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.

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

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!

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:

A weekend visit to Jenolan Caves near the Blue Mountains

A weekend food and wine trip to Melbourne, including dinner at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen
Chris Gardener's 60th birthday party - fancy dress (hopefully obviously)

Marg and Roy's 60th Wedding Anniversary - complete with letters from the Queen and PM!
Another weekend away - this time on the South Coast in lovely Broulee with Shez, Joel, Tommy & Lachie

Soph's girlfriends annual Christmas feast - with host Shezzy here
Another Christmas tradition - Kris Kringle with the KSBS girls
The beautiful Emily Keenan at her hens day/night/event
One of the many Christmas feasts we enjoyed on Christmas day

New Year's Eve excitement at Snowgoose & Pete taking command of the farm on the quad bike
Em and Josh's wedding in the Hunter Valley in January and all the girls gathered around the stunning bride!
The view just down the road from our awesome McMahons Point house-sitting job
Australia Day BBQ in McMahons Point
Scott's quarter of a century birthday - Maddy looking very impressed in the background
Lunch with the girls celebrating Sleece's birthday at Hugo's Manly
The Growers Markets in Pyrmont.... yummmm
Enjoying Shakespeare on the Green in Waverton with Frecks
Huw and Matt in the working dog trials in Rylstone in February
Al, Lil, Sophia, Chook and Sleece taking in the sights in Canberra by bike - visiting Canberra's newest resident - Lila!

5 Days in London...

Our trip ended in the UK with a brief visit to Peterborough (where Pete grew up) and to London. In London we caught up with Lex and Yohanna and our friends Mick and Flick. We enjoyed a whirlwind tour of London, trying to take in as much of it as possible. It was a great way to end an awesome and amazing 6 months of travel. Home-ward bound.