I don't really have a list of must-do things. I know I want to go to Europe (pretty sure that will happen), I'd like to go skiing (doesn't matter if I don't) and I'd like to find cheap beer (probably won't happen). I've booked us three nights in London as soon as we get to the UK, and from there we will probably rent a car and go north. I have to deliver a parcel in Ireland (not drugs (I hope)), so that's on the cards as well. After that, we'll go over to mainland Europe, check out Switzerland/Austria/Germany/Czech Republic and crawl up to Norway. All of this will probably cost a bazillion Australian dollars, but I figure the European economies need helping and I'm just the one to do it.

Shelley used to live in the UK, so we're going to see her friends and spend New Years with them. One of my old housemates is in London as well as a family friend from way back, but I'm tossing up whether to commit to meeting up with them now, or just see what happens. Shelley promised me we could organise a game of cricket against her Pommie mates. If that happens I hope to produce my own Larwood-esque bodyline bowling effort. Bwa-ha-ha!

I never thought my life would get to the point where I'd research whether Wool or Polypropylene thermals are the right choice. I have reached that stage unfortunately, and I think I'll go wool, you'll be glad to know. I'm only going to pack a few shirts and jeans and if I need anything I'm sure I'll be able to purchase it over there. I've never lived out of a suitcase for more than three weeks before, but I'll probably survive. I know when I actually get on the plane I'll kick into holiday mode and forget about going to work for the next six weeks. I haven't had a Christmas off work in 5 years, so this one will be a white one, and pretty special.

written by  10bastards on November 9, 2008 from Drayton, Australia
from the travel blog: Eurotrip
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Back to the plane trip, started off pretty good, entertained myself with the notion that our visit to Singapore was not on the itinerary and being the international man of mystery I am, I could easily drop off the map, so to speak. Back to reality though and the second leg was proving more challenging comfort wise, that was until I had two beers and a baileys - good night! We had to spend three hours in Abu Dhabi airport which wasn't too bad. I just people watched mainly. It seems strange how middle-eastern men just went up to each other and started conversations. One group was sitting around when a bloke pulled out a bag of food. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I had a guess -

Bloke with dodgy moustache - "Oi fellas, me missus packed me some of this mincy stuff and a shitload of flat bread. You want some?"

Slovenly bloke beside him - "Yeah man, that'd be great"

Later on....

Slovenly bloke - "MMM, great stuff mate. Your missus cooks a mean feed"

Bloke with dodgy moustache - "Yep"

Okay, so that wasn't very exciting, but it filled in some waiting time. I got very tired of having my bag checked and rechecked - three times in all. My impressions of London so far... to be honest, it's like Brisbane with Toowoomba weather and crap paper money (savages). We're heading back into the city soon to try and see something touristy before the day is over.

written by  10bastards on November 25, 2008 from London, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Eurotrip
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Shelley bought a sim card for her phone whilst we were out. The salesman was a big black guy with two slits in his right eyebrow (Shelley refused to believe my story that the slits were for the number of people he's killed) and two massive Cubic Zirconia earrings. This guy helped break one of my first aims of being in the UK - going a day without some bastard talking about Neighbors or Home and Away. He didn't shut-up about Home and Away.

The weather was quite nice today. Brisk, yes, but the sun was very bright and I was never freezing cold. The other misconception I had was about how everything is supposed to be expensive here. It isn't. I also figured out why the Pom's enslaved Ireland - Ireland must be full of brick factories, 'cause I swear I didn't see many buildings made out of anything else. Apart from the Ad nauseum repetition of copy-cat houses, the architecture is staggering. We went to a train station where the architect obviously decided to go for looks rather than functionality alone and I'm a big fan of that. London gets my award for the ease of travel through its train system. We purchased an Off-Peak pass for three days, costing about $56 Australian. Seems pretty expensive, but one-way in peak time costs $10, so it's definitely worth it. One of the more peculiar things, I thought, was a station with "mind the gap" emblazoned on the platform, as well as a constant "mind the gap" message played over the PA. We minded the gap. Downtown printed on areas people cross the street are the words "Look Left" and "Look Right". Didn't really work for me, I just kept looking at the ground!

Tomorrow we'll go on a tour of London tower. I love the history involved with it. Shelley might give the ice-skating there a burl as well. We'll meet up with Shelley's friend Abby tomorrow night and I've organised to meet up with my mate Mark on Thursday night. We're either looking at hanging around Wimbledon (his area) or meeting up in the city.

The room in the hostel is nice and warm and the heater is on the wall next to my bed so I'm guaranteed a toasty night.

written by  10bastards on November 25, 2008 from London, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Eurotrip
tagged London
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Had my first brush with the one of the unsavory characters I've always associated with the UK courtesy of The Bill, East enders, Lock-stock et al. We were in Oxford, just driving along, when I glanced at two girls walking along the road. She said "what are you looking at you filthy scrag?". Not her, that's for damn sure. I hate to pigeonhole (not really, I quite enjoy it) but most of the women I have seen fall into a few categories. The usually look a bit like Kate Middleton, Billie Piper or Patsy Kensit (which is definitely not a bad thing!). But CAKED in make-up. Opening a make-up shop in the UK seems like a profitable enterprise, you'd just have to sell in bulk.

The 13 dollar hostel we were in in London was Cheap. Cheap and nasty. The showers should have had biohazard signs up. Every day there was a stagnant pool of water waiting to be sopped up by whatever clothing you were unlucky enough to drop in it. I happened to drop my toothbrush. Needless to say, I stopped using that toothbrush but that didn't stop me from catching a cold. I should be glad I didn't catch anything else I guess. We decided to hire a car to go on the rest of our trip. Because of my lack of a manual licence, (yes Dad, I know) Shelley has to drive us (good - I can pub-crawl). The only problem is she is under 25 (bad - expensive). It's not all bad though. We booked a Fiat Punto (as manly as the name suggests and ended up with a Renault Megane Scenic which is pretty flash murry. We got to oxford no problems at all and should end up in Stratford-Upon-Avon tomorrow, which all you literary fans out there will realise is the former home of William Shakespeare.

written by  10bastards on November 28, 2008 from Oxford, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Eurotrip
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After our dinner we headed to a local nightclub, pleased to find it deserted and home of the cheapest drinks we've had in the UK. Here I met an interesting character called Darrell (or Dazza as I called him) and his slightly odd mate. Dazza was a door-to-door salesman (must've been the only bloke in a suit in Stratford) who'd been around a bit by the sounds of him. It was nice to hear some authentic British BS, and his mate was kind enough to chat to Shelley. I thought she would find it a compliment that a fellow wanted to chat to her, but a bloke with wing-nut ears and a flat head who fidgets a lot doesn't rate on an Aussie girl's "hot" list apparently.

Onwards to Manchester and our lack of internet access at the Bed and Breakfast forced us to use the guidebook for Britain that we brought with us. We discovered this guidebook was at least four years old. We got lost in Manchester for two to three hours but made it into town okay and stayed at a pub called Monroe's. The pub had interesting decor, I never realised before staying at this pub how many pictures existed of Marilyn Monroe or that nude pictures of her existed. They do.

written by  10bastards on December 2, 2008 from Manchester, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Eurotrip
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I know Australia is an ancient country, but it still feels amazing to be in the presence of man-made objects that are 2000 odd years old. Hadrian's wall doesn't look like much today, but I could still feel the presence of Roman Soldiers there. Well, maybe not, but it wasn't too hard to imagine.

On entering Scotland the landscape changed immediately. The icy plains of northern England were overshadowed by the treed rolling hills of the Scottish borders. We took a scenic route following a meandering river through some breathtaking country. On arrival at Edinburgh we parked at a "park and ride" where, as the name suggests, you park your car and ride into the city (on a bus). Walking down the Royal Mile was a sight to see. Beautiful old buildings on either side leading up to Edinburgh Castle. After checking in at the hostel we went down the street to the most awesome pub! I went to order a beer and a meal and as soon as I showed my hostel pass the lass behind the bar brought out the special hostel menu (meals half price), said she'd bring my drink over to our table and offered to set up a tab for us.

We had an early night due to Shelley feeling crook again, and the Guinness i had drank helped drift me off to a pleasant sleep - until - RIIIIIIIIIIIIP, RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!!!! I thought the very fabric of time and space was ripping apart (for a moment I swear the Tardis marterialised in the middle of the room - probably the Guinness there) but it was only two people packing their bags and leaving at three in the morning. Due to my distress over the whole ripping apart of time thing I couldn't go back to sleep, giving me a nice early start to my first full day in Edinburgh.

written by  10bastards on December 2, 2008 from Edinburgh, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Eurotrip
tagged Edinburgh
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We had gone on a night tour of the old Edinburgh that still exists under the city the night before. Our guide, when finding out that we planned to drive up north on the morrow suggested that wasn't such a great idea. Weather forecasts predicted six inches of snow! We woke up pretty late as per usual and set off, following the signs marked "THE NORTH". We scoffed at the remarks of our guide, as there was no snow on the road and it wasn't icy at all. We did notice a lot of snow alongside the road and days later I read a newspaper saying that there had been six inches of snow, necesitating the closure of two-hundred odd schools in Scotland and Northern England.

We finished off our time in Edinburgh by going on a free pub crawl run by our hostel. It was quite memorable, with very cheap drinks, helping me accomplish my goal of singing "The Gambler" on as many continents as possible. We headed back down through Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The weather was awful for the first time since we came to the UK. This probably added to us not liking Newcastle at all. We left as soon as we could and ended up in York. Shelley was absolutely had it from the drive, so we headed into the nearest pub we could find to find a room.

I was over the hassle of trying to find places to stay, so the next day I suggested to Shelley that we head to her old home town that was about four hours away. She didn't hesitate in the slightest and we made it in record time. We went to the local pub where Shelley used to work. My hands were kept full of free Guinness all night! The locals regretted it as much as I did the next morning. I was well and truly in my element...

The next day was spent slowly recovering, repacking our bags and meeting up with friends for a curry. We booked our flights to Belfast on the same day, finding out at the same time that last-minute bookings are double the price! I wasn't surprised that our first encounter in Ireland was with a drunken reprobate, but that's another story...

written by  10bastards on December 9, 2008 from Dorking, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Eurotrip
tagged Brockham
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The first night went without a hitch and when we finally awoke we decided to leave a night early and get started driving around the north coast. Shelley went to try to get the money that I'd payed voluntarily to the hostel for the next night back. She was told that only the price of one bed could be refunded! We decided to stay then which actually worked out pretty well. We organised the next three legs of our trip and got our washing done.

Shelley decided it was my turn to drive. We picked up our Peugeot (automatic, of course!) and I started to look forward to heading into some bendy tight Irish roads. The route we took was breathtaking. I started to doubt the worthiness of much of our traveling in the UK (apart from the Lakes District and Scotland) but this drive is an absolute cracker. We found it ridiculously easy to find a place to stay on the coast. This mightn't seem strange, but in the UK, most of the hostels in the towns we ended up in had closed for winter.

We took our return trip in a roundabout way, going to the small town of Ardboe. This might seem a bit random (it is really), but a wonderful lady I work with is always raving about this town and a pub in it. Shelley was a bit taken aback I think, because I just drove up to a home of someone my workmate had told me to visit. We were invited in without bother, stayed for a couple of hours, then headed to the local for a few pints. Bud (the lady of the house) picked us up and took us to her friend Bernadette's place. Christmas takes on a different dimension in the colder climes I think, and Bernadette's house was a fantastic example. She had a lit nativity scene in her front yard, and every surface seemed to have a Christmas theme. We had food and drink crammed down our throats until we thought we'd burst. Bud took us home around midnight and shared a bed so that we had a place to stay. I was blown away by their kindness to someone they had never met. I can't begin to imagine how much I owe them for such unselfishness. I can see why my workmate keeps the people of Ardboe so close to her heart.

We left Ardboe as the sun rose (around twenty past eight) in order to get our hire car back by ten a.m. We got the car back without a hitch (much to my surprise) to the drop-off point in the centre of Belfast. It was then only a short walk to the bus station and off to Dublin. It was all going well, we found the departure point of the bus, and were ready and waiting for it to arrive. A bus from another company turned up in the bay we were waiting at and we waved as we watched it leave. I hopped around nervously for about ten minutes after the scheduled departure of our bus until I decided to ask a staff member if it was late. It wasn't. Turned out the bus we watched leave was the one we were waiting for. We were told a different company and a different route number! On the up side though, even though we had to wait for another hour, we had a ripper toasted sandwich during our wait.

After settling in to our hostel, we headed off to the Temple Bar district of Dublin for a feed and my first Guinness in the Republic of Ireland. Looking at price lists, we clued on to the fact that finding a meal and a pint for twelve aussie dollars in Temple Bar wasn't going to happen. A pint is ten dollars. Hurts me to my soul that does. We retreated in disgrace to our hostel and found that the area we are in is all priced pretty much the same, due to the number of tourists in the area.

Due to the amount of time we spent in the UK, we have to up and leave for the continent before our holiday runs out of time! This is going to leave Ireland a place that I'm not going to experience to the full. We had planned to go to Cork and to Blarney castle on the morrow, but again we are going to be short of time. It's an eight hour round trip by bus to Cork and we're looking at further travel time to Blarney. To do that we need and extra day, which isn't going to happen now that we've booked our flights. At least I know that I can come back.

Poor Shelley seems to have been plagued all our trip. As well as having a nasty reaction to bed bug bites, she's picked up a cold. This is to go along with her upset stomach and sore back from her backpack. At least it won't be long until Christmas and a well deserved rest.

written by  10bastards on December 12, 2008 from Belfast, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Eurotrip
tagged Ardboe
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We wandered around, Shelley being hungry, me thirsty until we satiated our respective needs. On arrival at our hostel we were pleasantly surprised to be in a room with some awesome Aussies and a couple of Spanish girls that had a penchant for stripping. It was nice to speak to some Australians again (the Spanish girls seemed nice also). One of the Aussie girls had her Pj's on which gave me the window of opportunity to wear mine for the first time OS. I was starting to think I shouldn't have packed them... Off we go to Rome tomorrow. I know it will feel a lot different then both the UK and Ireland, so I'm cautiously nervous and optimistic at the same time.

written by  10bastards on December 13, 2008 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: Eurotrip
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As soon as we got to the airport we easily found our way to the bus ticket office. Two tickets were bought into town and we were good to go. Until I lost one. It turned out alright though, 'cause Shelley got a replacement gratis. Our first night in the city left me feeling cold about Rome. I seemed to be constantly on the lookout for somebody wanting to mug us!

The next morning we headed to the central train station to see about getting around to see the sights. We decided to join a bus tour. Although we knew it to be expensive (considering a metro ticket to anywhere is two dollars) we only have a day and a half here and it was just easier. We reached our first stop, the Vatican and I duly got my camera out for some happy-snaps. I turned it on and... nothing! I checked inside and there was no bloody battery. We turned around, going back to the hostel to search for it. Couldn't find it anywhere. I checked my backpack again and found I had the battery the whole time! Idiot.

Shelley seemed to take this remarkably well. I think it was from the cold and flu meds she took earlier that morning. We decided to do the Vatican the next morning. We managed to see Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and the Colosseum. Not bad work for a day's work in the pissing-down rain. We spent about three hours looking for a conversion plug for Italy, but it was well worth it to have dry shoes again (courtesy of Shelley's hair dryer - an essential piece of kit).

We have to figure out our next port of call (most probably Prague) on the morrow. We really have to get a move on - only a couple of weeks to go!

written by  10bastards on December 15, 2008 from Rome, Italy
from the travel blog: Eurotrip
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