Switzerland

Our fist stop in Switzerland was Zurich, which by the way is now up there with one of our favourite cities in the world. What was not to like, super trendy cafes and clothes shops lined the coble stone streets, amazing old architecture, a river that you can swim in and all under some mountains.....oh you could smell the dirty money.

One of the main reasons we went to Switzerland was to see Lee's mate Dom (www.mouldyheads.com) before he packed up and left to work with a big time photographer, Horst Diekgerdes in Paris. We happened to arrive smack bang on Doms big 3-0. So off we went to have an indian feast with Dom's friends and then onto to the pub for some more celebrating (thanks again for a great night everyone).

After a tough start the next day, we dragged our sore heads and sorry asses out to explore Zurich. We walked along the river, umbrella in toe, went on the dodgems at the carnival and saw all those sneaky Swiss banks. Later that night Dom took us for a a traditional Swiss meal in the original Swiss artillery room where we ate a yummy mushroom chicken thing, underneath William Tell's actual bow and arrow on the wall....COOL! A big thanks to Dom for having time to have a beer or 2 in Zurich!!!

Next stop....The Swiss Alps. We jumped on a train from Zurich and even the train ride left us staring to the sky and saying 'ooohhhh aaahhhh' at the far away mountains. So you can only imagine what we did when we arrived in our little village, Grindelwald, under those snow capped mountains.

The first day we arrived we got up at the crack of sparrows and headed for the highest train station in Europe 'Top of Europe'. Once we were there we could see as far as the eye could see - and also there was snow EVERYWHERE!!!

After a look out stop we ran down to the snow freezing our butts off (we packed for summer not snow) and had a snow ball right. After the fight we calmed down and had a picnic lunch on the snow overlooking a huge snow filled valley.

The next day we went on a hike through one of the mountains above Grindelwald. With wild flowers everywhere, patches of snow and streams you could drink from. The first words Brooke said when we got up was 'Yo-de-lah-he-heeee'.

We loved Switzerland and the best way to describe it was it looked just like a swiss chocolate wrapper.mmmmmmmmmmmmmm chocolate.

NEWS FLASH

We interrupt this blog to bring you a special news update...................WE ARE ENGAGED! That's right we're getting hitched. Lee popped the question while we were in Tuscany. Deatils to come soon (Italy update).
Hugs. the engaged couple.

Salzburg

We will start with the Sound Of Music (SOM). For anyone who knows Brooke, will know how she loves a good musical. So naturally she was very excited at the thought of actually going to THE place SOM was filmed....Salzburg that is.

Brooke dragged Lee on the 3 hour tour of the Von Trapps mansion, the famous gazebo for the ' I am 16 going on 17' scene and of course the church that the wedding took place. While on the bus they played the soundtrack, TWICE, and everyone sang along. Lee smiled helplessly at me...god he must love me!

We did get in a little romance time as it was our 4 year anniversary. We went out for a rack of lamb and some very tasty wine. After dinner we took a walk up to the look out over the beautiful city.

Other notable food things to mention was a chocolate pretzel Lee ate... that was bigger than his head.

Cesky Krumlov

We caught the train from Vienna to Linz where we were met by the owner of our hostel for Cesky Krumlov, a 1 1/2 hour transfer back to Czech republic. Turns out 'Jan' (the male owner) lived in Oz - 25mtrs across the road from us in Manly (above the Interpolitan)

Cesky Krumlov was looking the goods when we arrived. It was hot, and there were hundreds of people floating down the river in canoes and stopping frequently at the river pubs on the way. With 2 days here, we pencilled some canoeing in for the next day....but rain set in for 2 days. Taking a break from the expensive Euro, we spent lots of time in the cafes, pubs, restaurants and reading books.

Vienna

We chose Vienna as a time to chill after being 'go go go' for over a month. While we were there we picniced in the catherdal parks, went for runs in the palace gardens and heard Mozart being played in the famous Viennanese Opera House. While we listened and hummed along, the Koreans' in front row us snored their heads off.


We happened to be in Vienna for the opening of the famous Vienna Film Festival. Food stalls packed the square where the fetival was held, while the biggest screen we've ever seen played famous opera and classical music concerts from all over the word. We always manage to be in a place when a festival is on.......

.....Lee says it's the Hulsman arsey-ness - I say it's the McGregor Luck.

Poland

This was an unexpected detour, but Poland rocked!!


We stayed in the historical Krakow with trendy restaurants, teenagers loitering and a kebab shop on every corner... who would have thought it was a communist country (except for the odd commy car (the Polski Fiat 126p) parked on the street).

The reason we came to Poland was to go to Auschwitz - a nazi death camp from WWII. It was extremely moving and a heart felt experience, one we are glad we had.

Krakow was the unexpected bonus and it was cheap enough to dine in some of the better places - in between sightseeing the castle and Jewish quarter. We highly recommend that you visit this cool country.



Oh yeah, we did create a snall scene one day. While taking a tram we had undercover ticket inspectors raid it... and suprise suprise, we didn't have a ticket. We had them yelling and circle us on the footpath trying to make us pay 200 bucks. Lee tried to test their authority and told him to piss off and started walking away. Lucky for them, they hailed a cop car driving right past. With police car now parked on footpath, 3 ticket inspectors and 2 poleizi telling me us we're going to jail. Lee offered them 6 dollars in change and told them we had no money and were leaving the country the nextday. At this point we were at a stalemate. A standoff for 10 mins with some yelling and a translator helping... then an old local lady intervened (which obviously held a bit of respect) comes to our defense and tells them go bugger off and don't scare the tourists away. Police left without saying a word, and the situation just evaporated. sweet.

Prague

The saying 'fuller than a fat chicks sock' comes to mind. More American tourists here, than flies in Australia.




While nothing physically had changed in the last 8 years since Lee was here last, Prague has definitely lost its 'semi secret' feel. The costs have also changed, we left booking out hotel until we arrived, but of course it was Sunday and all the tourist offices were shut. We dragged and carried our legs along the coble stones and found and internet place and booked the cheapest place we could. Not holding any high expectations, we arrived to a massive suite in the best area we could have asked for.

We visted all the touristy things like the castle, the bridge and even saw a weird Dali exhibition. Lee drank beer as it was cheaper than water, while Brooke sipped on wine. Gotta love that Czech's not on the Euro... YET!

It's always interesting to find something new on the menu in these kind of countries.

Berlin - June 2007

The land of "Socks & Sandals", sausages at every meal and porn commercials on free-to-air TV.

During a quick stop in Dusseldorf and Cologne we "bit the bullet" and bought a 3 month Eurail pass... free first class travel on any trains in Europe for 3 months. The price we paid felt like we were selling our souls, but turns out to be quite a bit cheaper (and did i mention it's first class).

First stop was Berlin. Among all the tourists, punk rockers, goths and creeps, the city itself had a pretty funky vibe.

All the architecture was amazing - even though most of it was re-built after it was bombed in WWII.

And who said the german food is crap. We had great German food... we had Thai, Vietnamese, Turkish etc.

Ireland 3 June - 22 June 2007

The country that has 40 shades of green and 'To be to be sure' we saw them all, in our 3 week Irish adventure.

We flew into Dublin and in true Irish style arrived to drizzle and a nice temp of 14 degrees, but that didn't dampen our spirits. It was off to the pub for some irsih stew to warm us up and a Guinness to wash it down.

The next day it was Lee's birthday (in fact, it was the reason we were in ireland - for his "tirty-tird" birthday) so we drove south to spend the night in the picturesque village of Kilkenny. In true Hulsman arsey-ness, the weather turned for the better. After a birthday meal in the swankiest restaurant we could find, we set off in search of leprechauns but settled for some traditional diddley-dee music.

Not before a quick stop to kiss the Blarney Stone (who would of thought that for 8 hours a day, people would line up to to kiss the exact same spot on a STONE) we spent few more days exploring the south coast and seeing some more of the quaint Irish villiages. We next did the infamous 'Ring Of Kerry'. This was one of our highlights. We cranked up the volume on our newly acquired diddley-dee music, filled up the car, and cruised through some of Irelands best scenery.

After the "Ring" we went and visted some friends that we met on our travels last time, Ruan and Zara. Who we hadn't seen in 3 years and have a baby girl Leilani welcomed us into there home cooked us up a barbie irish style and gave us some good wine.

On our first full day with them we went to 'The Cliffs Of Moher' where it is normally so cold and rainy they have a video tour of the cliffs on a sunny day........however as luck would have it, t'was the hottest day Ireland had seen this year. The cliffs were truly spectacular and blew both of us away. It was such a hot day we all went to the beach for a swim and had a barby and some vino to wash it down.

After Ruan and Zara's we headed to Northern Ireland to see Derry. It was a really interesting place to vist and we learnt more about the trials and tribulations that the city had been through. Not mention some of the friendliest people we met in ireland.

After Derry we braved the 10 degree weather (you thought Melbourne's weather could change fast) and went to 'Giants Causway'. Basically, some cool rock formations that legend has a giant made to climb over to fight his nemisis... blah blah.

We stayed in Belfast and did a black cab tour and learnt so much about what the Northern Irish people have been though. and saw the most bombed hotel in europe - we chose not stay here.

We did a medival castle banquet in the country near Limerick. We ate like kings and queens, got serinaded by a beautiful choir and got pissed as farts on honey wine. special thanks to ruan for taxing 2 drunk aussies around.

After some easy persuasion we went back to spend a bit more time with Ruan and Zara (and little Leilani).

In the last few days Lee managed to even fit in a surf (although he did complain of ice-cream headaches). Then after the farewells we caught our plane (the right one this time) and headed for Germany!!!!

Until next time

Lee and Brooke