At the airport

I'm bored... This checking in 3 hours before the flight is annoying... i have been in near the exit gate for an hour now, and its still another hour before it takes off... anyway. I was surprised how close to the baggage limit i was already - i was 23kg for check in and actually over with carry on, but i hid some. Hopefully the stuff i am bringing for people will shave off some weight.

I am also tossing up buying some alcohol here, seeing i won't get any duty free from here in... well i wont within the E.U., and i am not sure if the lay over will give me a chance... i am sure its much cheaper in HK.

But the day so far has gone off without a hitch- i was on time for the train, i don't remember having left anything at home, i had the right change for the train, i had unexpected company on the train up, a guy helped me carry my bag up the stairs (without being asked) and no lines at check in or customs! So things are getting off to a good flight.

Still, i have half an hour to kill before boarding - and now that we are in the customs area all the food and drink prices have gone up another 50% - theiving bastards.

To anyone i didnt see to say goodbye to, sorry. Oh crap - just remembered something i forgot - to post Xmas cards... so sorry to those of you whose cards are sitting on my desk! Next post - london!

not long now!

Ok, so its now only 1 day til i fly out for the trip - i have heaps to do but i am so excited. I just checked the temperatures at each place i will visit... oh no. Looks like London is to be the warmest, with between 2-7 degrees C, where as many of the others vary between 0 and minus 6, 7 or 8 C... F***. might recheck my packing.

next post from the road! Bye for now autralian summer!

...and on to Europe!

I can't believe it, its only 2 weeks and 1 days (and 5 hours...) til i fly out to Europe! After months and months of skrimping and saving for the trip, and lots of planning, it is really coming together. Heres the plan.

29-Nov-05 fly to london
30-Nov-05 arrive london
1-Dec-05 to prague
2-Dec-05 prague
3-Dec-05 prague
4-Dec-05 prague
5-Dec-05 to budapest
6-Dec-05 budapest
7-Dec-05 budapest
8-Dec-05 to berlin
9-Dec-05 berlin
10-Dec-05 berlin
11-Dec-05 to tallinn
12-Dec-05 tallinn
13-Dec-05 tallinn
14-Dec-05 tallinn
15-Dec-05 to london
16-Dec-05 london
17-Dec-05 london
18-Dec-05 london
19-Dec-05 london
20-Dec-05 london
21-Dec-05 lon leave to paris
22-Dec-05 paris
23-Dec-05 paris
24-Dec-05 paris
25-Dec-05 cergy
26-Dec-05 cergy
27-Dec-05 to Mediterranean
28-Dec-05 Mediterranean – St Tropez
29-Dec-05 Mediterranean - Monaco
30-Dec-05 Mediterranean - Nice
31-Dec-05 Back to paris
1-Jan-06 paris
2-Jan-06 paris
3-Jan-06 leave paris leave london
4-Jan-06 Hong Kong
5-Jan-06 HK
6-Jan-06 HK
7-Jan-06 HK
8-Jan-06 HK
9-Jan-06 HK
10-Jan-06 HK
11-Jan-06 HK
12-Jan-06 leave HK
13-Jan-06 Home 7.10am

So there it is: a fairly flat out schedule, but it should be pretty awesome. When i am travelling around Europe i will be alone for most of the time, and i realise that each city deserves far more time, but i chose these countries finally based on the availability of cheap airfares. Because i was keen to go to almost everywhere, i figured i might as well go where i could afford! Good news though, i am meeting friends in Prague - Christophe from Paris, Sonny from London (formerly Young - my home town), and hopefully Karin and Dany, the two friends i visited in Switzerland in 2000! So it will be quite an international gathering! Should be great.

When i get back to london on the 15th of December i will meet up with my sister again, and Kate will fly in from Hong Kong too, then we will have 5 and a half days together to look around and catch up. Then we all catch the train across to Paris, and meet up with Christophe in Paris for a few days, then to his parents house in the suburbs of Paris for Xmas! Next, we take the fast TVR down to the French Riveria on the Mediterranean and stay there for a few days - hopefully visiting the cities and towns i listed - maybe others too or instead. Then, we catch the train back up to Paris for New Years!! Then i will hopefully stay for a week - assuming i am able to ammend my return ticket. Should be wonderful! Christmas with a great french family, New Years eve in Paris, and a whirlwind tour of Europe - all with my dear sister, my great friends Christophe and Sonny and beautiful Katie - and possibly Karin and Dany - AND i will get to meet Christophe and Kate's families! Stay tuned for photos and progress reports!

leaving comments

Sorry if its a hassle to you guys, but i have turned on word verification for my comments - it's simple, and you'll see when you go to leave a comment - but this way it ought to eliminate the spam comments i have been getting...

last lot of photos

from the ceiling corner of one of the temples...

more temple stuff.
This was in the middle of a busy road..
a sunset at a temple

This was a cold noodle soup i ordered, its delicious - and icy cold!

These are both the security doors of the place i stayed at - no keys! It was all pin numbers, which was convenient as a guest, and kind of cool..These were dumplings, and they were huge, aparently North Korea Style, they were about the size of a fist - you got one or two for a meal, instead of lots..

I just think a 5 megapixel camera phone is cool..
This was a meal i cooked - chicken noodles, nothing interesting, just showing that i boiled the chicken beyond recognition to be sure it was safe! (was a bit worried about avian flu..)
more to come.

This is a monument from the 5th tunnel at the DMZ.

This was a BIIIIG dinner i had.. just for me!

This is the DMZ, between the North and South reception halls at the DMZ.

This was a tea set from this cool bird-tea house i went to, it was really cool place, but kind of boring alone... Oh, and even though it was kind of a dingy place, and it was just green tea, this tea cost about half of the entire meal i put a photo of above... (still that was only like AUS$8)

random statue...

Sorry!

I tried to post twice since i got home, but it didn't work, then i forgot! So anyway, i came home 2 days early in fact, i had met my budget and seen all that i planned to see. Here are some more pictures...

Here is Irhe and His mother, the family with home i stayed.

I thought this was cool, you sign this instead of a piece of paper at the supermarket..

Just some yummy noodles.

Here's that charcoal wood that i mentioned earlier...

(i cant get more pictures here... with try to post again.)

Soju

Ok, i meant to mention this in the last post, and i cant work out how to edit it here cos all the buttons are in Korean. But it seems that Soju, the strong rice wine i drank a lot here (is relaly good) is such a national past-time, it is not taxed! Beer and spirits are taxed like in Oz, but Soju is totally exempt, so that means that you can buy a 375ml bottle of this 21% alcohol from a convenience store for $3 or $4! And in the super market, $1 buys you a 200ml bottle... so needless to say i am bringing some home!

Shopping!

What was the last post i put up? I may have missed something.. Anyway. Today Irhe and his mother took me to town to a good gift shop that is really cheap - or at least cheaper than the others. So i finally got lots of gifts, which should cover a lot of my christmas list. And after all the searching, i was clear on what i wanted to, so they should all work out fine.

Sorry to not post pictures again, but i am at a public computer again. I will go through and incorporate more photos either later if i have time, or after i come back to Australia. For now, i am healthy, tired, close to broke - but fine! Talk soon.