a tight budget: check out lastminute.com for great deals on flights, eurostar flights, flight + hotel deals, theatre tickets, theatre + meal deals, 2-4-1 meals and so on.

i just got back from a week in scotland with my partner, and it was amazing. i have been wanting to visit scotland since i was a boy, listening to my dad tell stories of growing up in rural areas and in the city of perth. our stay found us in edinburgh, perth, fort william and finally inverness. scotland is a very beautiful and stunning country, but also quite ruggered and at times, barron. it is the country for outdoor sports such as mountain biking, hiking, mountain climbing/rock climbing and some cross country sports. we certainly saw our fair share of people walking or cycling from town to town with luggage in tow.

my highlight was speaking to my dad as i visited the house he grew up in and the (kinnoull) hill where he played as a boy. he even pointed out a few landmarks to me which are still standing -- pretty impressive considering he was on the other side of the world, and 40 years older. we were also looking forward to seeing some native wildlife, particularly red squirrels, highland cows and puffins however red squirrels are quite rare now and it wasn't puffin season; we did see some highland cows but only from a distance. we were a bit disappointed.

i would highly recommend scotland to friends who were interested in both a quiet getaway as well as anyone looking for an action-packed extreme sports holiday. and best of all the people were lovely -- it still amazes me that it shares a border with the english!

... uh, yeah, as i was saying... i haven't posted anything on this blog for a while, mostly because i got severly distracted once we got all snug and cozy here in thames ditton. it's been about 6 months since i last posted. since then my partner and i finished our contiki tour of europe and are now working at a 13th century inn in thames ditton, surrey, england -- we have both been working here since the beginning of march.

needless to say our contiki tour of europe was amazing. it was an incredibly simple and cheap way to see as much of europe as possible in a short amount of time. we spent 19 days travelling through nine countries throughout western and central europe. the up-side was that transport, accommodation and entry into some tourist attractions was all taken care of -- however the down-side was a rediculous schedule to keep on top of, with some very late bedtimes and early mornings; not a great deal of time to explore the many things each of these cities had to offer; having to deal with a few douchebags here and there; and we got sick -- real sick. fortunately it was nothing serious, but it did cause a few hiccups about half-way on our tour.

upon arriving back in london we headed straight for thames ditton to get some sleep and prepare ourselves for our new careers as bar wench and inn keeper, respectively. in the six months we have been here the work has proved... testing to say the least. i don't want to say too much as it's mostly very negative (which i'll save for my less-introspective blog) but the experience has proved very frustrating and INSANE. on the plus side though, i think i've made some great friends and now have a greater social awareness after living in what is essentially a giant share-house on top of a pub, living with about 16 other people. i don't want the pub and my experiences here to dominate this blog, so i'll stop there and share some more in another post.

in regards to travel news, claire and i will be holidaying in scotland from friday september 19th to thursday september 25th, along with claire's sister emily. in july claire and i travelled to ireland thanks to a travel company who provided us with bed and breakfast travel vouchers and a hire car. ireland was fantastic. we flew into dublin and drove to the western coast, the dingle penisula and eventually cork across five days. we're using the same company in scotland, so will be staying in quaint b&b's and driving ourselves. we have also booked our return journey home. we finish here at the pub on sunday november 23rd, then fly to las vegas (!) on tuesday november 25th where we will be staying at the "new york new york" themed casino for three nights. next we fly to los angeles on friday november 28th and stay at the LAX marriot for one night. finally we fly back home on saturday november 29th, where we will arrive to many excited family members on monday december 1st.

i think once i am home again i will reflect on this experience as a good one, but unfortunately will have many bad memories of hostile and aggressive english people. i would recommend contiki or any group tours to single people wanting to see europe or anywhere in the world on a shoestring, but not necessarily to couples or people who need their own breathing space. as for working in uk pubs... that's a tough one. it's certainly an advantage if you'd like to find work in another industry, or to persue your career -- but i would not recommend staying in one of these jobs any more than a couple of months at the very most. it can get very depressing and upsetting. my only saving grace was having my girlfriend with me (and vice versa) and having a good solid group of people similar to me to share this burden with.

to see photos of my journeys check out my picasa web album.

since leaving australia i have been to and seen:

• singapore
  -- the merlion, night safari, sentosa island
  
• united kingdom (london, dover)
  -- london eye, big ben, british museum, carnaby street, hamleys, harrods, westminster abbey, madame tussaud's, white cliffs of dover
  
• france (calais in transit, paris, vimy)
  -- eiffel tower, arc de triomphe, notre dame, the lourve, moulin rouge, vimy memorial
  
• belgium (in transit)
  
• netherlands (amsterdam)
  -- dam square, red light district, green-friendly cafes, anne frank's house, canals of amsterdam
  
• germany (berlin, munich, dresden, dachau)
  -- berlin wall, loads of museums, topography of terror, brandenburger gate, the reichstach, checkpoint charlie, holocaust memorial, dresden wall, dachau concentration camp, munich glockenspeil, beer hall putsch, karl marx statue
  
• czech republic (prague)
  -- prague astronomical clock, palace, st peter's basilica
  
• austria (innsbruck)
  -- we looked for the winter olympic ski slope but couldn't find it =(
  
• italy (venice, maranello, rome, vatican city, pisa, florence)
  -- canals of venice, gondola ride, st mark's square, rialto bridge, ferrari museum, ancient ruins of rome, piazza venezia, trevi fountain, the pantheon, sistene chapel, st peter's square, colesseum, tower of pisa, ponte vecchio, academia (statue of david)
  
• switzerland (lucerne)
  -- mount pilatus, lucerne lion monument, chapel bridge
  

so much has happened since prague; specifically Munich, Innsbruch (Austria), Venice, Rome and Florence. in Munich i was ill, so not much to tell there. we did though visit the beer hall that hitler made his famous beer speech. Austria was beautiful, some people on our tour saw snow for the first time. i think i took the most photos in Venice. Rome had the best landmarks without a doubt, but was a very dirty and chaotic city. it was quite surreal though to see the pantheon and to be inside the colleseum. Florence has been very similar, only a bit better and much more picturesq. today i saw the original statue of david -- very inspiring and very big.

claire is now ill but worse than i was, but feeling ok tonight. i feel better but can't seem to stop coughing. tomorrow we leave early for the swiss alps, where hopefully the quality and standard of our hotels will finally improve. on wednesday we leave for Paris. I'm hoping to visit the lourve and the eiffel tower. i better go, there is an italian man giving me the crook eye.

so, i'm in Prague, and our contiki tour manager tells us that he knows of this wicked club where you can sit at a table and pour your own pints of beer. now it's just after 11pm and i am wasted in what is arguably the most beautiful and cultural city of all of Europe; Prague. Unfortunately the only reason i am posting while inhibriated is because the only two free internet terminals at our Prague hotel are free this late. rest assured though, i will post a proper entry in the coming days. in the meantime: beerbeerbeer!