Last weekend I went to visit Anni for the weekend in Newbury. It was lovely to get out of London for the weekend and take in some of the countryside. The colours of the autumn trees and landscape are beautiful at the moment and its one of the things I love about England - the clearly defined seasons, which we don't really experience in Sydney. It's not too cold yet either which is nice - on average about 18 during the day. I caught the train up on Friday night and we went out with a bunch of Vodafone people for [View Full Entry]

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What a whirlwind it has been! I will warn you in advance that this blog is rather long - loads to catch you up on! So grab a cuppa and get comfy…. I arrived in London on 14th September after an amazing 5 month trip. I keep forgetting I have travelled for so long - must get some photos out to remind me!After I arrived in London I headed to Clapham Junction to stay with Robyn. She was at work so Jess met me at her place and we got ready to go out for drinks and to watch the England [View Full Entry]

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Mallorca was the last stop on my big tour of Europe. I flew from Lisbon to meet up with Mum and Eric (who had) flown in from Madrid) and James (who had flown from London). They picked me up from the airport in our hire car and we had a family reunion and loads to catch up on from Mum & Eric's tour. We stayed in Port d'Andratx which is about 40 mins out of Palma, in the south western corner of the island. I was really impressed - I had feared that after seeing Costa Brava that Mallorca would be [View Full Entry]

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Again, Cascais is a day trip you can do from Lisbon but I am glad I spent 3 days here. The hostel I have stayed in is unrteal and I would rank it amongst my top hostels in Europe. Along with having a room with ensuite, a great lounge room with DVD and cable telly (telly in English is such a bonus when travelling!), great kitchen and eating area and a pool complete with sun lounges, the mix of people there is really nice. I have thoroughly enjoyed staying there, altho I have been in a mixed dorm and last night [View Full Entry]

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Sintra was gorgeous. Most people take a day trip to Sintra from Lisbon, but I stayed for 3 nights, which was probably one night too long. However there is plenty to see there so I kept myself busy. It also forced me to slow down a bit qwhich I am trying to do before I hit London and start interviews for jobs, finding a house etc. I stayed in a hostel which was right near the train station. Sounds great in theory as it is not far to walk, however it also meant the dorm room was incredibly noisy, with Sintra [View Full Entry]

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We finally found where to drop our car in Lisbon and gladly left it there to grab a cab to our apartment. The apartment was very modern and right in the heart of the Bairro Alto district in Lisbon. It is one of the oldest parts and set high on one of the hills. Think Newtown meets the Cross in Sydney. It seems quiet during the day but there are funky shops all through the alley ways and at night it lights up with bars and restaurants everywhere. After our stressful time trying to drop off the car we were all [View Full Entry]

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I have decided that the Algarve coastline in Portugal is heaven on earth! If you havent been there, add it to your list of places to go, but don't tell anyone else, as it is not that touristy yet!!! The combination of specacular coastline, rugged cliffs, beautiful sandy beaches, crystal clear water and awesome food made our time in the Algarve very enjoyable. It was also hot and sunny each day which made going to the beach very easy!! Instead of my usual account of happenings I have decided to group things into 2 categories - beaches/ outings and food. That's [View Full Entry]

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Wow, it has been a while since I last blogged anything so I will try to remember details as best I can! I am also in Sintra which is the mountainsa outside of Lisbon so internet is hard to come by. I flew from Valencia to Seville. The plan ride was interesting - Valencia airport despite looking fabulous is boring as hell but maybe this had something to do with the fact that I was flying domestic. It was a smaller regional plane to be precise and I havent flown on anything that small in ages! As I was sitting in [View Full Entry]

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I really enjoyed my time in Valencia. It is a really interesting city with lots of cool stuff to see and after just having hosted the America's Cup everything is shony and new and working (eg metro, airport) and the tourist facilities are awesome - eg handbooks with great restaurants etc. There is also fasincating architecture, art, musems, churches and great food!!! There is also the beach close by which I didnt make it to but I think its quite easy to get there on a bus. The train station as we arrived was really pretty. Its been done in stained [View Full Entry]

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Hooray - Bar- the- lona!!! I was so excited to go back to one of my favourite cities in Europe and to be meeting Mum & Eric there to show them around for a few days. Barcelona is such a vibrant city and has it all - great, interesting architecture, fab food & wine, shopping and always something going on wherever you are (case in point, the TOTALLY naked man I saw walking down Passag de Gracia yesterday - looked like he had undies on but they were in fact tattooed........doesnt that give you a nice mental image??). Mum, Eric and [View Full Entry]

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