Greece, Albania, Montenegro to Venice

Firstly, I apologise because I cannot fin the apostophe key on this keyboard! Alright, so after we spent our last night on the yachts we woke up early and had to clean up! For the people who had decided to cook risotto while sailing through the storm this was a hard task, but we got it done very quickly and got a 10 out of 10 from Chrissy and Dan.
Before we left I went over to the toilets at the restaurant we had adopted as our on land home. Out the back of the restaurant was the tiniest little kitten ever! I was very excited. The only other kitten I have ever seen this small is my own child Jack when he landed on our doorstep. So of course I had to give it a little pat and dragged around a bit of paper towel for it which it attacked and chewed up. I was a bit worried about worms and rabies but it was so little I dont think it had time to catch any diseases. Hopefully.
That morning we drove through all these large hills/small mountains in the north of Greece. The landscape was so beautiful. I have taken so many photos out of the window of the bus and so many of them have the reflections of the bus window in them too.
It took a while to get through the border into Albania but as soon as we were through the landscape seemed to change immediately, it was bizarre! Out tour leader Blake gave us a bit of a spiel about Albanias history, which was very interesting and we were all leaning over each other to snap photos of the concrete bunkers that dotted the hills. Blake told us that the Albanian government figured that if they kept the roads terrible it would make it very difficult for any other countries to invade. It also makes it very difficult for Top Deck tour buses to visit. I think we only travelled about 250kms that day and it took about 7 hours. At the first loo stop all us girls were rejoicing. In Greece, this is disgusting but it is a story that must be told, you dont throw your loo paper down the toilet becuase the plumbing was done 100, 000 years ago, instead you place it in the bins provided. yes, toilet paper in bins. its very gross, particularly when the bins start overflowing. so we had been a bit traumatised in greece and when we got to albania the toilets were so clean we would have stayed there for the night.
We drove all day, on these bumpy windy roads through all these little villages. A lot of people were really surprised because the amount of rubbish is phenomenal in Albania. It is everywhere. Even on the side of the highway it looks like garbage trucks have backed up and emptied their loads. In the towns there is rubbish on the ground everywhere. I think me and Jus werent as dumbfounded because we have been into the Aboriginal communites in Central Australia where the rubbish problem is worse. It was streange though because all the people seemed really well groomed and clean and tidy, so they obviously took pride in themselves but not in their surroundings, I guess. We wondered if they just thought the problem was too big and didnt know where to start cleaning up! They definitely need a Clean Up Albania Day though. Having said that though, I really enjoyed the drive through the countryside. Its a beautiful country.
We finally got into Tirana, the capital city (possibly only city) in the evening. I actually really liked the city, it totally contrasted with the countryside because it was so clean and colorful. Theyve painted all thier comission housing in these bright colours and patterns and it just makes the city look really cheerful. It just looked like theyd really gone to a lot of effort to make their city look nice and I liked that. We drove up and out of the city a little bit to where our hotel was. We werent expecting much but when we got there we were stoked because the hotel was really nice. Because it was up on this hill we had this beautiful view over the whole city. So we all piled in excitedly and had showers with hot water and shower curtains!! The only shower Id had while sailing had been one of those outdoor ones they have at beaches just to rinse the salt water off. And it had been cold so these showers were pretty exciting. We had dinner in a room that was obviously a wedding reception room ordinarily. We all had a good laugh because we were all freshly showered and wearing clean clothes and eating in this room full of lace and doilies, after 3 days of wearng the same clothes and no showers. We had a traditional Albanian meal which was mushroom soups, chicken and mashed potato and ice cream for dessert. I didnt realise chicken and mashed potato was an Albanian meal but apparently it is.The ice cream though was a bit weird, it was like it had been whipped and then frozen again, kind of like frozen meringue (sp??).
The next morning after vegetables and cheese for breakfast we all piled back on the bus. The north of Albania was much more green and seemed to be more of a farming area. The south had been quite dry and rocky.
We stopped for lunch at this tiny little roadhouse near the border of Montenegro. There was a little souvenir shop attached that we all raided. I have to say Albania really knows how to sell merchandise. They had Albania everything - pens, lighters, magnets, keyrings, flags, t shirts, all with the Albanian flag on it. I came back in during lunch when there wasnt as many people and had a great time playing charades with the man in the shop who didnt speak any english. He was lovely and sold me some really nice earrings which I eventually figured out were traditional Albanian handmade earrings. Then I figured out he was asking me where I was from because he was saying "Germanic??", so I said "No, Australia" and he was pretty amazed and acted out how far away it was, and I just nodded enthusiastically. Then he gave me a free pen, I think he liked me.
Before we had lunch we had all had a play in the bunker that was next to the restaurant, but when we came back to the bus after lunch there was a gun sitting on the bunker!!! It was so bizarre, so a few people posed for a photo with the gun in the bunker but there was no way I was going near a gun that had just been left lying around! It is such a weird part of the world.
As soon as we crossed over into Montengro the landscape changed again. It became a lot more foresty and treed. Blake gave us the history of Montenegro which was quite confronting seeing as it is such a recent history. I think he said Montenegro only got its independence from Serbia two years ago. He also told us that in Albania and Montenegro you get taxed a lot more if your house is completed so most houses look half built so they dont have to pay as much for them.
Ok so we drove into the city of Herceg Novi and found our accommodation, and here is a great story. Because Montenegro is such a new country, it is only now opening its doors to tourism, but they havent had time to build any hotels yet, so what have they done? They have converted half their hospitals into hotels. But I dont meant they have converted every second hospital into a hotel, I mean every hospital is now half hospital/half hotel. Yes, we stayed in a hotel hospital. Our room had a button to call the nurse. We had patients in their robes wandering the halls. One of the girls on our tour had a chest cold and went and saw a doctor down the corridor from her room. It was so surreal, but so funny. The accommodation was probably the worst weve had while weve been away, but I think the fact that it was half a hospital was such a novelty that it was worth putting up with bad rooms just to say wed stayed there!
I just found the apostrophe! ''''
We all went down for dinner in the dining room and got a plate of sliced cucumber for entree. No dressing or garnish or anything, just sliced up cuce. But I love cucumber so I didn't care! Then we had a rissole, chips and a pile of silverbeet, which wasn't awesome but it was definitely edible. Then they brought us out a banana each for dessert. Hmmm..... I guess if you go to Montenegro you have to expect an unusual experience.
The next morning there was no hot water so I went without a shower, which I think I'm getting used to. Breakfast was gross omelette pancakes but they didn't even bring me one out so I just ate some bread. I accidently found the hydrotherapy room trying to find the laundry. We all piled on the bus again and drove an hour or so into Croatia for our day trip to Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik is known as the jewel of the Adriatic and it was awesome. Another trip highlight. It is a really small city with a wall all around it, so we started with a walk around the top of the wall (after a pizza and gelati breakfast stop). I loved this because you looked out one way onto the beautiful sea or you looked the other way into the little streets of the city and into peoples back yards. Good snooping time. We spent about an hour and a half walking along the wall at a snails pace and only got half way around. We came down off the wall at the old port and took a ferry out to a little island about a km offshore. The island was called Lokrum island and it was so pretty. It reminded me heaps of Canada because it was covered in pine trees and had a really rocky shore. We avoided the nudist beach and found a nice spot to go swimming. The water was so blue and a little bit cold but definitely worth getting in. I liked this island because they had peacocks wandering around too. We stayed until the sun went behind a cloud and we all got chilly, so we jumped back on the ferry and back to the city. Had a wander down the main plaza of the city and then it was time to get back on the bus!
Back at the hospital we were served up dinner, oiled carrot, pink chicken and shredded cabbage. Now seriously, I have really enjoyed eating as the locals do while Ive been away but I have my limits, and Olivia does not eat pink chicken. I hightailed out of there and went down the street with a few others and found a restaurant. The waiter (there was only one) was very surprised to see us. He said "Yes? Can I help you?", we said, "Can we get some dinner?", he said "Dinner? You want to eat??!", we said, "Yes", he thought about it and said "Uhhh, dinner. Uhhh, yes... YES! You can have dinner!". We were ready to run again at that point but he seemed so excited now we couldnt leave. Turned out that the food was awesome. I had filet mignon and it was possibly the best meal I've had since I've been away, except for maybe the €2 souvlakis with chips or the lasagne at the Top Deck tent in Rome.
That night the tour group had a punch party in a carpark. The stench of the bus toilet wafted around us and we found a box of puppies. I'm laughing now as I'm writng this because it was such a strange night. Yes, one of the girls had a look in a box at the edge of the carpark and inside were three little black lab looking puppies. They were very cute and divided the group between those who wanted to cuddle the puppies and those who though the puppies were disease infested. I stayed away from the puppies because I didnt want to get attached and I knew we couldnt really do anything for them. A few of us (including our tour leader Blake) thought it woulod be a good idea to take the puppies with us and have bus puppies but Foggy our driver was not impressed and said no. I had an early night, while the rest of the tour partied hard. If I found my inner party girl on the first tour, I lost her again on this tour.
The next morning I completely bypassed breakfast and apparantly it was one boiled egg each so I don't think I missed out. We traveled up the beautiful coastline of Croatia, through Bosnia and back into Croatia. Croatia was one of the place I wanted to visit most on this trip and even though we didn't get much time there I'm glad we came because now I know I definitely want to come back! It is so beautiful. We stopped for lunch in Split, it is so obvious that Croatia is really embracing tourism. Everyone we spoke to could speak english to us and all the menus in restaurants and signs everywhere are in Croatian and English. We kept travelling all day, but we were pretty excited because we were back on the motorways now!! Woohoo! We go to our hostel in Zadar that evening and the rooms were fine but there was one toilet and one shower for all the guys and one of each for the girls. So we had one sink to brush our teeth for 30 plus girls. We went into Zadar for dinner, it was a really interesting little town. It was a Sunday so it was pretty deserted, but we found a nice little restaurant and had some great food. It was another little car free city like Dubrovnik, and the streets were all marble or marble-like stone, and very slippery. It kind of felt like we were inside a shopping centre. After tea we went to the foreshore to see the sea organ! I don't really fully understand how it works but it looks like steps going into the water but somewhere there is all these holes and when the waves come in they push air out of other holes and it makes organ sounds! It was so beautiful, really relaxing! After we'd had enough time being amazed at the sea organ - I swear it started to play the beginnning of Thomas the Tank Engine - we found this other thing that I can only compare to an outdoor lit up dancefloor!! Along the foreshore they had all these flat circles built into the foothpath. They represented the planets in order and they were all to scale. The sun, which was obviously a lott biger than the others, was lit from beneath and lit up in all these different patterns and colours. It needs photos to be properly explained, but neededless to say, it had pretty lights, so I absolutely loved it. Another highlight. We could have stayed there in the dark on the pretty light up sun thing with the sea organ playing for a really long time!!
The next morning I had no shower again. I couldnt be bothered waiting for 30 other girls to have theirs first, although it turned out that everyone seemed to be thinking the same thing and when I came out for breakfast there actually wasn't anyone waiting for a shower. For breakfast we had a delicacy called two slices of untoasted bread and jam. I think because we are all in the same boat and there is nothing we can do, we all manage to laugh at things like this.
We spent the morning driving higher and higher into mountains and it started to get really cloudy and misty and rainy. Very simillar to Switzerland. Once again, when we crossed the border into Slovenia the landscape changed again. Although it was more the architecture here. It started looking more like Austria here, which makes sense because Austria borders Slovenia. Lots of flower boxes, very nice.
We drove up to a place called Postojna to go to some caves!! The Postojna caves are the 2nd biggest cave network in Europe, the biggest isn't open to the pubic though. We had a 90 minute tour through the caves that was really cool. First we had to take this little open train deep into the caves. Clearly Slovenia doesn't know what liabilty is, because there were so many times we had to duck under rock overhangs, it is amazing people don't get decapitated. The coves were beautiful, very magical. I couldn't decided if it reminded me of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter or Narnia. There were thousands of little stalacmites that looked like meerkats to me, and I think I made a fool of myself a few times because I kept saying "oh look at that one, its so cute!!", and of course, its rock. Not meerkats. Right at the end the caves open up into this huge cavern called the concert hall, and our guide told us they have Christmas concerts and orchestras and performances there. I could imagine it would be amazing.
We jumped back on the bus. One of the guys on our tour had eaten dodgy chicken in Split the day before and the poor guy had got food poisoning. So he had skipped the caves and slept on the bus. The poor guy looked like death when we all got back on the bus. I wanted to give him a pat on the shoulder or something but he looked so sick in a very "sont talk to me, dont touch me, let me stay in my induced coma" way.
After a fw more hours driving we made in to Venice!! Hurray!! It was very exciting getting off the bus because this was our last stop on the Top Deck so we never had to get back on the bus again!!! YAAAYYY!!! I really didn't mind the bus travel to be honest, but after 3 weeks of it I was ready to say goodbye! We are staying at another campground, simillar to Rome but much smaller. But really good facilites. The funniest thing is that the campground is next door to the airport!! So every few minutes we see and hear a plane taking off. Of course, being mostly Aussies on the tour, we are all quoting The Castle like crazy. "Is that the runway?? There??" It is very funny. "How's the serenity??" The good news is that we are flying out of that airport tomorrow! Apparently we can walk there!! "It will be very handy if we ever have to travel". Ahh a plane is flying overhead right now as I write this.
So, the night we got to Venice I jumped in the shower straight away beacause I hadn't washed my hair since before I went swimming in the ocean in Dubrovnik and then got gelati in my hair on the way back to the bus. I was abit worried my hari was going to starting breaking off in chunks but it is still intact. This is another campground, so we have a Top Deck kitchen tent set up with an on site chef. We were stoked because the best meals we've had have been at the Top Deck tents and this dinner was delicious too. Chicken cacciatore. Oooh, and before dinner we had plates of bocconcini, tomato and mixed lettuce, all drenched in oil and pepper. I was thrilled because me and Jus had sat with a group of people that didn't seem very interested in the bocconcini so we had a feast on it!!
One of the scheduled activites on the tour is a toga party in Venice, and there were three other Top Deck tours in Venice that night, so everyone toga-ed up and came to the little bar for the toga party. And by toga, I mean bed sheet. I had a bit of trouble trying to get my toga to look normal and ended up giving up and creating my own toga design that was much more comfortable. Once again, I went the way of the nanna and didn't stay too long at the toga party but had a great time while I was there.
Ok so, now I am up to yesterday! Almost caught up!
Yesterday, we had CEREAL for breakfast!! You don't miss cereal until you eat plain bread for breakfast a few days in a row. I also got a hot cup of tea which was really exciting although I am still hanging out for tea with fresh milk instead of long life milk. Our campground is on the mainland of Venice, so we all jumped on the shuttle bus and ventured into the island of Venice. I think that Venice and Paris have been my favourite cities. I don't think I had expected much from Venice because a lot of people had said it was smelly and the water was dirty. But the Yarra is pretty dirty too, and we only got the occasional waft of stench. It didn't lessen the awesomeness of the city for me. We went on a gondola ride, me and one of the guys from the tour acted out a proposal and had people on bridges and other gondolas clapping and congratulating us. I thought someone should have given us a free meal or a bottle of champagne but we got nothing!
After the gondolas we went to a lace demonstration, but it didn't really help me understand how they make the lace. Something about wax paper and double knots. The rest of the day me and Jus wandered around shopping, slowly, slowly making our way back to the bus stop.
Last night, back at the Top Deck tent we had chicken in white wine sauce that rivalled my mums. Sorry mum. Had an early night last night even though it was the last night of the tour. This morning we got up and waved goodbye to the bus again as the rest of the tour continues up to Austria, Prague Germany etc. So today, the plan is to relax, do some washing and relax some more. And then we think we might go back into Venice this evening to see it at night. Then tomorrow we walk over to the airport, and fly to Japan to see Allie!!!! Im very excited to get to Japan. I had a few homesick days the last week or so, and I'm starting to look forward to getting home, but really excited to see Allie and Ross and visit Japan.
Ok, I'm in Italy, so ciao ciao!!

florence to rome to greece again.

hello everyone! i'm writing today from a little port town called plataria in greece. we have just spent the last few days sailing around the island of corfu. this sailing trip was supposed to be the highlight of the tour - we imagined lots of sunshine and laying around on the deck in the sun. oh no, don't expect sunshine in greece in summer olivia!!! the first day we sailed the rain was horizontal, the wind was gale force and the thunder and lightening was shaking me in my boots. i couldn't help but laugh, the last time i went to queensland it rained 52mm in one night and me and Jus woke up floating on our lilos in our tent. and then there was that new years eve in phillip island when we took the ferry to french island and spent the day in the rain. so luckily, i had past experience to draw on and knew that just because something isn't the way you planned doesn't mean you can't have a great time.
we were lucky enough to have been put on a boat with the only guy on our tour who actually had sailing experience and he just did all the work for us! we motored over to corfu because the weather was just insane, but somehow, while people were being sick over the sides of boats and our yachts were lurching right over me and jus curled up and fell asleep!! when we woke up the storm was over, our clothes were almost dried out and the were patches of blue sky!!
We spent the afternoon in port in a tiny little village on corfu that really only had a restaraunt and stray cats. we just hung out and swam and relaxed. we had dinner that night at the restaraunt and the owners came out and taught us geek dancing! then they made us pick up tables in our mouths and dance around!! it sounds weird, but i have photos to prove it! then they put on party anthems 96 and we all had a great night dancing. it rained again during the night, but in the morning there was even more blue sky!
we sailed up the island to the main town of corfu, which is cleverly called 'corfu town'. we went up to the town for dinner that night and got 2 euro souvlakis which are the best things in the whole wide world. they even put chips in them!! then me and jus got some gelato and wandered around the shops. i love the greek islands, they are all different but still similar. we like corfu because unlike mykonos and santorini, it has trees!! it seemed a little more classy too. less of a party island.
this morning we left corfu town and sailed all the way back to plataria. we have spent the afternoon here and will sleep on the yachts again tonight before heading to albania tomorrow!
ok, so backtracking back to florence now....
after our great night taking over the campground in florence, we ventured into the actual city of florence for a walking tour. we had a lovely little old lady as our guide who looked after us very weel. florence is so beautiful, mum you would love it. me, jus and rikki ended up accidently on purpose leaving the walking tour early to go back to some markets we saw to buy handbags. after some impressive bartering rikki and jus came away with lovely leather bags at half price. well, half the original price. we went back and had lunch in a little restaurant we'd seen earlier. after some awesome food and even better gelato we made our way back to the coach to head to roma!!
claudia took us on a walking tour of rome, before she did though she explained that in italy it is illegal to have foreign guides, they only let you have local guides. she told us that she could get arrested for taking us around so if we saw any police looking interested in us we had to break out into 'happy birthday' and then the police would think we were a birthday party instead of a tour group. so off we went through the dirty dirty underground train system and popped up into the heart of rome. we started at the spanish steps, then claudia took us to this church where crazy monks had decorated every room with thousand of human bones. everyone seemed to think this place was great but it creeped me right out and im sure it will give me nightmares for the rest of my life. yuck yuck yuck, i don't even like thinking about it!!
from there we walked up to the trevi fountain, which i was really looking forward to seeing! it was beautiful and of course i threw enough coins in there to guarantee me some love for the rest of my life.
Next up was the pantheon. Claudia was in the middle of giving us some history when she broke into happy birthday, we all joined in as we saw some police eyeing us off suspiciously. as soon as we had finished we dispersed into the crowd very quickly, it was very funny. we had pizza for tea and justine dragged me around to four different gelato shops before we found one that was good enough, and i have to say it was a pretty amazing gelato shop. we wandered up to the piazza navono and saw some awesome street performers and then walked up to the colosseum. by this time it was dark and it was lit up beautifully. we got a big group photo there and then made our way home.
the next day we were up bright and early because we had a date with the pope!! yep, the real pope! we had to line up for about two hours in the vatican, finally got into this hall, saw the pope for long enough to get his blessing and then got out of there. i have to say, i felt quite guilty when we all came out because there were so many people lined up waiting to get in who actuallycared about the pope, and i felt like i had taken up a seat when i really couldnt care less about him!! i felt like i was only there to see him as a novelty thing when there were people who were desperate to be in there! we then went on a tour of the vatican and its museums. i think i would have had a much better time if i hadn't been in so much pain from my poor feet!! i had like 5 blisters on my feet and was dying. it also didnt help that it was about 38 degrees and we had to be covered up from knees to shoulders. but again, listening to the history was fascinating. the vatican is an incredible place, so much history!! the sistine chapel was amazing, but kind of surreal too. i think it was weird because it was crammed full of people but you have to be silent while you are in there so it was bizarre.
after the vatican we had pizza and gelato for lunch again (you can never have enough) and me and jus decided to call it a day. we still had a few more days in rome and my feet were sore and it was hot so we trained back to our campground and spent the afternoon by the pool. its a hard life guys.
that night we had lasange and tiramisu in our top deck kitchen tent. best meal ever!! this was our last night on the tour before they left us and continued up to poland and prague and germany. there was quite a few of us leaving the tour so we all had a big night of volleyball and dancing! me and justine had some good games of doubles pool and won 2 out of three games which i was quite pleased about, but i think i only sank one ball and the rest was jus. but the one ball i remember sinking was really good. had an awesome night dancing and went to bed very very late.
the next morning we got up early but only to wave goodbye to the bus! it was very sad watching everyone go and not being on the bus! but we reckon we've made some pretty good freinds and hopefully will catch up with a few of them back home. The next few days were just relax days, we did our washing, caught up on emails and went back to the colosseum to go inside.
the night we met our new tour group the heavens exploded and there was a massive thunderstorm. it was fabulous. heaps of lightening and huge thunderclaps. it has pretty much rained since then! we made our way over to Greece on the ferry overnight and then got on the yachts which pretty much brings me up to speed.
We are having fun on the new tour, but we are having fun because of what we are doing, not who we are with. On the last tour we could have had a tour of a box factory and we would have fun just because the people were awesome. This new tour just hasn't got the same vibe. So yeah, we are missing the old group heaps! But, I'm still very happy to be here! I threw my neck out sleeping on a bad pillow in Rome, but have been blessed to have a Korean guy on the tour who is a qualified acupuncturist with a major in massage!!! Woo hoo!! So we have all been lining up for treatments from him! Today was had an acupunture session while sailing!! It was great.
Ok, so I am halfway through my trip, loving it! not missing home at all really. until next time! xoxo

Switzerland to Nice to Florence

Hello again! I'm still here in Rome, but trying to catch up! Ok, so I am taking the step to declare Switzerland as the most beautiful country on earth. It is incredible. We rolled in on the top deck bus at about 7.30pm after a really long day of travel. Driving through the little towns in Switzerland I kep thoping that the bus would stop and that we'd be staying in that town, but then the bus would go on to the next little town which was even prettier than the last. We satyed in a place called Lauterbrunnen, you should put it through Google and see a picture. It is a litle village no bigger that Research, where I grew up, nestled between these two huge mountains that have cliff faces for sides! We were staying at a campground that Top Deck use all through summer. They have a big Top Deck kitchen tent and staff members who live and work there cooking the meals. Claudia was very excited to see a girl called Jane who works at the campground. Claudia told us about how Jane always uses the word "clearly", which clearly, she did. From then on the whole bus used the word clearly in every sentence we could.
Clearly Jane, had made us an awesome meal called Edelweiss chicken that had me at least singing Sound of Music. It was a lot like beef stroganoff but with chicken. Yum yum yum. The campsite had it's own little bar that had thousands of coasters hanging from the roof, people had come in, written on them and tied them up, so it was fun reading them all. We had a quiet night in the bar but it went pretty late anyway! Me and Jus got the hot coal treatment for being teachers, and unfortunately I haven't learned to back down from this argument yet. So had a bit of a debate with a few people about that and I think we won.
The next morning Justine (always full of surprises) took herself off skydiving!!! We knew skydiving was an optional extra when we booked the tour but we had both said, 'as if!', but the day before Claudia had shown a video of the last group she had skydiving, which did make it look really good. After the video she looked at me with a horrified look and said 'I think I'm going to do it'. So the next morning a group of us were in town watching as the helicopter came over and we watched and could see these tiny little flecks leave the plane and then after a minute the parachutes would open. I was freaking out watching it from the ground, I was so glad I wasn't doing it!!
At 10.30 we jumped on a little train with some of the skydivers and made our way up the 4000m of Jungfrau Mountain. The train ride took 2 hours but it was so beautiful, the secenery was amazing. Passed lots of cows and goats too. When we got up there we had a look at the summit (I got pooed on by a bird), saw the Ice Palace which was just some ice sculptures, met a few huskies and copped a snowball in the face from Damo, got a great photo of him throwing it at me though.
On the way back down we met all these retired couples from England doing a tour of Switzerland. They were lovely and chatty and wanted to hear about everything we'd been doing. Three of the ladies fell in love with Damo and clucked all over him until he fell asleep which they loved even more.
After dinner that night we all headed out to the only other little bar in Lauterbrunnen called Horner Bar. I think I've said this before but our tour was part of a big 24 day tour that we drop off in Rome, but it keeps through Austria, Prague and eventually to Berlin. Anyway, there is a song called 'Paris to Berlin', I don't know who it's by but it's a bit of a dance song and when we were in Paris Claudia nominated it as our Tour Song, and gave us actions too. So of course, everytime we went out we requested this song and sure enough it was played in Lauterbrunnen and we all jumped on the dance floor and did our group actions, must looked very funny to anyone not in our group.
Another thing we had going on the tour was a medal that was passed around to whoever had done the most recent dumb thing. Everyone who had to wear it also had to add something to it. I earned the medal that night by somehow getting mixed and thinking it was Renee's birthday when it was actually Jackie's birthday and singing happy birthday to Renee very enthusiastically when everyone else was singing it to Jackie. Luckily I got it then, now the medal has so much stuff attatched to it, including a cow bell.
The next day was another travel day to get to Nice in the French Riviera. Rikki had somehow acquired a giant zucchini from somewhere during the night and it was now sitting pride of place at the front of the bus. It freaked me out a bit, we had a giant zuchini in our a fridge a few years ago, I don't remember where it came from, but everytime I opened the fridge I'd forget it was there and it would scare me. Everyone was zonked from a big night and fell alseep everywhere. We had people in the aisle asleep and I set myself up on the floor under the seat so Jus was on the seat and I was underneath like little mini bunk beds! Not the most comfy, but it feels so much better just having your head down!
We had a picnic lunch stop in Italy where it was really hot. We were all distressed because we were all rugged up in our Switzerland clothes and it was the hottest a lot of us had been in months! But the food we had for lunch was awesome. I filled up a plastic cup with potato salad and kept eating back on the bus.
We drove into Nice along the beach, passing the airport with about 50 private jets. The beach was incredible! So pretty! Got into our hotel rooms, shared with Jackie and Renee. From there the whole group went our for dinner together. This was a meal that had already been organised for us by Top Deck, so the restaurant was expecting us! From there we all headed over to a place called Wayne's Bar which I think is a place lots of tour take their people to. There were two buses of Contiki tours there too, so we kind of felt like it was Top Deck vs Contiki in who can dance better on the tables. Walked home via the beach which was all lit up still.
The next day was a free day and me and Jus and Renee decided to have a bit of a sleep in. Around midday we walked up to the beach for some Vitamin D infusions. The beach is a pebble beach and the water is the most beautiful blue colour, but jeez it was violent. It just went down into the water really steeply and the water just sucked back so strong and then absolutely pounded back in. Walking along before we found a spot we saw so many people getting thrown around like they were in a washing machine. It was pretty funny. You'd see all this white water and arms and legs spinning around in it. There was no way I was getting in there so I set myself up with my book, but Renee and Jus thought they'd give it a go. I was looking at them standing there on the edge, I looked down at my book for a second, looked back about and Renee had totally disappeared and Jus was running back to the safety of her towel. Renee had had been sucked in and spat out by the water. She took on the ocean and the ocean won. Another guy on our tour, Regan, came down later and got in OK but got beaten up on the way out. Then later Andy from our tour showed all his cuts and bruises he'd got. He was lucky too, because his head had got whacked against all the rocks. I think I made the right decision not swimming!!
That night we all bothered to have a shower and put on some clean clothes because we were going to the Grand Casino in Monaco! I didn't know Monaco was a country until we were on our way and was quite pleased to cross another one of the list. Claudia gave us heaps of info about Monaco, which was all interesting. It was very cashed up, you could tell just by looking at the Marina with all the luxury yachts tied up. It wasn't as pretty as I thought it would be though, I would have rather lived in Switzerland. I wonder if people live there just for the prestige of saying they live in Monaco. Seriously, better places in the world. Onto the Grand Casino, played the pokies next to a lady who had each foot straddling eith side of the pokie machine with a champagne in one hand and a cigartte in the other. Very classy, she reminded me on Patty and Selma from the Simpsons. We had a bit of a lesson in roulette, just watching though, and saw an aussie girl win about 100 euros. She was stoked, we were very happy for her. Then me and Jus went outside to a cafe with Claudia and Pauly our bus driver and paid 12 euro for a milkshake!! But it was awesome and after a night at the casino I was only down 22 euros, so I thought that was pretty good!!
The next day we got up and drove back along the coast (same road where Grace Kelly died) and stopped for a visit to Fragonard's Perfumery. Their perfumes had such beautiful packaging I wanted to buy it just for that, but I restrained myself and promised myself that the money I didn't spend there I could spend in duty free on the way home.
Our next stop was the Leaning Tower of Pisa! It seriously looks exactly like it does on postcards. I think we were all surprisingly underwhelmed. We all took our tourist photos and got back on the bus!
Slept a lot of the way to Florence on the bus and woke up when everyone was getting off. We were staying at another campsite called Girasole resort. This one was fully equipped, bars, restaurants, pool, we could have stayed within the campsite for a week and had an awesome time. Me and Jus jumped off the bus and ran straight to the pool for a quick swim before it was closed for the night. That night we all had another group dinner together at the restaurant, fabulous Italian three course meal, pasta, pizza, gelato. From there we went over to the bistro where there was what I thought a karaoke machine set up with a man singing along, excpet the same man stayed on the whole night and I realised he was actually the hired entertainment. He was actually quite entertaining. The girls from our tour started our own dance floor and started draggin the boys into dance. Lots and lots of fun. At 11 o'clock we all conga-lined out of the bistro and down the nightclub. We were all stoked because the night club was so well taken care of that we could dance barefoot, no broken glass or spills or anything. Had a great night dancing, From Paris To Berlin was played of course! Headed to bed late.
So now Im only a few days behind, but off to float in the Adriatic tomorrow so will get behind again! Ciao!

London to Paris

Ok, so here I am, finally with a day off from all the holidaying! I am so glad we will have a recuperation week in Japan before going back home and work! I probably won't have time to catch up entirely, but Andy thinks I write for too long anyway!! Sorry!! Skim read!!Since I last wrote we have had 9 days on the Top Deck tour. We were only on one part of a bigger 24 day tour so it was a bit sad to wave goodbye to the bus today and know that they were all going off together for continued shenanigans and we were being left behind. What can I say about the tour? We may as well have done a Contiki tour! Wow, these people know how to party, but it was good to actually feel my age for a change rather than feel like the little old lady I usually feel like!I think the last time I wrote was in beautiful Mykonos, if not, sorry for repeating myself. Straight after I wrote we went down to the beach for dinner. The restaurants are RIGHT on the beach, literally. You step out of the water, across the sand and onto the deck of the restaurant. So that night we got sucked in by an old greek man standing out the front of his restaurant saying "I have nice table!" and then a little less enthusiastically "Good food". He also had a beverage hidden in a potplant. So we got a table right on the edge of the deck and at awesome food. Anyway, the point of this story is that while we were sitting there this little kitten appears from nowhere and started running up and down the beach! A cat on the beach!!! It was very funny. Ok, so the next day we had an early start flying back to Athens. I also have to tell you there were two little kittens in Mykonos airport just going around introducing themselves. We had a 5 hour stop at Athens airport, which I think I know like the back of my hand now. Bought myself some new earring from Accessorize and rang mum and had a good chat to her. We got to London around 4pm and was so excited to see Sarah at the airport!! It was really nice to see a familliar face and for her too. She took us on London - the abridged tour! We had a good go on the tube which was really no different to Torontos underground and Melbournes trains, except the network is ridiculous and we were very glad to have Sarah guide us through it! We popped up from the tube at Westminster Abbey and saw Big Ben. It really is big. She took us for a walk up to Downing Street which was really only significant because Hugh Grant was obviously the prime minister in Love Actually. We found a very nice little pub and had dinner and apple and rhubarb crumble for dessert. I totally confused the barman by asking for Ice cream AND custard. Those crazy Australians. Then we headed up to Birmingham Castle, thats if you are Justine of course, Me and Sarah actually call it Buckingham Palace. I was quite impressed, and we stood at the gate feeling quite sorry for the royals who would never have the freedom to be able to do a discreet Maccas run or anything like that. I think we are all quite happy to be commoners. We finished the night by catching the double decker bus back to the train station.
NEXT MORNING! Top Deck begins! We had to be up at 6.30 to get the coach to the ferry to take us to Paris! We met Claudia our awesome tour leader but didnt really speak to anyone on our tour because it was just a bit too ealry for all of us. On the way to the ferry we sat in front of two people -Bow and Mel - and just listened in on their conversation for two hours. When we got off the ferry we recited everything we'd learned about them by eavesdropping, and broke the ice. Great way to meet people everyone! On the ferry we also made friends with Rikki, Damo and Jackie. Most of our tour was Aussies, with a few NZers, and a handful of other places. When we got to Paris we roomed up with Mel and Bow who werent scared off. So Paris... WOW. I really hadnt thought much about Paris and really only wanted to go so I could say I'd been. Best city in the world so far. It is beautiful. I just could not stop staring at it. It is huge and and EVERY SINGLE building is beautiful. THere is no ugliness in Paris. I loved it. It's really clean too. I swear there was no litter anywhere. After we checked into our rooms we got back on the coach for a bus tour of Paris. We drove past the Moulin Rouge and stopped to walk up the steps to the Sacre Coeur, this beautiful cathedral on the highest peak in Paris - which was really not that high. Beatiful views of the city. We then drove past MArilyn Monroes home and Claudia starts telling us about how Marilyn collected teddies and how there was one hidden in a window around the next corner, so we are all craning our necks to the right trying to find this teddy in a window and Claudia yels out "Just kidding! Look to the left!" And there was the Eiffel Tower all lit up blue and flashing. The whole bus was like "Ohhhhhhh". We did a lap around the Tower which really is so beautiful. We did a bit more driving aorund the main sights and then went home to sleep!
Croissants for breakfast the next morning, of course! We had a free day to do our own thing so we took Mel with us and walked up to the Louvre took a photo and then didnt go in! Instead we went to the Musee D'Orsay which lots of people told us was better that the Louvre. I loved it because it had so many paintings and artists I'd studied back in high school when I still loved art! So I got to see Van Goghs self portrait, Monets waterlillies, Degas ballet paintings, Renoir, Toulousse Lautrec, Manet, Matisse! Ohhh it was really cool and definitely got me inspired and reminded me of how I used to love art so much before my traumatising uni days. I went around taking photos of every painting I liked which ended up being way over 100. From there we walked up along the River to the Eiffel tower stopping for crepes. We had a bit of a break under the tower, which was a good spot because it was quite drizzly and grey. Ben, I'm glad you'd told me it always rains in Paris because it did! After a while we got up and went to meet our bike tour! A whole bunch of us had signed up for this optional extra so it was pretty much all people from our tour. The tour was with a little company that runs bike tours in Madrid and Rome and a few other European cities. It was definitely a high light of the trip so far. The ride went for 4 hours and was so fun. We were all a bit freaked out because the all ride on the roads with no helmets! It just seemed so wrong. We weren't on the roads much, but it was pretty scary when we did! I kept laughing at how in Melbourne you only see cyclists in full lycra but no one wears anything but their normal clothes for riding in Paris! I even saw a lady riding in heels!!!! Our guide was a really nice girl from Texas (?) who just bombarded us with French history, but it was fascinating. She told us that during German occupation in WW2 the Eiffel Tower's elevator wasn't working and the French insisted that they couldnt fix it but the day after the French reclaimed Paris they had it back in action. Hahaha, i thought that was great. I know also know three different King Louis. So we went back to a lot of the places we'd seen on the bus the night before but got a lot more time to look and heard the history. Napoleons tomb, Invalides museum, Champs D'Elysees. Then we stopped for more crepes. My bum was very sore but I was sad to get off the bike!It finished at about 7.30 in the evening and we had to do a quick dash back up to Napoleons tomb where we were having a picnic dinner with the Top Deck crew. That night most of us went out a cabaret show at Paradis Latin, which was so fun. It was a lot more entertaining than I thought it would be. At one point this trapeze man was flying around above the audience. I was so involved I thought I was going to have a heart attack. After the cabaret show a lot of people went out, but it was like midnight and to me going to the cabaret show WAS going out!! The next morning we woke up and Bow was in bed but still wearing his shoes. We got on the bus to head for Switzerland, but I will write about that later!! I'll try to get some photos on in the next few days!