(no subject)
Hello all my lovely people :) I am sitting in a really big orange
room in Edinburgh wondering how you all are doing and what you have
been up to in the last month. As I am very slack at communication I
would be very upset if you didn't send me one sentence of the
usuals.
As for myself, I haven't had a good hair day in a month. How
unusual! Actually this stems from the lack of wonderful showers,
but that is a bad path for this email to take, and infact my only
major problem with Europe. So I shall continue before I put you to
sleep.
Rachel and myself headed off about a month ago and spent almost two
weeks in the lovely wee village of Cobham, Kent. Where I met my
gorgeous nephew Connor for the first time. :)
We headed out for a few day trips to London, Rochester, and
Greenwich which were very enjoyable. And I learnt how tragically
ugly Buckingham palace is. There is a statue of a deformed kangaroo
there! But I really liked St. James' park, Big Ben, Rochester
Castle, and the Greenwhich observatory.
After this we headed off on a quickfire tour of Europe, stopping in
Brugge - Belgium, Amsterdam, St.Goar - Germany, Prague - Czech,
Salzburg - Austria, Venice - Italy, Switzerland, and Paris.
Brugge was just a quick lunch stop, fortunately everyone assumed we
spoke English which greatly helped us buy up on chocolate and
waffles. We were baffled by the concept of paying for the toilet.
Then we continued on to Amsterdam, the home of windmills, clogs,
the redlight district, legalised marijuana, and a million deadly
bicycles. We settled into our hotel before heading off on a canal
dinner cruise, in which we saw our first whores and ate lovely
pizza. The next day we spent a lot of time being lost and in
queues. We visited the former home of Anne Frank, and the Van Gogh
museum.
We had a ginormous dinner before heading off into the night. A dark
world awaited us in the red light district, we took our tour leader
to places she had formerly feared and rated prostitutes out of 10.
And ended up in a kareoke bar with scary Janet Jackson videos. I
ate a non-delicious t-rex burger and a rather delicious piece of
chocolate cake.
The next morning we visited a windmill where I wish to reside.
Followed by a little farm where Raoul taught us all about cheese
and clog making. Then we drove through the Rhine valley to St.
Goar, Germany. Along the way we learnt about cuckoo clocks and beer
steins.
Then we had a lovely time at Herme's tasting many different local
wines - I even found one I liked! :O Following dinner we continued
the wine tasting, unforunately with 2 euro per litre bottles - one
bottle looked like a vinegar bottle from home, unfortunately it
tasted worse than vinegar. We learnt not to judge a wine by it's
bottle.
The next day we took a very long drive to Prague, a post communist
city. It was interesting to see the converging of the old and the
new parts. Our hotel was a particularly huge square cement building
with a million tiny windows which had recently been painted pink
and yellow. Our rooms were massive, unfortunately the bends were
planks of wood. We took a walk around the town with the group,
before heading to an absynth bar. Absynth is 70% alchohol and it is
filthy aniseed in flavour, but it is fun, you get to light sugar on
fire so that drinking it doesn't kill you. After this we headed to
the biggest discotechque in central Europe, five floors of bad
music! Amazingly all of us ended up on the 80's floor. Once the bar
staff had stolen all our change we went and bartered with taxi
drivers for a lift home.
The next day we had free to do what we liked, so Rachel, Ellen and
myself headed into the city and explored. The Easter markets were quite good. And we were lucky enough to see the astronomical clock go off at noon. After that we headed off to the Jewish quarter,
which was incredibly harrowing, especially the graveyard where in
some parts it is up to 10 bodies deep. To lighten up the mood we
headed back into town and had some pizza, took a walk across the
bridge, and went to a blacklight theatre performance which was fun
and funny. Before heading back to our hotel I had some strange
Czech version of a happy meal.
The next day we headed into Salzburg and were forced to sing Do rae
me - which I was quite brilliant as in my youth I had much
experience watching The Sound of Music with my sister, and my
natural aptitude for singing...! We wandered the city for most of
the afternoon,took the venicular up to the fortress where we had
fantastic views of the alps. That night we went to an awesome beer
hall which I named "The Lonely Goat", as it was high on the hill.
We encountered some Canadians and the spirit of Maria. Fantastic.
Following this we moved on to Venice, where we spent a lovely
afternoon traipsing around the city square looking at the markets,
rialto bridge, saw a glass blowing demonstration, and took a
gondola ride down the Grande canal. Our gondolier was very subdued
- he didn't seem to enjoy his job as much as the young "drunk" in
front of us who was happily singing and dancing away to mambo
italiana - hilarious! We had a traditional dinner of pizza, pasta,
and gelato.
The next day involved another long drive, but it was definately
worth it, and the scenery was gorgeous. We were of course in
Switzerland! We bought incredibly expensive toblerones and got lost
in the city before finding our group and heading up Mt. Rigi to our
hotel. It was definately the best stop of the tour, with an amazing
view,lovely people, and amazing beds - at this stage of the tour we
had all sucummed to the flu and those who hadn't were tired for
other reasons..
We had a traditional meal of fondue in which I was forced to eat
approximately 2 blocks of cheese - we were all cheesed off in the
end! haha! (We were like those people on that show none of you have
seen so will not get my reference. Except Kirsty.)
For our final stop we headed into Paris, a town that exceeds all
stereotyping. Our first night there was not fun! We had a hotel
disater in which Rachel, Greg, Laine, Cassy, Sam, and myself, moved
hotels twice before getting a room somewhere decent! I wont
describe the room we recieved at the backup as it's still enough to
make me sick. Okay, there was definately a body under our carpet..
:S
Oh, and some man tried to seduce me with a baguette.
So the highlight that night was racing around the Arc de triomphe
at high speed to horrible but suited music. It was great fun and
many cars wanted to crash into us. This is a roundabout on which
there is a crash every 8 minutes, and iunsurance companies don't
cover - there are about 10 lanes and no markers!
The next day was definately a climbing day. We went up the Eiffel
tower and Arc de triomphe, both with great views. Had a picnic
lunch in a nice park down the Champs Elysee on our way to the
Louvre, where we saw the Monna Lisa and not much else. Apparently
if you stop to look at each piece of art for one minute you'll be
there for 9 months - no eating, drinking, or sleeping allowed!!
It's huge. I liked the glass pyramids. We then had a nice walk down
the Seine before going to a farewell dinner.
I ate a snail, it was disgusting! I refused to try the frog on
account that I don't eat things that are going extinct.. We then
took a cruise down the Seine, which was lovely - we saw the Eiffel
tower sparkle 3 times! (It does that every hour on the hour, for
about 10 minutes after dark). Two of our party went up there and we
took bets whether they were getting engaged, we were all wrong!
Alas.
We returned to England and had a quick farewell, before heading up
to Scotland. Spent the last week in Edinburgh where we did many
things, from washing our clothes to going to the zoo. We went to
the castle, palace, learnt about whisky and tartan, visited the
museum of Edinburgh, museum of childhood, went to see the Flaming
lips - amazing band!, we climbed a mountain or perhaps a hill. And
ate a lot of pasta. Now we are in a similar orange room in Glasgow
and I am tired of typing. Tonight I am going to
NICENSLEAZY's!!!!!!!!!! :D
I hope you didn't die reading this.
Miss and love you all,
xxx Siani
P.S. It looks like we shall be working in a pub in Surrey along the
Thames, if in the area you should definately come visit - let me
spill a drink on ye ;)
room in Edinburgh wondering how you all are doing and what you have
been up to in the last month. As I am very slack at communication I
would be very upset if you didn't send me one sentence of the
usuals.
As for myself, I haven't had a good hair day in a month. How
unusual! Actually this stems from the lack of wonderful showers,
but that is a bad path for this email to take, and infact my only
major problem with Europe. So I shall continue before I put you to
sleep.
Rachel and myself headed off about a month ago and spent almost two
weeks in the lovely wee village of Cobham, Kent. Where I met my
gorgeous nephew Connor for the first time. :)
We headed out for a few day trips to London, Rochester, and
Greenwich which were very enjoyable. And I learnt how tragically
ugly Buckingham palace is. There is a statue of a deformed kangaroo
there! But I really liked St. James' park, Big Ben, Rochester
Castle, and the Greenwhich observatory.
After this we headed off on a quickfire tour of Europe, stopping in
Brugge - Belgium, Amsterdam, St.Goar - Germany, Prague - Czech,
Salzburg - Austria, Venice - Italy, Switzerland, and Paris.
Brugge was just a quick lunch stop, fortunately everyone assumed we
spoke English which greatly helped us buy up on chocolate and
waffles. We were baffled by the concept of paying for the toilet.
Then we continued on to Amsterdam, the home of windmills, clogs,
the redlight district, legalised marijuana, and a million deadly
bicycles. We settled into our hotel before heading off on a canal
dinner cruise, in which we saw our first whores and ate lovely
pizza. The next day we spent a lot of time being lost and in
queues. We visited the former home of Anne Frank, and the Van Gogh
museum.
We had a ginormous dinner before heading off into the night. A dark
world awaited us in the red light district, we took our tour leader
to places she had formerly feared and rated prostitutes out of 10.
And ended up in a kareoke bar with scary Janet Jackson videos. I
ate a non-delicious t-rex burger and a rather delicious piece of
chocolate cake.
The next morning we visited a windmill where I wish to reside.
Followed by a little farm where Raoul taught us all about cheese
and clog making. Then we drove through the Rhine valley to St.
Goar, Germany. Along the way we learnt about cuckoo clocks and beer
steins.
Then we had a lovely time at Herme's tasting many different local
wines - I even found one I liked! :O Following dinner we continued
the wine tasting, unforunately with 2 euro per litre bottles - one
bottle looked like a vinegar bottle from home, unfortunately it
tasted worse than vinegar. We learnt not to judge a wine by it's
bottle.
The next day we took a very long drive to Prague, a post communist
city. It was interesting to see the converging of the old and the
new parts. Our hotel was a particularly huge square cement building
with a million tiny windows which had recently been painted pink
and yellow. Our rooms were massive, unfortunately the bends were
planks of wood. We took a walk around the town with the group,
before heading to an absynth bar. Absynth is 70% alchohol and it is
filthy aniseed in flavour, but it is fun, you get to light sugar on
fire so that drinking it doesn't kill you. After this we headed to
the biggest discotechque in central Europe, five floors of bad
music! Amazingly all of us ended up on the 80's floor. Once the bar
staff had stolen all our change we went and bartered with taxi
drivers for a lift home.
The next day we had free to do what we liked, so Rachel, Ellen and
myself headed into the city and explored. The Easter markets were quite good. And we were lucky enough to see the astronomical clock go off at noon. After that we headed off to the Jewish quarter,
which was incredibly harrowing, especially the graveyard where in
some parts it is up to 10 bodies deep. To lighten up the mood we
headed back into town and had some pizza, took a walk across the
bridge, and went to a blacklight theatre performance which was fun
and funny. Before heading back to our hotel I had some strange
Czech version of a happy meal.
The next day we headed into Salzburg and were forced to sing Do rae
me - which I was quite brilliant as in my youth I had much
experience watching The Sound of Music with my sister, and my
natural aptitude for singing...! We wandered the city for most of
the afternoon,took the venicular up to the fortress where we had
fantastic views of the alps. That night we went to an awesome beer
hall which I named "The Lonely Goat", as it was high on the hill.
We encountered some Canadians and the spirit of Maria. Fantastic.
Following this we moved on to Venice, where we spent a lovely
afternoon traipsing around the city square looking at the markets,
rialto bridge, saw a glass blowing demonstration, and took a
gondola ride down the Grande canal. Our gondolier was very subdued
- he didn't seem to enjoy his job as much as the young "drunk" in
front of us who was happily singing and dancing away to mambo
italiana - hilarious! We had a traditional dinner of pizza, pasta,
and gelato.
The next day involved another long drive, but it was definately
worth it, and the scenery was gorgeous. We were of course in
Switzerland! We bought incredibly expensive toblerones and got lost
in the city before finding our group and heading up Mt. Rigi to our
hotel. It was definately the best stop of the tour, with an amazing
view,lovely people, and amazing beds - at this stage of the tour we
had all sucummed to the flu and those who hadn't were tired for
other reasons..
We had a traditional meal of fondue in which I was forced to eat
approximately 2 blocks of cheese - we were all cheesed off in the
end! haha! (We were like those people on that show none of you have
seen so will not get my reference. Except Kirsty.)
For our final stop we headed into Paris, a town that exceeds all
stereotyping. Our first night there was not fun! We had a hotel
disater in which Rachel, Greg, Laine, Cassy, Sam, and myself, moved
hotels twice before getting a room somewhere decent! I wont
describe the room we recieved at the backup as it's still enough to
make me sick. Okay, there was definately a body under our carpet..
:S
Oh, and some man tried to seduce me with a baguette.
So the highlight that night was racing around the Arc de triomphe
at high speed to horrible but suited music. It was great fun and
many cars wanted to crash into us. This is a roundabout on which
there is a crash every 8 minutes, and iunsurance companies don't
cover - there are about 10 lanes and no markers!
The next day was definately a climbing day. We went up the Eiffel
tower and Arc de triomphe, both with great views. Had a picnic
lunch in a nice park down the Champs Elysee on our way to the
Louvre, where we saw the Monna Lisa and not much else. Apparently
if you stop to look at each piece of art for one minute you'll be
there for 9 months - no eating, drinking, or sleeping allowed!!
It's huge. I liked the glass pyramids. We then had a nice walk down
the Seine before going to a farewell dinner.
I ate a snail, it was disgusting! I refused to try the frog on
account that I don't eat things that are going extinct.. We then
took a cruise down the Seine, which was lovely - we saw the Eiffel
tower sparkle 3 times! (It does that every hour on the hour, for
about 10 minutes after dark). Two of our party went up there and we
took bets whether they were getting engaged, we were all wrong!
Alas.
We returned to England and had a quick farewell, before heading up
to Scotland. Spent the last week in Edinburgh where we did many
things, from washing our clothes to going to the zoo. We went to
the castle, palace, learnt about whisky and tartan, visited the
museum of Edinburgh, museum of childhood, went to see the Flaming
lips - amazing band!, we climbed a mountain or perhaps a hill. And
ate a lot of pasta. Now we are in a similar orange room in Glasgow
and I am tired of typing. Tonight I am going to
NICENSLEAZY's!!!!!!!!!! :D
I hope you didn't die reading this.
Miss and love you all,
xxx Siani
P.S. It looks like we shall be working in a pub in Surrey along the
Thames, if in the area you should definately come visit - let me
spill a drink on ye ;)