The Adventures of Pete & Soph: 2009

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Cute & Quaint Cotswolds

Having temporarily being evicted from our unit for the weekend, we took the opportunity to get out of London and into the Cotswolds. Pete remembered some of what that area was like from when he was younger and exploring the UK with his family, but his memory was a bit fuzzy so it was good to go back. We hired a car from Swindon (after taking the train to Swindon) and headed into the small villages of the super cute and charming Cotswolds. Over our 2 days we stopped at Burford, Swinbrook, Minster Lovell, Bourton-on-the-Water, Lower Slaughter, Upton St Leonards (where we stayed overnight), Painswick, Gloucester, Bibury and Ewen.

We thoroughly enjoyed walking through the small villages and marvelling at the pretty stone cottages with flowers on them, plus devouring a few cream teas! There was so much to see and we probably need to go back to see it all!

If you want to see more photos, click here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=135546&id=688115638&l=075bfd3201

Belinda & Sophia in Barcelona

It was with great excitement that I had the chance to go to Barcelona for a weekend and meet up with my good pal, Belinda (or Boo). It was great to catch up with her and we had fun exploring the city together. We both slipped on our walking shoes and hit the pavement - covering La Rambla, most of Gaudi's buildings and park (including the fabulous Sagrada Familia and La Pedrera), the Cathedral, art and craft street markets, the Concert Hall, Parc de la Ciutadella, the lovely harbour area and the large food markets. Intertwined with all the sights was some great tapas, coffee and of course shopping!

Barcelona is a great city with plenty to see, do and experience, plus a chance to try some of my sketchy spanish. We really enjoyed learning more about Gaudi and seeing his really creative architecture. Hasta luego!

View from the Sagrada Familia over Barcelona

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Wintry Wales

Our interest in exploring more of the UK and being unemployed, meant we took a couple of week days and a weekend to travel over to Wales for a bit of sightseeing and catching up with our friends Mike and Sarah Pasalich. We spent 2 days on the Gower Peninsula and had some truly wet and horrible weather, but it felt just right for where we were. We really enjoyed the coast line and lovely rolling hills that went right up to the cliff tops. We spent our first night at Maes-Yr-Haf in Parkmill which was a lovely restaurant with rooms set up. We thoroughly enjoyed some fabulous Greek food, which seeemed a bit odd to be eating in Wales. On our second day we took a walk to 3 Cliff Bay, visited Oxwich Castle in Gower, saw the beach boxes at Langland beach, the Mumbles Pier and cruised around Swansea bay to our second accommodation at Egerton Grey Country House Hotel - where the Dalai Lama and Prince Charles and Camilla have stayed! It was gorgeous and the most typical English house, it was lovely.

The next day we headed into Cardiff and stopped off at the Castell Coch which had some beautifully decorated rooms before meeting up with the Paso's in Newport, where they live. We had a good catch up with them, enjoyed some delish Wales pub food and a visit to St Faggon's before our trip back to London.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Perfect Positano, Pompeii & Naples

Our first European jaunt was 2 and a half hours by plane to Naples. We left really early on a Friday morning and after catching 3 buses, a plane, another bus, a boat and another bus, we arrived in Positano on the Amalfi Coast. With hundreds of coloured houses perched precariously up the hillsides above beautiful bright blue water we fell in love immediately. Though we struggled with our Italian (defaulting to the small amount of Spanish we know was completely unhelpful) we savoured some delicious pastas, pizzas, wine, gelati and of course coffee! We hired a scooter for 2 days and covered the Amalfi Coast, stopping to admire the gorgeous towns along the way. Apart from a minor slide and fall on the scooter (not due to the terrible traffic or Pete's riding skills, but a little overbalance) we thought the scooter was the best way to see so much and go to places we wouldn't have been able to otherwise. We managed to secure some fabulous accommodation right in the heart of Positano, which made it even more perfect.

After the Amalfi Coast we explored Pompeii for a day. It was great to see the ancient city and what was achieved at the time it was built.

From Pompeii we went to Naples. We had heard that Naples was a bit dangerous and we weren't really sure what to expect from it. We found it to be very much like South America really - lots of buzzing activity, crazy drivers, good food, lots of street atmosphere and general mayhem. So we thoroughly enjoyed our first trip to Italy and can't wait to go back!

For the die-hard fans, here are some more photos of the trip:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=120915&id=688115638&l=6c8376ea0e

Thursday, May 7, 2009

An English Easter

For our first travel in the UK/Europe, we decided on a roadtrip to Bath and Devon/Cornwall over the Easter long weekend. We hired a car and explored Avebury (similiar to Stonehenge), the city of Bath and the Roman Baths, clambered over a number of castles, ate Cornish pasties and soaked up the gorgeous English countryside and narrow lanes. We had a very quaint time and it was lovely to get out of London and see some new sites. With our English Heritage passes in hand we were able to visit many castles and heritage sites, which opened our eyes to how old England is - so many buildings here have been around longer than Australia has been settled for!

Rooftops across Bath

Enjoying a famous Sally Lunn bun and the Roman Baths - Bath

Beautiful cathedral in Wells; Cleeve Abbey in Somerset

View across Launceston from Launceston Castle, Cornwall

Dartmouth Castle, Devon

If you would like to see more photos of our trip, click on: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=116087&id=688115638&l=fb5881f406

London Living

After leaving the humidity of Singapore we finally arrived in London to much fresher weather - jackets please! We were welcomed into Lex and Yohanna's unit in Islington where our corner "room" had been set up for our stay. We had a great catch up at about 7am and after they left for work we started exploring the area. Over the next few weeks we familiarised ourselves with the underground, the red double-deck buses, the unpredictable weather (which was actually quite good with lots of blue sky), markets, different areas of London, caught up with some friends, tried to find some good coffee (which was really hard) and started job hunting. At first we were a bit overwhelmed by the size of London and what we are doing here, but over time we've managed to get to know the city better and we're feeling more comfortable and excited about living here. Here are some shots of our time in London so far:
(Primrose Park, Portobello Road, South Kensington, Greenwich, Soho, Hyde Park, London Eye)

Singapore Stopover

We left Sydney on 28 March and had a brief stopover for 2 days in Singapore, where we got the chance to visit Adam and Lisa Clayton. Lisa was such a local in her new homeland - taking us to brunch, shopping areas, dumpling heaven and reflexology. It was great to see where the Claytons are living and how they have really settled into the Singapore way of life!

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Fun in Sydney Over the Past 9 Months

We arrived back in Sydney for an unknown amount of time... we thought we might be here waiting for our UK working visa to be processed for a month, but it turned out to be more like 9 months! Oh the joys of the English beaurocracy! So in the meantime, we have had fun doing lots of house-sitting, catching up with friends and family and trying to see and do lots of things in Sydney. Here are some photos of the fun we've had recently: