http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Aussie_Emma/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Aussie_Emma en-us Sun, 03 Jan 2010 09:58:04 +0000 Sun, 03 Jan 2010 09:58:04 +0000 May 24th 2005 Bayswater London England. I first visited Buckingham Palace about a month ago and apparently forgot to write about it. I haven't seen the famous Changing of the Guards yet but the infrastructure and monuments and so forth are duly impressive in their own right and worth a quick description The outer grounds of Buckingham Palace are defined alternately with high ornamental black http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Richmond/blog-10709.html 26th 27th 28th of February 2006.Venice Italy.I was originally drawn to Venice by shockingly wicked stories and accounts of Carnivale in the 17th and 18th centuries of unapologetic decadence debauchery depravation and degeneracy conducted openly in the streets and far exceeding the supposedly scandalous dramatics of modern society's silverscreen aristocrats. Of a time and place which coul http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Veneto/Venice/blog-43415.html 25th February 2006 Very Late at NightStansted Airport London.Having yesterday left gainful employment and joined the ranks of pennypinching literally pennies not cents haha backpackers of course it made perfect sense that I should head straight for the most expensive celebration available Italy's Carnivale di Venezia. By all rights I should even now be sipping fragolino as I wander the http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-91651.html 2nd and 3rd January 2006Edinburgh Scotland.Suspicions of having acquired a cold were confirmed as much of today was spent in the same cottonheaded aching fog of yesterday for surely no hangover ever lasted this long and the sniffling has been increasing by the hour. I had planned on spending the two days following Hogmanay in a variety of activities ice skating walking again along Arthur's http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Edinburgh/blog-37619.html New Year's DayEdinburgh Scotland.How to describe the first day of 2006 I am hazy on much of it but this is an email the only one sent 010106 which I think illustrates the pointhiya katwell it's 1st jan happy new years about 4pm in the afterbnoon and i just got up and that was definitely a bad decision my head is never going to recover i http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Edinburgh/blog-37615.html 31st December 2006Edinburgh Scotland.I spent the morning flicking through tattoo catalogues and internet sites for a design that I loved enough to have imprinted upon me and could get the tattoist to agree to. By the appointed time I was out of ideas but he had taken note of my suggestions and reasons and had drawn up a deceptively simple celticstyle butterfly design. It wasn't the answer to al http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Edinburgh/blog-35027.html 30th December 2005Edinburgh Scotland.It was well into the afternoon before I awoke and when I did it was to a world without snow. There was no sign of it and nobody I asked had seen any. Nor would it snow again within the duration of my time here though I had assumed that the city would be covered in it by now. Strange the twists of fate or delayed airplanes and the blessings sometimes hidd http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Edinburgh/blog-35194.html 29th December 2005Edinburgh Scotland.Having survived Christmas I left Godalming this afternoon in search of a topnotch New Year's bash which according to popular opinion is up at dear ol' Edinburgh. Imagine my surprise I'd been willing and eager to go absolutely anywhere in Europe for the most spectacular party available only to find that everybody else was heading up to my old haunts. What http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/blog-34796.html 27th December 2005.Godalming Surrey England.Merry Christmas to all back home. Though I can't really disclose particular details on my client's family or how my Christmas with them went I did enjoy it for the most part. My client didn't get ill and I was surrounded by lovely people life was good. All in all there have been nineteen people spending some part of their Christmas here. Some stayed http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Surrey/Godalming/blog-34793.html 6th and 7th November 2005Brighton England.The Morning... er Afternoon... AfterAwakening well after seven for the first time in many many months ah the luxury it was a little worrying to discover that the skies had started to drizzle. But knowing the capriciousness of English weather I washed as per usual it should be mentioned that despite the lack of a shower I have been keeping clea http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/East-Sussex/Brighton/blog-42835.html 5th November 2005 MY BIRTHDAYBrighton England.The view over the ocean upon awakening this morning was absolutely fantastic and it was upon that happy note that the rest of the day unfolded.Mum phoned twice to wish me a happy birthday and on an impulse I stopped at a supermarket to buy some silly birthday masks and such as well as the necessary fireworks which in this country is sold in http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/East-Sussex/Brighton/blog-36136.html 4th November 2005HoveBrighton England.With tomorrow being my first ever birthday spent enitrely without even one family member it was a lovely coincidence to discover that I was in the one country who could make up the deficit by celebrating enmasse with me. Not because my happiness is of particular concern of course but because I'd have the forsight to be born on Guy Fawke's Night otherwis http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/East-Sussex/Brighton/blog-67456.html 1st November 2005Godalming Surrey England.Growing up in Queensland left me with an ignorance of the beauty of climatic seasonal changes for in Cairns all that you have is the Wet and the Dry seasons. Which means that for most of the year it's varying degrees of hot and there's very little rain to be had perfect beach weather. Then for about two or three months after March the Wet Season kick http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Surrey/Guildford/blog-56372.html 23rd October 2005Brugge Belgium......to Calais France......to London England.Whether it be due to aftereffects of the marjuana the minuteness of the country itself or a general weariness from the endless travelling of the past twelve days I remember little of Belgium. What the terrain or the architecture consisted of I cannot tell you. Of Brugge where we stopped midmorning for a very brie http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/West-Flanders/Brugge/blog-42583.html 21st 22nd and 23rd October 2005Amsterdam Netherlands.WARNING CONTENT DOES INCLUDE SOME REFERENCES TO PROSTITUTION NUDITY ETC.Day 10 Leaving our lovely castle in the wee hours of the morning indeed before there was enough light to attempt more than a few halfhearted photos what's the use in staying in a castle if you don't get to see it we headed north across the border and into http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Netherlands/North-Holland/Amsterdam/blog-42563.html 18th 19th 20th and 21st October 2005Munich Germany and then the Rhine Valley Germany.Day 7Today I have seen the sun both rise and fall from the confines of my seat and traversed three seperate countries in the interim. By the time the bus reached Munich this evening I was clinging to the last of my patience with this fool's enterprise and had long since abandoned my customary vigil by the wi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Rhineland-Palatinate/blog-42550.html 18th October 2005Innsbruck Austria.Day 7We travelled through the mountainous terrain of Austria at something of a brisk trot playing those horrid Sound of Music songs as the movie was obviously placed in Austria all the way and stopping for barely more than an hour in Innsbruck. There we obediantly took photos of their Olympic Ski Jump and Goldenes Dachl or Golden Roof a balcony from whic http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Austria/Tyrol/Innsbruck/blog-42551.html 16th 17th and 18th October 2005Venice Italy.Day 5For the most part my first day in Belle Italia was spent driving through it. We stopped midafternoon in Verona city of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet for about an hour and a half. There we saw the Arena di Verona or amphitheatre which was built in the first century AD and is still used in summer as a theatrecumopera house.After that we wa http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Veneto/Venice/blog-41499.html 14th 15th and 16th of October 2005.Lucerne Switzerland.Tour Day 3As we travelled from France and into Switzerland all the while with the most endlessly blue skies I have ever seen in my life the landscape gradually went from incredibly green hills to amazingly green mountains and in the distance you could see blue Alps with white snowcaps. The road began to carve its way through endless mo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Switzerland/North-West/Lucerne/blog-41226.html 12th 13th and 14th October 2005Paris France.Tour Day 1Finally after seven months of being in the near distance of it I am able to say that I have been to Paris France.....and it is spectacular Stunning Grandiose But let me begin at the beginning not with birth as Dickens once did but at the conception of the trip.Having worked almost two whole months without a holiday ah but it's a har http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-24792.html