On a whim we decided to just do it and book a holiday to Tassie. Neither of us having been there before we had no idea what to expect. With descriptions such as the end of the earth, the wilderness state... etc it was bound to be remote and wild. We flew into Launceston and got out on tarmac, always a sign of a small airport. Immediately signs to declare fruit and vege dominated and a sniffer dog made its way up the line. I got rid of a banana but it pawed me. Oh well least it was only fruit! [View Full Entry]

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An 11 hour flight put us over the date line minus a day in the southern hemisphere Fiji islands. Waking up on the flight to find a large Fijian man sitting next to me was a shock to say the least. Space being at a premium i later spread out to hog our precious extra seat. Stepping off the plane we breathed in the warm humid air tinged with a scent of smoke, the sugarcane. We were introduced to Fiji time straight away with a large immigration queue. How long does it take to stamp a plane full of Americans and [View Full Entry]

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After an almost six hour flight to New York across Greenland and the Atlantic ocean we arrived at JFK airport. I must admit i was expecting the worst from immigration having had several grillings before. However perhaps arriving with a plane load of harmless Icelandic was the way to go as I have never had such a laidback entrance into the U.S. No sign of George Bush's ugly portrait thankfully we went straight through to get fingerprinted, photographed and stamped into the U.S. Interesting they use sniffer beagles like Sydney airport too. Not one question was asked on how long was [View Full Entry]

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December 5th finally arrived. With work over and our flat packed up and cleaned we got our bond from the landlord and headed to Heathrow with glee. It was a rainy gloomy day so typical for London and we were happy to be heading onto new places. The checkin line at Icelandair at Heathrow was a first, no one there! A record to be checked in within two minutes. Lanzarote looked busy...heheh. The flight to Iceland took 2.5 hours and was rather pleasant with an interesting meal of cold ham and potato salad. We landed at Keflavik into a treeless landscape [View Full Entry]

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Finland, the land of a thousand lakes (at least) and forest. This was our second time there and this time round we went in summer. We flew Finnair from Heathrow and discovered they are affiliated with BA which meant long check in line and one lost suitcase on our arrival to Helsinki. Never had that happen before so it was with a sinking feeling we resigned ourselves to life without clothing and clutching our complimentary Finnair toiletries bags made our way to Budget. Another line awaited us there with pushy tourists and by 5pm we had finally got our hire car. [View Full Entry]

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Untitled Untitled This is the first installment of our 'Eurotrash' tour happening in July. Mum and Dad will ditch their tour and fly from Paris to Prague where me and Nick are meeting them. Two Ellis' and two Wilsons in a hire car will then make our way to Mum's birthplace Karlovy Vary. Some 50 years after leaving it she finally returns. Itinerary: 8/7 Prague 9/7 Karlovy Vary 10/7 Stary Smokovec, Tatras Slovakia 11/7 Down to Kosice and the Toth's side Moldava nad Badou, to Tolvsca and Tokaj - phew 12/7 Tarcal Hungary 13/ [View Full Entry]

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Dating back to the 17th century this English parade is to celebrate the Sovereign's birthday ie. The Queen. Although the Queen's birthday is actually in April she celebrates it in June in hope of better weather. Well that was not the case this year. It was overcast, cold and rainy. The parade is carried out by her personal troops, the Household Division, on Horse Guards Parade, with the Queen herself attending and taking the salute. Since 1987 the Queen has attended in a carriage (with a blanket on her knees this year). She used to ride side saddle in the [View Full Entry]

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Slovenia, the unknown jewel of Europe. Tucked away under Austria's imposing mountains, next to Italy's Venietian coastline and above Croatia's islands, relatively mysterious to most travellers or confused with similar sounding Slovakia. We got lots of 'Slovenia? where's that?' Yet we weren't the only Aussies to have discovered this little gem, and encountered as many similar accents to our own as walking around Earls 'kangaroo valley' Court in London. Our flight from Stansted was reasonably good for an easyjet flight. It took a little less than 2 hours to get to Brnik airport flying over s [View Full Entry]

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The Easter break saw us headed to Wales for some of what the UK has to offer. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch was not on our itinerary but the Brecon Beacons, Pembrokeshire, and Snowdonia were. They said it couldn't be done, they meaning my boss Dr Rowland, who said 'we do have patients on tuesday you know'. Wales in four days, no worries. For Aussies the distances are not huge to drive however in Wales the roads are narrow little village ways with some larger roads - not enough! There were lots of Clan dan nooee and Daffyd jokes, for those fans of Little [View Full Entry]

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Hello in Hungarian (we didn’t learn how to say it) We’ve returned from behind the iron curtain. Well its no longer soviet but had a distinct air of post communism. Derelict buildings, graffiti, serious people and some signs of recent foreign investment in new renovation work. Its still a few years behind Prague. Our trip started early, as usual, getting on the easybus to Luton airport. Surprisingly smooth transit out to the middle of nowhere airport. It made a change to be early for the flight and not spend hours in security. Although we must commend Luton for their orig [View Full Entry]

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