Germany. I never really had any great dreams of visiting Germany but it happened to lie between Switzerland & Holland and my rail pass required bordering countries so Germany got added to my itinerary by default. Despite the cold (the average temperature was about 10 degrees) I’m so glad it did. I started in Munich because the American boys in Switzerland said that if I wanted to see beer halls, lederhosen, and oompa bands Bavaria was the place to visit. After fueling up on a stick of bratwurst, I took a bike tour of the city lead by a cheeky guy [View Full Entry]

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By the time I arrived in Interlaken I was kinda bummed. I’d been meeting tons of great people in my travels but was really missing those who matter the most. I didn’t really have an agenda except that I seriously needed to buy some new shoes and a jacket before heading into the Alps. Oh and that I wanted to sky dive! The first morning I met a fantastic fun and adventurous pair of Americans from Seattle (Rich & Nick). Within the first 5 minutes they’d invited me to tag along to Grindelwald (up in the mountains) and I accepted. The [View Full Entry]

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After the Vendange in Switzerland I was seriously needing some R&R - and to get away from men! French men are VERY persistent! Even with no encouragement! I had it in my head that I wanted to find a nice quiet little retreat in the Tuscan countryside to just relax, regroup and recuperate so from Vevey I caught the train to Florence. I spent a day seeing the Uffizi Museum, the Duomo, and the statue of David (so much for getting away from men ;-) ) and booked a place online out in the middle of the Chianti region for 15 [View Full Entry]

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A little background for how I ended up in Switzerland picking grapes: One sunny afternoon at CanDo4Kids back in Adelaide my CEO, Paul, asked me where I’d be at the end of September. To my reply of “floating around somewhere in Europe” he said “How would you like to do some paid work in one of the most beautiful places in the world?” As it turns out Paul’s partner’s sister and her Swiss husband manage a winery out of St Saphorin (not far from Vevey) on Lake Geneva. A couple of emails later it was all teed up for the last [View Full Entry]

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I wrote this on an overnight train (where I had the entire 6 berth compartment to myself!) heading to Switzerland for the Vandage (vintage). I’m sorry things still aren’t quite up to date (only 5 weeks behind) but I’m getting there. So Italy. I loved Rome! I had originally planned to spend a day or two there before heading to Tuscany but quickly learned that a couple of days isn’t enough. Rome is a crazy treasure chest of amazing ruins and gorgeous old stuff! I say ‘stuff’ cos there’s obelisks and fountains and grottos as well as the colloseum, the [View Full Entry]

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Lake Titicaca/Bolivia After saying goodbye to Sandy I headed off on my own to Lake Titicaca - the highest lake in the world (3827m). I joined a 2 day tour and visited the floating islands before staying the night on Amantani, one of the real islands. The group split into pairs or threes to spend the night with a local family as a homestay. It was all very cute and quaint until after dinner when they dressed us up in their local traditional get up to go to the community hall for a “dance” - bizarre and CORNY! I met a [View Full Entry]

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Where to start...it feels like we spent a year in Peru not just a month. I tried having just one Peru blog entry but it became so long that I’ve divided it in two - The Trek and Lake Titicaca/Bolivia. The Trek We arrived in Lima back on the 17th August which, as we were warned, was just a big city - gloomy and cold. The next morning we flew to Cusco and only just made our flight. With so much of Australia at sea level and our highest peak (Kosiosko) at only 2228m, we really have no appreciation for altitude. [View Full Entry]

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Yep, results are in and I'm so excited (and relieved) to confirm that I passed my exam and am now officially a "Listening & Spoken Language Specialist Certified Auditory-Verbal Therapist" (or LSLS Cert AVT)!!!! Can't wipe the smile off my face :-) [View Full Entry]

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Sorry its a bit scattered but here's Lake Atitlan & Semuc Champey [View Full Entry]

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We knew that Guatemala had volcanoes, lush tropical jungles, and some gorgeous lakes but over the past 2 very hectic weeks Lindsay, her friend Katie, and one of my best buddies from Uni, Sandy, and I discovered it had a lot more to offer too... After being told the capital, Guatemala City is not really worth visiting we spent the first two nights in Antigua. Antigua is matrix of narrow cobble stoned streets surrounded by volcanoes. It was a good place to get over the culture shock and for Lindsay, who landed the role of chief Spanish interpreter and negotiator extraordinaire, [View Full Entry]

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