So this is Fiji...not a bad place to stop for a few months. I'm in week 3 now and really enjoying myself. I've met lots of people at Homestay, where I'm living, mostly kiwis which is a worry, but they're lovely all the same :-) I won't write much here, because I've put descriptions in the pictures. But basically I've been keeping busy, when I'm not at work I'm out having dinner or drinks somewhere and weekends I try to get out of Suva, which makes coming back to work more bearable. [View Full Entry]

---

---

For New Years I was lucky enough to have 3 days off, so I hopped on a plane to Phuket to visit the Valtas family. Dana had flown in from London, and Wendy from Canberra. The first night I stayed with them on Karon Beach at the Hilton, which was lovely of course. The second night we moved to Patong beach to be closer to all the action. We went out for dinner then partied the night away. [View Full Entry]

---

---

Mum, dad and I flew out of Cyprus headed for Cairo, Egypt. We spent the first day exploring Cairo, we walked along the Nile before heading to the bazaar, so naturally I had to shop for more things! Cairo was pretty full on, there's something like 25 million people in Cairo alone. It is a muslim country and it showed by the way the women dressed, the majority of women wore head scarfs and a lot wore the full chadore. The reaction of the men towards me was also quite different to other places I've been (even Turkey, which is also [View Full Entry]

---

---

Sunday 14th - We drove about 2 hours out of Nicosia to stay at a very laid back inn at the foot of the mountains, but only a 10 minute drive to the beach. It was lovely, we went to Coral bay beach, more swimming and laying in the sun. Then that night had a traditional Cyprus meal at the inn. Monday 15th - The next day we spent the morning at another beach before driving up into the mountains for lunch. Tuesday 16th - Dana and I went to the old town of Nicosia to potter in the shops. We [View Full Entry]

---

---

Thu 11th - We left Cyprus at 7am and flew to Turkey to stay in Istanbul for a few days. Our trip started a bit rocky when we arrived and needed to buy visas (you do it at the airport before passport control). However the only ATM on that side of the barrier wasn’t working, and we had no Turkish Lira. After being sent to numerous counters we finally met someone who could help. So he took us to the police and explained the situation, then escorted us to the other side, so we kinda entered Turkey once, got our cash, [View Full Entry]

---

---

Wed 10th - A fairly laid back day before heading back to the Syrian club for another meze with people we’d met the night before. After dinner we smoked…this thing…I’m not entirely sure how to describe it. It is a big bottle with a pipe and on the top is the coals that burn the tobacco which comes in different flavours. You don’t inhale the smoke, you just take the flavour in your mouth. We had apple and it was really yummy, it didn’t taste smokey or yucky at all. [View Full Entry]

---

---

Sun 7th - Mum and dad drove us down to the party central of Cyprus where we were going to stay for 2 nights. We spent the day at the beach (it was becoming a fairly regular thing by now!) then went to our hotel. We got a great location, in between the beach and all the clubs and cafes. That night we sat on balcony and had some drinks then wandered into the party area to find a life outdoor concert, it was U2 cover band, and they were great! And the beer was cheap, so we kicked on for [View Full Entry]

---

---

History - Just to give you an idea, because I had none before I came, Cyrpus is split between North and South. There’s been a lot of fighting here and for the last 20 odd years the UN have been here. The Nth of the island is Turkish and the Sth is Greek. The city of Nicosia, the capital, has an old town which back in the very old days was surrounded by a wall. This city has now been split between Nth and Sth. Literally, the line went through middle of the city and if you were on the wrong [View Full Entry]

---

---

We arrived back in London and that marked the end of contiki. It was sad to see the adventure come to an end, but my body sure as hell appreciated slowing down! We got back in the evening and stayed at the contiki hotel, as did most other people on the bus. That night we had a yummy chinese dinner then went to the hotel pub to say our final goodbyes. The next day was a very slow start, followed by some sad goodbyes. Ish came and picked Amy McB up to take her to Wales, I'm not sure when I'll [View Full Entry]

---

---

After leaving Switzerland we drove to Rhine Valley in German, heading for Heidelberg. We stopped along the way took get to learn more about the history of steins and their origin. We pottered through the small town then went to a winery, deep down in the basement, for wine tasting and cheese. This particular winery specialised in Riesling grapes, so we tried a variety of white wines. We spent the night at a hotel referred to as Grandma’s house, and it was like that. There were rooms and corridors and little sitting areas all over the place. We were a bit [View Full Entry]

---

---