LSL09

From Shell: I have to say the trip to the Serengeti NP and back was one of the best travel experiences I have ever had. It was rough, dirty, tiring, confronting and great fun. I'm still dreaming about it 2 weeks later. Things that stick in my mind are: - how fertile the land was in Western Kenya - answering Marja's call for me to open the window in my campground shower and looking straight in the eyes of a huge bull elephant - the interest and/or excitement from local kids (even the teenages that yelled "piss off" and threw rocks at the truck) - walking through markets - both ones where people were friendly and chatty and ones where there was some seriously hard selling going on - sticking my head out of the tent ... read more

From Marja: We survived the safari and it was awesome! We had such great luck with seeing so many animals and great weather. We also had a very good rest in Singapore for a few days. At the time of writing this I'm pretty tired after flying back home to Canberra over the last couple of days so I won't give too much details right now but I wanted to let everyone know that both Shell and I are now safely in our respective homes. My photos from the Safari are loading on http://www.flickr.com/photos/violettesaunty/ right now. I'll put comments in there and update this blog with details of the safari over the next week. Glad to be home. The dog isn't talking to me at the moment but I'll give her a few days to settle ... read more

In Nairobi - more to come........ read more

From Shell: Last night as a threesome in Rome. Marja booked us a fantastic apartment for the last 4 days - we each have our own bedroom and we all keep marveling at how you need to shout to be heard because there are walls separating us! Rome has been a complete blast for all of us - we did a lot of research and knew exactly which bus to catch from the train station to our apartment. What we didn't count on was a bus strike on the day we arrived! We begrudgingly caught a taxi, expecting that we would get ripped off but our driver was great. We've seen so many great things.... The Circo Massimo, where they used to run chariot races, the ruins at the Forum and the Palantino, the Colosseum, the ... read more

From Shell: Florence was yet another surprise. Very clean, very easy to walk around the historical centre, not too packed this time of year and some great museums if you time it right. Timing it right requires what you might expect: checking the opening hours and the standard days of closure. But it also requires investigating additional things like: are there alternating closure times and dates depending on the season/alignment of the planets/what the staff have on that week; are the key Caravaggio pieces you came to see currently offline for restoration; are two whole floors of the two and a half floor museum you came to see closed for renovation?? We've found you need to ask because it's only ever advertised once you have bought your ticket and are inside the museum. Having said that, ... read more

From Shell: I can't believe that for all I have read and seen of Venice, it still absolutely and completely got under my skin. How can you not love a place where you get to take a little boat trip almost every time you go somewhere? We are almost certain it was only the service staff and us tourists there but it was still just completely magical. We took a cheapy option for accommodation in Venice but then they upgraded us to their very nice sister hotel. The maze of alleyways and canals was wonderful to just follow at random and see what was around the next corner. As Marja has been banging on about red Murano glass for years, we built in time to take a trip to the island of Murano and had a ... read more

We have arrived in Italy - finally!!!! I think as soon as we got here we both looked at each other and said "yeah, this is what we've been waiting for". Milan is a great cosmopolitan city with good food and an OTT Duomo - check out my photos on http://www.flickr.com/photos/violettesaunty/ soon for what I'm talking about. They say that Milan is up there in the fashion stakes with Paris. People, let me tell you.... Out in the suburbs that's not the way we roll! The Milanese, beautiful as they are, are no fashion match for the Parisian in my books. There was not a single badly dressed person, besides me, in Paris and the same can not be said for Milan. Mind you, all the dags here could very well be tourists too. Today we ... read more