U Giuliani has been open since before Australia even became a federation. Opened in 1897, this cafe on the corner of Piazza de Cinquecentro opposite Termini station is where I found myself having my first lunch in Rome. To say that I was looking forward to an 'authentic' Italian experience was an understatement, just having had an awful trip into town on the train (which cost me a lovely $22 Australian to stand on a packed train for a half hour). The maitre-de at my cafe looks like Mario's great-grand-father. My waiter looks older than both my grandfather's combined. Just when I thought there couldn't be an older soul in the Italian workforce, the chef shuffles out with my tortelli, making a tortoise look like Roadrunner. My authentic italian experience was officially delivered. My meal was ... read more

Greetings from sunny London! It's actually not sunny here, in fact it's pitch black! Granted it is 2am and I have safely arrived at Olivia's friend Cate's house to spend the next two days in her care, showing me around the amazing city of London. Firstly I'll fill you in on my previous stops on the journey: from my afternoon in Berlin I got ready for our 'pub crawl' that evening, which was an absolute blast! The pubs were really cosy and alternative and it was a really awesome way to immerse ourselves in German culture. They certainly love to drink :) We were given T-Shirts we had to wear, which had David Hasselhoff's face on them with the words 'I LOVE BERLIN' below (to signify his popularity as a singer over here). We were all ... read more

Hello everyone! I am writing to you from the cosy basement internet room of a Czech-cafe in Prague, or as the locals call it, Praha. What makes it even more cosy is that 4 of my friends from our tour have joined me, and when we bought our hot chocolates and cakes the internet was free! Unlimited yea :) Prague is absolutely gorgeous. Very 'old town' is all I can think of when I look around, but with a classy edge and spacious feel. Everywhere you look there is Bohemian Crystal, the Czech-equivalent of Swarvoski. It's quite reasonable too! Prague is also popular for it's marionette puppets, also very reasonable. There are quite a few 'odd' sights mixed in with the mainstream though; such as the 'Sex Machine Museum', 'Torture Device Museum' and 'Barbie Exhibition (the ... read more

Firstly I appologise for the large gap between blogs...it has been a fairly full-on past few days with A LOT happening! We left Switzerland bound for Nice on the south coast of France, smack bang in the middle of the French Riviera, or Cote D'Azur, as the locals call it. We had to pass through Italy (close to Milan) to get down there and, what an experience! The service station sold guns, knives and lots of nasty weapons in general; as well as having to pay €0.50 (AUD$0.85) to use their feral toilets :( But at least the small snacks of paninis and pasta you have everywhere in Italy are absolutely amazing which makes up for their apparent lack in hygiene... Finally we arrived in the BEAUTIFUL French Riviera, home to the rich and famous. It ... read more

Greetings from the UK, more specifically London - home of the Queen!! Today I got an early start after arriving in Heathrow yesterday afternoon feeling somewhat ill. The flight from KL was incredibly stuffy and I felt very light headed. To make matters worse, when I arrived at Heathrow the airport was even stuffier and the customs line was about an hour long :( Needless to say I was relieved to get on the tube (underground train) and head to my hotel in the West London suburb of Hammersmith. After a semi-warm shower (it's summer and the water STILL takes forever to warm up) I got changed to go out and have dinner...well because of a certain Euro-soccer final every pub was full to the brim with rowdy Londoners. Needless to say I opted for a ... read more