Well I got a plan of the old town and off I went. Headed into town about a 30 minute walk. Really hot today, but need to keep walking. Made for the market as I needed to buy some food. Great prices, got fruit for 2 days and vegies all for E3.00 what a bargain. From the market I found a nice square with old buildings and a nice statue..stopped to rest and then it was ride up the functionala to Ljubljana's old castle. Great views from here not much of a castle once you have been treated to Palace Espana!! (in Sevilla Spain). Any way took more phoyos and then headed back down. Found the old Roman wall and the Dragon Bridge both nice to see. Took more photos of more old churches and then headed back to the hostel. I was out for about 6 hours. Posted the postcards I have been lugging around $.45 each. Not too bad. Boy my pack is heavy. I no longer have Bobbie to carry half the cooking stuff or her computer. So I have added about another 3 kg to my bag..I think I must be lugging around about 25kg... Treated myself to a new hair dye..Cant stand the mix of blonde brown and grey any longer, going to be chestnut in a couple of days. I am sharing a 4 bed room with 3 x 18 year old Londoner males. So the room looks like there are 25 people staying in it..They party all night and sleep most of the day so we hardly see each other, suits me!!. I am off to Feldkirch in Austria 23rd July. The train leaves at 20.48pm and should arrive around 6.10am...I'm hoping to get some sleep.

Left on time. What I could see before it got dark was all really nice. All the houses are 2 storied and have sections twice as big as ours. Everyone here has very large vegie gardens. There are small villages about every 5 minutes, of about 100 houses, surround by mountains. The view out the train window reminds me of Queenstown. Never expected it to be so beautiful. Didnt book a sleeper but have managed to get 2 seats together and will do my best not to let anyone sit next to me. Well I got off to sleep and managed to get around 6 hours sleep during the trip. Arrived at 6.30am and got a bus straight to the hostel. Nice old building, it used to be a small hospital for the elderly and Leporacy sufferers in its day. Really old I will have to ask how old. I have left my bags and headed back to the train station. My Europass expires today so I intend to train as far as I can before this evening.

Morning of the 24th July. Right left Feldkirch at 8.43am and headed to a small town on lake Bodensee in Austria called Bregenz. Then caught the train to Lindau in Germany, still on the same lake, stayed for a couple of hours then caught the train to St, Margrethen which I think was Switzerland, lots of really posh sky resorts. Again for a couple of hours then on the train to Buchs Austria, took even more photos of the journeys as it was a scenic route. Got back to Feldkirch around 6pm. I am stuffed and going to have a shower, go to bed early. I will fill in what I saw and did on my scenic day tomorrow as I am making too many typing mistakes.

Well Bregenz is a small town on the side of the lake. It is famous for a massive fire that destroyed the town many years ago This lake has boarders to 3 countries Switzerland, Austria and Germany. So I visited 3 countries in 1 day. . I spend a couple of hours walking around and taking photos. Then found a coffee shop that made me a BOWL of flat white coffee. YES a flat white for only E2.80 and it was a flat white. Nice coffee has been few are far between. The lake is beautiful. From here I hoped on the train again to go 15 minutes around to Lindau Germany. Again on the same lake, only 15 minutes away from Bregenz. It is a small Island inside the lake, with a light house and some beautiful old buildings and a walk way all the way around it. It takes less than 1 hour to see the whole island and was really worth seeing. I took some time to just sit on the lake side and admire it all. From here I jmped on a train again to go to St. Margrethen in Switzerland, I believe. This small town has many sky resorts but in Summer is really dead, but my reason for going here was that the scenery between Lindau, here, then Buchs, then back to Feldkirch is considered some of the most amazing in Auistria. I walked around St Margrethen for half an hour then jumped on the train for a 15 minute ride through to Buchs, south of Feldkirch. Yes this was worth the trip. The scenery between these 3 towns was by far the most amazing I have ever seen. The "Sound of Music" sort of scenery. Small Alpine villages in valleys, under neither massive cliffs. Just breath taking. I took so many photos while traveling on the train. Some have come out well and others are trees and buildings. I am sure I will get the change to put some up on facebook,when I get to England, with Rory's help, you will all appreciate what I am trying to say.

Sat 25 July. My 10 room dorm is full. Yes there are 8 Spanish class, students here for a holiday. Ageing from 17 to 20. It has been like a teenage sleep over in the room. Lucky my hearing aid broke in Dubai...God don't I just love teenagers!! NOT. Any way I am up. Its 8.30am and its raining and quite cold. Good day to put the hair colour in and hope the rain goes away. Did some washing, hung it on my portable line by my bed and coloured my hair.Yes I am now a nice dark Chestnut colour. There is no wireless internet at this hostel and it is E2.00 for half an hour. I found a internet cafe for E.50 for 20 minutes, so will go down later.My journal will have to wait until I find wireless..It has stopped raining (2.30pm) so I will venture out around Feldkirch. Again there is a map of the old town. Its a 30 minute walk, nice as its not too hot today. Really its getting cold.The old town is really nice, not alot of TOURISTS!! I have been wondering around for 1 hour and here comes the rain. I am going to hightail it back to the hostel. Made a nice dinner for myself. Onions, Tomatoes, kidney beans, basil and Tuna. Nice to be able to cook. I even had a cup of TEA. The Hostel owner has just been to tell me that tomorrow there will be an Austrian day held in the carpart and backyard if I wish to attend. Yes, Why not.

Sunday 26 July. Had a better night as there were only 6 of us in the room. The bloody Spanish kids have moved on. I found out this morning that they emptied alot of peoples food out of the fridge and filled it up with beer. Then cooked a meal in the kitchen at some time in the night and never bother to clean up their dishes. I also here from the 2 Germany guys in my room that they were charged with 2 extra nights between the 8 of them for their mess and noise. Any way the weather has fined up and the day looks great. I enjoyed my breeky this morning. Muesli, milk, banana and yoghurt...so nice. Austria is cheap to buy food from the supermarket.

I ventured out into the carpark at about 11am. There are around 150 people from the village. There is music, (a piano accordian and guitar) food, cakes, coffee and ham and noodles with cabbage. I sat down at a table with 1 other lady to find she speaks English, bonus..Well we sat for 2 hours and spoke about life in general. Her name is Ingrid and she was born here. Her and her exhusband, plus her exhusbands 2 brothers and their wivies run a cafe, come restaurant, come night club in town. She has invited me in to the club on Tuesday. She is 47 with 2 sons. Really nice to meet someone and have someone to talk to.We swapped email addresses and her son is on Facebook so she will get him to look me up. I had a coffee and cake and now I am updating the journal. Its now 3.30pm. Ingrid has gone home. I have updated to here and will now venture out to buy a beer and enjoy the piano accordian and quitar. Talk to you all tomorrow. Miss everyone at home. I will travel again.....Yes I think I have the travel BUG!!

Well I ventured to the carpark once again to get a beer only to meet a couple in their 60s called Christine and Alios. They were both very drunk and having a super time. They couldn't speak any english and me no German. We managed to have a bit of a conversation. Christine collects coasters and has done for over 40 years. I must remember to send her some when I get home. Any way my room started filling up again. Two brothers from Finland. 2 Friends (girl and Guy) from Finland and then a boyfriend and girlfriend from, you will never quess, yes Finland. They all got together in the yard out the back and invited me out for a drink. We started drinking Yagamister at about 9.30pm and I think I came in around 3 to 4am. They ranged from 19 to 25. What a night. I woke at 10.30am, just in time to say bye to them all as they headed for the train. I had a very quiet day. Went back to sleep around 4pm and slept until 7pm. The older of the 2 brothers has just sent me a note on facebook. Nice to get a new friend.

Tuesday 28th July. Went down to Ingrids cafe today for a coffee. It is called DOGANA and is very flash. Walked around the town and saw all the sites again. I was going to see Christine and Alios today but I got the owner of the hostel to ring, but they were going out. I will email them, as I leave for Switzerland tomorrow morning. I cooked up all my food tonight. Enough for tonight, all tomorrow and Thursday, then I get back to Dawns. I am finding it hard to be by myself. No one to laugh with each day. I do wish Bobbie had stayed.

Tuesday 7 July arrived from Florence in Rome..yes Roma as it is referered to by the Italians. We hoped on the underground metro and made our way to Flaminio station and from there we got on an above ground train to the station Prima Porta. There the free shuttle from the camping ground runs every half hour. We arrived at he camp and went and found our rooms. Mine was in a 40 bed emale dorm.Didnt know what to expect but was pleasenty surprised as each set of 4 bunk beds was in its own sectioned off alcove. So I choose one that no one else was in. I had room mates 1 night out of 9. I then went and inspected the camp,found the internet, bar, restaurant, the pool toilets, showers, laundry, supermarket and found it all looked great. Time would tell. We had a nice day getting accustomed to our new camp. Went to the restaurant for dinner. Nice pastes, pizas and salads. Good prices. I went for a swim as the temperature got up to 35deg.

Wednesday we were to spend the day with Mark and Dawn who had arranged to fly to Rome for a few days and enjoy i with us. But NO!! they missed the bloody plane and were now waiting in the standby que to see if they could get to Rome at all. We had gone ahead and booked tickets online for the Vatican and the Colosseo!!. With messages left at both ends we hoped we would be able to catch up with each other. So we headed into Rome to see some of the sights. Walked from our train station Falaminio down to the Spanish Steps (P.zza Si Spangna) and filled our water bottles from the original aquaduc fountain at the bottom of the steps. In Rome all water marked with SPQA means good drinking water.Rome only has 2 Metro lines as every time they try to dig up for another 1 they find remains of old Roma and have to stop. So now the city have decided to keep all transport above ground. We then walked the most expensive shopping street in Rome, yes Prada, Cucci just to name 2. Street is called Condott and I would be pushing just to pay for the bag they put things in. Lots of Botox and facelift ladies, they can not move the muscles on the face and their hands and necks give them away. Many had very young attractive MEN!! carring their bags. Went and visited the Parliament building and then the Pantheon, built 602BC. Originally used as a placeof worship for the old gods but then it was changed to a place to worship our god was has been saved. The Pantheon is an amazing site and beautifully looked after. Probably the oldest building still in 1 piece anywhere in the world. We left there and kept walking to the P.zza Navona a square with 3 fountains really very nice and surrounded by tourists!!. We carried on our walk around sites of Rome to the Castle St Angelo. E8.00 to get in, I was castled out!! Bobbie and Craig went on inside for the next 2 hours and I enjoyed myself sitting by a bridge just watching the people of the world go by.. Headed back to our camp around 6pm. We had recieved an email from Mark and Dawn. They had made it but would only be in Rome until Friday lunch time and it was Wednesday night. We left a message on Dawns cell phone to say our tickets for the Colasseo and the old emperial grounds was for 1pm so we would meet them at the Colasseo Metro station around 10.30 Thursday morning.

Thursday morning came and we had not heard from Mark and Dawn so we headed off to Rome. I waited at the Metro (10am) and Bobbie and Craig headed for their hotel...No sign of them, so I stayed at the metro until 12.45pm while Bobbie and Craig tried to find them in a long long line of people waiting to go in...Well we found them and off the 5 of us went. Bobbie and Craig had arranged a quided tour for themselves but we didnt want one. So we arranged to meet B & C at THE BAR across the road when their tour was over. Mark Dawn and I looked all over the Colosseo for 2 hours and headed for the bar, thinking that Bobbie and Craig would be along soon, not so, after 2 pints of beer each at E6.50 a pint we were feeling very nice thanks and decided that another beer would put us on the ground. Remember its 35deg and we had breeky at 8am!! We waited until 4pm, yes they turned up...Lucky for us as we were beginning to think we may have to go with a 3rd beer!! We left the bar and I had obtained a nice bottle of red wine off the table, finders keepers, thats my story and I,m sticking to it. We then went through the grounds of the emperiors palace, the old senitors area. There was originally around 22 acres of beautiful buildings but now there is not much still standing. It must have been very posh in its day. We finished the day off by going to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in Rome. Mark footed the bill and I didnt like to ask.

Friday I spent at the camp, did all the domestic chores and spent the rest of the day lying by the pool reading a book. Went into the city around 4.30pm take part in a 3 hour free walking tour of all the sites. Funny thing was the lady that took Bobbies and Craigs Colosseo tour also took the free tour. She took us to a few places we had not found and told alot we didnt know. We went to the big fountain in Rome, built on the side of the building behind it. The reason was that they had to get it below street level to get any water pressure. Bobbie has decided to go home and will be leaving me on the 16 July. Really sad about this as I never wanted to travel by myself. So I now have to go on line and figure where to go and how. I dont understand her reasons but she has made up her mind and nothing I do or say will change it. Talking about it makes things between us worse.

Saturay 11 July. Our tickets for the Vatican are for today at 10.30am. We will go through the Vatican Musuem, The Bacilica, The Cistine Chapel and ST. Peters. There are 1000s of people waiting in lines everywhere. So glad we got the tickets. You can purchase on the day for E14.00 or pay online and jump que for E26.00. Well I headed off to the Musuem and lost Bobbie and Craig immediatley, no way to find them so just kept going. The Vatican Musuem was very interesting with old bibles dating back to the 1200 all written in Latin. Old record books back as far as well. Statues everywhere. From the musuem I found the Bacilica, well there were old taperstries some 6 metres by 6 metres and old maps hand painted the size of the walls, for areas that have new names now and because its all in Italian, well who knows. The buildins are beyond belief, beautiful and ornate. The Cistine Chapel says NO PHOTOS and everyone just kept clicking, so I did too. Got alot of photos, Then came ST. Peters. Well its enormous and quite breath taking, The floors are all mosiac marble, the ceilings are just over the top beautiful. I found it hard seeing all this expense for the temple of a God and beggers outside!! The Vatican City is its own State, own stamps. Owe rule...The whole area is over the top.

Sunday 12 July. Just hanging around today by the pool. Can only be on the internet for 30 minutes at a time as there are 4 computers and around 500 people. I need to book my accomodation up until the 30 July when I fly back to UK. Getting very scared. No good telling Bobbie as she has no sympathy..I know I will miss her. Didnt want to travel by myself.

Monday 13 July Well today is Jon,s birthday. He is 26, cant believe hes that age already. Sent him a nice email and put some money into his bank account. He tells me its really cold at home and I am struggling with the 35deg days and the same temp at night. Sleeping is hard as if you sleep on top of the sheets you get eaten alive and if you get under the sheets you cook. So I choose to be eaten alive as bites dont itch long for me. Met 4 American girls today, at University In Berlin and holidaying in Rome. 1 of them Kathie lives by Ngagra Falls and has just phoned to ask her Mum if I can stay with her family when I go t0 see the falls. They have offered to have me stay, they will take me to the falls, the casino and Buffalo. So of course I said yes..

Tuesday 14. Had to stay at the camp as I have planning to do.

Wednesday 15 July decided to go on a train trip to Civitavecchia over on the coast today. Jumped on the train around 10 and arrived at midday. Civitavecchia is a port city where the 2 oceans meet. Mediterranean and the Tyrrhenian. So it is fair to say I have now swum in both. The water was really warm, not much sand small stones, but really nice. Didnt do much wondering around just found a nice spot on the beach with the Italian families and had a couple of swims. All the women here in Italy wear bikinis, no mattter how big they are. Some of the women on this beach would make 3 of me. Headed back to the train around 3pm and arrived back at the camp about 5.30pm. Bobbie is trying to avoid me now, getting really hard. Bobbie has agreed to let me have her small computer so with luck, I will be able to storemy photos and type the journal.

Thursday 16th July. Bobbie didnt even say bye...feeling really sad. Why be like this, I,m not the 1 leaving her by herself!! We used to laugh about the fact that we couldnt have an arguement and storm away from each other as each other was all we had. So I am on my own and off on a train to Milano. Wanted to get off around 10am by didnt get off until 1pm. Got to Milano at 8.15pm Headed off to find the hostel. Had to take 2 different Metro lines but I found it. I am in a room with 3 beds by myself, or at least I thought I was until 2 English girls arrived at 1am in the morning. They tried to be quiet but, hey what can you do.

Friday 17th July in Milano. Headed off to the train station to see haw to get to Rijeka in Croatia. Looks very close and shouldnt take too long. Went into the Duomo Square around 9.30am in Milano to see a beautiful cathedral and wondered through the city. Very nice buildings everywhere. Like alot of Europian cities the centre is the old part and takes a good day to get around. From the square I wondered down to the castle. Yes another castle. Then through the park over to the other side. I passed churches and really nice building everywhere. All recorded on photos. Stopped and had an American coffee (thats what Italians call coffee like we drink) and a small roll for lunch. headed back to the hostel about 6pm. Had to catch the train for Croatia tonight at 11pm.

The trip to Rijeka...well this has to go down as my worst experience so far. Got to the station for the train with time to spare. Got on the train to find it was over booked and it was standing room only. Its 11pm at night and we are not expected to get to Bologna until 12.50am. Found a spot to ly down between carriages. sat with my back against my large pack. Got to Bologna and my next train isnt due until 4am for Trielse. The station is closed and I sit on the platform for 3 hours waiting. The train comes in and I get on. Not many people so I get 3 seats together and fall asleep. We arrive in Trielse at 8am and I,m not in Rijeka yet. No trains to Croatia only a bus, and its leaving as the train pulls in. So I wait for the next bus at 10.30 and arrive in Rijeka at 12.30pm on Saturday...

Saturday 18 July Found the hostel.I am pasted being tired and thank heavens it has been raining all night and most of the morning, so its not hot. The weather cleared as the bus arrived. I think I will walk along the road and go down to the beach. This little town is on the coast of Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. Well I have a nice shower, get changed and head off for a nice walk. There are puddles everywhere but the day has turned really nice. I am walking along the 1 way road towards the beach as a bus comes along. As I just told you puddles everywhere. Well you see it on the movies.. Yes the bus went through the great big puddle and I was saturated....what could I do, no one to laugh with but I laughed anyway. Found the lovley little beach then looked at the sky and turned around fst for the hostel. I got back as the rain started again. Booked a mixed 4 bed dorm and had a family from Reunion Island stay in with me. Swapped email and facebook address. They invited me to come and stay if I ever go there way. She was Creek and he was West Indian. Nice couple with 2 teenage kids.

Sunday 19 July. Went to the free breeky at 8am. Cornflakes, bread, jam, tea, and fruit juice. Not bad. Made myself 2 big sandwiches for lunch as everyone else did. Headed into the town at 9am. Walked as it was about 20 miutes away. Found the market first and bought some fruit. Boy Croatia ia cheap...bought. A Rock Mellon, a nectorine, a peach, 2 bananas and a small scoop of cheeries for E2.oo. Walked all over the town for about 5 hours and took lots of photos. Went to the dock just to look and found lots of little fish eaing off the side of the concrete wharf. Took photos as it fasinated me. Got back to the hostel around 2.30pm, got changed and went down to the beach. Yes the quiet little beach I found yesterday when it had just stopped raining. Well today was a different story. People everywhere. You are lucky to get a square metre of space. Bloody tourists!!$#0w..What me, am I a tourist!!. Spent 2 hours on the beach eating rock mellon. Came back and made myself tomato, pesto and salami snadwiches for dinner as I couldnt be bother going out.

Monday 20 July. Heading off to Ljubljana Slovenia today. Not too worried as its a short train trip, leaves Rijeka at 12.57pm and arrives Ljubljana at 3.25pm. The hostel sounds easy??? to find. Got up and had breeky again. Spent 15 minutes on the internet. Then made a cup of tea and sat in the common area outside waiting to get the bus to the train station. The trip on the train between Croatia and Slovenia was really nice. Up the coast of Croatia were lots of small seaside villages. Further on in Slovinia the land was green with farming and agriculture everywhere. I took alot of photos out the window of the train. I had not thought up here would be so nice. The people are really nice, helpful and friendly. It seems to be a safe place.

Donna starting the journal and I will try to remember from here arrived in Berlin Thursday night 18 June 2009. Our train was delayed by around 3 hours and instead of arriving at our couch surfers Katrina around 9pm we arrived very late. We got the train to Charlottenbury (a suburb of Berlin) around midnight and got a taxi from there to Katrinas place (Kalserin - Augusta AllEE88. we spent friday Saturday and Sunday at Katrinas place and she showed us all the sights of Berlin. I will come back to this and TRY TO LIST SOME OF THE SIGHTS.

There is no public display of Hitler or the SS anywhere in Berlin, It has all been hidden. We heard there is an UNAUTHORISED tour of Bertlin, where they take you to the parts that Germans hide from public view. Very few dark cultures around in Germany. They may feel differently but I would say as far as the dark cultures of the world, Shit sticks!!

On Sunday we had a lovley lunch Bobbie Craig Katrinna her daughter Anna with her baby Emerly a friend of Annas and myself where we cerebrated my coming birthday, Monday. Katrina gave me a small pendant (a match of hers) meaning friendship and wisdom.

I found Katrina a great host and a nice new friend. We invited her to stay in NZ. Now that there is Air Asia from London to Melbourne, From Austria it would only cost around E600. return, not a bad price. This was researched in June for travel in November.

Monday 22nd June it was off to Krakow Poland. We had found a great hostel for less than E5. a night, sounds too good to be true well it was. We arrived early in the morning, after taking the overnight sleeper train from Berlin. It was raining (yes my birthday) we caught the tram to the hostel address, so we thought but found we had caught it the wrong way, so we got back on and went back again. We then walked around the area all 3 of us with havy packs on our backs for over 2 hours looking for this hostel (yes in the rain). We finally found it around 1pm. There was no one answering the door so we then found someone else who tracked down the owner...He and a girl arrived about 20 minutes later. He was a very large man (morrocon I think. ow shit) who proceeded to tell us what we were to see and do in his city, where when and how. Bobbie and I are kicking each other by now, thinking, he has to be joking, then Bobbie & Craig say its my birthday and he immediately tells us we are ALL going out to dinner and where. NOT!!. At this stage we are over him. Its a private apartment, penthouse, great view and we are waiting for the punch line!!! Well here it comes. Hostel World listed the price WRONG its not E5. a night its E50. We tell him we will find somewhere else as he tells us that you can not get a hostel for under E45 a night in the city..So off we go into the rain and back on the bus (we know the area backwards by now) find an internet cafe and find a hostel for 2 nights. At a nice cheap price. so we get settled by around 4pm...We went for a walk in the rain, saw a great big castle some bits of the city and then went to a small Chinese restaurant for a birthday dinner.
The next morning we caught a bus to Auschwitz for the day...Glad I went...it is a very sobering experience..one that the world should never forget..Each country has a barracks that they have been offered to display their part, lose, view of the horror in their own way.The inside walls of each barricks are linned with the German photos of the people that were taken to the camp (Men women children, all races). the ones that were strong enough to be of any use. the children under 15, older people (not strong enough to work) were sent to the gas chambers within 2 days of arrival.
No one knows how many died, it was the Jews, the Gypsy, the out spoken, basically anyone that said a word against Hitlers way!! The gas chambers are still there with the room of shoes, artificial limbs, baby clothes.

So sad that this sort of thing is still happening in our world TODAY!!!!..I am so pleased I went to Germany before Poland as I believe my opinion of Gertmany would have been tanted by what I read and saw.

After this sobering time we hoped on the overnight train at 10.15pm for Budapest Hungrey...We had booked into a small hostel in Buda from Wednesday morning till Thursday night. Budapest is in 2 parts, one side of the river is called Buda and the other part is called Pest. Our hostel cost Hungrey 4050. Yes a total of E15.26 for the 3 of us. What a lovley city. old churches and temples everywhere. we climbed up the hill to some statue, once again I can not remember the the names. Maybe Bobbie will read this and fill in the gaps or send me a copy of the plan so I can fill it in. WRITE IN THE SITES WE SAW.
Bought dried food here as it was very cheap We had a kitchen at this hostel and enjoyed cooking for ourselves. Rained on and off for the 2 days but it was nice as it cooled things down for a time.

Leaving for Vienna Austra Wednesday 24th June, couchsurfing with a young man called Chris. He has a batchelor pad and stays with his girlfriend, so we had the place to ourselves. When we arrived in Vienna we booked our next train. Sat 27 June catch an overnighter to Venice, Italy. Vienna has 2 train stations 1 in the south and 1 in the west. We booked out ticket for Venice in the south, then caught the tram number 18 towards chris,s flat. So we arrived In Vienna at aroud 8.30am on Thursday morning, got to Chris,s and went out site seeing. Lots to see and Chris had promised to take us out for an authentic Austrian meal that night. Really expensive but very nice. We decided to cook for ourselves, having a kitchen and a supermarket around the corner was a novality for us. Friday night Chris invited us to a rock concert, held once a year and paid for by the ruling Government party (the Socialists) it is held at the south end of town. The town always floaded at a particular spot so they transfered lots of dirt, but had lots left, so they made an island. Great place for recreation. There were 10 stages and lots of local and international bands. I stayed with our host Chris, Bobbie and Craig went home. I got back to the flat around 2am. The concert was for the 3 days but unfortunetely we only had Friday night. Lots to see and do in Vienna.

Left Vienna on Saturday evening for Venice ITALY. Nearly didnt make it as we automatically went back to the train station we purchased the tickets from and couldnt find the train listed so asked someone, only to be told sorry that trian leaves from the west station about 100 metres from the flat we were staying at. so we had to jump on a train, go 10 stops and run (yes fully packed with 2 bags each) as fast as possible to the train we were catching. we made it with about 30 seconds to spare.

Arrived in Venice Wednesday 24th June. took the sleeper train. We had booked into Alba D'oro camping, a simple free shuttle from beside the train station. Yes simple if you can find it, not us. so we finally get help and arrived at our 3 bed little cabin around midday. The camp has a POOL and spa pools, a bar, a restaurant. We spent Wed, Thurs Friday in Venice. On the Friday we purchased a water taxi pass. This allowed us to take as many taxi.s as far as we wanted to go. we got to see all of Venice. I had no idea it is so small and no cars!!!. We didnt take a Gondola ride as it is E100.00 and we were walking about 2 metres from them. so you fell like you are with them anyway.I took many photos and will show you all when I get back.

Saturday we took a train to La Spezia for a couple of days in a small town. Bobbie And Craig caught the train to a very small town where the houses are balanced on the cliff face. You can walk up and down the 5 small villages, which they did. It was far to hot for me at 1pm start so I stayed in La Spezia and went down and paddled my feet in the sea and watched the fisherman.

June 30th we catch a train to Florence (Frienze) we arrived and headed off to David Inn Florence, our hostel. we had booked a 3 bed private room and Bobbie and CRaig had splashed out to a 2 bed room on the last night and I slept in the 4 bed female dorm. We had a kitchen at this hostel and found beer available at the Euro shop E.99 this is cheap for Italy. We found a few cheaper lunch bars where you could get a large piece of pizza for E3.00. Florence or as the Italians call it Frienze is a beautiful city with the remains of their wall. Stayed here for 6 days as it was getting hard to get around (trains full) and hostels even fuller. There are fresh water stations all around the city. so we just filled our bottles for free. we walked all over the old city and climbed a hill where they have a large statue of David and lots of souvenier stalls. All selling very over priced junk. Mind you I found a few cheaper shops and shouted myself a couple of piecesI can say bought in Italy!!! It has been nice to be able to make myself a cup of tea.

On Sunday 5 July I caught a train to Piza. Yes we walked from the train station to see the Leaning tower, the church and the Baptist part. admission was E15 but remember that the tower is on a lean and not too easy to climb. The tower and church are surrounded in lovley green grass, you can sit on it but no kicking balls or throwing a frisbe. Sham as its only to sit on. Grass is a rear find around Europe. We took photos of everything, just like all the other tourists. We then walked around Piza for a couple of hours looking for an ancient aquaduc, but couldnt find it. So it was back to the train station for the hour trip back to Florence.Went out to dinner and what a shit meal for E18.00 each. We can cook better.

Woke up this morning the 6 July and thought I would take the train to Lucca for the day.There has been an announcement that tomorrow the trains, buses all public transport will be on strike from midday to midnight so I,ll go today. Went to catch the 12.08 train but no had to wait for the 1.15. (must be having a practice run) Luca has a city wall very well maintained, so I walked around it. Took about an hour and gave me a lovley view of the old city. Lots of people walking, biking and just enjoying the day. They have a large tower that has a tree growing up through it and out the top. Took lots of photos. Bobbie and Craig didnt want to go, so it was by myself. I will have to get used to this as Bobbie has decided to go back to NZ, she leaves me on the 16 July. Stopped for a cold beer, it didnt even touch the sides. Headed to the train station for the 5.32pm train but no train until 6.38pm. Met two Danish sisters that spoke english on the train bavk. Enjoyed having someone to have a conversation with. It was a 35 deg day in Lucca. Very hot in Italy. The weather ranges betwenn 30 and 35 deg. The nights are not much better. Got to try and sleep as its up at 5am tomorrow and off to ROME (Roma) at 6.45am. We have booked into the Tiber Camping ground at Prima Porta Rome. I will be staying in a 40 bed female dorm and Bobbie & Craig will have their own little cabin. Mine is E11.00 a night. There is a pool, a bar, a restaurant, a laundry and a free shuttle down to the train station. A weeks train, bus and metro pass is E16.00. So seeing we will be there for 9 days I,ll get the pass.

Well, we totally suck at keeping the journal updated on a regular basis, I know. What can I say? Internet time is often limited, costly and when I do get access I am usually busy booking hostels, trains, and planes for the 2 of us.
About 2 months ago we realised we were falling behind in the journal and I was stressed with bookings so mum has been attempting to keep a paper journal so you might eventually get updates.
We are currently in Rome, having a great time. Italy has so much history.
I want to write a big update but again I am short on time, this was mainly to write to say that updates will be limited for a while and also that: I will see you all soon.

I decided about 2 months ago to come home when we arrive in America. Me and mum discussed it, travelling like a nomad just wasnt working out for me. The world is an amazing and beautiful place but I am such a create of habit - I actually like waking up in the same bed every morning and going to the same job every day. I know, I know, doesnt do much for improving my Nana status (Which I am trying hard to change!) but theres no point in wasting money travelling if it just isnt my thing.

When I get back I have a few weeks before I am back at work so I will do my best to update this if mum hasnt added her paper entries.

We arrived at 10AM and our host for couchsurfing wasn't due home until 6.30PM, we had been advised we could store our bags (for quite a price) at the train station but on arrival they advised us this was no longer an option due to security.
Due to carrying around all our gears and also half the supermarket & kitchen sink we honestly can't carry our bags for a full day, and have been lucky enough not to so far. We wondered around the area, asking hotels, eventually we found a restaurant that agreed to let us keep our bags there. We decided it was only polite to order a drink, mum had her first flat white (not the first attempt but the first successful) for Europe, so she was happy.

...And off we went, map in hand, to see the sights of the city. We walked along the river, noticed that there are groups of fish all over the river swimming in circles together, they were sunbathing on the surface and nearby were 2 eagles ordering lunch - quite interesting to watch. We sat along the river to make ourselves some lunch, brie, pesto and tomato sandwhiches. We were sitting under the shade of a tree near the river watching all the children playing sports and running around (wonder why they weren't in school at midday but later found out Wednesdays are an early finish), enjoying our lunch and watching the world go by, when a man walks past us heading for the trees and starts to undone his pants. GREAT, we think, yet another man who believes it's perfectly acceptable to have a pee in public (well, around the rest of the world it does seem to be perfectable acceptable, but come on, next to a childrens park)...well, that would have been bad enough except that we realised he was SQUATTING. We both just about FELL OVER, a 50+year old man taking a shit behind a tree in a childrens park, what the?? And, as it turns out, there is a public toliet in the middle of the park that was less than 20metres from us. My god!!

The rest of the city sights were far more pleasant, needless to say... The map we got from the trainstation info centre had a suggested walking tour that emcompassed all but 1 of the ideas on my plan so we followed that, I still have the map so this time I can actually tell you the names of the places we saw:
We saw the Miror D'eau, an art peice that is like a large but very shallow swimming pool, water gradually comes out and fills up to 5CMS then drains away so that against the black stone you get an amazing reflection of all the surrounded buildings, it's really impressive. It goes between filling and emptying and between the 2 it squirts out a fine mist of spray that turns into a cloud of fog, there were so many people there, children ranging for 0-12 playing games in the water, soaking it up, mums and 20-somethings sunbathing on the side and then getting into when the mist hits so they can cool down, teenagers flirting and chasing one another. It was a really nice place, we took off our shoes and enjoyed the water too, it was really refreshing in the 30-something degree heat and direct sunlight. Aross from the Miror D'eau (and reflected in it) was the Place de la bourse commissioned by the royal administration in 1729 because of the sup, now don't ask me what exactly that is but it's an amazing building with a statue out the front.
We walked along to the Grand Theatre, built in 1773 it is now the Grand Opera house (which means you can't entirely explore the inside but you can get as far as the reception and up the stairs). Along the top are 12 statues representing the 9 muses and 3 goddesses (Juno, Venus and Minerval). Also we visited the Basilique Et Fleche Saint-Michel, a listed UNESCO (world heritage) site is the largest parish church in Bordeaux. The construction was started in the 14th century and completed in the 16th century. The belltower is 114 metres tall (the 2nd tallest in France) and we were able to climb up the stairs (that was quite a hike) for a view from 47 metres up (which is a really great view of the city), the rest of the tower is just a spike that you can't climb. Inside the belltower there are 22 bells, dating from 1865. Below the ground floor is the remains of the crypt, where mummies were kept and although there are no mummies in it these days it's a very eerie place to visit because they still have pictures, hung in place of where they were, of some of the real bodies found down there and their expressions are very frightening.

After the belltower we walked along to the Eglise Notre Dame (not the REAL Nortre Dame, though we hope to see that in a few days time). Built by the Dominicans in 1707 it had elaborate carvings and wrought iron railings. The inside of the majority of the churches had fantastic and massive ceilings and organs.
We walked further along the road to Porte Cailhau, a defensive gateway along the waterfront that commemorates Charles VIII's victory at the battle of Fornovo di Taro.
We walked for quite a few hours then made our way to collect our bags from the nice man at the restaurant, heading to Adeline (our couchsurfer)'s home at 6.30pm, we ate a meal together and chatted for a while then Adaline advised us there was another of the buildings nearby so we went for a walk and found the Grosse Cloche belltower, the huge bell is a symbol of freedom and is only tolled these days in the case of major public events. The bell was cast in 1775 and weighs 7,800KG (wow). The clock was built then also and still keeps correct time.
It was a long, hot, day and a late night so we both slept well. Adaline lives in the very city centre so at about 3AM I woke to hear 3 local drunks singing songs from the Lion King while walking the streets. Before bed we got to sit and watch the world go by.

Next morning up bright and early, Adaline left for work at 8.30AM so we had to take our bags back to the same restaurant and plead to leave our bags there again while we completed our sightseeing. Didn't venture too far as again it was hot very early in the day but the police had cordened off alot of the roads (something major was happening) and redirected us along a sideroad (where there were about 25 police vans with 10 police in eat all eating their lunches, maybe they stop the world to eat lunch in France?)...along that road we came across the Eglise Saint Croix monastery, the church dates from the 12th and 13th centuries and has an elaborate, sculpted facade.
After a few hours sight seeing we boarded the train for Angers where, Klervi, one of my previous couchsurfers lives....

(read back for Port Bou, Spain...I've skipped ahead and missed some places but I will let you know when I put them in, they'll be before these entries)

Toulouse was technically our 2nd French stop (Cerbere being our first) but we hadn't had any "wow, we're in France moments" at that stage so it did feel like our first. Met up with our couchsurfing host, I have to say we were a little apprehensive because recently we've been having some bad experiences but Vera and Jean Christoph were so friendly and welcoming.
On arrival we were fed amazing cheese, bread and a fantastic pear and cinnamon jam (which I will attempt to make when I get home). Then Vera gave us a walking tour around the city. We walked along the river that runs into both the Atlantic and Mediteranian, Vera was informing us of some interesting information about the locals. Lots of beautiful buildings to see, so we attempted to see quite a few, made our way around a few different churches (including the largest Roman church in France), took photos of course, and continued along by the tourist office, and so many other pretty buildings. Stopped for a beer on the way back, not a French beer mind you because they simply didn't have one at the bar and we were told it's not really a specialty here (of course). Stopped in a McDonalds (not to buy anything) to put the rumor to rest that McDonalds DON'T infact sell red wine with their menu, they do however have beer on it!
On our return to the house Vera cooked us one of my favourite Indian dishes, Dahl Balti, and we chatted the evening away. Started to watch KungFu Panda (pretty late) and only got half way thorugh before we were all pretty exhausted.
Morning 2 in Toulouse and we'd seen most of my plan and the major sites the night before so we had a nice sleep in. Then Vera suggested that it was actually free to make international phone calls (including NZ) so I spoke to Craig for a few hours while mum and Vera went to do the laundry. Sorry guys I spoke so long we had no time left to call anyone else but if it's true for other places in France we may be able to call from one of our other destinations.

In selected parts of Europe they have a really great idea of renting bikes out around the city, actually they are just bike stands, unattended and connected to a machine. You insert your credit card and for 1euro per day you can hire a bike (or 25euros per year so it's a good deal for locals), the catch is that you must return the bike to another stand (they are pretty much all over the place) within 30 minutes to not get charged further, but on return you can immediately get another one for a further 30 minutes and so on. So the 3 of us hired a bike and bike along the river, lined with trees and beautiful, we exceeded our 30 minutes and instead went for an hour (meaning we had to pay a little extra). We stopped in at the supermarket were Vera told us a bit about the local cheeses and purchased a whole lot of breads and cheese for dinner, also a local wine. We decided to make an Ambrosia.

Vera knows a hair dressing apprentice who is looking for more people to practise on, and although I have such a bad history with hair dressers I decided to give her a go. I explained to Vera what I wanted and she translated, so there I was getting my hair done in France, aren't I special??? Actually I love what she did, it's nothing out-there crazy (which I didn't want anyway) but she was creative and I'm very happy (trust me that's nearly impossible when it comes to a hairdresser). It is a shame to find a good hairdresser all the way in France though, it seems like such an expensive trip every 6 weeks!!

Mum stayed back the flat attempting to make Ambrosia, to show our hosts a little bit of Kiwi dessert, but unfortunately we discovered that some types of french cream actually don't whip so it was a bit of a disaster but tasted okay just the same.

Dinner, to our delight, was a selection of 6 different cheese, 5 different breads and jam - wow, how spoilt are we. That was about the time I felt like I was really, really in France. Even the wine was good (and I don't like wine), we tried 2, and mum tried a Martini as well. Later we watch the end half of KungFu panda and crashed.
I have to say Vera and Jean Chrisoph were such great hosts, we had a fantastic time in Toulouse and it was mainly thanks to them.
The next morning we got up early and we were on the train to Bordeaux...

(I'm skipping ahead but I will update Morrocco and the other parts of Spain at a later stage)

It was about 3 hours from Barcelona to a little seaside village called PortBou. The spainish train website didn't allow me to look up stops in France so I got us a close to the border as I could. On arrival in Port Bou the sky opened up and rained, rained, rained (mind you we've been pretty lucky to mostly avoid rain so far).

I left mum with the bags and went in search of cheap accommodation. Wondering around Port Bou in the pouring rain, wearing my jacket, skirt and sneakers (oh so stylish) was actually really refreshing, I searched the whole village and was gone about an hour, that did include slipping over in the rain down a paved road and having about 3 carloads of locals see me do it, haha opps. Poor mum thought I had got lost but I came back with news of a cheap hostel including breakfast.

Since we were only in Port Bou for the night and already wet anyway we decided to venture out and see the village, I gave mum the guided tour, along little narrow alleyways and up many stairs to the top of the hill. The view over the city and the ocean from the top of the hill was excellent, the 6 cats I passed earlier still waiting to be let inside their home. On the top of the hill was the church, under construction (like every other tourist attraction in Europe) but still remarkable, though it was closed so we were unable to see the inside.
We wondered all the small alleyways and bought a beer each at the bar along the seaside, then we decided, what the heck, lets paddle our feet in the ocean - how exciting to be told my a local (that spoke English) that it was the Mediteranian. Mum collected a stone and then we walked along the top of a long, winding road to so many expensive and beautiful homes we can only dream of, went for a big walk up the hill and back down again. When we got to the bottom we noticed there was a couple returning along a path next to the beach (which isn't sad but instead made up entirely of small stones) so we followed the path and soon discovered that it follows the ocean all the way around the rocks, a long way, you sometimes step on stones in the water, climb stairs, jump across the narrow parts. We must have walked along it for an hour or more and had a great view from the hills surrouned PortBou into the village.

Made our way back to the hotel and ate our cold pasta (last nights dinner) for dinner. I've certainly had more comfortable beds in my life, these ones dipping entirely in the middle when you sit/lye down so I woke in the morning to mum saying she had barely slept a wink.
After our included breakfast, bright and early, we made our way to the train station to head for France. We were told we needed to get out at the next station in order to catch a train to Toulouse, little did we know the next station was France....so, less than 2 minutes later, through a tunnel and over the hill (we probably almost walked there when we followed the cliff around which is quite cool, we wonder if we offically crossed the border by foot) we arrived in Cerbere, France. Again, another seaside village.


I ventured out to the village to find us some tomatoes, bread and juice for lunch...just about falling over for the price (in comparison to Spain) and crossed my fingers that it was an example of seaside village prices rather than French prices in general (though later found out it's just France!!). Apparantly the ticket office was on strike so we simply got on the train and hoped for the best...

MOROCCO,

We took the train from Sevilla, Spain to Algeciras where all the boats depart. The boat to get across to Morocco was expensive (60euro each one way), it left at 1PM and there were a few Canadians, Americans and other foriegners aboard, we all struck up a conversation and the made the journey got pretty fast. After exiting the boat the couple who were from HongKong and America decided that they wanted to share a taxi with us and find the same hotel, we tried to explain we had feet and we were intending to find a hostel but they got a bit stroppy and left. We found a little hotel nearby the port, and spent the afternoon exploring Tanger. We found the Medina (centre), market and wondered around watching Moroccan life. A shopkeeper approached us and said the market was open today only, we should know better but we followed him for a short time and, of course, got stuck listening to a sales pitch for about half an hour. We did get to try free mint tea though and mum tried on the local wears (a scalf to cover her face, mouth, etc) so it was, at least, a bit of a laugh. We left without buying anything and they were quite upsett. On our way back through the maze of streets 2 boys said "Medina?" and we nodded, this meant somehow encouraged them to follow us the whole way and then hang around like a bad smell...we knew they were after money and although they were young we didn't feel safe, we tried several techniques to get rid of them, but none of that seemed to make a difference. After about an hour they decided to ask us, or rather, demand money...now I'd like to explain that they were both wearing Nike clothes so I had no sympathy and told them to take a hike.

The following morning I woke to the sound of prayers at about 5AM, couldn't sleep much past that, then we made our way to the train station for Casablanca. The Moroccan landscape was dry and red, and many of the homes had a cactus hedge rather than a bush one (shows you the difference in temperature). In saying that though the farms were large and they seemed to be growing many crops.

We stopped in Rabat along the way and found a restaurant to store our bags, had a cheap, nice lunch and got entirely lost wondering the streets. We did however, eventually, find what we were looking for and in the meantime we got to see the city wall, a great city view and we were approached a few times for Henna.
The mosque was closed for entry, of course, but we explored the outside, the pillars, and took photos. I made mum post with the guards and horses.
Later in the evening we took the train to Casablanca.

In Casablaca we had arranged to stay with another couchsurfer, Yassine, upon meeting him he said he was watching an important game of football (the final between Morocco and Tunisia, I think) so we sat back in a Sheesha bar (tried to order alcohol, which they don't even sell) and watched as man screamed, shouted and cried depending on the score. The bar was full of grape and apple smoke and Tunisia won so the feeling was grim. We'd been introduced to many of Yassines friends when he informed us he wasn't available to host us afterall so had arranged for us to stay with his friend. We didn't really know what friend we were staying with but we had just arrived and we weren't in a position to be fussy. About 11.30PM Yassine left and we were driven by his friends to their home. Well....... sometimes we really do know how to get ourselves into the wrong situation. And so begun the worst couchsurfing experience that we've had yet...

First of all the 2 brothers entirely ignored us, although we were asking questions and doing our best to be talkative (we were exhausting from waking up at 6AM that morning and catching the long train). After an hour of being ignored, so around 12.30AM, and by this time they boys are already playing playstation games, we started to unfold our sleeping bags on the couch. This was about the time that Ramsey, the eldest brother, made a comment that we were going to bed without having a mint tea with his family (and implied that we were being very rude) and then proceeded not to join us. So we sat at 12.30AM with 4 women who didn't speak english, drinking tea and sharing an awkward silence!...and then we excused ourselves for bed.
Ramsey and his brother sat up all night playing playstation, thats all well and good but they had the volume up loud and sat on the couch next to us. Needless to say neither of us got much sleep but woke up about 9AM wanting to make the most of seeing the city.
After 2 hours of waiting around (we didn't even know the address), the boys woke up and ignored us some more, we asked if they would like to come out, meet up or just point us in the right direction...none of the above. They said they had recently moved and didn't know their address (walk out to the street and read the sign! We think this was BS and they had a problem with us) so we got their cellphone numbers and took a taxi to town. After arguing with the taxi driver about the price, getting locals involved and the taxi driver back down (was trying to rip us off but didn't really want to do it publicly) we explored the fountain, city hall, french consulate, and walked long to the Medina. Pretty much explored everything on our list, not half as impressive as Spain or...well, anything we've seen so far, and we were mostly harrassed, stared at or ripped off the whole time. At 6PM we called Ramsey and asked his address to go back to his place, I had already suggested I could cook a meal for his family tonight, instead of just giving us the directions or address to his place he said he would meet us in 5 minutes down the road from where we were. An hour and a half later he showed up. Then, without us being told anything, we all took a taxi to ANOTHER SHEESHA BAR! Actually on the way we stopped in a cafe and he suggested we get something to eat, I again explained I was hoping to cook and he said we could still do that later. I asked what was vegetarian so he ordered me a ham and salami pannini, when I suggested there was meat in it he said it was just a different type of cheese. By this time I had about enough of his BS so I told he we have a different definition of cheese and refused to touch it. (Mum ate it and confirmed that it was definitey meat), he basically implied that I should get over it and eat the meat anyway.
In the sheesha bar he sat around with his friends (who he didn't introduce us to), smoked sheesha and spoke in Arabic. We were completely ignored. He asked if we had the opportunity to see the mosque, we didn't, so he said "would you like to go?" we weren't that fussed but figuired it wasn't a good idea to say so since this was the first invitation we had to do anything with him, so we agreed and then found out he was actually sending us off with the bar owner. The bar owner took us to the mosque and made passes at mum the whole way, holding her hand while he was crossing the street and explaining that he had 3 wives!
The mosque was, admittidly, very beautiful all lit up at night and it was quite a sight to see but, being western women and not arabic, we weren't allowed to enter so we just walked around the outside and back to the bar.
Back at the bar (again, they don't even see beer, they were all muslim) we found them still smoking sheesha and playing cards, mum told them she was really into cards and tried to ask them game and was completely ignored. After that we were pretty upsett so went to sit on the couch by ourselves and plan out what to do, mum wanted to just leave, go get our bags and find a hotel. The problem was we didn't know exactly where their place was or the best way to get their and didn't really like the idea of having, yet another, argument with the taxi drivers so we waited around.
At 10.30PM we suggested we were pretty tired and would like to go back to the house, that was when Ramzey told us we weren't even staying with him and demanded that one of us go with him to collect our bags while the other went unaccompanied with creepy bar man to become his 4th wife, i mean, to stay at his house for the night.

....That was about when I lost my cool. Now I'd like to explain that most of the time mum loses her cool and I try to sort everything out but this time it was me that wanted to chop his balls off!
I told them no way waS this situation going to happen and we were not going anywhere, just give us the address and we'd go back to the place to get our stuff. Of course they refused and suggested they knew what was best for us more than we did, hahaha, that's always a smart thing to say to a New Zealand woman! That was when I explained to him that I'm not sure he's met a women who would tear his throat out but if he'd like to keep it up we could see. After a bit of a discussion involving many fowl words (no swearing but all the rest) we made our way, together, back to his place, having explained to creepy bar man that there was so f...ing way. At Ramseys house we were grabbing our gear, he seemed suprised by this and said that circumstances had changed (his lies had fallen through), said we could stay afterall. I just laughed in his face and said lets get out of here. He tried to say he didn't understand why we had to leave and so I looked directly at him and told him exactly why!! "We are leaving because you are a jerk. Do you need more?..." I was about to continue but mum stepped in front of him and told him "Do you really want to continue you this because I'm telling you it's just not pretty. You've upsett my daughter and that upsetts me and that's NOT a good idea." hahaha, go mum.

So there we were in the middle of Casa at 12.30AM, the taxi driver again trying to rip us off and us just chucking the money we thought it should be (not what he was demanding) at his face and getting out of the car while he raved on about this and that IN FRENCH anyway so we couldn't understand.
Now let me explain that a women out on the streets of Morocco after 7PM just must be a prostitute, so already we were getting a lot of strange looks. Eventually we found 2 nice men (who actually did turn out to be just that: nice men) offered to help us and showed us to a hotel, it was way out of our price range but it did lead to us finding a place that was, well, still out of our price league but it was as good as we were gonna get.
We wanted to leave as soon as possible and just get out of Morocco and back to Spain, perhaps we didn't give it a good chance because I've heard that Marrakesh & Fez are much nicer but honestly, we had had enough.
Of course, all flights out were a fortune and no option seemed like a good one so we were stuck in Casa for 2 extra days trying to calm down and see the city. I can't honestly tell you there's anything to say, the city is pretty boring, we got ripped off at every market, stall, taxi.
I've left a bad reference for the guys and we got a train back to Tanger and a boat back to Algeciras and another train to Madrid, it was a long few days.

Oh, I forgot to tell you the best bit. It was explained to me by one of the guys that he spoke to his, err, priest (what's the muslim equivilant for a priest?) and was told (yes, wait for it!) that:
"The main difference between a man and a women is that if you hurt a man he will hate you, want nothing to do with you. but if you hurt a women it will make her love you more, otherwise, how could they possibly love their children after childbirth?"
That is one of the saddest things i've heard in a while and it's hard to believe people can still believe such things. I was tempted to write in the reference "I guess hurting women DOESN'T make them love you more - it just pisses us off" but I resisted. That's a pretty stuffed up mentality though.

The trains were delayed and we had trouble finding our way out to where our couchsurfing host lived, we got lost and showed up at a very late 11pm. Margerita lives in a small town outside of Lisbon, she had an evening planned with her friends & was going out dancing so we made ourselves comfortable in her flat, along with her cheeky cat Simba, who was truly adorable, and she went out.
Simba kept us entertained most of the night, he wasn't allowed in the livingroom where we slept and Margarita had gone out so he was climbing the walls trying to get our attention! It was already late so we settled in to watch television and then realised it's all dubbed over in Spanish, and went to sleep.
Margerita got home around 5AM, and in the morning she got up to have breakfast with us (though she must have been exhausted), we found out that she knows how to dance, the ramba, salsa - everything, that would have been great fun to watch so it's a shame we didn't go with her (but there's no way we would have made it til 5AM after such a long day).
Day 2: Margerita was heading to the North of Spain to a music festival and since it ended after we intended to leave Lisbon we were not able to stay with her, we jumped on a train back to central Lisbon.
First stop: the information centre, a huge pink building, easy to find thankfully - even that was a beautiful and the whole street was beautiful. I suppose the locals consider it's nothing special but for us all of the architecture is so impressive.
The Info Centre helped us to book a hostel and off we set to find it, what a walk, about 30 minutes, mostly uphill with our big bags and it was quite warm...but we are getting used to it!! Again, stayed at another large hostel with an 8 bed dorm all to ourselves and a pretty well eqipped kitchen. All good. Apart from the narrow hallway meaning mum got nearly taken out by someone opening their door, she still ha the bruises to prove it!
Out we went to explore the city - the maps are just hopeless, despite being written in English so we vaguely followed them, getting lost many times. By hey, getting lost in Portugal only leads to new adventures and so many more beautiful buildings so we can hardly complain! Every 2 seconds I was stopping to take photos (you might have noticed from facebook) so many amazing buildings everywhere.
The road that the Info Centre is on is a main road, it is completely lined with trees and, again, statues everywhere of nearly everyone in history. It's quite relaxing to stroll down the middle (they have a promenade in the middle of most of the main streets).
We hiked all over the city, seeing the crazy esculator built by one of Eiffel (tower)'s students, decided not to go up 'cause we were short on time. Saw maybe 6 of the citys many squares, all with their own unique paving, scultures and statues. Often they had market stalls and very talented street performers which made for a great city feel.Lisbon was also where we walked up to the Castello, the Castle at the top of the hill. What an incredible city view from the top, and you can see the city from nearly every angle because we could wonder along the entire wall. It was a long, winding way we took to get there because we navigated purely by "it's in that general direction".
The Castello was split into a few different sections and made extra special by the musicans they have performing there one after the other in different parts of the castle. This included a pianest and a women dressed in traditional dress (red lipstick, big flowing skirt with all the frills) singing her lungs out (Jazz), very clearly about heartbreak and revenge!
That walk up to the castle was really enough to exhaust us (took us about 2 hours of getting pretty lost) but on the way back we discovered they were having a festival of masks, we walked right into the middle of it. Loud music, freaky costumes, bells, drums, girls dancing, people everywhere and what great fun! It was just by chance we came across it and we loved it.
Day 3: We went out of Lisbon to explore Belem, & wow, I'm glad we did.
It has another Castle on the seaside, just a miniture one (who am I kidding it's massive but not in comparison to the day before) but still great to see. Along the same road at the seaside was the port and a MASSIVE statue that we suspect is a memorial to...something? Perhaps locals lost to the sea because it was built to look like a ship sticking out from the side of the shore. The figuires were truly huge (there's a photo of it and if you look hard enough you'll see there's an ant at the bottom - me!)
The main highlight of Belem was a church. I don't know the exact name but it's something like Jeronamo Monastery. It's a massive, massive church so beautiful words and photos will never do it justice.
The outside is white marble, carved from the bottom to the top, it runs the length of a whole road and is surrounded by a beautiful garden with, again, statues. The outside of Jeronamo is so breathtaking and the inside is just as incredible, the ceiling is massive.

After a couple of days of friendly, festive, cheerful culture and stunning, beautiful architecture, we left Lisbon with a fantastic impression of Portugal and couldn't love it more! We'd honestly both love to go back one day, it's a place I think I couldn't possibly tire of or spend enough time in.
It was time to move on to Spain...

(read back for Ethiopia & London)

Thursday came and we booked a flight to Porto, Portugal. The downfall with cheap flights around Europe is that they are potentially almost always delayed and it's a bit like being in a bus that flies. 2 hours behind schedule the plane took off, we were on our way.

How can I begin to tell you about Portugal? I'm suprised that in all this chatter about travelling the world people really neglect to emphasise how entirely amazing, peaceful and beautiful both Portugal and Spain are. Why don't people rave more about them?

We met up with a bunch of couchsurfing hosts for dinner, the local dish Franchesina (Err, I think). I ordered the vegetarian version, mum shared the meat meat meat version with someone else, basically it's like a heart attack on the plate and I had been warned about that but wow, they definitely were not kidding! It consists of about 5-6 different types of grisly, fatty meat, a fried egg, cheese, in between 2 bits of bread, covered over top with cheese and a special sauce - wow. Mine was good but mum wasn't that impressed by hers. At the dinner we were offered the couch of a 60-something year old retiree man, we enthusiastically took him up on the offer.
After dinner we all went out for a few drinks at the university bar, had a good time briefly getting to know some of the other couchsurfers. The bar is directly opposite the old church so although we couldn't go in we saw it all lit up at night and it looks beautiful.
On the way back to Fernados we stopped by the water and looked at the bridge and across to the other town.

Hmm, So Fernado had 4 other people staying in his tiny little apartment. We got to his place and crashed on the couch.
In the morning when we woke up we said we had a big list of things to see in Porto and we were leaving that afternoon. No, he said, you couldn't possibly leave today you won't have enough time.
Well, I said, we are. We haven't got enough time to stay.
All day he tried to convince us not to leave.
Porto is a beautiful, beautiful city...not that we got to see much of it from side cars and restaurants. Fernado had his own agendo and ideas about what people should see in Porto so that made life interesting.
After going out for coffee, to a bar, we finally got taken to the Porto wine Cellars who actually produce the wine and take you on a tour, it was really interesting. Then they give you free wine tasting.
After the tour we took some photos over the city and wanted to walk back over the bridge but that wasn't part of the agenda, instead, we went to a fish restaurant. Mum plus 2 other couchsurfers sat around in the restaurant for 2 hours eating with Fernado. There were no options for me to eat so I took the opportunity to go for a walk around the water on my own. Qaint little streets and all the roads are paved with tiny stones, it's amazing.
After lunch we went to get coffee, we opted out of coffee and instead took a walk around the church and climbed up the tower. I don't know how far up the tower is but I walked up in a short amount of time and the view was well and truly worth it, I took some awesome photos of the rooftops across Porto.
We ventured briefly into the 3rd most beautiful bookstore, it is beautiful on the inside, wooden carved walls and a spiral staircase.


After that we went to catch the train, and off to Lisbon we went...

(sorry, I am trying to catch up. Lisbon, Sevilla, Morocco and so on soon)