Round the World 2006 India, Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Finland, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Canada tag:travellerspoint.com,2006-03-01:/blog/?domain=lexie 2006-04-07T14:37:35Z Real_Nomad img/travel-blog-feed.png Niiiiiice tag:travellerspoint.com,2006-04-07:/blog/?domain=lexie&thisblog_entryid=9&entryid=8577 2006-04-07T14:37:35Z 2006-04-07T14:37:35Z I'm sitting in a cafe on the seashore in Nice. It really is nice although the 'beach' doesn't really deserve the name. The water is incredibly blue! I'm on the tour part of my trip now and am having a ball. We have already been to a bunch of places. I went to paris and did all the tourist things. I went to the most amazing place in switzerland. It was incredibly inspiring! This is a link to some pics ... I'm sitting in a cafe on the seashore in Nice. It really is nice although the 'beach' doesn't really deserve the name. The water is incredibly blue! I'm on the tour part of my trip now and am having a ball. We have already been to a bunch of places. I went to paris and did all the tourist things. I went to the most amazing place in switzerland. It was incredibly inspiring! This is a link to some pics but they don't really do it justice http://www.wengen-muerren.ch/index.php?id=58&lang=en&L=3 we stayed in lauterbrennen. Barcalona was awesome too. A crazy place with some good shopping. I have been reduced to picking at the keyboard as they have moved all the letters! Tonight we go to monaco which i am looking forward to. Thanks to everyone who wrote to me!

Niiiiiice remains copyright of the author Real_Nomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

]]> Your comments and subscription tag:travellerspoint.com,2006-03-27:/blog/?domain=lexie&thisblog_entryid=8&entryid=7977 2006-03-27T12:50:21Z 2006-03-27T12:50:21Z I'd just like to publically thank Sarah for being the only one to comment on and suscribe to my journal. I am really grateful that I have at least one friend!! Thanks Sarah!!!!!!!! You are the best :) ... I'd just like to publically thank Sarah for being the only one to comment on and suscribe to my journal. I am really grateful that I have at least one friend!! Thanks Sarah!!!!!!!! You are the best :)

Your comments and subscription remains copyright of the author Real_Nomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

]]> London tag:travellerspoint.com,2006-03-27:/blog/?domain=lexie&thisblog_entryid=7&entryid=7976 2006-03-27T12:46:18Z 2006-03-27T12:46:18Z Well I've just arrived in London again after visiting Nicki in Wales. It was really nice although me with my brilliant planning abilities visited her right before her last week of term...so she was a bit of a stressed out cookie. Yesterday was Mother's Day and the whole family came to see a beautiful castle - Caerphilly Castle. I loved it, it had this cool leaning tower thing and if I can get some photos to work soon I'll out ... Well I've just arrived in London again after visiting Nicki in Wales. It was really nice although me with my brilliant planning abilities visited her right before her last week of term...so she was a bit of a stressed out cookie. Yesterday was Mother's Day and the whole family came to see a beautiful castle - Caerphilly Castle. I loved it, it had this cool leaning tower thing and if I can get some photos to work soon I'll out a picture of it up. The only bad bit about the trip was that it was pouring! Most of our coats were soaked through by the end including my ski jacket! I'm glad that it was Nicki driving not me (actually it has put me off driving completely...) because there was zero visibility... The funny thing was the difference the road surfaces made! Some just sprayed so much it was like being in a car wash.

On Saturday (the day before) Nicki took me to her local shopping town Porthcawl, which is also where she went to school for her final years. It was really nice when it wasn't driving rain in our faces :p The coastline was really wild looking. We just pottered around on Saturday and went back in the evening for a drink. We drove up to Swansea in the afternoon and attempted to buy some flowers for her mother. This was a challenge on the evening before mother's day. We spent a long time in traffic jams and the first place we went to only had horrible broken flowers left. Luckily the supermarket we went to for supplies for dinner had some beautiful tulips left :) The Parker family did their best to fatten me up and I enjoyed steak on Saturday and a beautiful roast last night. I am very appreciative because for the next month I will be relying on tour food which I cannot imagine is gourmet.

All up it was a good weekend and I am now looking forward to chilling at Andy's for a couple more days. In particular Andy and Jos have a beautiful bath and I already have a bath bomb called Mr Butterball that I am looking forward to with much anticipation.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

London remains copyright of the author Real_Nomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

]]> Byford Common tag:travellerspoint.com,2006-03-24:/blog/?domain=lexie&thisblog_entryid=6&entryid=7879 2006-03-24T18:14:10Z 2006-03-24T18:13:09Z This past week and a bit has been busy visiting friends. It has been really good to catch up with everyone! I think I last left you all while I was in Durham with Lou. Since then I’ve made it to Manchester to visit Nicki, Sheffield to visit Rosie and Josh, back to London to spend the weekend with Bryce and down to Surbiton to see Andy and Jos. I’m now near Hereford visiting Hayley and Nigel and their two ... This past week and a bit has been busy visiting friends. It has been really good to catch up with everyone! I think I last left you all while I was in Durham with Lou. Since then I’ve made it to Manchester to visit Nicki, Sheffield to visit Rosie and Josh, back to London to spend the weekend with Bryce and down to Surbiton to see Andy and Jos. I’m now near Hereford visiting Hayley and Nigel and their two children Kiri and Jake. Its been really lovely getting to spend time with everyone, and each visit had been a new experience. There isn’t a lot to tell you lot about though. Apart from one crazy night in Sheffield where I didn’t get to bed till the sun was well up a lot of tea has been drunk. That said there were a few interesting moments – on St Pat’s day Bryce punched a dude who was peeing next to his door, then was pulled over by the cops as he chased the dickhead down the street. Another was Andy’s msgs saying your welcome but we have no furniture yet so you’ll def need a mattress…. All up though its been a brilliant time. Everyone has taken care of me so well and I’m incredibly grateful for all their generosity!

Today I spent wandering around Hereford. I didn’t actually accomplish much except the purchasing of Panadol. This was a massive effort because I didn’t attempt it until I had a full blown headache. I had previously noted a Boots on my wanderings so at the beginning I wasn’t too worried. Then I wandered. And circled. At this point I was looking for anywhere that sold medicine of any sort and all I could find were herbal remedy places! I ended up asking in a shoe store – but the girl couldn’t understand me….. I eventually got my message across that I needed something for a headache (I thought they spoke English here…) and she reckoned she had never heard of panadol. The shop she directed me to sold it though and ended my misery.

This afternoon I met up with Nigel and Jake (who at 19 months is full of beans) and had a really beautiful meal at a restaurant on the river Wye. It was a really nice spot and Jake kept us entertained.

Tonight I’m going on to Wales to see where Nicki grew up J I’m really looking forward to seeing it and am anticipating a brilliant weekend.

Until next time…………..xxxxxxxxx

Byford Common remains copyright of the author Real_Nomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

]]> Durham tag:travellerspoint.com,2006-03-13:/blog/?domain=lexie&thisblog_entryid=5&entryid=7447 2006-03-13T16:41:16Z 2006-03-13T16:41:16Z I'm in a cute little place where a friend of mine (Lou). lives. There is not alot here but it is nice and was very pretty in the snow. I had thought that March was quite late for a large amount of snow but apparently i was wrong. It appears that most of the country was blanketed in the stuff on Saturday night :) I think because I like it so much it makes an extra special effort in my ... I'm in a cute little place where a friend of mine (Lou). lives. There is not alot here but it is nice and was very pretty in the snow. I had thought that March was quite late for a large amount of snow but apparently i was wrong. It appears that most of the country was blanketed in the stuff on Saturday night :) I think because I like it so much it makes an extra special effort in my presence because the same thing happened in Berlin.

When I first arrived it was into Heathrow. Heathrow is the worst airport I have been in by a mile. That includes Delhi. Even though the queen is still the official leader of our country I, as a citizen of Australia, had to que with all the people coming from third world nations. I got caught behind a Saudi family that was almost denied entry. Weird. Its the one place in the world where i though it couldn't happen....apparently we are not part of the EU or a trading partner...or Swiss which were listed seperatly (?).

Anyway, after stuggling my way through customs....(why are you here?what did you study? how did you like learning about glaciers??? hmmmmmmm)....i made the massivly long trek to the underground. I hadn't taken a trolley because i didn't think it was very far. Mistake. I then headed to Bryce's for the night. While i was on the underground i discovered that i had no idea where i was supposed to be getting my bus for Edinburgh from or what time it was leaving. I made a call to my travel agent, he was on holiday though so i talked to one of the others who had my ticket sent to me by email. Fine. Except it was the middle of the night and in the only 24hrs internet place the printer was broken. I ended up going to the bus in the morning and just pleading with the folk in the ticket office to print my ticket out for me....through my email account. They were really nice and i made my bus by 2 mins.

The bus took 9.5hrs so i've decided against buses for the rest of my travels in the UK. Seeing Trine in Edinburgh was brilliant though. I had a really good time there and ended up staying longer than planned....although my planning abilities are not the best so i hadn't really planned anywhere to go after.

I'm about to go and catch a train to Manchester and I'll continue my tale from there :)

Durham remains copyright of the author Real_Nomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

]]> Edinburgh tag:travellerspoint.com,2006-03-11:/blog/?domain=lexie&thisblog_entryid=4&entryid=7378 2006-03-11T19:09:32Z 2006-03-11T19:09:32Z Having an awesome time drinking in Trine's pub (Malcs's sister)- free internet... My last night in Edinburgh. Promise I'll write in the next couple of days. Love Lex xxx ... Having an awesome time drinking in Trine's pub (Malcs's sister)- free internet... My last night in Edinburgh. Promise I'll write in the next couple of days.

Love Lex xxx

Edinburgh remains copyright of the author Real_Nomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

]]> Jyväskylä tag:travellerspoint.com,2006-03-05:/blog/?domain=lexie&thisblog_entryid=3&entryid=7180 2006-03-06T07:37:18Z 2006-03-06T07:37:18Z The time has come for me to leave this beautiful city, but I have made a resolution that I will be back. I have done so many awesome things :) Skating on the lake was amazing. Here they treat the frozen lake as a park, we went on both Saturday and Sunday and there were people everywhere. People walking their dogs, teaching their children how to ski, taking their pram for a skate, riding their bikes. Its huge, and the ... The time has come for me to leave this beautiful city, but I have made a resolution that I will be back. I have done so many awesome things :) Skating on the lake was amazing. Here they treat the frozen lake as a park, we went on both Saturday and Sunday and there were people everywhere. People walking their dogs, teaching their children how to ski, taking their pram for a skate, riding their bikes. Its huge, and the skating track goes for about 4kms. People didn't just stick to the tracks though, they covered the entire lake.

For the cars and bicycles Elina told me that there are special winter and summer tyres. On cars it is illegal to drive with the wrong one because the winter ones have little spikes on them. I guess its dangerous in winter and the winter tyres ruin the roads in summer. The roads are just ice at the moment which makes for some wild corners...particularly when Jallu is driving.

We went tobogganing last night too. It was the most fun ever! Walking up the hill was tough but the thrill of coming down was worth it. Elina and I made a heavy toboggan and we came down very quickly. My eyes were streaming. It was awesome! We were too fast for the camera! Mine anyway...its a little slow.

We also had a finnish sauna. That was really good, really hot....and then Elina had me walk on the snow with my bare feet. Twice!

Unfortunatly I now need to go and repack as this arvo I'm off to London where I will be seeing Bryce which I'm looking forward to. Finland has been a fantastic place and Elina a brilliant host. I hope the rest of my trip can live up to this experience :)

Jyväskylä remains copyright of the author Real_Nomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

]]> Jyväskylä tag:travellerspoint.com,2006-03-03:/blog/?domain=lexie&thisblog_entryid=2&entryid=7080 2006-03-03T16:39:23Z 2006-03-03T16:35:25Z So...I'm in Jyväskylä, Finland It has been a month since I left our sunny shores and I apologise to everyone who hasn't heard from me since. I might try and write something about the past month....hmmmmm. At least here i have acess to the internet. It was available in India but the computers were complete crap....one had a red screen. In Europe it was just incredibly expensive with 3 euros an hour being pretty standard. I am currently visiting a friend who ... So...I'm in Jyväskylä, Finland

It has been a month since I left our sunny shores and I apologise to everyone who hasn't heard from me since. I might try and write something about the past month....hmmmmm. At least here i have acess to the internet. It was available in India but the computers were complete crap....one had a red screen. In Europe it was just incredibly expensive with 3 euros an hour being pretty standard.

I am currently visiting a friend who came and stayed with my family while on exchange several years ago. Some of you may remember Elina...think back to a day when we tried to go to the beach except every single beach we tried was covered in blue bottles.

It is beautiful here. Everything is covered in snow and ice. I have decided that I have a passion for icicles, which is good because they are everywhere. It is -9 outside right at the moment, which is acutally quite warm for today. When we were about to go out earlier it was -14 and Elina assures me that tonight it will be -20. This doesn't mean anything to me however because it is simply cold.

I bought a ski jacket in Austria because what I had brought with me was insufficent. Elina took one look at what I was wearing and said it was not thick enough. So I borrowed one of hers. Today was a pretty relaxed day and we went shopping. I ended up buying a jumper. I know, I shouldn't have. It was a lovely green though, and half mohair. It is really light and was really cheap. Justified.

Afterwards we went to her boyfiends parents and had coffee. His mother had made these beautiful buns. They were a bit like brioche and delicious. I asked for the recipe (which is in Finnish so I'm hoping that Elina can translate it for me.) and she was incredibly nice and gave me another bag to take with me. Their house had alot of snow outside so I took some pictures. Elina offered to take one with me in it. Well. I attempted to walk out into the backyard for it but it was all powder snow. Meaning I just sank though it to my knees like it barely existed. I love the snow, it so so much fun and such a novelty.

Tomorrow or the next day we are going iceskating on the lake. We drove past it today and its huge! I think finland is about half lakes.... Anyway there are iceskating roads though it. I am really excited! I have wanted to iceskate outside for a long time. I'll take lots of pictures so that all of you can be jealous. I can't describe it really except to say that this lake has boats frozen into it. Big boats like the size of the ferries on the harbour. Its amazing.

Tonight we are trying some Finnish drinks. These include blueberry cider, something called long drink which i have yet to try and some dark alcohol which I don't really know what it is......I'll report back.

Jyväskylä remains copyright of the author Real_Nomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

]]> yay tag:travellerspoint.com,2006-03-01:/blog/?domain=lexie&thisblog_entryid=1&entryid=7031 2006-03-03T16:26:15Z 2006-03-01T19:49:01Z i now have a journal ... i now have a journal

yay remains copyright of the author Real_Nomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

]]>