AleksNemo

So we've been home for 8 months, and though I drafted this soon after our return I didn't quite get around to publishing it. So apologies for the delay, but here's the final chapter... Well, we're safe and sound home in Sydney, and there's both happy and sad feelings mixing it up now that our epic journey has come to an end. And what a journey it was. Twelve months, four seasons, seventeen countries (several of them twice). In summary: Thailand, Germany, Poland, Sardinia, Poland, Germany, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, England, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Portugal, Spain, Andorra, France, Monaco, Italy, Croatia, England and Thailand. As I said, it was some journey... We travelled by plane, train, bus, coach, ferry, car and campervan, scooter and pushbike and a great deal of foot work ... read more

Once again, apologies for the delay in our blogging adventures, but as we're now in Thailand Nemo is too hot and busy to do anything. So we still have the rest of Italy to update you on but in the interim we're going to skip forward a couple of weeks and I'll update you on the Croatia chapter. The ferry to Split from Ancona is an overnight trip, leaving Ancona at 8.30pm and arriving in Split at 7am. You can choose from a whole bunch of accommodation options (dorm room, single room, inside shower, shared WC and so on). As usual we went for the cheapest option: 'airline seats'. Usually €46 per person, I found a special for them that was €20 each - for all the way across the Adriatic! On the top level, there ... read more

As we headed south towards Napoli, we found ourselves lodged between some pretty massive hills and the ocean. It was very interesting because the flatland that surrounded us was actually very reminiscent of the area of Queensland around where my Aunty Tracy lives, near Ashford or Bonshaw. It's very dry but there are still a lot of green areas and patches of Eucalypts and Wattles. If you had told me 12 months ago that I'd be seeing Wattle in Italy, I would have definitely scoffed, but as we drove the yellow blooms were more and more frequent. Along with the wattles and countryside, we also had a steady stream of hookers by the side of the road to keep us entertained, as we made a game of rating them out of ten, most of whom never ... read more

The night just outside of Bologna was bitterly cold, even for a couple of hardened travellers like ourselves, and the next morning was a nice winding drive through some very snowy areas on our way southwest to Lucca. Aleks was driving (even though she's not supposed to) and this was her trial-by-fire introduction to snowy road driving. As always, she came through without a scratch, and we continued at a medium pace. Running alongside the road at one stage was a river with water so blue it was almost luminescent: we tried to get a photo, you'll know which one it is, but it may or may not do it justice. You'll have to be the judge. Lucca came highly recommended by Kate “Dean's List” Epstein of Surrey Hills/Redfern fame. If she thinks it's good, it's ... read more

So where was I? It's hard to keep track with all this stuff. The more that I sit down and try to think through all the things that I've simply done autonomously doing day by day, the more overwhelming it is. Bloody HELL we've done a lot of stuff, and seen a lot of things and met some amazing people and taken some incredible photos. It was only after talking to Mama Wetzlich this morning that I realised the scope of what we've accomplished, and the fact that we're still together after three months of living on top of each other is nothing short of a miracle. We drove and drove all the way from Sevilla to Evora, a 260 km stint. One thing that I must remind you is that the average speed you do ... read more