Today is our 104th and final night in Europe. Since our trip began on 14th June 2004....
-We have been in 18 countries. (Australia, Singapore, England, France, Monaco, Spain, Italy, Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Poland, Scotland, Wales and Ireland)
-We have had 36 stopovers at various hotels, hostels, houses, huts and cabins.
-Set foot in 9 Olympic cities. (Melbourne, London, Paris, Barcelona, Rome, Munich, Amsterdam, Antwerp and Stockholm)
-Been on 8 flights (with still more to come before we get home)
-Of our 104 nights, 50 have been in English-Speaking countries.
-Found decent pizza in Italy was more scarce than free toilets.
-Spent hours upon hours on trains and buses
See you all soon! Love Steve and Nic! xoxox
Next Stop: Australia............................24 September 2004
Now back in London for the final time in this journey, we have visited the home of cricket, Lords (Not Lourdes!). Other landmarks we've seen include the Australian wartime monument, Diana Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park, Royal Albert Hall and Sherlock Holmes' stomping ground, Baker Street. We abandoned a trip to Madame Tussaud's due to long queues and high ticket prices ($57AU each phwoar!), but did go to the pictures to see Super Size Me.
We'll be touching down at Melbourne airport at 4.45am on Wednesday. The trip will take the best part of 24 hours, but thankfully we don't have to suffer through the ordeal of flying with British Airways again. We're looking forward to seeing you all again! xoxo
Hiii-yaa!!!............................18 September 2004
Another set of photos has been added including Anfield Stadium and Nic's Birthday.The more time we spend in Liverpool, the more interesting it becomes. It's not just the home of the Beatles.
-The original Meccano factory was in Liverpool before production moved to China.
-News of the Titanic's sinking was reported from White Star Lines HQ, here in Liverpool.
-The entire city of Liverpool is World Heritage listed.
-The city was bombed repeatedly in 1941. Several major buildings and thousands of homes were destroyed.
-The World's second largest sandstone cathedral has its home in Liverpool. We can only imagine how huge the biggest must be!
-The largest clockface in the UK is in Liverpool! London's Big Ben is only the second biggest.
-Today's population of Liverpool is still less than pre-WWII.
-Liverpool has won the right to be European Capital of Culture 2008
-It costs more to stay in a hostel than a hotel
and, of course...
-There is free internet access for all!
This is Anfield............................17 September 2004
The good news is there are finally more photos up! A few more to come in the next few days too!Our time in Liverpool is drawing to a close, as is our time in Britain. Note our itinerary is finalised. Off to London Monday.
In the last few days we've been continuing to visit museums, markets and even the Liverpool triathlon. Yesterday (Nicole's Birthday!!) we visited Anfield Stadium, the home of the Liverpool F.C. More photos soon....stay tuned!
...do as the Liverpudlians do!............................06 September 2004
We've been here in Liverpool for close to two weeks. There is much to like about this dockside city (Liverpool is European Capital of Culture 2008). As well as seeing a metal reconstruction of the animated Yellow Submarine, a highlight of our time here has been seeing Sooty, who featured in a free puppet exhibition at the Museum. All National Museums, galleries and libraries are free in Liverpool. That also means free internet access. (No CD drives for photos though)
To be Sure! To be Sure!............................24 August 2004
As the luck of the Irish would have it, we managed to get a cheap flight from London to Dublin with Ryanair. We flew in yesterday morning after waking up at 3am. After the tour finished last week we stayed 4 nights with Mag and Brendan in Hammersmith. We had a sensational home-cooked meal there on Saturday night and Sunday went out for Indian.
We've been keeping up to date with the Olympics. We appreciate the Irish coverage a lot more than the BBC's since it doesn't tend to dwell on British bronze medal victories.
We've added the photos of our tour, so have a look.
On Thursday we return to Beatle country to see some of the sights we didn't have time for the first time around and maybe find some work.
Strawberry Fields Forever!............................19 August 2004
Greetings from Liverpool, the home of the Beatles! We are on the last day of our tour. After crossing the Welsh border this afternoon it will be back to London for us. Our tour of Scotland was rounded out with a visit to the Highlands and spending a night in Glasgow, the murder capital of the world. We also had a taste of home at the Walkabout Pub.
Farewell to Old England for... a few days
...........................................15 August 2004
We spent Friday the 13th in York, the world's most haunted city as recognised by the Guiness Book of Records. After dinner we went on a guided ghost tour before heading back to base to catch the end of the Athens opening ceremony.Yesterday we proceeded to Hadrian's Wall, which was built by the Ancient Romans. We crossed the border into Scotland and we're now staying in Airth Castle near Edinburgh. We visited THE Edinburgh Castle today and explored the city. Scottish night out tonight!
Let the Tour begin................................12 August 2004
After arriving at Heathrow last night we caught the Tube to our hotel. London brought back many memories for us. As luck would have it we got the exact same room we got last time at the Royal National. It was somehow a little quieter this time though.This morning we were up early for our Contiki tour. As we were leaving London our bus crashed. Then we headed to Windsor and on to Oxford where we stay tonight. We got to see some of the places from Hogwart's.
Ok, so you want to know more details of the crash, hey? We were just slowly moving along and the driver thought he had a little more room than he did. Boom. The windscreen is getting replaced tonight at a cost of around $5000 AUD. Plus the broken mirrors and two separate fibreglass panels will need work. That didn't hold us up too much though and no one was hurt. We have a photo of the damage we'll stick up here soon.
Dowidzenia Polska!............................11 August 2004
Today is our last day in Poland. From tomorrow we are back into Contiki mode, travelling around England, Scotland and Wales. Don't forget to use our UK number for voicecalls. SMSs send to any of our numbers. As always, we have added more photos. New ones include our trip to Czestochowa on Monday. It was quite a successful day, although we had to stand on the train for our return journey of almost three hours because we didn't know we had to book a seat on that train.
Steve got a new suitcase because the old was starting to fall apart. It's a bit bigger than the old one, so things won't be getting squashed. However it didn't solve the problem of us having to much in the way of luggage and this morning posted home 11.25 kg of various bits and pieces we couldn't possibly try to take with us on planes and bus tours.
It's been quite an exciting adventure!
The Saga Continues................................01 August 2004
We are presently in Warsaw. This weekend they are commemorating 60 years since the uprising against Nazi occupation. We are spending the next 11 days with Aga, Grzes and Maja. Since we were last on the internet we spent three nights in the small mountain village of Zakopane, where we met up with Aga and family who were also holidaying there.The last few days in Warsaw we have been guided around town by our friend Magda and taken on a day trip to Kazimierz by her and sister Ania.
We revisited Ursula's beer garden to farewell Jacek, Sofia and Victor before they returned home to Stockholm. We saw Fahrenheit 9.11 at the cinema in the Palac Kultury. We're having heaps of fun!
We added MORE PHOTOS! If you want to see our going away photos you can still see them by following the link at the bottom of this page. If you still want to see more photos from our Contiki tour check out www.bugbitten.com/bradjstern. There's a photo of every person.
Witaj Polska!............................24 July 2004
We have arrived in Poland and we're loving it! It's the first country where Australian money is worth more than it is back home. A Mars bar costs LESS than 55 Australian cents :)Our trip has been action-packed so far. When we arrived at Warsaw Airport the car picking us up had flat tyre. The following morning we had to run across town to catch our bus after it left without us before the scheduled departure time. Later that day a huge thunderstorm roared across town, leaving debris and big fallen branches in its wake. We were reunited with Jacek, Sofia and Victor at the beer garden that evening and enjoyed the company of Tolek, J, Danusia, Edek, Magda, Ursula and Wanda.
Now we are in Cracow, which is known in these parts as Krakince there are no cows here - only horse-drawn carriages. While here we've journeyed to Wieliczka Salt Mines and Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Camp, both of which are World Heritage sites. Off to Zakopane tomorrow for three nights. Hejduk! ...yes, Steve's Polish is coming along nicely.
Check our photos for some of the places we've seen here and elsewhere. We've added quite a few lately, so there are now 141 images to view! Our friend Kim from the Contiki tour also has photos online which you can see at www.bugbitten.com/kim. Oh, and send more emails!!
Still in the Land of ABBA............................18 July 2004
Our time in Sweden is flying by! We have visited the Royal Palace and the Summer Palace as well as the Vasa Museum and Gr?Lund theme park. We are off to play mini golf now.
V䬫ommen! Svenska!............................15 July 2004
We have now been gone from Australia for a whole month. In that time we have learnt many things...-A litre of Apple Juice is cheaper than a litre of petrol in London.
-Fanta is a different shade of orange in every country. German Fanta looked more green than anything.
-The brand we know as Streets Ice Cream has a different name in each country. (oh yes, you can't get a Quarter Pounder in Europe either - it's a Royale!)
-Our luggage seems to be getting heavier for no apparent reason. We've concluded there is a greater gravitational pull in the Northern hemisphere. We are now a couple of kilos over the limit wherever we go.
-Despite the contributions the Roman Empire made to civilization, they have not grasped the concept of having a toilet seat atop the porcelain bowl.
-To avoid paying for the privilege of using a toilet it is possible to walk into almost any building and "pretend to look like you know what you're doing" before proceeding to use their amenities. Important-looking government buildings usually have well looked-after toilets and dubious security.
We are now in Sweden at the home of Jacek, Sofia, Stefan and Victor. Already we've seen much of Stockholm from the top of Kakn䳴ornet (Kakn䳠Tower) and attended a soccer match.
End of the Tour............................13 July 2004
We came home to Mother England yesterday afternoon. What a trip! We celebrated at the London Pub and then had a slide show in our hotel room with 22 guests to view photos from the last 25 days. See you in Sweden!
Back to Deutschland........................09 July 2004
We have a new link so you can directly access our photos at bugbitten.com. It's www.bugbitten.com/doingeurope.Meanwhile, we're having a one-night stopover in Koblenz. We've just had dinner in St.Goar beside the world's biggest free hanging cuckoo clock and the statue of the legendary Loreley.
Top of Europe........................08 July 2004
We have a free day in Switzerland today, at the foot of the Jungfrau. Hopfgarten was a wonderful little village and our mountain biking was awesome fun despite wet conditions on our way down the mountain. We passed through Lucerne yesterday. We did some shopping for Swiss Army knives and were amazed how clear the river was flowing through.
The tour is reaching the end now, with Amsterdam the last major stop. We have had an absolute ball. View our photos to see what we mean.
Auf wiedersehn ;)
The tour continues........................07 July 2004
We have BEEN to Liechtenstein.That's all there is to that story.
M?! M?! M?!........................05 July 2004
Achtung baby! We are in Munich, the fourth Olympic city of our tour so far. Our experiences in the German-speaking countries have been most positive, apart from the power mysteriously going out in our room when we were drying clothes with a hair dryer :(Today we've added to our photos at bugbitten.com. They include 19 new pics from places such as Venice, Vienna and even last night at the Beer Hall in Munich. That's now a grand total of 51!
We headed to the Mauthausen Nazi concentration camp yesterday on our way out of Austria. It was the last to be liberated after WWII.
We're happy to be heading back to Austria this Afternoon. The countryside is very picturesque. We'll be mountain biking through the Tyrol mountains tomorrow.
Good news on the photo front!........................03 July 2004
The photos we've promised for so long are now available for purchase (haha) at:
www.bugbitten.com
Simply enter your friend's name as 'Nicole Steve' and there they are. Hope you get a chuckle!
Das ist meine Austria!........................02 July 2004
Guten Tag! Yep, we're in Vienna! From what we've seen so far this is the nicest country of the trip. Since we last updated we've been back to France and lived it up in Italia. Like Spain, Italy was not as clean as France....but very historical and lovely. Oh, and they play uncensored english-language music on the radio in public places. It can be quite amusing.
We met up with Stef in Nice as planned. We had a great day walking along the Promenade des Anglais and climbing to a lookout point.
Some of our stops on our journey have included the very glitzy, very ritzy Monte Carlo, Verona (including the famous balcony), Aigues Mortes and the leaning tower of Pizza.
We enjoyed Venice because it gave us a welcome break from facing off with crazy drivers in attempts to cross the road.
Loving the emails...we'll be putting pics up when an internet cafe in europe decides to have CD drives on their computers. Stay well, we miss you too xoxo
On Tour!........................22 June 2004
It?s about 10pm in Barcelona. We arrived here today after travelling from France, where we?ve spent the last four nights. We are right on the beach... oh, and we are having the best time ever!!!
We?ve taken many a happy picture in the last few days, but haven?t been able to post them here yet since we haven?t been able to access a cd drive. Anyway, we?ll mail a disc or two to Australia when we find a trustworthy mail service. We?ve got six days in Italy coming up, so we?ll have to wait at least until Switzerland ;)
We were really impressed with France and found that, on the whole, people are not as rude as one would expect. (Maybe they?re only rude if you speak to them in English?). When in Paris we climbed the Eiffel Tower and visted Nicole?s relos Carole and Victa in Vincennes. Very entertaining evening with real French people!
The last two nights were in the Beaujolais wine region. Beautiful accomodation and many laughs... too many stories to tell!
Thanks to everyone who?s sent emails. Apologies for not being able to reply individually. We haven?t got much time to spend on the net here. Rest assured, though, we ARE thinking of you and we love hearing news from back home. (Especially footy updates :) ) Send text messages to Nic?s number +61 417 579 210. For now anyway.
Love, Steve and Nic xoxo
Old London Town........................17 June 2004
We're finally here in the UK! Our flight was very smooth but we were delirious with fatigue by the time we arrived in London at 5am on Tuesday.We met some chicks from Taylors Lakes on our bus to the hotel (Royal National), one of whom had tried to take 31kgs of luggage through at Tullamarine!! And the bus driver was abrupt and not one for making conversation.
Everyone looks at us funny and can tell we are not from around here because we are the only ones smiling :) .
We've seen all the usual places around London: Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey (only from the outside - ?7.50 to get in), London Eye, Downing Street Trafalgar Square and a few other places from the Monopoly board.
We're leaving on our Contiki tour tomorrow morning. First stop Paris. Very Exciting!! We'll be meeting up with Stef Zgudka in Nice too!
Euro 2004 has taken London by storm (Big screen in Trafalgar Square for tonight's clash.... GO SWITZERLAND!!!!
We sent out a group email today. If you didn't get it, let us know and we'll add you to the list.
The Journey Begins........................14 June 2004
Nicole and Steve leave Melbourne on the Queen's Birthday holiday, Monday 14th June!We are heading to London for 3 days via Singapore. Visit this page often to check out our itinerary and what we've been up to on our trip.
We'll be updating this page as often as we can with photos and a travel log. Our European contact details are also available here... be sure to keep in touch!
Going Away Party........................4 June 2004
Thanks to everyone who saw us off at the GB in Richmond on Friday the 4th June. It was a hugely memorable night and you can see some of the photos here.
There are also some pics from the send-off thrown for us by the crew at Intencity Sunshine (June 6) and some from Nic's last day of work (June 4). Fun times! (oops!...Sunshine photos coming later)
Email us: wrzesins@hotmail.com
OR: mynameismitchell@hotmail.com
