Moose and Chroose Take on the World

New Year In London

2009-03-04T11:20:00.006Z

Just a quick up date. So far the New Year is going well. Chris is enjoying work and I'm, well, I'm enjoying not working. Purely due to lack of visa not lack of motivation. We have settled into our new place in Islington and it has everything that we need. Our flat is above a shoe store, and sandwiched between Starbucks and a 24 hour deli. All bases are covered.
We are slowly getting use to the London lifestyle, we even experienced a snow day. So amazing!

Lately Chris has grown accustom to riding the front seat of the red double decker, arms spread wide announcing he is "King of the world" No kidding! 3% for enjoyment and 97% for the enjoyment of watching me squirm with embarrassment.
We had some very welcome Aussie visitors, Kylie and Sara who graced us with their presence. Was great to shop, sight see and even disco tec it up with some familiar faces.
We have just returned from 2 weeks in Brussels which was as outstanding as the first time. We hung out with Chris's dad who was there on business and had a beautiful dinner out for our one year anniversary. Can't believe it has been a whole year.
Of course we also revisited L'achiduc again which I can say is easily our favorite bar in Europe. We met some great German guys, drank champagne and stayed out way to long. The next day was a total waste.
Matt and Andrea our friends from Germany arrive tomorrow for the week and then we head to Barcelona for two weeks for Chris's work. Things are getting pretty busy! That's my excuse for the slack blogs.

Back in London

2008-12-23T14:19:00.012Z

Well yes I understand we have been in London for some time now and I am not going to make excuses why this is so behind I am just going to get on with it.
As most of you have heard when we arrived in London back on about the 26th Oct our apartment we were going to rent was still occupied and was to remain that way for three weeks so we shacked up in a hotel situated in the depths of Hell. Did not know till this point that mice and mold were sinners. It was in Harlesden, FYI: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1169598.stm
We have crawled out of the depths and our now in the apartment in Hampstead which is just perfect. It has heating which is already one up on our previous abode and is situated on the edge of the Heath. There are even trees outside the windows which is a rarity in London.

Around our Neighbourhood

Cafe Mozart where we have breakfast

Chris has a great job for a company called RjDj. Check it out http://rjdj.me/ and I am at the moment a lady of leisure. Only because I do not have my visa yet. We have been into the tourist scene a little with trips to the Science Museum again, The Museum of London and both Brick lane and Portabello markets which host some fantastic local art talent well worth a look www.tomlewis.co.uk, www.danhillier.com, www.candidarts.com, www.worldofmoosecom
We have also been spending quite a bit of time with old friends who are now locals that we have not seen in a long time wining and dining, mainly wining. There are some fantastic restaurant around and having friends that know the place well is a great help.
With Christmas just around the corner London is in full spirit! We have been out after dark, which can be as early as four, to see the Christmas lights that line all the high streets and every where you go there are carol singers. Some actually got into our building the other night when I was home alone so I turned off the television and lights and hid from them.

I was home alone as Chris had to fly to Berlin for work which was quite unexpected, so I stayed home and joined the gym which was also very unexpected as those who know me well would agree.
Back to Christmas. In Hyde Park there is a Winter Wonder Land which is so beautiful. Full of rides, lights and Christmas trees. It is huge and has hundreds of stalls full of hot chocolate, mulled wine and German sausages? We plan on going back there for some dinner, drinks and rides on Christmas Eve. We are going to go to the Cinema in Islington to watch It's a Wonderful Life. This should be watched by all at Christmas so run out and grab a copy.
Our Christmas tree has long been up and I decided to go with a white one, as if this is not going to be a white Christmas I will fake it. Although we have had two days of light snow which is amazing as I have never seen it before.
We don't have any real plans for Christmas as little did we know that all public transport comes to a stand still on Christmas day so instead we have ordered some bean bags and Midsommer Murders dvds and will live it up in the warmth of the house with lots of mulled wine, good food and our new bean bags. New years eve is another story though, we plan on a big night out. But that's a story for another time.
Today we are off to the Highgate cemetery. This may sound odd but it is actually an amazing beautiful place. It's huge, run down and over grown with old angels and tombstones amongst the growth. It's 3 pounds to go exploring, we might even run into the Highgate Vampire!
An old legend, I think people still have sightings but they crazy.

Been and gone now

Hope you all have an amazing Christmas and a fantastic New Year. We wish you all the best and a safe and happy holiday. We miss you all! Much love always, Michelle and Chris

P.S To the Bridgetown crew, don't have to much fun without us. See you there next year!

The Cinque Terre 21-23 Oct

2008-12-01T12:56:00.005Z

The Cinque Terre "The Five Lands" is a rugged portion of coast of the Riviera to the west of the city of La Spezia. The Cinque Terre includes: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore.
I had been looking forward to this part of our trip the whole way. I wanted to walk the five villages in one day!
It was a fantastic experience but quite difficult in places, especially the 440 stairs to Corniglia. Lake made the walk in a skirt and creepers, Jessee did it with a beer in one hand and a smoke in the other and I nearly died!
The veiws were amazing. We did only make it to four of the villages as it was getting dark and we did not want to miss the last train. Well worth it.

Perugia 16-21 Oct

2008-11-27T18:31:00.014Z

Next was Perugia but on the way we stopped in San Marino for pizza and icecream and of course a tourists view of the city, which was absolutely beautiful.

Well we pretty much ate our way through Perugia! Pizza at every possible oportunity, our mission was to find the best malenzane Pizza in the city, which we did. Every other meal consisted of three courses which were, meat, pasta and finally cake. We stayed with Lakes host parents Anna and Malro just outside of Perugia in their beautiful house. Anna was our unofficial cook. Muchly appreciated by the way.

Perugia is so beautiful!

We stayed for over a week and we picked grapes,

walked to Corciano,

visited Assisi,(not impressed)

and spent a Saturday night out in the Town square of Perugia which was a crowded amazing experience.

Rimini 14-16 Oct

2008-11-27T17:59:00.007Z

Ok well we didn't fall off the face of the planet I just got lazy. So sue me! But everyone can rest easy now because I will catch up on my blog today... or maybe tomorrow. I will keep the update short but sweet and let the photos speak louder then words.
Well Rimini is a seaside holiday destination on the North East coast of Italy. It is apparently the most famous seaside resort on the Adriatic Riviera. Why? I'm not sure, but if you have learnt anything from this blog I am not only lazy but also a harsh critic. We stayed in a camp right on the beach which was lovely but apparently suited more towards the elderly or infants still in need of an afternoon nap as it had regulated quiet times.
Being so close to the beach we put it to good use with our trusty BBQ and cheap Italian wine. It was great we had the whole place to ourselves, being off peak season. Lake caught shelled things with her hand off the ocean floor for us to cook on the BBQ. She had a ball and was willing to eat pretty much everything but I found the sand amongst the food a little too crunchy for my liking. We drank far to much, even swam (in the pool of course) and did some unmentionable things of the jetty. This is about the point I decided not to drink again for the rest of the trip.

Venice 12-14 Oct

2008-10-23T20:26:00.003+01:00

We left Austria and the Sound Of Music cliches for another cult classic, The Labyrinth. Venice is the one place in the world it's actually fun to be lost in, it's the most amazing city. This is of course after we ditched our first campsite which was based in an industrial area below a bellowing chimney.
On the way to Venice we stopped in a small town called Valpianto to join the locals at their annual chestnut festival. We sat in the sun and ate roasted chestnuts and drank local beer before continuing our journey and arriving in Venice much later then expected.
There are no cars in Venice so the streets are only one to two meters wide with buildings up to six stories high on each side, hence the Labyrinth. Unlike Amsterdam the canals almost out number the streets and so often you find your self at the end of a street/alleyway that just drops off into water. There is a lot of back tracking and recalculating your route (that's GPS talk). Our friends Paul and Alli have been living in Venice for a year now so we got guided tours of the city and it's history and also of it's best pizza and ice-cream.

Unfortunately our only photo from Venice, shame!

Oh apart from this one.

We spent our second day wandering around aimlessly with our map purposely tucked away just to see where we would end up. To find our way back again Jessee insisted we follow a beagle as he pointed out that “he looks like he knows where he is going”. Believe it or not it did the trick.

Innsbruck 9-12 Oct

2008-10-23T20:22:00.003+01:00

We took advantage of the weather and atmosphere by setting up the BBQ and the outdoor table and chairs for the first time this trip. We also set up the tent for Lake and Jessee which luckily was in one piece without holes as we had not checked before this point.

We spent our too few days in Innsbruck taking forest walks up the side of the mountain, relaxing in the sun and in the evening roasting marshmallows. Lake and I tried to start a mountain rave but the boys out right refused to dance.

Unfortunately our budget did not allow the use of the chair lifts to the mountain tops but the views were just as amazing from where we could goon foot.

Oh, except the view of the gay nudist beach/ field of grass we accidentally stumbled across on our hike. The dress code was nothing or pink, it was so weird. The map called it “Hawaii”. We got out of there pretty quickly. We left Innsbruck relaxed and refreshed ready for our next big city, Venice.

Number one tip, make sure your undies are not still in the leg of your pants when you put them on to go to the toilet in the middle of the night as they may wind up in the middle of the path for all to see in the morning. Hey Lake?

Amsterdam to Innsbruck

2008-10-15T13:13:00.007+01:00

As Lake and Jessee will be joining us for the next couple of weeks we had to install seat belts in the back of the van. A professional installation was going to cost a fortune so we put the boys to work and a few drill holes later the job was done. Not so attractive but secure.

We finally left Amsterdam early afternoon heading towards Innsbruck but we intended to stop for the night in Frankfurt. Time was moving fast and we weren't so we decided that we would stop in Cologne for the night instead of continuing to Frankfurt and catch up with Andy (whom until this point we did not realise he lived in Cologne hence we did not catch up before). We parked the van in a supermarket car park right near Andy's place then went out for some food. We went to another German Brewery and ate a traditional German dinner with some traditional beer of course. Andy took us to another three bars that he frequents and they were all pretty cool. By this point it was two in the morning but we all still believed that we would make an early start. It's funny how alcohol warps your perception. We got back to Andy's and all crammed into his bedroom to sleep on the floor thanks to Andy's great hospitality. As he had wireless we all took the opportunity to connect and this is where we discovered that our money was worth a lot less then we thought. If only we had discovered this before our big night out. It was time to re budget.
I think it was about midday when we left Cologne for what we thought was our final leg to Innsbruck.

We drove for about 6 or 7 hours, stopping at Ikea on the way for Swedish meatballs before we decided it was time to rest. We settled for the night in a truck stop just outside of Stuttgart and all four of us slept in the back of the van.

This was not as bad as it sounds. It was a big truck stop with a restaurant, toilets and showers that were all twenty four hours. On the other hand sleeping squished between Chris and Lake is as bad as it sounds and smells. We got up showered and were on the road again all feeling a little better then we did the day before. The drive through the Alps was amazing! We drove a winding path up and down the mountains with the most spectacular views and occasional close call with on coming cars. The roads are so thin and jutting out form the mountains, it was quite scary. Remember we are driving a right hand drive on the right side of the road so the passenger seat, my seat is the one that is next to the oncoming traffic.
We pulled into the campsite late afternoon and were pleased. The camp is on the side of a mountain about 600m above sea level and everything is on a slope. We were in the beautiful sunshine again with magnificent views of snow caped mountains surrounded by trees dropping their autumn leaves.

Amsterdam

2008-10-15T12:03:00.011+01:00

Well everything was coming up Milhouse ...until we hit Amsterdam. When it rains here it pours and there is not the slightest break for days on end. In a leaky van this is not the most ideal of circumstances. Also at this point the Aussie dollar took a tumble which we did not realise till some time later, but we will get back to that.
Camping Zeeburg is set out so you never have to leave. It has it's own shop, restaurant and pub. All of the above were usually filled with Australian tourists, none of which we actually spoke to.

The day we arrived we had plans to meet up with Mark and Claire as they were checking into Zeeburg that same morning. We waited and finally gave up as the sun went down, only to have them bang on the van window about 10pm. They were due in Amsterdam early that morning but due to a broken train and the fact Claire did not realise that Rotterdam and Amsterdam were not the same place???? it took them another twelve hours.
The next day Matt and Andrea headed in from Germany for the day to join us in Amsterdam. We checked out the flea market, flower market, a “coffee house” and some bars.
Lake and Jessee arrived the following morning and stayed with some of their Amsterdam friends Daan and Lisette and we were also joined by George and Sherry (also from Perth) and her boyfriend Xander. We had quite a possee going on.

We spent the next several days exploring Amsterdam, the thousands of bikes and the beautiful canals that run through the city. Apparently the population of Amsterdam is about 700 000 and the number of bikes approximately 900 000, no wonder it's hard not to get run over.

We spent an afternoon at the Anne Frank house. It's quite overwhelming but extremely informative and well worth the time.
We ended up giving into our sore wet feet after about the fourth day and bought some winter boots. They soaked through within two days. The last night we spent in Amsterdam we all went round to Daan and Lisette's apartment for a traditional Dutch dinner. We had Staampot which was fantastic. It was mash with greens, smoked sausage and bacon bits. We rolled back to camp.

Number one tip, remember to watch the tram lines. You don't want your foot to get caught in the track and fall flat on your face in the pouring rain in front of an oncoming tram. Do you Lake?

Antwerp

2008-10-03T11:38:00.004+01:00

Well at this moment in time we are on the road to Amsterdam to meet Mark, Claire, Lake and Jessee so I thought this would be a good time to catch up.
Ok well Antwerp (Antwerpen) is by far a city well worth a visit. We were impressed soon as we entered the city by the beautiful cobble stone streets, the van took a bit of a beating though. Our camp was in walking distance from the city thanks to a pedestrian tunnel under the river so wandering the city and evenings out to the wee hours in the morning were easily done.
In the main town square there is a large water fountain which waters the pavement (shrug). I guess the water crisis hasn't reached this far. We took a few photos before I realised the statue was of a naked man throwing a severed hand. It was the severed hand not the naked man I didn't recognise, just in case you were wondering.

I guess the water squirting out the top of the hand is suppose to represent blood. There is some story that in Flemish Antwerpen sounds a bit like 'throwing hand', even though apparently the statue has nothing to do with that. Mmmm oh well, and moving on.
Antwerp is a beautiful place at night. There is, yes, another cathedral. It does get a bit like you've seen one you've seen them all. In order to shake things up a bit and due to the marvelous legislation which allows street drinking we have grown accustom to sitting out the front of such cathedrals and drinking under the city lights. It's a beautiful way to spend the early hours of an evening. Maybe not so pious of us but new religions have to start some where. I mean he did turn water into wine, right?
We took it pretty easy here, we ventured to a great jazz bar, went to the Zoo, met some Bulgarians, ate fritz from Max's in the main square and I learnt that in Chinese Coca Cola means 'delicious happiness' (another shrug).

Bonn

2008-10-03T11:11:00.006+01:00

In Bonn we stayed with our good old friends, Matt and Aundrea. They live in a suburb of Bonn at the foot of a mountain covered in lush green forest. We decided to ditch the van and couch surf in their lounge for a week. Central heating rocks.
The day after we arrived we decided to explore the forest as we were told that there was wild boar and deer that roamed it. Well, we didn't see any so we kept walking to a small animal farm where they had both deer and boar behind a fence just for disappointed tourist like us. The deer was beautiful and the boar, well, I was glad they were behind a fence. That night we went out to a very fancy pants restaurant for my birthday and since I was so impressed with the deer earlier that day I figured I'd eat one. Croissants in Paris, waffles in Brussels so I figured deer in Germany. It was so good.
Chris and Matt got themselves all worked up one evening about druid rock formation so the next day we set out to find some. Lucky for me there were actually some close by. We drove to a small town and stood at the bottom of a very large hill that was entirely covered in vineyards. I felt sorry for the people who had to work those fields as they were so unbelievably steep. This is when I discovered that the precious rocks we had come to see were at the top of that same hill. I started to feel sorry for myself. It was a hard climb but well worth it, not only for the rocks but the amazing three hundred and sixty degree views of Bonn.

We continued our outdoor exploration that day with a hike to a place called the blue sea. I guess we might call it a billabong? It is an old volcano site and absolutely beautiful. It was a steep and slippery walk in places so we had a few accidents and those who know me well will know that I laughed my ass of at others misfortunes that day.

Saturday came around and we decided that a trip to Cologne was in order. So we jumped on the train with enough beer to last us the half an hour ride, remember parentals this is totally legal.
First we went to a German brewery which looked like a big drinking hall lined with big heavy wooden tables and benches. There is only one type of beer which they bring to you at your table in in .2 glasses that look like test tubes. Once you have finished you have to be quick otherwise the empty glass is gone and another has taken it's place without you even noticing the switch. That's how you end up drinking too much and the bill gets big. Matt then took us to a Reggae Club called the Petite Prince which was unlike any place I had ever been before. It is in a basement and there is no smoking allowed inside...unless it's weed, then they turn a blind eye. It was like one giant dutch oven. Remember we are not in Amsterdam yet. We stayed there for the rest of the evening watching people bump and grind each other and wave their lighters in the air. We arrived back in Bonn about five thirty the next morning, snacked on German sausage and then slept the next twenty four hours away.
We ventured back into Cologne one more time the next week to meet up with one of Chris's computer nerd buddies. His name was Frank and he was a great guy. We ventured to anther brewery and he showed us some of the history of Cologne. I even got to do a little bit of shopping.

We spent our last evening in Bonn playing wii, which much to Chris's delight I now want one! Except that it told me I was over weight which I did not like. We packed our things back into the van, stocked up on German food,(food in Germany is so cheap) and were back on the road.

Brussels

2008-09-22T11:55:00.007+01:00

We completed a second day of playing the tourist in Paris. We bought ferry tickets on a hop on hop off tour boat and saw what remained of the popular sites of Paris. We graced The Louvre, Notre Dame Cathedral and the Musée d'Orsay. All were more beautiful then expected.

Sun burnt and tired we said goodbye to Paris the next morning without any reservations, happy to move on from the big city and the traffic. We vowed not to fall into a tourist trap again.

This was the morning of Friday the 12th that we hit the road for Belgium. We arrived after a short drive and booked into a site in a beautiful place called Wezembeek-Oppem, it was half suburb, half farm land and a welcome change from the busy city. The site is surrounded by lush green forest and is about a twenty minute metro ride to Brussels, during which you pass the infamous Kunst-wet station. I could not contain my inner adolescent each time we passed it. Brussels was absolutely amazing. Every second shop was a chocolate shop every other a waffle and then there is the occasional pub thrown in for good measure. The Grande Place (town square) was so amazing but unfortunately we have got into the habit of forgetting our cameras so lets all thank Google for the photo below.

We made our way passed Kunst-wet into Brussles city center on Saturday night to hunt down a couple of Jazz clubs we had read good things about on the net. We found L'archiduc after walking in circles for a couple of hours. It was very small but very stylish and Miles Davis had once graced it with his presence. There was suppose to be a pianist playing but like we also discovered the next time we went there, there was not. I think the promise of live music is just a marketing ploy.

L'archiduc

We stayed despite this and luck was on our side when a Norwegian couple sat down opposite us and shared our table due to lack of space. Usually I would rage against such and invasion but we were on holidays so I though, what the hey. That could have been my newly discovered free spirit talking or maybe just the wine. It turned out Sven, Svens come in droves over here, and his girlfriend Ragnhild were great fun and Sven extended an invitation to join him and some friends on a big night out on the Monday. Drinking on a Monday! We agreed and parted ways. This of course was easier said then done as little did we know we had just missed the last metro back to Wezembeek. Our only option was a taxi but it took us so long to hail one we thought we must be doing something wrong. This is the point at which the subject of blame arose. When a taxi finally stopped, I guessed he sensed our long wait and desire to be back in the comfort of our van that he got us home in no time flat doing 160 kilometers whilst talking on his mobile phone. Very talented if you ask me. My knuckles are still white.

On Monday we celebrated our six month anniversary with a pizza. The best pizza ever! Yes it was a Pizza Hut pizza but it was a great change from pasta with tin tuna (we have moved on and up from peanut butter). We then made our way back into Brussels to a bar called Monk to meet Sven.There was the two of us, Sven, another Norwegian girl and two guys from Iceland, I think their names were Eggle and Steagle. Being so far from home and a little out of our comfort zones it was great to have a night out with people that felt like old friends. It was a night to remember...if only I could. We did not move from our table all night, my face was sore from laughter and I drank more then someone that belonged to a species with only one liver should. The highlight of the night was a story told by Eggle and Steagle about one drunken night from their youth. Their escapades ended with a heading in the local paper that read “Petrol Crises Blamed for Youth Arrested Siphoning Petrol with a Hose and a Coffee Pot”. Remind me to tell you the story some time.
The rest of our time in Brussels we spent recovering and exploring the forests and surrounding areas. Oh and jump starting the van. We found the Abbey Rouge Cloitre which Chris remembered from his last visit. It took us sometime to get there but it was well worth it. It was in the middle of a beautiful forest and it served great coffee.

Abbey Rouge Cloitre

With six days in Brussels under our belts we decided it was time to move on to Germany.

London to Paris

2008-09-11T10:48:00.007+01:00

Lionel Willis. That's the name of our van. We didn't make it up it he was wearing a name tag when we bought him. Well he had a sticker inside the wardrobe that said so.

We headed out of London on Friday afternoon. Well we first headed straight through the center of London in our giant camper which was probably about the most nerve racking thing I had ever done. Little did I know this would be over thrown a few days later when we drove through Paris.

We made our way South East to Dover, which is where we were to catch the Ferry to Calais, via Seasalter and Canterbury. Well can't say much about Seasalter except that I will never go there again. We spent our first night in our van there, a suburb in the middle of nowhere. It poured! Oh, and yes our van leaks. Canterbury on the other hand is beautiful and green. The city was surrounded by a wall in Roman times half of which still remains. This is due to the fact it was rebuilt in stone in the 1370s. It was a fantastic site. I felt like dressing up in tights and running along the top of the wall whilst flailing a bow and arrow. I chose to restrain myself.

We caught a SeaFrance ferry across to Calais on Saturday afternoon which was quite an interesting experience. The ferry is huge. Lots of shops, bars, restaurants and even a poker machine hall. I chose to spend the two hours and forty minutes drinking wine and having Chris teach me one of his favorite computer games in which the aim is to push a man down some stairs and see how much damage you can cause. We found pushing at the base of the neck accumulates the most points.

We arrived in Calais about five o'clock and decided that we would find some where to stay the night and attempt the drive to Paris in the morning. At this point we didn't realised we had changed time zones so for the next twenty four hours we were a little confused. We found a campsite in a very small town not far from Marquis. It had nothing but cows and holes in the ground which the locals referred to as toilets (not that I could understand cos they were speaking French). Enough said.

We left for Paris the next morning, well what we thought was morning but was actually afternoon as we still hadn't realised the time difference. The drive was fun and the weather was on our side and with one stop in Amiens before we new it we were entering Paris.

Gargoyles in Amiens

Driving through Paris was insane! Our GPS navigation lags, so it informs us of our next turn once we have already passed the road. Good work RAC, fantastic! Well we made it in one piece anyway, oh except I forgot to mention that thanks to Chris's handy work inputting addresses into the “fantastic” GPS we booked ourselves into the wrong campsite. Lets not rub that in. We slept the night and made it to the correct camp the next morning. We are about 10 minutes from the center of Paris so everything is really accessible. Today we went to the Eiffel Tower, as one must do when in Gay Paris. I had no intention to climb up I purely wanted to stare at it from beneath with some ice cream. There were enough stairs in London I don't feel the need to go climbing any for pleasure.

At this moment it is about 7.30pm, still bright as day and too hot for clothes. The people next door have just invited us for a drink so I will go now and join in the festivities. I will put more clothes on first.

In London Still

2008-09-07T11:39:00.006+01:00

Yes we're in London still despite our best efforts to the contrary. Roy was a dud so we have been playing musical hotels while we look for another. It's about fifty percent cheaper to book a hotel room last minute so each day we have changed hotel and lugged our packs up and down High Street to save some pounds. Each time my heart sinks a little as I get sucked into a false sense of security believing that the new room can't possibly be any smaller than the last. It always is.

Headed into Camden Town last Sunday to meet up with Lana and Dimity. They haven't changed a bit! We drank, ate, played with reptiles, drank and drank more. I found it hard keeping up. That really says something.

I Hate Snakes. Obviously!

Camden is cool. Dimity lives above The Worlds End which is a big pub/bar that reminds me of a mix between the Loft and the Grosvenor back in the times before Perth pubs were filled with fo hawks. I loved the fact that you can carry your pint between pubs! If you get bored you pour your beer into one of the plastic cups provided at the door and you move on. Oh you can also ride a bike without a helmet which cancels out the problem of hat hair. It's anarchy!

For whom ever said food was shit in London, I am glad to say you are mistaken. We went to Wahaca, the most amazing Mexican restaurant ever! I will never eat Mexican in Perth again. I highly recommend the char grilled steak burrito to those who are soon to be on their way to London. There is also a fantastic dim sum. Best pork buns I've had to date. Sad to say that apart from the above it has been peanut butter sandwiches all the way.

Chris just arrived back and we have apparently just bought a van! If all goes well we should be on our way to Paris tomorrow. I think I might go celebrate with some wine and a peanut butter sandwich.

London Calling

2008-09-01T10:00:00.006+01:00

Well I would just like to inform you all that despite popular belief London is freakin stinking hot! So now that I purposely spent many hours packing only winter attire I have one summer outfit that I have had to wear all week. The only other thing that makes this situation worse is that our shower only has hot water. Why? The English are crazy. Due to the pressure from this so called shower it would actually be better named a very light sun shower. This light sun shower washes away none of the sweat accumulated from the six flight hike up the stairs to our room. (The lift is broken). Point of the story... we are starting to smell!

Ok well apart from the obvious London is great. We have not done any tourist stuff yet as we have been spending our time wisely sleeping and preparing. We have been searching for vans over the last couple of days which has meant we have had to train out to the middle of no where to look (I couldn't find platform 9 and 3/4 even though I tried). We found one yesterday in whoop whoop it's name was 'Roy'. It ran like a charm but the inside had... character, I guess some would call it. Mainly those in the business of selling shit and talking it up. We liked him anyway, so we will check out another one this morning and then choose between the two to be our new home.

London is hot, we are living on bread and I got chased by a squirrel who wanted my apples. I said NO!